The Fault Lies Not...

There is a certain type of nuance to social media posts these days, and since the sun rose on the Internet, those who seemed to feel that their voices were not being heard have taken to the digital equivalent of shouting from the rooftops. While I am all for free speech, I realize that there is a certain level of responsibility that comes with it, beginning with the boundaries concerning rights. Yes, one has the right to say what one so chooses, but the rights of one person end where the rights of a second person begin.

This also begs the presumption that those who are using their voices are living in a society which does not stifle said rights.

The problem with all of this voicing of opinions is that there is the notion that there is no such thing as a wrong opinion. Currently, those of us who live in the United States of America, or who are brave enough to follow the dumpster fire that is the socio-political structure of the USA, are bearing witness to the denial of facts in favor of feelings. Believe me, there are times when I wish that what I felt was the truth and that what was occurring or cemented in reality was the fiction. But truth is not subjective when it comes to matters of hard sciences, such as biology, chemistry, physics, and (my personal favorite) mathematics.

(Courtesy of XKCD: https://xkcd.com/435/)

That being said, the former math teacher in me finds himself bristling something fierce against statements regarding what should be taught in high school. Case in point, this “lovely” meme I skimmed from the algae-tainted pool of Facebook:

I have been holding my tongue as it were lately, and I find this to be evident from the lack of posts here on SteemIt. It has been close to 8 months, and, frankly, I have avoided the platform. This is not due to any disrespect, but because by the time that I arrive home from work and catch up on correspondence, physical and electronic, I’ve stomached all that I can regarding politics and the COVID-19 pandemic. And as that is the bulk of what is going on, I felt that adding my voice to mix about, well, literally nothing else, would be heaping rancid dung atop rotting dung.

When I saw this meme, I felt the smoldering ember of my self-silenced voice bloom into a small and controllable fire. You see, I am completely and utterly dismayed at people who are not proficient or professionals in a given field who weigh in on issues concerning those fields. So I am going to begin with picking apart the content of the meme. Starting with the “mitochondria” part, the high schooler then asks something that is actually unrelated to mitochondria; hell, they are not even in the same subject field. The response of the Pythagorean Theorem is a ridiculous notion, because either a science/biology teacher would not be permitted to engage in a subject matter outside of the curriculum, so let’s just say that the student then asked the math teacher; again, a ridiculous parody of a response.

Bearing in mind that sometimes students ask questions that are not grade-level appropriate (i.e., inquiring about calculus in 4th grade while learning about fractions)..
Bearing in mind that sometimes students ask questions that, while legitimate, are not within the scope of the day’s lesson plans (to which teachers are held strictly).
Bearing in mind that sometimes students ask questions that are designed just to distract and subvert because, let’s face it, kids will be kids.

Moving on to the 4th frame: I can understand a student in a Life Skills program needing to know how to schedule a doctor’s appointment. However, there are online apps and websites these days, but the inability for a student who is mainstream and does not require special accommodations to pick up a phone and place a call and make an appointment shows that the home life is failing the child; and the Civics-based response of, “ChRiStOpHeR cOlUmBuS sAiLeD tHe OcEaN BlUe In 1492!!!!” is, again, a ludicrous response.

The response that I left on the original post on social media was as follows:
“To be fair... Taxes can be super-complicated, and there are tax attorneys and accountants for a reason, the laws change so much and so frequently. But it is a matter of reading directions, estimating, and using addition and subtraction... and doctor's appointments? It is a phone call and a schedule. That's from the parents.

“I've heard the same thing about financial math versus Algebra 2. Well, considering that Interest Formulae are taught in Algebra 2, and balancing a checkbook is addition/subtraction with 2 decimal places (that's 2nd or 3rd grade math, if I recall correctly), then yes, this is all taught in high school and earlier.”

Granted, for the sake of simplicity, I did not get into the whole notion of varying family structures (e.g., parents versus guardians versus responsible adult party/parties), but I am hoping that the message is clear, that there needs to be some accountability at home, that children learn by example, and that the schools are not responsible for teaching EVERYTHING. It is impossible for that to happen, especially with the demands that are placed on teachers on a regular basis.

I had a particular experience in one school district back in 2006. As I was planning my lessons, I was told to utilize cross-curricular aspects of mathematics, particularly with regards to the Humanities. While math blends in rather seamlessly with physics and chemistry, things get a bit… squiffy, shall we say, when dealing with the less-pure sciences (XKCD once again!), and not well when trying to match up with literature. However, history and math tend to find some common ground - not enough to get together and form a happy family, but enough that they can hang out together by the grill at a backyard BBQ. So I got some feedback from a history teacher friend from down the hall and incorporated some history into my lesson.

I was chastised by the administration, as that was clearly a BAD MOVE since I was not certified or qualified to teach history, and I was so directed to stick to mathematics, as that was my area of instruction. This is despite the fact that I was teaching about Pythagoras and right triangles and the fact that Pythagoras arrived at his conclusion without using actual numbers, by drawing in the ashes of a fireplace or in the dirt with a stick. Nope, just stick with the numbers and the shapes, phoenix32.

OK.

Now, this is where it gets a bit weird, and I admittedly get a bit belligerent. Grab your popcorn, because this becomes a real trainwreck.

A month later, we (the entire staff) receive the instructions for the community-building program called “Character Counts” in our mailboxes with directions to teach this lesson during one of our instructional periods. Well. This is not mathematics; this is not in my lesson plan for the day; I am not certified in this area.

I’m sure you can see where this is going…

So I argued the point of having to teach it, also with the idea that the values and ethics of my students’ beliefs might have differed from those in the “Character Counts” material, so how do I address that? Furthermore, how can I teach something from “Character Counts” if it is not aligned with my own beliefs? What if I find the code of conduct from that packet to be lacking in some way, or perhaps I am not rigorous enough for the program? What , further, are the philosophical implications of a system of morals and ethics - who guides it? Is it a deity in which I have placed my faith, Jesus Christ as the Son of God, or is it something mythological, or even a simple system such as Kant and the categorical imperatives?

My point here is that teachers are given contradictory sets of directives. Teachers are under the gun from administrators, some of whom have not actually been in the classroom for over a decade (and boy, have there been some changes in the last 10 years since I left the classroom). Teachers are being told by politicians and lobbyists how to teach and how they should be evaluated based on student performance, although many of these folks have not stepped foot in a classroom since the Nixon Administration. None of this takes into account the individual circumstances of each student, rosters that are filled to overflowing, inadequate resources, and the home lives of the students themselves which can sometimes be harrowing or less-than-ideal. I mean, I have a student get to my classroom at 9:30 am and he is hungry because he has not had breakfast, but somehow that is my responsibility…? Or the student is sleeping in a Math Skills class that he could be teaching because he is Honors Algebra 2 level, but the school placed him in Geometry again (despite the fact that he passed with flying colors the first time) and tossed him into remedial math just to pad some numbers, and he is angry about that and not to mention that his home life is a war zone…?

While I maintain that there is no real thing as a wrong opinion, I am of the mindset that an opinion should be malleable when facts are presented, and that opinions should not be voiced without real facts.
FACT: Teachers are being dictated to by people with no background in education.
FACT: Teachers are being given contradictory sets of directives.
FACT: Teachers are actively combating cultural and societal concerns such as home and family life, poverty, abuse, bullying, and more.
FACT: Teachers are human beings with flaws and faults of their own.
FACT: The system has been known to fail, not only students who slip through the cracks, but sometimes in an outright manner.
FACT: The rights of teachers have been shoved into a ditch and executed aside in favor of free reign for the students.
FACT: Many school districts are so frightened of lawsuits and bad press that they kowtow to the parents and students.

So things like that meme, while opinion-based, are demonstrative of an opinion that really needs to be better informed. The facts remain that teachers truly do their best to prepare students for the real world. The same argument can be applied to anyone who gripes about the dress codes that are not usually enforced in schools. Many people have used the arguments against dress code - a teenage girl’s bare shoulders or shirt skirt should not be distracting a teenage boy and enticing him with sexual thoughts, and similar arguments. And granted, the conservative adult in me does not view teenagers in that regard, and to be further fair, I have no desire to see a teenage boy’s undergarments when they are sagging their pants.

The point of the dress code is less about sexualization or denial of such as it is a practice of what is appropriate for the workplace. Companies and corporations all have dress codes. School districts have dress codes for employees. Minimum wage jobs - McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, KFC, WalMart - all have dress codes. So yes, there is the whole “freedom of expression through attire” argument, but I have worked in three different schools districts that have successfully implemented a dress code and students are sent home and not permitted into classes if they are out of uniform. I have seen the same thing happen in the workplace when a colleague has shown up out of uniform. And not for nothing, but the school athletics teams all have uniforms, and not a single student gripes about them! So what is the issue?

tl;dr - A lot of people who are not teachers and have no background in teaching offer a lot of opinions that are not based on any facts but rather on fiction that fits their narratives; opinions are not really well-informed and formulated with a basis in fact; truth is not subjective or relative in many cases. Schools prepare students for the future, whether people realize it or not, and memes stating otherwise are annoying, insulting, and ignorant.