by James Burns | Nov 4, 2018 | Academics, Anti Bullying, Anti Bullying 101, Classroom Activity, Education, James Burns, Teachers, The Bully Proof Classroom, The Ramblings of a Dinosaur
I really hate to be the bearer of bad news but the reality of life is not every-one is going to college when they leave high school. If this statement is really true then why does education deal with everyone like they’re college material? I graduated from high school almost forty years ago.
When I was a student there were three courses of study that I could take. The first course was college prep; this provided some challenging classes that got you ready for the rigors of college. The second course was business. This prepared students for the business world and exposed students to things like Junior Achievement, and a club called Future Business Leaders of America. (FBLA) The third course of study was general studies. This was a hodgepodge of courses that was like a high school liberal arts program.
I graduated from the eighth grade and it was recommended by my eighth grade teachers that I be placed in a general studies program. I didn’t choose general studies I was placed in it. I took just about any classes I wanted, from college prep classes to general classes, and I did fine. I really wasn’t college material, but I got accepted into a state school and received a college diploma. I still haven’t figured out what was so horrible about a group of teachers recommending that I be placed into a course of studies that was based on my abilities.
The world of education has gotten away from something that was very common many years ago, and that’s called tracking. There were always two or three classes in every grade that addressed the individual needs of students who needed to be challenged, and the needs of students who needed extra help. The groups were never co-mingled because the instruction would be too hard for some of the students and not hard enough for other students. Somewhere along the way someone came up with idea that tracking kids had a negative affect on their self esteem, so it was decided that all students should be placed in the same classroom in order to receive the same instruction. This was supposed to improve the way a child felt about himself as a student. It would make him feel smarter.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Students who have difficulty and who are placed in a classroom with kids who are more academically advanced than them are always trying to figure out why they can’t do the same work as the smarter kids. In simple terms they start to wonder, why am I so dumb? The other challenge is for the teacher who has to spend an obscene amount of time working with the slower students, while the more advanced students may be left to work by themselves.
The idea that all students can learn at the same pace and in the same classroom is flawed and, believe it or not, has become a huge money maker for those who have been smart enough to take advantage of this movement. Differentiated Instruction, Multiple Intelligence, and Inclusion strategies are all programs that have been born out of the idea that all students should be heterogeneously grouped. These programs were developed and sold to colleges and public schools as a ruse to convince educators that this type of education works for all students.
Once the decision is made to implement the program thousands of dollars have to be spent in teacher training so the teachers understand the process. This just puts more stress on the teacher and gets them more concerned about the means of educating their students and not the end which is have the students mastered the material that was taught.
The developers of these programs make their money, but it is costly to the school districts that choose to use them as well. Most elementary classes today have two and maybe three teachers present in one room in order to work with the varying levels of the students. One teacher in the room may only work with 4 or 5 students. This same teacher could work with 20 students if the students were tracked. Districts pay thousands of dollars more in teacher salaries by hiring one teacher to work with a very small number of students. Many students are not prepared for or capable of some rigorous form of education that does nothing but constantly frustrate them academically.
During the last 40 years, I have witnessed the dismantling of industrial arts shops that were used to introduce students to carpentry, electronics, metal work, auto mechanics, and even home repair. These shops were dismantled in order to make room for huge computer labs, additional classroom space. One district used the space for a weight room for the football team. Does anyone need a carpenter an electrician or a plumber anymore? Better yet does anyone know what they charge? These are fine careers that pay a handsome salary.
Education has even moved away from shared time programs that train and apprentice students for careers that society needs to support the economy. The Voc-Tech programs as they’re called seemed to focus more on technical aspect than on the vocational. The majority of these programs have rigorous acceptance requirements and works with the students who have the ability to perform scholastically. The balance of these programs work with students who are cognitively impaired and provide a setting similar to that of a sheltered workshop of the 1970’s and 80’s.
The vocational schools are not providing enough training for those students who truly want to become trained carpenters, plumbers, and electricians. The real tragedy of the situation is that there are students who want to become master tradesmen. In order for them to accomplish their goal they must enroll in post secondary programs at their cost and spend another two or three years in training in order to do something that could have otherwise been provided at the high school level.
I have a wonderful brother in law who is a master tradesman and can do anything from carpentry to plumbing, and electrical work. He operates heavy machinery, installs gas tanks and pumps, and is a demolition expert. He can do anything. He is now 65 years old and continues to work at his crafts. I know that he didn’t go to college. He learned many different trades as a young man by doing the work himself and by working with other people. I know he was definitely smart enough to go to college but as he was growing up it may not have been his first choice. He chose to learn a trade or should I say many trades. He learned to do the jobs that not everyone could do or wanted to do.
Everyone is not cut out to go to college, or to even be in a classroom with kids who are. I don’t know what my home would look like if I didn’t have a handyman. I also don’t know how long my car would keep running if I didn’t have a trained mechanic. My brother in law doesn’t have to worry about these things because he can fix and repair and build. The other thing that my brother in law doesn’t have to worry about is money because he is a millionaire.
by James Burns | Oct 30, 2018 | Dealing With Angry And Irate Parents Conference, Education, James Burns, Kids and Stress, Leadership, The Bully Proof Classroom, The Ramblings of a Dinosaur
I played baseball in high school and college. I even played in an over thirty league back in the mid eighties. When my child Sarah was born in 1991, baseball wasn’t something I thought she would ever be interested in. But when she was about six, I took her over to the park to hit some baseballs. She picked up the balls after I hit them, and she got up to bat. She hit a few balls, and she even ran the bases.
Sarah had and still has athletic ability- good hand eye coordination, flexibility, strength and agility. When Sarah was seven, she came to me one day and said, “Hey dad can I play soccer?” “Sure,” I quickly responded. I went out and bought her a soccer ball, shin guards, and cleats. I signed her up for the recreational league in town. I must admit I was pretty enthused. We practiced kicking the ball in the backyard, and we were both getting pretty excited about her first game.
It was the Saturday of Sarah’s first game. She and I headed up to the soccer field. After some warm-up activities and a pep talk from the coach, the game started. To my surprise Sarah was in the starting line-up. Sarah ran up and down the field for the first ten minutes or so, and she finally had an opportunity to kick the ball. She took her first kick, missed the ball, and landed flat on her back. Sarah got up and came crying over to the sideline begging, “Don’t make me play anymore, Dad, I can’t do it.” Right then and there, Sarah refused to go back into the game.
When the game ended and we were walking to the car, Sarah continued to cry, “Don’t make me play, Dad, please, I don’t want to.”I mustered up all my courage and I said to her sternly, “You’re playing. You are playing. Now get in the car. On the way home, all I heard was a bunch of sniffling and whining. I didn’t have a very long ride home. I can tell you this, Sarah wore me out. I was emotionally exhausted by the time I arrived at home.
We pulled up into the driveway and I sat miserably in the car as I watched Sarah get out and walk into the house, sniffling and shaking as she walked through the front door. I sat stewing in the car and said to myself, “Who wants to play soccer anyway, dumb game.” I then attempted to further rationalize my thoughts by saying to myself, “Soccer’s for boys anyway.”I walked into the house, stood at the bottom of the stairs and yelled up the stairs, “SARAH.”She sniffled her way through a “Yeah, Dad.” I said, “Come down here.” After coming down the stairs, I said to her, “Look, Honey, you don’t have to play soccer if you don’t want to play. It’s OK with me.” Relief was all over Sarah’s face. She said, “Oh, thank you, Daddy!” Sarah gave me a big hug and kiss ran back upstairs.
Honestly, I felt like her hero. I was her knight in shining armor. I had just come through for her and given her exactly what she wanted. I was sure I had made the prudent decision. I didn’t even have to ask her mother’s opinion. I figured what’s the big deal since no harm was. I was content in the knowledge that I had allowed my six year old daughter to make her own decision. I have another daughter named Grace (Grace is six years younger than Sarah) who came to me when she was six years old and said, “Hey, Dad, can I play soccer?” I said, “Sure, honey.” The same routine started again, the shin guards, the cleats, the soccer ball, the practice, and finally the game. But this time, the outcome was much different. Grace ran enthusiastically up and down the field from one end to the other. She never got near enough to even touch the ball, but she had a great time. Grace came off the field with a look of absolute joy in her eyes and said to me, “Boy that was fun, Dad.”
She played the first season, and had a ball. She played the next season and really improved a lot. She wanted to score really badly, but didn’t have the opportunity. She still loved the game. To her, every game was an event, an outing that ended with a snack and a Gatorade, lunch, and a fun time spent with me.
While this was going on Sarah was into cheer leading, gymnastics, track, palates, and even a little weight lifting. She loved designer clothes, having her nails done, tanning, make-up, and just looking good. She watched her weight and understood that in order to look good, she had to spend a good deal of time exercising. She commented to me one time that some of her friends on her track team had less body fat than she did and that they could run faster than she could. It was just a passing comment but I remember her saying it, and I most definitely noticed that she was bothered by this. One day, Sarah and I drove over to the soccer field to pick Grace up from a soccer practice. Grace got into the car sweating. Her face was as red as a tomato. Sarah handed her a Gatorade and a snack. Grace just sat there contentedly guzzling her drink. Sarah looked back at Grace, then looked forward, looked back again at Grace again, and then stared straight at me. She said, “Hey, Dad, why didn’t you make me play soccer? Defensively, I said “I wanted you to play. Don’t you remember? You kicked the ball once, missed it, and fell on your head. Then you begged me not to make you play again. She answered me with, “SO? Why didn’t you make me?” Now I was the one who was starting to sweat. “You didn’t want to play! You wouldn’t let up until I agreed not to make you play,” I shot back Sarah then made a statement to me that I will never forget as long as I live. She said, “But, Dad, you’re supposed to be in charge.”
Where had I gone wrong seven years earlier? At the time, it seemed like the right thing to do was to give in to what Sarah wanted. But it turned out that I hadn’t done what she needed me to do. I had allowed a six year old to decide whether or not she wanted to play soccer. What had she really needed at the time? Sarah needed me to tell her that she was going to play soccer because I, as the parent, knew what was best for her and I wasn’t going to give her a way out. She wanted me to be in charge, not allow her to be in charge. I unknowingly had let her down.
When I teach my graduate courses, I always ask my adult students the following question: How many things did your parents let you get away with as a kid that you wish you had never gotten away with? I usually get lots of stunned looks from my students. Too often we allow our children to make choices and decisions that they have no business making. I see it all the time in supermarkets, stores, and malls. Parents giving in when their children demand they buy something or parents trying to coax their kids to stop crying or to stop running away from them. The children ignore their parents’ pleadings. Usually, the parents say something to their children like, “What do you want to do?” Honestly, who cares what they want, they’re three years old!
I’m not totally sure where this whole attitude has come from but I have my own theory that Dr. Benjamin Spock had a lot to do with it. Spock’s first book, Baby and Child Care” was first published in 1946 just in time for the baby boomer generation.In his book he spoke about feeding on demand, respecting your children, the need for flexibility, and the lack of the necessity to worry about spoiling. The paperback sold more than 50 million copies and was translated into 30 languages. Critics of Spock claimed that he was “the father of permissiveness.”
In later years, Spock claimed that he never changed his basic philosophy on child care and that it was imperative to respect children because they’re human beings and they deserve respect. But he seemed to retreat somewhat from his teachings when he made statements such as “I’ve always said ask for respect from your children, ask for cooperation, ask for politeness. Give your children firm leadership.” Years later, he became more moralistic and he said that parents should give their children strong values and encourage them to help others. This is only supposition but I hypothesize that Spock may have decided that he didn’t like what he saw in society and realized that he may have played a part in the screwing up of generations. In later editions of the book originally titled The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, Dr. Spock stressed that children needed standards and that parents also had a right to respect. He stated in his book that parents were starting to become afraid of imposing on the child in any way.
I’m not claiming to be an expert on child rearing but I do know that if children are fed on demand, they will be demanding. If children are allowed to say anything they want, they will be disrespectful. If they are not held accountable, they will be irresponsible. And if there are no consequences for inappropriate behavior, they will be non-compliant. Parents today always ask…What can we do with our kids today? My question is…What are we going to do with these parents?
Once I relinquished my natural right as a parent to make decisions for my children, I was never truly able to reestablish my parental authority. From the moment that my daughter convinced me to allow her to make the choice not to play soccer, she learned she had the power to make basically every decision that came along in her life whether large or small. And the saddest part of all of this for me is that my daughter blames me because I wasn’t strong enough NOT to let her assume a role she was never designed to play in her own young life.
Dr. Spock has since passed away, and I think many of us looking for a new voice to offer us some solid advice to help us sort out the mess we are in today.
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by James Burns | Sep 25, 2018 | Anti Bullying, Anti Bullying Tips, Bully Proof Classroom, Education, Lesson Plans
Teachers have to meet the rigors of their day each and every time they walk into their classroom. They have to follow the guidelines of state and local mandates, as well as follow the policies and procedures of their school. Teaching is hard work; I have spent 11 years in the classroom, 19 years as an administrator and the last 11 years as a college instructor and a consultant. I have heard the complaints and I am letting you know that I understand. Planning has become robotic and almost impossible as you try to meet the educational needs or all of your students. Behavior problems have become an issue as disrespect and irresponsibility remain rampant, and the bullying epidemic just seems to be claiming more victims. I have heard the concerns and want to help, but nothing comes easy. Below you will find what I believe to be a summary of the items on a teacher’s checklist for planning. I have attempted to offer as much as I can for as little cost as possible. Take a look at the list if there is something there that you need than click to read more.
Lesson Plans, all teachers need and want lesson plans that are meaningful and can be used more than once.
Strategies, teachers are always looking for a better way to manage student behavior, and address the learning needs of their students.
Unit Plans, something that may be a dying art but teachers need a way to really help embed information into their students long term memory.
Presentations, it’s always good to have a power point or two that can be used to address issues in your classroom that need to be addressed like relationships or bullying.
Books, all teachers like reading them especially when they provide an answer to some problems that are recurrent and are becoming a disruption to the learning environment.
Podcasts and video casts, a nice way to gather information right off your phone or tablet at your convenience.
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by James Burns | Jun 5, 2018 | Anti Bullying Coaching and Resources, Education, James Burns, Parents, The Bully Proof Classroom
Parent Education and Coaching
Parent Education and Coaching is designed to educate parents in order to help them manage their child’s behaviors in the home that are impacting the family dynamic. This disruption can lead to school related behaviors that require the child to be disciplined in school causing greater stress, lack of patience, frustration, and at times can result in the parenting disciplining the child in anger.
The goal is to provide the skills and strategies to the parent to help deal with their child and his/her behavior as part of an educational process and then provide coaching along the way to help the parent build confidence in the discipline process and their parenting skills.
This is not therapy, it is education provided by a trained teacher, administrator, college instructor and who is a parent himself. Any recommendations made are done so with the best interest of the child and parent in mind and are designed to provide permanent help not temporary relief. Change is a step of faith and the process is not an overnight one but one that helps restore order and points both the child and parent in the direction of lifelong success and a stronger parent child relationship.
Some Behaviors That Are Addressed
- Disrespect
- Irresponsibility
- Non-Compliance
- Bullying
- Victimization as a Result of Bullying
- Lack of Motivation
- Anger Issues
- Disaffected Behavior
This program is designed to educate parents and works exclusively with the parent. If the child is experiencing clinical issues such as depression, anxiety, or appears to be affected by events within the family a trained therapist should be used to address these issues. We will work with the therapist upon the parent’s request.
What is Provided
(6) Six face to face meetings per year with the parent’s and their child
(4) Four webinars per month addressing some of the behaviors listed above or specific behaviors as explained by the parent. These webinars will be one hour in length.
(4) Four emails per month initiated by the parent that provide specific behaviors that require specific answers regarding their child as geographically possible.
(2) Two scheduled telephone conversation per month of 30 minutes or less that address a specific problem that is occurring.
Cost
The cost for the services listed above is $300 dollars per month payable via paypal. Payments would be due on the first of every month.
Any additions to the above services would result in an hourly fee of $50 dollars per hour or any part thereof.
Initial Consultation is Free
James H Burns MA, DHL
For more information call: 732.773.9855 or,
Email: jameshburns55@gmail.com
by James Burns | Nov 7, 2017 | Education, Uncategorized
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once said, “The heights of great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward through the night.” When I was learning to write cursive, this was one of the quotations that I had to write over and over again, and to this day, it is ingrained in my brain. As I got older I realized how deep and meaningful these words were and I use the quotation as often as I see necessary to encourage and uplift others and myself who may read whatever I write. It encourages me to set goals, strive for the best, persevere and set standards, and finish whatever I have started, and most of all NEVER give up!!
Throughout my life I have had failures – failed exams, failed relationships, failed interviews, failed lesson plans or lessons taught, failed friendships, heartaches, heartbreaks, among others. What have I learned from these disappointments? I have learned things about me that I didn’t know before and I have learned to set the bars higher at times and reach again for my goals. Another lesson learned from my failures is how to be confident. Failure shows me that I need to fight even when the road seems rocky. My shortcomings are temporary setbacks, but I can move forward. I can use my failures to reach out to others and encourage them and say, “I was there and this is what I did, and look where it got me!” I got over the hurdles and I’m going to the finish line.
From the ‘failure” experiences, I have learned that, like the Greek philosopher Plutarch said, “What I achieve inwardly will change outer reality. “ I can give of my time to students, co-workers, and others I come in contact with when needed. Even when I experienced nausea and gut wrenching pain, I am still willing to help and show acts of kindness.
I have realized that I am a survivor and each time I have to dig deeper to float above water. As a non-swimmer who loves water, I know I can sit, relax, meditate and listen to the sound of the water, but not submerge. I know my limits! I know how to persevere and I can help those who need help to persevere! I have been acquainted with failure and I know it is not fun, but I channeled my energy to achieving! I realize that attitude is more important than aptitude and I AM disciplined!
