DISCLAIMER: This was MY experience. I don't pretend to speak for everyone. The stats in this blog were found online.
Like the proverbial oil and water, the words "Education" and "Oklahoma" don't always go together when addressing both primary and secondary education. I can't say the same is true at the collegiate level, but to be 100% open, honest, and flat blunt, Oklahoma sits squarely at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to rankings by state. Let me just say that again for those who have wax so firmly stuck in their ears; Oklahoma is number 50 out of 50 states when it comes to educational ranking according to several authorities both on the internet and at the state(s) level(s). We (Oklahomans) aren't proud of this fact. For many years we've hovered in the lower 40s hoping to rise above the pale, but it would seem that after the latest rankings our overall scores are typically graded in the D- to F range for just about every single category.
Oh, don't get me wrong, we still have students (and teachers) who give a damn, and who want to change these horrific facts. The problem is, that we don't have enough students, enough teachers, enough admin, or enough parents who want to both do their jobs at home and in the classrooms/offices around the state. Teachers are walking out of our schools in droves and yet there they are, the evasive administration(s) and districts screaming that they need good teachers. They don't want good teachers, they want teachers who will do what they tell them to do. They want teachers who will bend over and take it no matter what they ask. Some (if not most) administrators and districts don't give a damn about laws. They don't give a damn about contracts. They don't even give a damn about whether or not a student can speak or read well enough to write their own name on a piece of paper that was most likely supplied by the teacher!
I cannot count the times I petitioned admin and office staff to send out notices to parents addressing the need for the PARENT to provide paper and pencils for their kids. Don't get me started about parents not being able to afford it. There are frankly too many parents smoking and drinking alcohol at home, spending money on lottery tickets, gambling at races or other venues, but ask them to provide the bare necessities for their kids and suddenly they forget how to speak English, they forget how to answer their phones, they don't receive texts, emails, or even open their doors if someone is brave enough to knock on their door to do a welfare check! NEWS FLASH: Teachers are not responsible for supplying supplies. Teachers are not responsible for dressing your kids. Teachers are not responsible for getting your kid to school on time. Teachers are not responsible for feeding your kids. Teachers are not responsible for teaching your kid not to fight. Teachers are not responsible, nor will they EVER BE RESPONSIBLE, for training YOUR KID with regards to ethics, morals, character, right from wrong, proper language, or how to conduct themselves in a public setting. Maybe it's time we send out THAT memo!
The other needed memo that should be sent out to the State, to the districts, to the admin, and possibly the parents, is the one about separating English native speakers from students who are not capable of mastering lessons in the English language. We, teachers, LOVE our students but we can't help them if we don't speak their language, and if they don't understand, speak, read, or write ours. The main reason our state is suffering in the ranks is that we can't stop our lessons to try and explain the lesson over and over again at 30 different levels in a classroom with over 30 kids in only 28 chairs in a room that was designed to hold 22. We can't use broken tech when the kids are lightyears ahead of us! We can't expect to hold the attention of a student who can program code but can't understand Bloom's Taxonomy. We need grade-appropriate lessons, we need students who are at grade level if you expect us to meet state standards at the grade levels. We need fewer students in the classrooms. If you can't make that happen you get what you get! So far, it would seem that this is the PLAN! Stop expecting teachers to teach 32 kids at one time and have them all understand even the simplest of tasks or standards. It is impossible!
I left the classroom at the request of the district I was teaching at on September 29, 2021. I was the 3rd teacher they had hired for that position, and I was hired after school started, sometime around August 15, 2021. Why was I suspended? Why was I asked to leave? I was asked to leave because of a blog I wrote here on this Blogspot, that was an utter fantasy about a murder that takes place at a school I both attended and taught at. Seven times within the blog I mentioned it was fake, not real, fantasy, fiction, etc, but there I was being suspended because some parents feared the worst. That particular parent was proved to be both a drug addict, a convicted felon, and get this; she couldn't read the blog, her kid read it to her. OK, so after I was suspended my union rep challenged the decision. GUESS WHAT HAPPENED? I was found not to be out of line in any way, shape, or form. Who knew? I knew! That's who knew! The First Amendment is obviously not something that these kids nor their parents are familiar with.
Teachers would LOVE to teach these Amendments, but we can't. We're too busy telling the kids to stop, don't do that, move over, or no. We're too busy arguing with kids about dress codes, rule-breaking, inappropriate language, and behavior. We're too busy dummying down the lesson plans so the kids can even understand the nominal meanings of the eight parts of speech. How many parents out there (parents of secondary kids) know that there are actually eight parts of speech? I'll wait. Forget trying to teach the actual use of these words; we can't even get the kids to focus and stay off their devices long enough to realize they're in class to learn not to text or sext their friends.
I have taught at seven districts. I have been asked to leave, suspended, and terminated seven times; one for each. I have sued, I have fought, I have won (guess how many times) seven times! It is no wonder that teachers who aren't as mean, nasty, hardened, jaded, ornery as I am don't come back. I come back to shove it in their faces that their accusations are meaningless and unfounded. I fight to prove a principle! I never return to teach, no, I have never once returned after I have won my case. I simply take the settlement, and go home and do what I really want to do, which is to write. Every time I have been released I was paid the full extent of the contract, and in some cases even more. They hired me, they had no reason to release me, they released me, they lost the decision when it was appealed (or brought to court) and they had to pay. I suppose I could have demanded that they pay me more. I deserved it every single time. I guess I just kept thinking that sooner or later someone will figure out that I really do know what I'm doing! I was wrong. They don't figure it out, ever.
Let's go through the numbers: Though 88% of all Oklahoma students graduate, only 29% of them read or write at grade level. Over 60% read or write at more than three grade levels below their grade level by the time they reach the 8th grade and are expected to pass the 8th-grade reading test so they can get their driver's license. Guess what happens? Teachers are bribed and districts look the other way. How do I know this? This was one of the reasons I was suspended from one of the districts. I reported such behavior to the state. I lost my job. It was easier and less expensive to pay me (in their eyes) than to go through an audit and determine which teachers were on the take. It's not that hard to figure out. Shall we continue? If we have only 1 out of 3.4 students who can even read a newspaper or magazine, which is written at the 8th-grade level, it's hard to get students to understand the driver's manual, let alone comprehend what the law requires when they do get that license.
I decided to give teaching one more shot. I applied to a district that released me in 2005. They accepted me. They interviewed me. They hired me. Within days I was called and told that they were rescinding the offer. When I asked why I was shocked that the principal was honest. She said, "Well, it seems you have a way of being upfront so I will be upfront. We don't always stick to the rules and laws, we cut corners from time to time to accommodate our parents and students, and it's just the way it is. We can't afford to be sticklers and you may not fit in with this bunch." WOW...HONESTY!! I loved the fact that she was blunt, but thought to myself this ranking crap will never end if we don't put a screeching halt to the way we do things in our state. Cutting corners, giving 50% grades to kids who just (only) put their name on an assignment and turn it in. Cutting corners, allowing athletes to play even when they can't or won't work in class. Cutting corners, allowing kids to keep contraband in their backpacks so they can sell it at school to make ends meet at home? Sorry, I don't want to be a part of that bunch.
When I taught at an urban district in 2018 I was suspended one week before the end of school. My grade book was altered. I fought the suspension, I was paid an entire year for the inconvenience, and more than 95% of the illiterate students were passed to the next grade against my records. Oh, and yes, something happened to my records. They were somehow "accidentally" lost in the ether. This is what happens in our districts. Trying to get anyone to step up and admit it is impossible. What typically happens is a teacher will just quit. I'm not typical. I fight tooth and nail, and anyone who says I don't defend the kids is dead wrong. I recognize that the students are the victims here. Passing an illiterate student damages that kid first, the district second, and the community third. It MUST change, but I don't think it will anytime soon. Corruption rolls downhill - - I tried to stop it before it landed on top of the students; I wasn't always successful.
More often than not, I'll run into a student from as far back as 2002, when I first began teaching. "Miss, Miss" I hear, and I turn around. Most of them forget I have a Doctorate degree and should be called "Dr. Stringfellow". I think all of us are named "Miss" (except the male teachers). I'll turn around, see my former student, and sometimes I even remember their name. Most of the time they begin to tell me how tough I was, and how they hated me. Then they smile, and they thank me. Sometimes I get a hug. Sometimes just a good old-fashioned handshake. I've yet to have a student stop me in a mall, on the street, or somewhere and say they hope I die or that I was the worst person in the world! No, most of the time I'm the one who forced them to put down their phone and pick up a pen. I'm the one who demanded that they stand up because they rocked in their chair too much. I'm the one who drilled them endlessly on spelling words when they claimed they forgot their notes. I'm the one who stayed after school, during lunch or met them during my planning period to let them cry, listen to them, and then demanded that they turn their work in tomorrow or I'd add another three pages to it.
I won't be teaching anymore. I'm done. I retired, pulled all of my teacher's retirement out of the state's custody, and began investing it. No more assemblies where I walk up and down the aisles stopping bad behavior, demanding that people stand up when they hear the National Anthem. No more giving the evil eye to anyone refusing to allow a teacher to pass, or a disabled student to have the lee-way. No more handing out secret lunch passes to kids who couldn't remember to bring their lunch and who didn't qualify for free or reduced lunches. No more holding my hand up in a gesture to be quiet; and then resigning to again, giving the evil-eye stare. No more demanding that everyone remain silent during the moment of silence or when we have an intruder drill. No more reiterating the reasons we honor the fallen on Veterans and Memorial Day. I have packed up my Expo markers and I have simply walked away - - but I'm not going to stop praying for them. They need that more than anything.
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