Classrooms Tyrannized by Troublemakers
by AFA Journal
June 30, 2004
(AgapePress) - From 30 percent to 50 percent of the nation's public school teachers leave education within their first five years according to National Education Association spokesman Jerry Newberry. A recent poll by the nonpartisan research firm Public Agenda reveals a number of contributing factors.Public Agenda surveyed 725 middle and high school teachers, and in another survey heard from 600 parents on the same subject. Teachers said students and their parents routinely challenge the teachers' disciplinary decisions.
Almost 80 percent of teachers said students quickly point out their rights or threaten to get their parents to sue the teacher. About the same percentage indicated that it is a small number of troublemakers who create most of the problems in their schools.
In most public school systems, budget cuts have reduced the number of counselors and alternative school programs that once supported teachers. But now, teachers are often on their own to deal with disruptive students.
The report states that educators have made "limited progress" over the years on addressing the problem of discipline in the classroom. The issue continues to "bedevil teachers, concern parents, and derail learning" in the nation's schools, it says.
But teachers are not without hope. Public Agenda reports finding strong support for such measures as "zero-tolerance" policies, increased authority given to principals, and alternative schools for chronic offenders. In addition, almost 70 percent of the teachers polled felt a "very effective" tool for discipline would be to hold parents accountable for their children's behavior.
And according to the report, high percentages of both teachers and parents believe discipline problems could be alleviated somewhat by enforcing "the little rules" so larger problems are avoided in the future, and by imposing dress codes.
This article appeared in the July 2004 issue of AFA Journal, a monthly publication of the American Family Association.
