Welcome to Fighting The Good Fight: Education in Louisville

Welcome. Whether you're a teacher, administrator, office worker, teaching assistant, custodian, or any of the myriad of employed positions in our school system, you know something that the public doesn't; what's happening in our public schools today. Parents who can afford for their children to opt of the system already have and continue to do so. Many of the remaining parents can hardly afford to "buy-in" into schools that are frequently tens of miles from their own neighborhoods. The media isn't interested in or doesn't want to publicize the day to day operations of our schools, but would rather celebrate some isolated aspect of a school's success, even in our failing schools. Moreover, there seems to be an overwhelming wave of resentment by many in the media towards teachers as if the failing school systems nationwide were simply a result of "bad teacher syndrome."

What is far less known by the public is what the day to day operation of a public school looks like. School today is far different from the educational system of yesteryear. Today's schools are a patchwork of educational and social services, where not only is an education expected, but also a network of entitlements that includes foremost, economic assistance, free and reduced breakfasts and lunches, exemption from fees, etc. As part of the ever changing challenges, teachers today are trained to recognize suicide symptoms in students, as well as other forms of physical and mental abuse, and are required by law to report any suspicion of abuse authorities or face legal penalties. On the behavioral front, student misbehavior has become the number one detriment to student achievement. Behavior that would never have been accepted in the past frequently is seen as cultural expression or excused as the result of an impoverished background. Parents, once allies to the schools, administrators, and faculties, are frequently indifferent at best and hostile at worst towards the very people they leave their children with everyday.

It's difficult to predict in the long run, but until student behavior improves, teachers will be forced to focus on classroom management rather than instructional time. Until parents become vested in their children's educations, fostering the expectation in their children that education really does matter and that they expect their children to be better educated than they themselves were, mediocrity will march on and on. Until teachers and administrators both find common ground that focuses on better instruction by way of better student behavior and until we stop allowing the most disruptive students to repeatedly interrupt instructional time, thereby robbing other students of their educations, nothing will change.

Here, we'll start; one blog post at a time to unveil what's behind the curtain. Take a look and see what you think.