Teachers face a number of challenges

This week we wrap up our series on the county's teachers, which we started last week in recognition of Teacher Appreciation Week. I must say I've learned a lot in interviewing teachers over the past several weeks.

There were a number of challenges that teachers discussed with me, and I hope I've articulated those well enough in the articles. By far one of the biggest challenges is handling disciplinary issues in the classroom

Some teachers were hesitant to spend a lot of time discussing disciplinary issues for fear they'd give our readers the impression that all children are little hellions (which isn't true) or that that's all they deal with day in and day out. The answer, of course, is somewhere in the middle.

What is very clear to me is that today's teacher faces an increasing challenge in maintaining control of his or her classroom. There were problem students when I was growing up — always have been, always will be — but I couldn't help but wonder if today's teacher has to deal with more of them at a younger age and who have a higher level of anger and disrespect for authority.

One teacher confided to me that one of her interview questions asked by the school superintendent was "How would you handle a situation where a student stands up in the mddle of class and calls you a (double expletive)?" She said she was initially shocked at the question, but the reality was that the exact situation has come up in her daily life, and in the lives of other teachers I've talked to, too.

I probably grew up in the last generation of kids where your parents were allowed to sign a release authorizing your elementary school principal to administer corporal punishment — i.e., give you a good spanking. My elementary principal, Dr. Woodall, would call you into the office, and in the presence of a witness, paddle you with one of those paddles you see hanging up in fraternity houses. (I was really disappointed that my parents believed in spanking, 'cause I sure would have preferred to have Dr. Woodall handle it instead of my dad.)

These days, some parents consider spanking akin to child abuse, and obviously that's not a viable solution for schools today. I'm not a parent, so I don't have all the answers, but I do know that there seems to be a lot of kids being raised with the "time out" approach. I don't know if there's a correlation between a drop in spanking and a rise in disrespect for authority, but a number of teachers I interviewed talked about the frustration of having to teach discipline to more and more students every year, as if there was not even the most basic concept of it being introduced at home.

The message is clear — more and more disciplinary issues are being dumped on teachers, who must juggle the three bad apples who take up most of their time over the 17 other students in the classroom. Except the message I'm getting from teachers is that it's not three bad apples, but half a dozen or more in some classes, and rising all the time.

Some teachers attributed disciplinary issues to the fact that, increasingly, both parents are working, and kids are spending more and more time raising themselves after school and in the evenings. That certainly makes sense. Others just flat out told me some parents don't care and are happy to dump the burden on teachers.

Of course, the majority of students are well behaved, and their parents do care about their upbringing. But I hope folks understand just how challenging the average classroom environment has become today.

Next time you talk to your kid's teacher, you might want to thank them for their hard work. After all, you're either part of the problem or part of the solution. There's really no middle ground out there.