Stop right there. Poverty is not an excuse. The inverse, of course, would be that well-to-do children are all well-behaved.
But that dog won't hunt.
Posted on 08/15/2004 11:44:02 AM PDT by Dubya
A first-grader in Arlington tried to moon his teacher. Another threw chairs and destroyed the classroom.
A kindergartner in Fort Worth tried to poison the classroom ferrets by feeding them crayons and glue. The child also bit other students.
As most North Texas students -- including those in Fort Worth and Arlington -- return to classes Monday, teachers expect to see a continuation of a disturbing trend: It's the tiniest students who are hitting, spitting, kicking, biting and cursing like sailors.
"We fight before we learn to negotiate," said Michael Parker, who oversees psychological services for Fort Worth schools. "Kids who haven't learned that self-control or self-discipline are going to act out."
Counselors in Fort Worth and Arlington schools say today's kindergartners are experiencing more emotional and behavioral problems than their counterparts five years ago, according to a survey released in February. Several area educators contacted for this report expressed the same sentiment.
The students are violent, lack discipline and show no respect for authority, according to the survey by the Partnership for Children and the Mental Health Connection of Tarrant County.
The survey blamed the problems on issues including fractured families, a lack of structure for children and a growing incivility in public discourse.
The problem is widespread. National studies show that about 10 percent of preschool and young school-age children behave aggressively and that 25 percent of young economically disadvantaged children do.
The impact on schools is substantial: Learning is disrupted, teachers are burning out, and administrators have less time to spend on education.
"If you have a child who is throwing a chair every day or runs away from school or destroys student artwork posted in the hallway, what is happening to the other children in the class?" asked Marcia Gonzalez-Formby, principal at Western Hills Primary School, which serves pre-kindergarten through second-grade students in the Fort Worth school district.
Dealing with violence
Elementary school teachers are accustomed to unruly children. Most kindergartners commit innocent wrongs, such as picking their noses in class.
But more and more 5-year-olds are lashing out, sometimes violently.
"On occasion you'll find a situation where a child, it may take two or three hours for them to de-escalate with screaming, biting and hitting people that come near them," said Leslie James, the Fort Worth district's assistant superintendent for special services. "While any one of those behaviors may not be unusual, all of the behaviors combined at an intense level that goes on for hours at times is what is unusual and challenging."
In the most extreme cases, "these children sometimes have to be physically restrained to prevent injury" to themselves or others, James said. That may include bear-hugging a child, holding him or her in a teacher's lap or carrying him or her to the office.
The Fort Worth district has strict procedures for restraint and documents each incident, James said. Even so, because of the potential liability, many employees are reluctant to touch children at all, he said.
Arlington schools remove students from the classroom for the most egregious incidents. Children are placed in timeout in the school or in an alternative school for young students.
Fort Worth schools do not place children in alternative schools until the third grade.
Sandra Sandy, director of research for the Center for Social and Emotional Education in New York, said that children should remain in the classroom if they are not too disruptive.
"Once you isolate the child, that also sends the message that they're different, that they're bad," Sandy said.
Poor parenting
Poor parenting, especially a lack of appropriate discipline, and unstable families are the root of the problem, area educators and health care workers say.
Studies show that children from poor economic environments are more likely to struggle with controlling their emotions. Some students enter school hungry or without a sense of trust in the world, Parker said.
To prepare preschool-age children for school, the National PTA recommends that parents encourage them to share, play, converse and socialize.
Darla Chupp, a counselor at Carroll and Durham elementaries in the affluent Carroll school district, said most of the district's children enter school socially prepared and ready to learn.
"A lot of them have already been in day care and other learning environments, so kindergarten is just a learning extension," she said.
While parenting is crucial to a child's preparedness for school, society is also a factor, experts say.
"I think that [the behavior] is a direct impact from society," said Pat Melton, who oversees guidance and counseling for Arlington schools. "The computer games they play, the TV they watch. All of that has an impact on child behavior."
A new social order
The first few weeks of school are all about socializing students, kindergarten teachers say.
"I think you have to spend the first few weeks getting them accustomed to the rules and the routines," said Debbie Gardner, who has been a counselor for nearly two decades at Midway Park Elementary in the Hurst-Euless-Bedford school district. "There's academics going along with it, but if you don't get the social skills down first, it's going to make it hard to learn."
In the Birdville school district, Smithfield Elementary kindergarten teacher Shawn Serviente's 5-year-olds come from many different backgrounds. Some have never left their mother's side; others have been in day care most of their lives. Some have been home alone or have cared for siblings.
Sometimes, all it takes is showing children how to share toys or wait their turn on the swings, teachers say. Other children may need time to adjust to the new schedule, including bedtime, said Patsy Wheaton, principal at Keller Harvel Elementary in Keller.
"They don't get to go outside when they want to go outside," she said.
Kindergarten teachers must gauge whether a child's social adjustment is normal or whether it's an emotional issue that requires counseling or psychological services.
"It's very delicate," Gonzalez-Formby said.
Melton said that most children who act out do not have psychological disorders but that it is imperative to deal with aggressiveness while children are young.
"The minds are very young, and you're laying the groundwork for expected behaviors. If you do it in a very positive vein, it changes their life," Melton said. "It changes their way of thinking."
Getting your child ready
The National Parent Teacher Association recommends that parents do the following activities to encourage kindergarten readiness skills in children:
1. Create opportunities for sharing in a non-threatening, pressure-free environment.
2. Structure play activities by providing materials and social situations that encourage play.
3. Encourage conversation. Children learn about language and self-expression when they engage in verbal exchanges with others.
4. Read aloud to your children regularly, and let your children see you reading.
5. Provide concrete learning experiences for children. Take them with you to the grocery store, post office, library and museums.
6. Provide opportunities for children to practice independence by allowing them to make certain choices and try things and by encouraging problem-solving.
SOURCE: National PTA Cynthia L. Garza, (817) 390-7675 cgarza@star-telegram.com
7. Turn off the TV
8. Turn off the TV
9. Turn off the TV
10. Turn off the TV
Good point.
Aug. 15, 2004
Fort Worth schools to use Cooperative Discipline program
By Matt Frazier
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
FORT WORTH - The Fort Worth school district is enacting a new plan this school year for handling unruly children.
Every teacher in the district received training last week on the program, called Cooperative Discipline, which shows educators how to encourage students and strengthen their motivation to cooperate and learn.
"I have received very positive responses from our teachers on the training," Deputy Superintendent Pat Linares said. "They are excited that we will be able to provide consistency in our discipline districtwide."
An anonymous, uncontrolled survey of 1,620 educators in March showed that 40 percent of respondents think discipline is an ever-growing problem in Fort Worth schools.
About 43 percent of the respondents to the survey by the United Educators Association said discipline in their schools was bad or horrible. Twenty-five percent said discipline in their schools was OK, and the rest said discipline was very good or excellent.
Some teachers said they were pleased to have firmer discipline guidelines.
"I feel like the Cooperative Discipline method instills respect all the way around: teachers, students, parents," said Rochelle Grisafi, a fourth-grade teacher at Sunrise-McMillian Elementary. "So that a child knows that wherever he or she is, he or she is going to be respected and treated fairly. Plus, with the whole district using Cooperative Discipline, the expectations are the same."
Under Cooperative Discipline, teachers are instructed to identify one of the four basic reasons students misbehave -- to get attention, power or revenge or to avoid failure -- and to respond appropriately.
According to American Guidance Service, which publishes the program, the method:
• Makes students feel capable of completing their work by creating an environment where it's OK to make mistakes and by building confidence through focusing on improvement and past successes.
• Helps students develop positive relationships with teachers and classmates. The program has teachers accept, appreciate and show interest in students regardless of past misbehavior. Teachers are trained to build relationships through kindness and praise.
• Urges students to contribute to the well-being of the class. Teachers encourage peer tutoring and ask for suggestions from students so the children feel as if they make a difference.
Matt Frazier, (817) 390-7957 mfrazier@star-telegram.com
© 2004 Star-Telegram and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.dfw.com
1. Get married.
2. Stay married.
3. Stay off drugs.
4. Avoid committing crimes.
5. Avoid abusing your spouse or your children.
6. Go to church.
I guess the PTA can't talk about these things, because it might not be "sensitive."
Stop right there. Poverty is not an excuse. The inverse, of course, would be that well-to-do children are all well-behaved.
But that dog won't hunt.
No, they can't talk about it because it undermines the authority of the state by putting that authority where it belongs, with the parents and the Lord.
I didn't begin this behavior till high school.
Two years ago, an 18 year old college student shoved me after a heated exchange over an assignment I had given.
I knocked him flat on his ass with my fist.
He stared at me in amazement as he sat on the floor, babbling, "I'll sue you, I'll sue this school, you can't touch a student!"
"Wrong, boy," I said, "high school is over, adult rules apply now and you better learn them fast."
He was expelled after a disciplinary hearing.
The very fact that he imagined he could get away with this is a pretty good indication of the state of discipline and behavior in the public schools.
"The program has teachers accept, appreciate and show interest in students regardless of past misbehavior. Teachers are trained to build relationships through kindness and praise. "
So, they have to teach the teachers how to be mature and loving, and not to hold grudges. Hmmmmmm. I would have thought that adult people would KNOW that this is not only how one deals with children, but how one deals with EVERYONE.
I disagree..
I watched TV when I was 4, 5, 6, etc... I would have never thought once about pulling the shananighans kids today do.
It's all about the parents.. 100%.. PARENTS, PARENTS, PARENTS who are being misguided by left-wing nutbolts.
Alot of parents today let there 5-year old kids mouth off and even hit them without reprecussions..
If I thought about mouthing off to my parents at age 5, I would have gotten a deserved crack across the rear-end.
My sister has two little boys, age 2 and 3, and she just lets them run all over her.. They are going be awful down the road. She is scared to death to discipline them, because she doesn't want them mad at her. Oh boo hoo. She wants to be their friends.
It's not a parents job to be their 4 year old's friend, it's their job to be their children's parent.
That's where alot of people today don't understand it.
How about the football coach who also teaches history brings out the paddle and reminds students that he's not afraid to use it? How about teachers who actually administer tough love to Johnny instead of bear hugs?
I grew up in the Dallas schools and notches in the coach's paddle was just par for the course. And we all behaved. Amazing, no?
Exactly!!!
It's important to note that the list of things at the end of the article to "get your child ready" does not include addressing any of the problems identified at the beginning of the article. Is there a connection here?
If ya don't train em ya can't blame em..........spank that ass if they act up in class !
Time outs dont work spanking does.
The reason for this behavior was given by our former pres. They do it "because I can" and there is no one with enough gumption to stop them.
Good for you!
Are those percentages referring to the same children?
There are some core reasons why the economically disadvantaged (can't call them poor anymore, I guess) are that way. It's lack of self-discipline and ambition.
Our country offers enough help for anyone to get out of poverty who is willing to work hard to do so and makes the right choices.
Obviously, there are exceptions where someone is physically or mentally handicapped.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
