Sorry for the sabbatical I was on (so to speak). I was busy turning 50 and other such nuisances of life.
We are a few days away from the end of the school year and about to send off a few hundred 9th graders into their sophomore year. And leaving behind, maybe 100 that are short on credits to move on. They will still be at the same school, as will their classmates who figured out a way to pass, but now as they begin their second but more important year-- like the old Clash song, "should I stay or should I go?"
Dropping out becomes an option for those who have a cousin or friend, or sibling who has already dropped out. There is less stigma now for dropping out and when they see their cousin working at Costco for $8.00/hr unloading trucks, it's sign me up!
Part of it's is just immaturity, preferring video games and TV over the harder work of reading books and problem solving geometry or English papers... but for others it could be a family problems, lack of parental involvement, or a failure to learn- or learn consequences for not trying hard in previous grades.
Every July with my new batch of freshman I go over goal setting as a topic. Sometimes I teach a 5 step method, sometimes 6 steps. It doesn't really matter. I might as well be explaining astrophysics in Latin to 2 year olds during their nap time. When I model and give the 9th graders examples of SPECIFIC and MEASURABLE goals with a date I write things like: "Go to tutoring after school for at least 30 minutes 5 times during July". Or I might give them another like "Go to the Los Feliz library Friday after school and check out a book - reading the first chapter before leaving."
Okay students, now you write something related to school improvement. And then they write: Do better in school. Try harder. Work harder. They may as well write "cure cancer" or "make peace in the Middle East". Nice words, nice ideas but that's all they are.
So do I forget about teaching this topic of achieving goals and trying new behaviors when I can't get most students to even follow directions on how to write a goal? Goal setting is the single most frustrating topic I teach, by far. Of course I had to give up teaching consumer finance after just two attempts as that was pure insanity on my part so that could give goal setting a run for it's money in the area of futility.
Sure there are ways to change behavior without setting a goal to do so. You can stumble upon a new behavior and like it and realize it's superior to the old behavior and a new habit is born. But I worry the youth born today, the kids who desperately need to plug in an I-Pod for that painful 2-5 minute walk between classes - heaven forbid they actually have a conversation with another person on the way.
Stay tuned. I will have another 200+ freshmen in about 2 weeks. Around 40 to a class, probably teach all 6 periods again. It will be a challenge and perhaps I can make the difference in a scant few but for others they are set, they don't need me. And too many others, even with 1:1 help won't succeed. An hour five times a week in my class cannot make up for 10-14 years of too much TV, too little parent involvement, or too many years of parent neglect.
As the African proverb says, it takes a village (to raise a child). I am trying to do my part but my part starts at home with the two young elementary aged sons, teaching vocabulary - reading with them, asking and answering their questions, modeling reading for pleasure, and perhaps most importantly, limiting their exposure to video gaming and television. My students think it's mean when I tell them my sons don't have a TV in their bedroom - they think it's love that their parents allow them one in theirs. It just shows how fast and far values have changes in a generation.
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