It seems that public attention to an issue brings a variety of responses to that issue, from those most closely involved, from those whose job it is to reduce the public spotlight on the issue. The reasons for this kind of development are multiple; however, one of the driving forces, in today's political climate, is the motivation of what the PR pro's call "damage control."
With the Globe and Mail's bringing the question, "Are we failing boys?" into the public spotlight, and with the accompanying conferences and research work that are going on, including the occasional interview with education professors at various universities, who have the courage to speak truth to the public's "denial," there is likely to be a "bar-the-doors" and "circle-the-wagons" approach from the public education system.
While on the inside, there will be attempts to minimize the achievement gap, the drop-out gap, and the positive/negative attitude gap between male students and female students, there is likely to be a political response, more than there is a concerted, open, frank and even controversial (if that is needed) discussion of the implications of "lost opportunities" and failed expectations for male students.
More physical activity, and more technology and more "reading of how-to manuals," while a meagre beginning to address the different learning styles of male students, is like putting a band-aid on a tumour.
It may lower the superficial irritation, but it wont heal the disease.
And we have to be very careful when we use the "disease" model to address any social problem, especially one as delicate and sensitive and important as the learning enterprise.
In a society fixated on "size" of anything, including a "problem", especially are those responsible for the public perception of the size of the problem, there is a natural inclination to minimize the problem, from the perspective of the professional managing the problem.
If one student drops through the cracks of the learning system, that would not be considered a tragedy for the system, especially since we all know that the system is available to re-engage with that individual at a later date, if and when that individual might be more "receptive" and "ready" to learn. And the reasons for that student to "drop out" are not necessarly the school system's responsibility to fix. So there is certainly room for debate among all interested observers about the causes of student ennui, disaffection, detachment and boredom, poor performance and failure. And, over the twelve plus years during which a child attends public education, prior to post-secondary institutions, there will be many teachers who will leave their 'mark' on that child.
However, we can likely agree that a school's individual culture, and a school system's collective culture are both instrumental in the attitudes, activities, relationships, achievements and "progress" of the students in those schools under its jurisdiction. And if that culture is addicted to its own political correctness, and its own public image, and the achievement of political "achievement" grades, like positive media coverage, and enhanced repuation with the provincial purse-string-attendees, and positive parental reputation from such sources as the school councils...then all extrinsic indications are pointing in the "right" direction.
And extrinsic indications are the "holy grail" for a society dedicated, as our's is, to public performance, to polishing the public mask, and to reducing whatever is the core of the enterprise to measureable indicators.
To achieve in school, a student learns very quickly that "pleasing" those in charge is the first step toward that achievement. When the parent hears from the teachers on parents' night, "Johnny is a delight to teach, interested, energized, imaginative and positive"....the parent is drunk with self-satisfaction.
And when the principal hears, "This teacher is in full compliance with all of the standards of the ministry and the board," from a supervising officer, in a formal report, then that principal is delighted with the teacher and the report.
And managing those formal and extrinsic pieces of information is an important part of the equation called the learning enterprise.
However, there is much more to the situation that speaks to the underbelly of the schools unwritten code of "attitude, and conduct"....and that concerns the perpetuation of a compliant system. And a compliant system requires compliant participants to make it work.
And compliant teachers and students provide the kind of minefield of data that needs to be uncovered.
Is compliance coming more from fear, and from political manipulation by all participants, or is it coming from the joy and excitement and successful prosecution of the enterprise by those engaged in it.And what is the appropriate equation of ingredients in the generation of compliance.
Naturally, this question has as many answers as there are "meetings" within the school. And yet, the numbers of "meetings" and the quality of those answers, is important. And those answers, while anecdotal and narrative in nature, are bouncing off most of the walls in most of the rooms in the school at any given time.
Forming teams, encouraging participation, active listening, appropriate challenging and even discipline...these are all integral to the student's development, learning achievement and life-skills.
Nevertheless, positive attitudes can sweep over a body of adolescents like a tsunami, drowning out the undercurrents of alienation, isolation, abuse of power and all of the forces that undermine the effective functioning of the institution and the system.
And the pursuit of a positive "persona" in any organization is frankly thwarted by a denial of those negative forces, and a refusal to deal openly with those forces. And those forces are in every school, and in every school system. And an approach that shuns negativity, if that negativity is honest and honourably based in the reality of the culture, will only enhance the power of that negativity.
Male students are less compliant than female students. That fact is a given. And how the school system meets that "lower level of compliance" is important. Giving a male student who is not compliant, about any specific task or responsibility, a detention for his non-compliance will likely miss the root of his non-compliance.
Busy teachers want and need compliance and may be "getting it" in the short run, but losing the long-run goals of having the student become his own best guide, mentor and monitor. And compliance is eagerly and earnestly sought by the classroom teacher, so that s/he can do the job effectively. After all, that teacher is also pursuing a positive reputation of achievement.
I once found a grade twelve student sitting in the school cafeteria, when I went looking for him, because he had apparently been 'present' previously that day, and when I asked, "What's going on?" he broke into tears and informed me, "I just don't understand anything in that Shakespeare play, I don't get it!" He was afraid of both failing the subject and of speaking out about his inadequacy. I'm not absolutely confident that together we "solved" the problem completely; however, I do know that he was able to ask more questions, some of them privately, about the Elizabethan language, and at least address his legitimate fears, after that first courageous break-through.
Conflict is going to occur in any building shared by hundreds of individuals. And, how the school deals with conflict, whether it is verbal, or all of the various shades of "physical" from a "look" in the eye, to a "poke" in the arm, to a "prank" to embarrass another, to a competitive "threat" ....the nature of the human being includes conflict. Reduction of its frequency, and the severity of its occurences is a requisite for any school to function effectively. However, some conflict, when expressed appropriately, is both healthy and thus to be encouraged. And a system that "does not like conflict" is going to repress any indication of conflict, to keep the "ship moving"....
Many educators are educators because they find the system "protective" in both the positive and the negative meanings of that word. Power and control are the teacher's best friends. When the classroom door closes, the teacher is "in charge" and how that power and control are used, administered, negotiated, deployed...these are the most important questions of the whole enterprise. The learning of academic skills, while important, recedes to the necessary ascendancy of the question of "authority" and that includes power adn control.
Used effectively, creatively and sensitively...authority will be healthy in the students' lives. Dave Brubeck, then enrolled in Veterinarian school tells of being called aside by his Zoology teacher. "Brubeck, your head is not into this stuff; you're just not into frogs and formaldehyde; your head is into the 'conservatory' across the lawn; so, please go over there and study!" Wanting to work on his father's ranch, Brubeck had enrolled in veterinary college, but his heart was in music, the piano and jazz...and his Zoology teacher knew it, and coached him toward his own best destiny. And on Monday, December 6th, Brubeck will turn 90!! And we can all be thankful for both Brubeck's life and music, and for the coaching of that Zoology instructor!
It says here, that whenever power and control are being exercised, especially among young children, there needs to be some monitoring of that exercise, in the best interests of the student first, and secondarily in the best interests of the educational enterprise.
Consequently, each school system could well deploy an ombudsman for each gender, to monitor and mentor the interactions between teachers and administrators on one hand, and students on the other. This could be especially helpful if a female teacher is interviewing, disciplining and prescribing specific measures to a male student, and vice versa when a male teacher is dealing with a female student, in conflicted circumstances.
Naturally, a requisite for the ombudsman for female students is to be a female teacher, while the ombudsman for male students would be a male teacher.
As a student, I would have appreciated a male "advocate" in my corner when I was being disciplined; and as a teacher, I certainly would have appreciated a second opinion whenever I was in a conflict with a female student, prior to and during any encounter with that student that could have lasting consequences on her learning and her life-long attitudes towards power. And, as a parent of three daughters, I would certainly have appreciated a female advocate to have been present, when, for example, one mathematics teacher reduced one daughter to tears, for whatever reason no one knows.
Guidance teachers would not be my recommendation for this ombudsman role; their function is more curricular, career and documentative, in keeping the student's progress monitored. The Ombudsman's role would be exclusively to accompany the student and teacher in any discussion in which specific negative conflicts were being addressed and punishments administered. The adminisration officer would be the first place for this role to begin to function, where the discipline of the school is being administered daily, hourly, minute by minute....and the question of fairness, equity and justice both in perception and in fact is critical.
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