90s38 Character

My journal is full of incidents like the one described below. I was always amazed and surprised by the things that were happening and the response of those involved. I never really knew for sure what to expect. I grew up in a period where parents were more likely to support the school on an issue than their own child. That is definitely not the case now. In fact, the opposite seems to be true.

November 13, 1998 - I had parents in yesterday morning concerned that I had told their kids that if they tried to beat someone up after school I would call the police and if they engaged in that kind of behavior we didn't want them at Longfellow. I told the parents that I had said that because it is true. I don't know what they were expecting? I said that we just couldn't tolerate that kind of thing. Their children are very good at diverting the attention from the real issue and the parents were doing the same thing. I told them that and they didn't like it much. The truth is the boys were overheard, by an adult, saying that they were going to get another student after school. They admitted to it but still tried to blame the other student. It's disturbing that very few will take responsibility for their actions. It's a real problem in school and the world in general.

This has been a disturbing trend for a long time now. People refuse to take responsibility for their own behavior. They always want to blame others or circumstance. It appears that if they can blame someone or something else they don’t have to do anything about it themselves.

In education we have seen it in kids and their parents. It is always someone else’s fault. I am not sure what the parents in the incident above expected me to do but I have always insisted that school is a safe environment for all and I would take whatever steps necessary to make sure that it was.

Teaching responsibility used to be the parent’s job but so many of them are not responsible themselves that it isn’t getting done. Race, ethnicity or social economic status doesn’t have anything to do with it. It seems to know no boundaries. Kids from some of the best families are the worst.

I really don’t think the school should have to teach everything to a child but that is the prevailing thought. Whether it’s character or values, respect for others, responsibility and so on, the general expectation is that if the kids don’t have it the schools must not be doing their job. On top of teaching all the subject areas we took on these additional responsibilities.

We started a program called Success4 in our building in 1998. It was part of a larger program called the Iowa Behavior Initiative (IBI). The focus was on teaching responsibility and expected behavior in different places at school including the playground. In my November 9th journal entry I wrote: At this point last year we had 140 office time outs. We have had 24 so far this year. At this point last year we had 24 bus reports. We have had 8 so far this year. Our IBI work and our school improvement goal seem to be working.