image: Lucio Vasquez/Houston Public Media
BY: William Monroe Trotter Jr.
This joker over HISD is crazy. Mike Morath is blamed along with this fool. The object of education is not discipline. When your kids care acting up, your first action should be to ask, why are the doing what they are doing. Disruptive behavior is often caused by stress or frustration. Addressing the disruption should be executed individually, directly and immediately. Good educators know this. Students tend to engage in problematic behaviors because of health problems, personal or family problems, adjustment or developmental issues (e.g., “immaturity” or self-esteem issues), or general academic difficulties or because they are tired and hungry.
Did you know 11 million American kids come to school hungry. (https://www. nokidhungry.org/ who-we-are/hungerfacts (https://www. nokidhungry.org/whowe-are/hunger-facts)) Break that down to 1 in 7 kids face food insecurity. In a regularsized classroom that could be 4 or 5 kids who can’t concentrate or are acting out because of hunger. One in 54 students (https://www. cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/ data.html (https://www. cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/ data.html)) is likely to be on the ASD spectrum. Boys are 4 times more likely to have an ASD diagnosis. Students with ADHD or anxiety disorde rs are part of the norm in the classroom today. Some students need more attention than others.
Other students feel like they don’t get enough attention, from home or school. In either of those scenarios, when a student wants attention or needs attention, they will act out to get it. If a student is lacking in confidence, they may act out as a way to cover up their insecurities. This guy is not approaching what he is trying to solve like an educator. Maybe that’s because his objective is to destroy, not to build. Given his background he and the Governor would rather see the expansion of charter schools. Given what we have seen in Houston, the evidence of the capitalist nature of charter schools has resulted in the continuous exploitiation of government funds and this comprises the quality of education that children receive. If Charters have evidenced positive attributes, then add those features to our public school rather than creating parallel education systems.
