Teaching Mondays

      I left lasts weeks discussion on teaching and restructuring the educational system to improve the success for students.  Today I wanted to talk a little bit about what it is like for teachers/administrators in schools on a Monday.  

     Most of us look forward to the weekends but in my years of education I have learned that that is not the case for many of our students.  I have learned that many go home to places in which there are only people "there for them" when the camera is in their face.  Many have absentee parents or live in a situation that is not happy or healthy.  I am not talking about the usual teenage, my life is so miserable and my parents suck, stuff that is "normal."  I am talking about, no one is around, parents are more concerned about their issues, no food, no electric, abuse/neglect etc. type of situations where parents are completely checked out of their child's education and for some their lives.  

     So imagine that build up when the child then returns to school on Monday.  Beyond the normal child/teen angst they also are neglected or abused and nowhere ready to learn.  They are unregulated and in fight/flight/survival mode.  We throw them into an environment that is over crowded, over stimulated and has few boundaries that are enforced.  They are stressed from the situational environment they came from, into one that is notably better but not great and expected to learn and achieve.  Please do not take my empathy as an excuse for kids to not be successful, but rather a view point that may open your thoughts to the why of some schools struggle to grow a child.  I could go off on tangents as to the many reasons why, but my purpose today is to show how making some small changes could have a profound impact for many.  

     If we made school truly mandatory for children between the ages of six years and 16 years and held families accountable for the students being present and productive and functional by implementing community consequences for not ensuring the three basic principals (attendance, achievement and behavior).  I truly believe that we would see a massive increase in overall achievement.  

     What would this look like on a Monday....Well students would be at the school, on time, with necessary materials ready to go.  Parents would ensure that they were there and not make excuses why they were not, or late.  And...if they were absent/late would make sure the child had a note/letter explaining the reason for such and this would be a rare occurrence rather than a regular one.

     On that Monday students would have their materials they needed for the day, because the parents ensured they had them prior to leaving the house and dropping them off at school.  

     On that Monday students would have great behavior because parents would have instilled those expectations in their child prior to them coming to school and would have consequences that would deter it if not.  

     The student would utilize the learning time in class, because not doing so would lead to consequences at home.  On that Monday parents would not send their child to school with items (tech, phones, personal belongings) that were not necessary for the day and their academic pursuits.  

     On that Monday parents would ensure that their child ate, washed, slept prior to coming to school, because it was not the schools responsibility to ensure that they do so. 

      On that Monday parents would pick up their child, on time, after the academic time (which would be shorter, because we no longer would look at the schools as babysitters or caretakers).  

     On that Monday the teachers would be able to instruct all students because they are not utilizing the majority of their time and energy on the few who are not there to learn and achieve, they would be able to work with each child because their class size allowed them to do so, they would be able to offer varied instruction to meet the needs and interest of their students because the students were on task and class sizes were small enough to do so.  If there was an issue in class the student, who was taking the teachers attention away from the needs of all, would be immediately removed and not returned to the class until the parent came to the school and had a meeting with the administrator to ensure that the child would follow the expected academic and behavioral guidelines that lead to success for all and if the behaviors continued the student would be removed and not returned.

     Imagine a Monday at school where the success of a child in the academic arena started at home, where the parents were responsible and held accountable for the health, welfare, academic success and behaviors of their child.  We want our children to succeed but do not hold those accountable who have the greatest influence on the likelihood of that occurring. 

    Schools can no longer be the scapegoat for all that goes wrong.  There purpose and function was never designed to raise children nor to take on the role of the parent of feeding, clothing, providing mental health supports, providing social activities, providing shelter, a place to do laundry etc..... and educate as well.    They were designed to teach the essential skills of academics such as reading/writing, science, math and government to develop an educated citizen.   If we, as a society, truly want our schools to be successful we can not continue the way we have been,  we need to imagine Mondays as they should be not as they have been.