What's Wrong With Our Schools, Part 782

Looking out the windows on the 14th floor, it's yet another dreary day in Streeterville. It has ceased raining momentarily, but the last time I checked, it was 57 degrees under cloudy skies at the Mini. The horizon is shrouded in fog, and there's no way that I'm seeing all the way to Indiana this afternoon. Dave the Doorman assures me that there's an East to West line about 30 miles south of here and below that line it's 88 degrees. Unlike Larry the Doorman, who is never wrong in matters of meteorology, Dave the Doorman can be full of shit about most anything, and usually is. I'll reserve my opinion until I get confirmation of said 88 degree line.

I shall also reserve my opinion of public education in America until such time as I get to work in a school where people have not lost their sanity. It seems obvious that a great many who toil at the Outpost in Back of the Yards have lost their sanity. Otherwise they would not try my patience so. I am a patient man, but there are times when I must insist, "You've got a lot of f*****g nerve."

But perhaps I should start at the very beginning of this sordid tale (A very good place to start, as we all know from listening to The Sound of Music). It seems that this year I was blessed with the presence of a young man in my Freshman level World Studies class during the last period of the day. Said young man, as it turns out, does not like to work, likes to do anything he can to disrupt orderly classes, and thus keeps classmates from working as well. Said young man, likes to sport gang colors, when we are a uniform school and the colors of his gang are definitely not part of The Outpost's uniform color scheme. Said young man likes to run amok in the halls and not attend class on most days. Said young man appears in class only when security guards round him up and force him to attend class. It is then that he either (a) disrupts class, or (b) attempts to sleep. Apparently, learning about world history and cultures is not a part of his "To Do List."

Now with 40 some odd absences from class and 10 plus tardies, on those days that security has rounded him up, and a list of zeros on assignments longer than my left arm, one would think that a failing grade would be a given, n'est-ce pas? I thought so. Apparently, there are those who think otherwise. They are called the Special Education Department. Said young man is a "Special Needs" student. He was apparently diagnosed several years ago as having a learning disability (LD in education jargon). That being said, all students in public schools, with learning disabilities get Individual Education Plans (IEPs in education jargon). There are accommodations that must be made, by law, for said students. This varies with the individual student, based on individual ability.

Now, mind you, the young man in question has been getting failing grades for an entire school year, based on lack of effort, lack of attendance, and lack of respect for teachers, staff, other students, or much of anything. I had a conference with his father earlier in the year, and his father knows his kid is ill-behaved and is prone to causing problems in a classroom. In his words, "This has been going on since early in grammar school. I've talked and talked to him. I've tried everything." Yet the kid goes on in the same manner, year after year. Why?

My current theory is that the Special Education Department has created this monster. They pass him along, no matter what. He has gotten the idea that it doesn't matter what he does because he will be passed, because he is LD, no matter how many times he is absent, no matter how many times he refuses to do assignments, no matter how many times he curses out a teacher, no matter how many times he wanders the halls in gang colors, no matter how many times he checks his messages and texts friends on his cell phone in the middle of class.

Each Special Education student is assigned a "Service Provider" who looks after them, gives them special assistance, acts as their advocate, and sees to it that the IEP is followed, that is the listed accommodations are provided for said student. The student I have been speaking of has such a person as well. We are currently 3 school days from the end of Final Exams, and 4 school days from the deadline for grades. Today, after all this time, after all of the incidents, after much, much failure I was requested to come to a meeting with the Service Provider, the Case Manager, another Special Education teacher who was there for I have no idea what reason, the father of the student, and the student, to address why this student is failing. Where have these people been this entire school year?

Today, a woman who calls herself the Case Manager (She oversees the Special Education Department.) had the audacity to ask me if they gave this young man a review and a little assistance and he proved on the final exam that he actually knew a little about World Studies, would I find it in my heart to pass him. Excuse me! Where were you when he failed at every marking period previously? Where were you when he was missing from class 40 something school days? Where were you when he was being escorted to the Discipline office for the 15th time this year? The young man in question has an average of 9%. Not a typo, 9 as in N-I-N-E P-E-R-C-E-N-T. And they want me to pass him. When I say "they", we may exclude the father. He knows better. It's just the Special Education ladies.

There is much ado in America about bad schools turning out students who cannot read, who have no work ethic, who cannot do simple math, and these women have the unmitigated gall to ask me to pass a kid who has done not one shred of work and has done everything in his power to totally disrupt my class, and when he couldn't then chose not to attend for long stretches of time, choosing to run in the halls with his fellow gang members. What would I tell his fellow students? "Oh well, your hard work is important, even if people who don't do squat get passing grades." Right! What message does this send to the student in question? What it says is that no matter what you do, you will pass. Only suckers work hard.

Unfortunately, this is doing this student and thousands of others just like him no good whatsoever. When he gets out of high school, he will run up against the harsh reality that there are no Special Education teachers to run interference for you in adult life. You do the job or you get fired. Unfortunately for this specific young man, what I see for him down the road is conflict with the police. What I see for him is a future where he gets shot or locked up. The Special Education ladies would have you believe that they are just caring for this young man with a disability. What they fail to recognize is that if he actually made the effort he would be okay and I would help him along. I actually care about kids. Part of caring is letting them know when they need to cut the crap and do what's right. Part of caring is letting them know that success is a result of hard work, not playing the system. Part of caring is sending the right message, not greasing the path for the ones who want to skate.