Let's raise our standards!

I conducted a workshop for a group of high school students recently which left me really puzzled and annoyed. Prior to meeting with the students, the faculty person who arranged the workshop ‘warned’ me repeatedly that the group would be extremely challenging. Among other things she told me that they often didn’t listen and routinely ‘challenged her’ for control of the classroom. She also let me know that I shouldn’t expect much – just do my best. Each time she shared her ‘words of wisdom’ with me, I cringed inside and wondered: If these kids were as sorry as she was making them out to be, why does she even bother teaching, let alone spend the school’s resources to hire me for a workshop?

When I finally walked into the class and began my presentation I actually thought she had switched the students at the last minute. Rather than being disruptive and disrespectful most of the students were engaged, alert, and participated in all of the exercises with a level of enthusiasm that got ME pumped. They thoughtfully answered questions about their career choices, passionately spoke about what they wanted for their futures, and earnestly identified the external and internal obstacles that they believed were standing in their way. They also listened intently as I shared my own experiences and offered them tools that could help get them on the path that could lead them to the lives that they wanted. In fact, they asked so many questions and offered so much personal information that the workshop ran over by a full hour.

Needless to say the faculty person was stunned. She claimed she had no idea what came over her students. Still, she felt that, despite their positive showing during the workshop, most of them “wouldn’t make it anyway”. With that statement, my blood began to boil and I had to engage every ounce of strength that I had to maintain my composure and professional demeanor.

Don’t get me wrong. I come from a long line of teachers and my family has run a youth group in Boston (http://www.originationinc.org/) for almost 15 years. One of my brothers is a teacher and another is a staff development coordinator at two different high schools in two different states. I know first hand the challenges that young people can present in and outside of the classroom. I have the highest regard for those in the teaching profession who are often underappreciated, overlooked and perpetually underpaid. However, there are a number of teachers, youth workers and other professionals who work with our young people who hold them in such contempt and regard them with such disdain that it is not surprising that so many of our youth are not succeeding in school or beyond. This element within the teaching profession truly believes that their students are ‘lost causes’ and are of little value to our society. As a result they hold their students to the lowest possible standards and refuse to challenge them to live up to their true potential. I’ve walked the halls and peaked into classrooms of some high schools recently and have been appalled by what I’ve seen: Students sitting in classes listening to music on their ipods and other devices during lectures; young boys feeling up girls in the hallways as if they were in a movie theater or at a club rather than in an institution of learning; kids using the worst kind of profanity to refer to one another in the presence of teachers; and much worse.

I know that many of our principals and teachers who WANT to push their students and challenge them to come up higher are often frustrated by the bureaucracy and red tape that seem to characterize some school system. Yet they still find a way to push their students to highest levels of achievement.

Unfortunately, there are also those who have lost (or never had) their passion for teaching and turn a blind eye to what’s going on in their schools. Thankfully, I believe these bad seeds (yes I said it!) are in the minority. However, the state of our youth is such that we can’t afford to allow ANYONE who is not wholly committed to providing their students with an optimal learning experience within 15 miles of a school yard. I appreciate the fact that teachers cannot work in a vacuum and must have the full support of their students’ parents, guardians and other adults in the proverbial ‘village’ to maximize their chances of success in the classroom. Right now I’m concerned with the teachers. I’ll save my comments on the ways other adults are failing our children for another time.

So what are we to do? I could site thousands of proposals and policy recommendations on how to improve our schools that are currently circulating among various local state and federal agencies. But I will leave that to the policy makers and scholars who are infinitely better versed in this subject than I am. Instead I offer this very simple (some might think ‘oversimplified’) suggestion to any teacher who may be reading:

If you don’t want to be a teacher quit. If you make the CHOICE to stay in the profession – for WHATEVER reason then suck it up, be present, and bring YOUR ‘A game’ to the table every time you walk into your school.

I know it’s not easy. Sometimes it’s thankless work. The stories that my brothers share with me about their experiences would bring chills to even the most cynical among us. My own experiences with young people in my workshops, the neighborhood where I grew up, and the work I do with OrigiNation have tested the limits of my patience, compassion and understanding like nothing else. I’ve been cut trying to break up a street fight and have had scissors thrown at me by young people I was trying to help. But, I along with the other teachers in my family and all of the top-notch teachers with whom I’ve worked accept this reality and choose to engage with our students in such a way that pushes them to strive for their personal best.

Come on people. Pull up. I encourage you to expect nothing less than the best from the youth you serve and bring the best of who YOU are to work everyday. Go to work with the intention to make a difference in the lives of the students entrusted to your care. The results may surprise you.

Thanks for listening!

M.B. Dibinga
www.bijimbaconsulting.com