QUOTE
Students' manners reflect community
Rick A. Richards
Two weeks ago, I wrote about a conversation I overhead between some mothers complaining about how rude some students attending Michigan City Area Schools are, and how their parents don't seem to care.
Boy, did that strike a nerve.
Here's what I wrote: Schools are not set up to be Miss Manners. They're set up to teach children to read and write. They're set up to provide a culture of learning, but when some of the people using that system don't care about it or respect it - who see it as nothing more than a baby-sitting service - no one should be surprised when test scores aren't where we would like them to be.
Teachers called and e-mailed about the article, all of them expressing gratitude that the article had been written.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” said a special education teacher. “You have touched the tip of the iceberg.”
This teacher told me this issue has been a concern of hers for years, but she has not commented (and asked that her name not be used, as did all the other teachers) because “I'll be called in to an administrative office and my hands slapped.”
Teaching, it seems, ought to be a partnership where information is freely passed from the bottom up as readily as it is handed down from the ivory tower. After all, it's the teachers who are in the trenches every day, dealing with students.
“Thank you for writing the editorial ‘Profane parents; potty-mouth kids,' ... and for your positive comments about MCAS teachers and schools,” wrote a seventh-grade teacher.
She ended her note with this quote from President Theodore Roosevelt: “To educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.” That comment was made a century ago and it's as relevant today as it was then.
And while I commented that schools weren't set up to teach manners and etiquette, it wasn't that long ago that MCAS did just that, although on a small scale through a special grant that worked with fourth and fifth-graders at Knapp Elementary.
The effort was done through the Hours for Ours program and from all indications, it was popular and successful. Children came into the program sullen and angry, and left by looking adults in the eye, addressing them as “Mr.” or “Mrs.” and saying “Please” and “Thank You.”
That $300 grant showed remarkable results in just eight weeks. Not only did the children learn about manners and treating others with respect (which in turn leads to respect being earned), they learned about personal hygiene and such basics as how to act at a restaurant.
At the end of the program, it was evaluated, received excellent marks and was held up an example to the rest of the state. Supervisors wanted to present the program to all schools in the system, but instead, the program withered on the vine. No money has been set aside by the school system for it.
If, as teachers and parents seem to think, one of the hurdles to learning at MCAS is ill-mannered children who receive little, if any, guidance at home, then a program like this would seem to be an answer. The cost appears to be minimal, with the results more than paying for the investment.
There is a commonly held view that schools reflect the community. If that's so, then what we're seeing, both in the action of too many of our children and the inaction of adults to address that problem, isn't painting a very pretty picture.
Rick A. Richards
Two weeks ago, I wrote about a conversation I overhead between some mothers complaining about how rude some students attending Michigan City Area Schools are, and how their parents don't seem to care.
Boy, did that strike a nerve.
Here's what I wrote: Schools are not set up to be Miss Manners. They're set up to teach children to read and write. They're set up to provide a culture of learning, but when some of the people using that system don't care about it or respect it - who see it as nothing more than a baby-sitting service - no one should be surprised when test scores aren't where we would like them to be.
Teachers called and e-mailed about the article, all of them expressing gratitude that the article had been written.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” said a special education teacher. “You have touched the tip of the iceberg.”
This teacher told me this issue has been a concern of hers for years, but she has not commented (and asked that her name not be used, as did all the other teachers) because “I'll be called in to an administrative office and my hands slapped.”
Teaching, it seems, ought to be a partnership where information is freely passed from the bottom up as readily as it is handed down from the ivory tower. After all, it's the teachers who are in the trenches every day, dealing with students.
“Thank you for writing the editorial ‘Profane parents; potty-mouth kids,' ... and for your positive comments about MCAS teachers and schools,” wrote a seventh-grade teacher.
She ended her note with this quote from President Theodore Roosevelt: “To educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.” That comment was made a century ago and it's as relevant today as it was then.
And while I commented that schools weren't set up to teach manners and etiquette, it wasn't that long ago that MCAS did just that, although on a small scale through a special grant that worked with fourth and fifth-graders at Knapp Elementary.
The effort was done through the Hours for Ours program and from all indications, it was popular and successful. Children came into the program sullen and angry, and left by looking adults in the eye, addressing them as “Mr.” or “Mrs.” and saying “Please” and “Thank You.”
That $300 grant showed remarkable results in just eight weeks. Not only did the children learn about manners and treating others with respect (which in turn leads to respect being earned), they learned about personal hygiene and such basics as how to act at a restaurant.
At the end of the program, it was evaluated, received excellent marks and was held up an example to the rest of the state. Supervisors wanted to present the program to all schools in the system, but instead, the program withered on the vine. No money has been set aside by the school system for it.
If, as teachers and parents seem to think, one of the hurdles to learning at MCAS is ill-mannered children who receive little, if any, guidance at home, then a program like this would seem to be an answer. The cost appears to be minimal, with the results more than paying for the investment.
There is a commonly held view that schools reflect the community. If that's so, then what we're seeing, both in the action of too many of our children and the inaction of adults to address that problem, isn't painting a very pretty picture.