Teachers Deserve Medals For Valor On Society's Front Line - "tame the savage little beasts"

Tampa Tribune ^ | February 17, 2004 | JUDY HILL

[Cincinatus' Wife]

T here was a full-page advertisement in Sunday's BayLife that I hope you saw. Sponsored by The Tampa Tribune's News in Education department, the Hillsborough Education Foundation, TECO Energy, McDonald's-Caspers Co. and the Hillsborough school district, the ad honors the 10 finalists for the Hillsborough 2004-05 teacher of the year.

They are Pamela Allison, who teaches math at Middleton High School; Mellissa L. Alonso, a reading teacher at Valrico Elementary; Julia Cobb Barnes, Ph.D., who directs a program for at-risk youngsters at Young Middle Magnet; Elizabeth Barrett Brown, who teaches at Chamberlain High; Sherie Campbell, who works with mentally disabled students at Hill Middle School; Pamela White Ennis, who teaches at Ippolito Elementary; Beth Lamb, a music teacher at Gorrie Elementary; Tiffany A. Michaud, the resource teacher and technology coordinator at Cannella Elementary; Dorothy Pease Tellin, a teacher at McKitrick Elementary; and Debbie Vaughn, who teaches language arts and English as a second language at Dowdell Middle.

Too Little Credit

Yet, even though they were featured in an impressive newspaper ad and will be honored at a gala Thursday at the Hyatt Regency Tampa, none of them - nor any good teacher - gets enough credit.

Not that being noted is their goal.

I'm sure each of this year's finalists would say, if asked, that she teaches for love of kids and passion for education - not for accolades.

Or money.

Good thing, too.

Considering the importance of their work - the impact they have on the future of America - teachers get precious little of either.

Yes, teacher salaries have increased nominally through the years, but hardly at the same pace as the increase in the number of problem kids, problem parents and just plain problems.

Need More Support

Teachers are on the front lines of every cultural, bureaucratic, political, economic, racial, ethnic, religious and familial battle.

They're expected to teach not only the traditional reading, writing and arithmetic, but also discipline, honesty, integrity, consideration and tolerance.

In other words, they must tame the savage little beasts while educating them.

In far too many instances, the only parental contribution is the criticism heaped on teachers when children fail.

About a year ago, I spoke with a group of high school teachers about the problems they must deal with in the classroom. Virtually all reported behavior and attitude problems. Virtually all also noted that they can no longer rely on the support of parents.

In the old days, which were not all that long ago, if Johnny or Janie got into trouble at school, Johnnie or Janie also got into trouble at home.

It was assumed in those old, archaic days that the parents would side with the teacher.

Now, an unfortunate number of parents seem more worried about warping Johnnie or Janie's little psyches than demanding that they behave.

So they blame the teacher or the principal or the school system for the trouble.

Johnnie or Janie get off scot- free.

It's the rest of us who pay.

Judy Hill can be reached at (813) 259-7812 or by writing her c/o The Tampa Tribune, P.O. Box 191, Tampa FL 33601.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Child care isn't a good substitute for parenting.

Students claim sex case numbers low*** BY KIMBERLY MOORE FLORIDA TODAY [Full Text] VIERA -- A review of Brevard County School District safety reports shows dozens of incidents of sexual assault, harassment or lewd and lascivious behavior in schools last year, but officials say those numbers might not reflect the extent of the problem.

Students, including some involved in the incidents, said teachers are ignoring sexual harassment incidents, which they say may be leading to more serious attacks.

"Sexual harassment is out of control in the schools," Satellite High School 12th-grader Rachel Milbourne said. "It's so commonplace that you don't even notice it. Even the teachers and administration hear and witness things that they have been desensitized against. Most people don't even have a clue what sexual harassment is anymore."

School district reports show four sexual assault incidents on three high school campuses in the 2002-2003 school year.

While four incidents may not seem like a lot, especially considering there are more than 73,000 students in the district, teens in the schools say a lot more of it is going on than what is being reported. Why? Because kids just don't think of it as improper and adults, they say, are ignoring it.

"It's pervasive within the schools, but they don't put those two things together" said the mother of one girl attacked off campus by two Satellite High School students.

FLORIDA TODAY is not revealing her name to protect the identity of her daughter.

"I believe the school district is not significantly addressing it and someone is going to wind up seriously hurt," she said.

District officials said they inform students about the wrongs of sexual harassment through school handbooks. And teachers and administrators must attend a seminar on the topic each year, but some said that's just not enough. Some incidents down

In addition to the four "sexual battery" incidents, there were another 19 lewd or lascivious incidents, and 32 reports of sexual harassment. Although the number of sexual battery incidents is down from 2002, it is higher than in 2001 or 2000

Statewide, there were more than 139 sexual battery incidents reported in 2001-2002, the last year for which figures are available. However, the number of other sexual incidents increased statewide over that same three-year period.

While the school district reported the four incidents as sexual battery to the state, police officers referred to the incidents in their reports as lewd and lascivious.

District security specialist Andrea Alford said school administrators often don't label incidents correctly, leading to falsely elevated numbers. Alford said when high school juniors and seniors grab each other's buttocks, it is often seen as sexual battery.

"There is a tendency for people to misuse the term 'sexual battery,' " Alford said. "Administrators will fill out the paperwork as a sexual battery, when in fact it should be a simple battery." Punishment differs

The sexual battery incidents vary in degrees of severity. Some students were charged with crimes, while others were suspended, expelled or sent to public school facilities for troubled students, known as abeyance centers. FLORIDA TODAY has chosen not to report the names of the victims nor suspects because of their age and the nature of the offenses.

· In November 2002, a 16-year-old boy was charged with molesting a 14-year-old girl at Astronaut High School. The girl told school officials the boy repeatedly grabbed her breasts and buttocks during several months. The incidents escalated to an attack on a school bus in which the boy put his hands down the girl's pants.

The boy was sentenced to five years probation and must participate in sex offender treatments.

· In September 2002, two boys attacked a 14-year-old girl at Melbourne High. One held her arms behind her back while the other grabbed her breast and tried to touch her groin.

"I could not control both of them, of course," the girl wrote in her statement. "He reached for my vagina, but I was kicking and saying, 'Stop!' but they wouldn't. When I said 'Stop!' even louder, they laughed and let me go." The boys were both charged with lewd and lascivious molestation, as well as false imprisonment.

· In September 2002 at Cocoa Beach Junior/Senior High School, a boy reported to his mother and then school officials that he had been sexually assaulted with a broom handle in the wrestling room.

A suspect was placed in an abeyance center.

· In February 2003, a Melbourne High School student was investigated for grabbing girls' buttocks and breasts and for exposing himself to several girls in his English and science classes. Additional suffering

The school resource officer completed his investigation, but no charges were filed.

"I reached a parent of each victim and all stated they did not want to pursue charges because their daughters had been through enough," Officer Stan Smith wrote.

The boy was suspended for 10 days and then sent to an abeyance center.

Tiffany Galatovich, a Bayside High School 11th-grader said students frequently are scared to come forward because the victim often suffers more than the culprit.

Galatovich said two of her friends were attacked and it was reported to police.

"They dropped the charges because there was no hard evidence," she said. "(My friends) have not been able to live it down." Measures ineffective

School district spokesperson Sara Stern said teachers and administrators talk to students about proper behavior and discipline at the beginning of the year.

"The information given to students is contained in a couple of different places in their handbooks," she said. "High schools contain it in their student planners given out to all students."

Students also sign a form indicating they have read and understand the information.

But these measures aren't effective, some students said.

"I think sexual harassment is widespread at school," Rockledge 10th-grader Jason Houston said. "There isn't a time when I can go down the hallway without seeing some form of sexual harassment. I think everyone has gotten so used to it that they don't even notice it anymore. They don't report it. I've never reported it because I've seen so much of it that it doesn't faze me anymore."

Others say it occurs, but it's not widespread.

"I wouldn't say (sexual harassment) is widespread but there are instances of unwanted touching or sexual advances," said Andrew Harris, a 12th-grader at West Shore Jr/Sr High School.

Brevard County School Board Chairman Rich Wilson said more needs to be done to inform young men that their actions could permanently place them on a sex offender list and to tell young girls that being grabbed is a serious offense, not horseplay. Wilson said talking about this with students at the beginning of the school year could prevent people from being hurt.

"This isn't a joke, this isn't funny and it's not something that is acceptable in society," Wilson said. "These boys in these type of situations need to learn that if you get reported it can be serious and have repercussions for the rest of their lives." [End]

"persistently dangerous" - School-safety rankings - or just black marks?***At the heart of the discrepancy may well be a reluctance on the part of educators to report campus crime fully. A survey by the National Association of School Resource Officers found that 89 percent of school police believe crime is already underreported. "It's the scarlet letter in education today," says Mr. Trump. "Administrators have said to me privately that they would rather be academically failing than be a dangerous school."***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Teachers are on the front lines of every cultural, bureaucratic, political, economic, racial, ethnic, religious and familial battle.

Teacher unions are the largest contributors to Democratic Party politics (and have the most delegates at its convention) and that includes the muscle used to get out the vote at election time (not to mention all the work they do in classrooms teaching LIBERALISM and anti-Americanism).

[cherry]

what are the rest of us?....chopped liver?

I have had some outstanding teachers in my day, most of them were the old fashioned nuns.....could not have found a better, more educated group anywhere...

I asked a teacher I know the other day when she was going to retire......you know what she told me?....."hopefully, never"....

she LOVED her job.....

God bless teachers, but God bless the rest of us who work day in and day out, 24/7 with the dregs of society, with little pay, litte appreciation, and way less amount of weekend and time off provisions.....

[LisaMalia]

My daughter is a teacher in an urban highschool, and each day I just pray that she makes it home safe and sound. She has already been assaulted this year by a student, who after a 10 day "vacation", is back in school.

We talk on a daily basis, and I encourage her to get out of the profession, ASAP. I guess it's my maternal instincts.

Many so called parents have no control over their children, and the teachers are paying the price for their negligence.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Schools of education have produced substandard teachers. There are exceptions to every rule but the obvious lack of uneducated teachers can not be ignored.

As a whole, families who manage to have a parent at home to rear their children, have better behaved children.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

We talk on a daily basis, and I encourage her to get out of the profession, ASAP. I guess it's my maternal instincts.

Statistic show, she and many of her fellow teachers, will leave in the first 5 years.

[LisaMalia]

Teacher unions are the largest contributors to Democratic Party politics (and have the most delegates at its convention) and that includes the muscle used to get out the vote at election time (not to mention all the work they do in classrooms teaching LIBERALISM and anti-Americanism).

My daughter is very conservative and did not want to join the teacher's union. However, she basically has no choice. Her annual $900.00 union dues are taken out of her paycheck whether she is a member or not. Someone explain *that* one to me.

[LisaMalia]

Schools of education have produced substandard teachers

I can't speak for all teachers, but I know my daughter is an excellent one. She is fair, caring, and has the students' best interests at heart. She spends most evenings working on lesson plans and grading homework and tests. She goes above and beyond when it comes to communicating with the parents of her students.

That said, I'm just wondering when she will the get "combat pay" she so deserves.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I'm sure she is very caring. However, schools of education do not require much course work in subject matter. It is top heavy with theory and psychology.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

GOP bill draws teachers' anger***TALLAHASSEE -- Florida's teachers union is getting a taste of political payback.

After bankrolling the unsuccessful gubernatorial bid of Democrat Bill McBride last year, the Florida Education Association is coming under attack by some Republican legislators because dues paid by its members help run political campaigns.

"I do not oppose the choice of people belonging to unions," said Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey. "But teachers came to me with complaints of their money being spent to support candidates they didn't support."

The GOP-dominated Senate Governmental Oversight and Productivity Committee on Tuesday approved Fasano's proposal (SB 1652) to limit payroll deductions only for the cost of collective bargaining and grievance adjustment. The committee split along party lines, with six Republicans supporting the measure and three Democrats opposing it.

"This bill is telling me to shut my mouth," said Maureen Dinnen, president of the teachers union, who was visibly shaking with anger after the vote. "We voted to support candidates who were chosen based on their educational positions. "***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

3 F's, they're out: Edison sees teacher shake-up*** While the district does not have access to the standardized test scores of individual teachers' students, it can review results by subject and grade, she said. Since reading scores fell at Edison -- only 3 percent of freshmen and 4 percent of seniors were classified at least proficient in 2003 -- they decided to shake up the English department.***

To solve students' math problems, eucators go to school - Boosting teacher skills seen as key*** The report also recommends that colleges and universities boost their math requirements for education majors.

Many schools require no more than a single math course for future teachers. ``It's a vicious cycle,'' Fortmann said. ``People don't learn math very well in school, they avoid math in college, and the cycle continues. What we're hoping to do here is break the cycle.'' ***

[atomic conspiracy]

Hee hee.

Some years ago, I started to explain Einstein's famous "relativistic train" thought experiment to a high school math teacher. This involves visualizing the behavior of light beams bouncing off mirrors in a train moving at a high fraction of the velocity of light. It is easily the best and simplest illustration of relativity that I have yet encountered. It happened that the teacher did not know who had originated this thought experiment, nor did she know that I am a physicist myself.

I barely got into it before she stopped me and asked, "Did you get this out of some book or did you make it up yourself? If you did, you need to learn some science, 'cause I can see just all kinds of holes in it." She went on to explain what these "holes" were. Most of her objections seemed predicated on the assumption that this was a proposal for a real experiment for instance, "how would you define when a light beam left one of the mirrors?" or even, "you can't see a beam of light unless you are in it, so how do you follow its motion?"

I finally informed her that a chap named Einstein had invented this illustration, and also let her know about my own much lesser credentials. She said that made all the difference in the world, and that she could accept it now that she realized it was supported by experts. Her changed perspective is classic authoritarianism, citing the authority of an idea's originator as the definitive test of its validity. In my experience, this is very common among public school teachers, so much so that many seem to be unaware of any other test of truth.