I want to demonstrate what is wrong with the public schools today. Our schools fail because they concentrate on “F” – funding. The only “F” schools should be concentrating on is Fundamentals, and then go up the letters to “D”, “C”, “B” and “A”.
There are many stories about excellent teachers, some of whom I have had the pleasure of being involved with as a student. However, there have been a few whose actions as a teacher have been so great that a movie was made about them. I am going to provide you with information regarding four such teachers and movies, each one reflecting one of the letters listed above. You can click on the title of the movies to view the trailer. The image of the movie will take you to where it can be rented or purchased. Some are available for streaming from other sites. Let’s see what we are talking about:
The first “D” we should look at is DISCIPLINE, something that is sorely missed in public schools today. Teachers and administrators, for the most part, have been robbed of the ability to discipline unruly students, partly due to the parents who do not enforce any discipline at home. We especially need to teach self-discipline to our kids. Parents tend to let their children run wild when they are small, and then try to discipline them when they are older.
The first movie that exemplifies the word “Discipline” is called “Coach Carter.” He became the basketball coach at Richmond High School in California. They were a totally undisciplined team, not only on the basketball court but in the classroom. Mr. Carter required that they attend all classes and retain a “B” average rather than the normal “C” average to be eligible to play. When he learned that, with the help of some of the faculty, they were not attending classes and were being given passing grades by the teachers, he pulled the team from the scheduled games and forfeited those games. Although parents, teachers and administrators tried to force him to reinstate the team to being able to begin playing again, he held firm until the whole team got their grades up to a legitimate “B” average. With this newfound discipline, he led them to the California State Championship game.
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Let’s move on to the letter “C”, which is COMPETITION. For some reason, educators no longer believe in competition; not for students nor for themselves. Teachers are more concerned about getting kids through the “System” than they are educating children. They believe that competition can hurt the self-esteem of those who just don’t try. As I said, teachers do not believe in competition between themselves. The better teachers might be able to get better assignments in a school district, meaning that the bad teachers are sent to the bad schools.
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He next movie is all about competition. It involves a group of kids at Carl Hayden High School in Mesa, Arizona. It is a mostly Hispanic school with many of the students undocumented, having been brought to the United States by their parent. Three of the four kids involved in the story were illegal. One of those students, because he was not allowed to joint the Army after his membership in the high school level ROTC convinces a new teacher, Fredi Cameron, to form a Robotics Club and to enter an underwater Robotics competition in Santa Barbara, California. Their budget was minimal and they had to improvise because they could not afford the sophisticated equipment that other schools would have, thereby the title of the movie, “Spare Parts.” When they arrived in Santa Barbara, they decided to enter the college competition rather than the high school competition. They went up against MIT, Stanford, Virginia Tech and others.
The letter “B” is about BASICS and BELIEF. We have gotten beyond basics in many cases. Some of you remember the controversy with “Common Core” math. There are many attempts to re-invent teaching methods, which unfortunately, leaves many students lost behind.
The next movie is Stand and Deliver, one of my all-time favorites. It is the story of a first-year math teacher, Jaime Escalante, at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles. He was supposed to teach computer science, but the school never got the computers, so he ended up having to teach math. Again, this was a heavily Hispanic school in a poorer neighborhood, with gangs and crime. The school was on the verge of losing its accreditation. Mr. Escalante told the faculty and administration that the only way to turn the school around was to start with the top students, and that he wanted to teach Calculus in their senior year, which would require that they take Trigonometry and Math Analysis during summer school. The department heat objected, with Mr. Escalante responding that “Kids will rise to the level of expectations” and that if he didn’t teach Calculus, he would leave teaching the following year.
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He taught the students through the summer and through their senior year. All of the students he taught took the AP Calculus test, and all of them passed. Of course, since this was an almost all Hispanic school, they were accused of cheating on the test and, ultimately, required to re-take the test under the direct supervision of the testing company. I will leave the ending for your enjoyment.
That brings us to the letter “A”, which is something that everyone should be striving for, ACCOUNTABILITY and ATTITUDE. I believe that attitude is everything. If your attitude is that you’re a victim or life is unfair, then that is what you well become and obtain. If your attitude is that you can control your own life and destiny, there is nothing you cannot accomplish.
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The last movie, The Freedom Writers, takes place in Long Beach at Woodrow Wilson High School. This school was plagued by gang violence and hate due to people being bussed in from other areas. The blacks hated the Hispanics; the Hispanics hated the Cambodians; the Cambodians hated the blacks; and they all hated the white students. A teacher came along named Erin Gruwell. She was able to bring them together and helped them understand that the ones they hated were not so different then they were, that they all had a lot in common, and, more importantly, there were others in the world, past and present, that had it a lot worse than they did. She got them to change their attitudes about life and school, and also showed them that they had to be accountable for their own actions. She had them all keep a journal that they had to write in every day about anything they wanted. With their permission, she would read them and she discovered some of the most heart breaking stories of what was happening in their lives.
All of these movies have something in common.
- They all involved first time teachers
- They all faced opposition from “the system”
- They accomplished their desired outcome through exercising the four letters, D through A
- The results were not based on more spending, but on dedication.
By that time the undisciplined habits are firmly in place, and breaking those habits is almost impossible. Either you will teach your children discipline or the world will teach them discipline in ways that will be destructive to their individual happiness. ~ J. Edgar Hoover. In other words, if you are hard on yourself, life will be easy; if you are easy on yourself, life will be hard.
The next time someone comes to you to raise taxes for education because the schools need more funding, ask them what they are doing regarding the other four letters.
Please comment below.
BRAVO KEN! Whole heartedly agree… thanks for posting/bring this article to our attention!