All posts by Mary Ellen Freund

 
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Recruiting at school


Whenever we have a special event at my school, like our pre-spring-break party day, just about every branch of the military shows up to recruit. They spread out their free gifts on a table and entice students to sign up and join. The marines do it best. They bring a pull-up bar and an inflatable obstacle course. They challenge students passing by to test their strength, to see if they can do enough pull-ups to be a marine. They have the kids race each other through the obstacles to decide who would make the best marine. These tactics are nearly fool-proof when applied to teenage boys. The chance to beat each other in tests of strength and prove their athletic prowess in front of girls holds an overwhelming allure. It even works on some of the female students.

I have a problem with this recruiting because of how the military targets it. In my district, which is rural, many of the students come from low-income families. I attended a private high school where, although not everyone was wealthy, we certainly all had financial flexibility. I never once saw recruiters at my high school. The military targets poor schools where students have few options for their post-high-school lives. They offer what seems like a great opportunity: the chance to earn money for college. Ten years ago, I might have agreed that this is a good option for many students. They go to boot camp, put in a few years of service, and then go to college for free to pursue their dreams. But, today, I cannot in good conscience encourage any of my students to sign up. They will have to go to war. Some of them will die.

I certainly do not mean to detract from or disrespect those who have chosen to serve in the military. These people believe in what they are doing and exemplify bravery. But, the idea that many new recruits feel they have no other options because of poverty is not fair. No one should be enticed to serve and die simply because they are poor.

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School threats


The tragedy at Virginia Tech, like all such occurrences, brings the issue of school safety to the forefront of national debate. All schools need to have plans in place for this type of disaster and I believe most do. Since Columbine especially, schools and communities have prepared for the worst, the unthinkable. In our school, we have lockdown mode. When we get the word, basically we shut and lock the doors. What else can you do? If it really happens, I think we can only hope survival mode kicks in and we do whatever the situation calls for to save our lives and the lives of those around us.

Lockdown in a high school is fairly easy. A P.A. system connects every room in the building. There are phones in every room and every teacher has access to email in his or her room. I cannot imagine how long it might take to reach everyone on a college campus. The buildings are scattered over a large area and, from my own experience, there are not even phones in the rooms for communication purposes.

Another issue arises after a major school tragedy. Copy-cats. Not necessarily someone trying the exact same thing, but threats in general occur in quick succession after these tragedies. Already in the region where I work, two districts shut down for a day each because of threats. One threat specifically mentioned the Virginia Tech tragedy.

It actually surprises me that my school has not received any threats this week. We have already experienced about four this year citing bombs in the building. Four is a pretty typical number for my school and we are not that unusual. This creates a real problem. Mostly, it makes for a situation in which the boy cried wolf. They never amount to anything. Usually it's a student who wanted to postpone a test or simply go home early on a sunny, warm day. Fortunately, our administration takes a hard line on these students. They press criminal charges. Still, the seriousness of the offense and consequences have not stemmed the frequency of threats.

In the event of a bomb threat at my school, we go into lockdown mode so no students can leave any classes until the principal or police clear the building. But, what if just one time, there really is a bomb in the school? It only takes one time for a tragedy to occur.

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Spring break choices


           

This week at my high school, the group of students called SADD, or Students Against Destructive Decisions (along with the help of several teachers, of course), put on a day-long program just before spring break.

 Personally, I find it a pretty bad idea to let sixteen- and seventeen-year-old kids travel to spring break destinations in groups devoid of chaperones. I hate the sound of the word “chaperone.” It makes me sound terribly old fashioned. (I am only 28, by the way.)  But, really, one thing I know for sure from my experiences with teenagers is that the more of them you put together, the stupider they will act. This is especially true of boys. I have met several teenage boys who excel in academics, athletics, even standardized testing. These same boys when grouped together with equally intelligent peers will do things like burn the school letters into rivals’ football fields.

Decision making over spring break can be far more serious than pranks, unfortunately. In our county, over spring break each year, at least one teenager will die as the result of a bad decision, usually someone driving drunk.

This year, for our spring break program, we brought in an emergency room nurse with an unsavory and unsettling slide show. She showed the students pictures from actual drunk driving accidents that occurred in our area. The victims were all teenagers. She also talked about what happens after the accident. She described what emergency room doctors do to treat accident victims: the chest tube, the ventilator, the catheter. This kind of straightforward message really helps young people realize what the consequences of their decisions could be. They need to be told the unvarnished truth.

For the most part, my students take spring break day seriously. They act very squirrely for the whole week before break, but when it’s time for serious topics, they listen respectfully. This gives me hope.

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Bored to tears


A few weeks ago I did a demonstration for my chemistry classes. They had begged me for days to do this particular experiment. So, one Monday morning, we assembled outside on the grass. A volunteer student set down a bottle of Diet Coke. He opened the bottle, dropped a stack of about six Mentos into it, and ran. The rest of us stood several feet back to observe. The fizzy pop shot up and out of the bottle very forcefully and traveled about fifteen feet in the air before coming back down. It was quite a sight. I was impressed. My students were not. I looked around and saw their bored faces. They looked at each other with expressions that said “That’s it?”

Failing to impress my students is not unusual. And in sharing with other teachers, I have found it is not unusual in any subject. On another day, I showed a video of the explosion that occurs when sodium mixes with water. My students refused to find it interesting unless I performed the reaction in class so they could see it first-hand. I tried that experiment in the classroom once, a few years ago, and some flying sodium hydroxide hit a kid in the ear. He was ok, but never again.

I read an article about a year ago that discussed the high-school drop-out rate. Apparently, nationwide, the rate is on the rise. The article suggested the reason for increasing dropouts is boredom. Apparently teenagers are so bored at school that they would rather drop out and find a job than continue. This insight astounded me. Is school really that bad? I remember taking some boring classes in high school, but I always looked forward to at least two or three subjects.

I try to make class interesting for my students, but as I explain to them, you can’t expect to be entertained all the time. Sometimes we all have to push through the boring stuff in life to get to something good. Having said that, I think that school can be too dull sometimes. The main issue, I believe, is relevance. Many high schools present a curriculum that has no relevance to their students’ lives. As teachers, we need to teach in a way that challenges students to think about their futures and that prepares them for careers. Actively engaging in developing their lives should not only prepare them for success, but also keep their interest.

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My thong nightmare


I have noticed recently the decline of the thong. It emerged in my high school about three years ago. I cannot forget the first one I saw. A red, lacy number, not just peeking, more like gaping, out of the back of one of my star student’s jeans. I will call this girl Maxine to protect her “innocence.” Maxine studied fastidiously and consistently received As on her chemistry tests and quizzes. I could always count on her to be the top grade earner in my classes. Then, one day, I saw the thong. I was shocked. Maxine was so modest in every other way. She was shy, and she never bragged about her intelligence, success, and popularity. Unlike other girls, she never exposed her décolletage to the extent that to look at her chest was like looking down the grand canyon. I thought she would be so embarrassed if I told her, but I had to — it was part of the job. I found a moment when the rest of the class was engrossed in their assigned problems. I whispered next to her ear, “Maxine, your underwear is showing!” She looked at me, shrugged, and said, “Oh. Oh, well.” She turned around and went back to work, making no move to cover herself. I gave up the whispering, clearly more embarrassed than she, and said, “Pull up your pants, Maxine.” She did but still didn’t seem to care if anyone caught her in the act of adjusting her undergarments.

After the Maxine incident, I started to notice them everywhere. I couldn’t turn around without being faced with cotton, satin, patterned, plain, even one with a smiley face looking up at me as if to say, “That’s right, I’m on display.”

Many teenage girls today lack the modesty of girls of the near past. I have to blame the media on this one. I am generally loathe to pin it all on TV, movies, and celebrities, but really it has become quite acceptable to expose what would make many women blush.

Fortunately, the preppy fashion trend is finally trickling down to us here in the Midwest. I am seeing higher-wasted pants and more demure polo shirts. I love it. In fact, I haven’t seen a thong in at least a week. A new, disturbing trend, however, has appeared now in the other sex. It’s become so prevalent that our principal actually made an announcement stating an amendment to the dress code: boys may not wear girls pants! Yes teenage boys are now wearing girl’s skinny jeans. They don’t fit properly around the hips, so they end up halfway down their butts. Now the boys are exposing their underwear. At least they wear boxers.

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Teenage monsters


The first thing people say after I tell them that I am a high school teacher is “how do you do it?” And what they mean is, “Are you crazy? Don’t teenagers scare you?” I find that almost every adult I encounter has this fear of teenagers. People have an image of monsters who have no respect for authority and who are as likely to pull a gun as an iPod out of their pockets. I think most people forget what it was like to be that age. They forget that they were not really different people then. They were just unsure of their identities and severely lacking in self-confidence.

During my semester of student teaching, my first real teaching experience, I worked at a high school with more than 2,400 students. The building, huge and imposing, overwhelmed me at first. I couldn’t find the teacher’s lounge or the copy room on my own for the first two weeks. Eventually, I found my way around and became comfortable with my students. Except for Emily. Emily tested me from day one. She had a terrible attitude. She thrived on being able to challenge me at every turn, trying to find mistakes in my calculations, asking me how I knew every detail I lectured about. And when she asked questions, it was not with the delightful innocence of youthful intellectual curiosity; it was malevolent. Her eyes glinted with wicked delight if she caught an error. Her sarcastic tone silenced the rest of class as they waited with baited breath for my response. I tried to take it all in stride. She intimidated and irritated me, but my number-one lesson learned as a teacher was to never let them know your buttons have been pushed. I smiled pleasantly as I responded thoughtfully to her every challenge. I admitted graciously any mistakes I made. I was the picture of patience. Then one day, Emily stayed after school to make up a test she missed. As she brought the completed test up to my desk, her face was terribly long and sad. I asked her what was wrong and the flood gates opened. She cried and told me about everything that was wrong. Her family just moved here, she didn’t feel like she fit in yet, she still got lost in the building, she missed her old friends, she was afraid she wouldn’t make the soccer team and she felt like she just failed that test. The poor thing was unhappy about everything and I just sat quietly and listened to her for thirty minutes. When she finished, she said she felt better and went on her way. The next day and every other day Emily smiled at me and treated me with respect. She stopped challenging me and seemed genuinely happier.

Now, whenever I grow weary of the attitude of some of my students, I try to remember what it was like to be a teenager. Every problem and bad circumstance seemed so monumental. I never wish to go back to my teenage years. I remember the uncertainty, the doubts and fears. Because I remember, I do not fear my students; I understand them, at least a little.

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