Musing With You: What’s Wrong Wit the Learnin’ Part Two

By Antonio Muse

What’s up people? If you read my thoughts last week then you already know that I’m exploring various reasons why our educational system is so messed up right now, with my first focus on the parents’ and guardians’ roles, which means that I’m wasting valuable space recapping it so let’s jump back in, shall we? Alright.

When a teacher gives a punishment requiring the notification of the parent it is always a good idea for the parent to significantly try to drill it in the head of the kid that this is not something they need to repeat. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you go ahead and not spare them the rod repeatedly (although, I must say, it didn’t hurt my well-being a bit), but the parents got to do something. They can not let things go because they are too tired from work or just do not feel like dealing with anything of importance at all.

If whatever that chap did is no big deal to you, what do you think it mean to them? If the kid loves watching WWE Wrestling, well take that away awhile; don’t let him keep watching it just because you don’t feel like missing it. Whatever consequences the parents devise, they must still to it and follow through.

Okay. For the moment I’m out of parent stuff. Let’s shift focus to the teachers and administrators.

Sometimes, teachers are so focused on establishing their authority (often through brute force) that the actual teaching falls by the wayside. Someone talks over here, BAM! Over there, BAM! Over here, over there, BAM, BAM! Here, there, everywhere, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM (like John Witherspoon was in the house or something)!

“Y’all chaps want some more, cause I got some more. Just keep talking, just keep talking.”

“Miss Jamison—”

“ShutupshutupshutupshutupshutupjustshutthehellupPLEASE!”

Obviously, this simply will not do, since the teacher is essentially a glorified babysitter in this scenario. If the parents have not done what they are supposed to, then many teachers often find themselves in the role of a ‘quasisadistic’ dictator. But the teacher must rise above all the mess somehow and give the kiddies some incentive to do what they need to do, whether it is through colorfully illustrating their desolate futures if they keep acting a donkey or having some sort of Student of the Week honor that encapsulates and celebrates the very best they have to offer. Teachers are to make diamonds out of coal; they are the chickens or geese or whatever it is that make the golden eggs.

Oftentimes, it is difficult to get a teacher to even stick around long enough to get disillusioned with Louisiana’s educational system. Sure, there’s no brand of “bad chap” more irritating than “someone else’s bad chap,” and when you multiply that by twenty or so, that can be a hard pill to swallow. They do not listen to you in general but especially when you are teaching a lesson they can obviously care less about and then five seconds after you have finished and they have taken a short break from not caring they have the nerve to say “I don’t understand”, they call you out your name, snore loudly in class, unleash odors originating from deep in the bowels and so on and so on. That is all true, but (and perhaps I’m a nice shade of naïve) I can not see anyone voluntarily giving up a teaching job once they have fully considered what is really at stake.

You want me to elaborate on that, don’t you? I bet you do. Well tune in next week, friends. Take care and God bless.

Contact Antonio Muse at Amuse@b-now.com