Numbers or Discipline: The Fight for Discipline in America's Schools

" I want to introduce your new teacher. -Administrator"
"I don't give a f*** about her. -Student"
" (Name), she's a nice teacher. Now you need to go to class.- Administrator"
"No! -Student"

Imagine being a teacher in today's schools, where discipline has taken a back seat to the notion that each student represents a number that affects school funds. Or imagine being the above new teacher, who at the end of the school day, was observed asking how to assign detention to students who refused to leave her class, disrupting the learning environment, and her first day. The idea of discipline in today's Public and Charter schools have lead to high teacher turn over, a sense of normalcy with lower student test scores due to failure to reach learning benchmarks, and an increase in At-Risk students, exposing the lack of consistency and in-depth procedures among School Administrators in US schools. Has the number of children in the classroom eclipsed the need to educate our students? Has discipline of children and students, taken a backseat to the financial bottom line of schools?

                                               Bullied Teacher Photo featured on LaborFest.Com 
"How do you handle a student who refuses to do work in your classroom -(unnamed Principal in new teacher Interview)?"

Interviewing teachers have come to expect the above question which outlines their classroom discipline plan and method for resolving behavior issues of prospective students. However, the question has gained a double meaning as student discipline has increasingly been placed on the shoulders of teachers, often causing teachers to illicit fearful classroom experiences with problem students. School Administrators have made a huge gamble, exchanging discipline for alternative behavior models for handling discipline, such as restorative justice, least restrictive environments, and tracking learning & behavior accommodations, which results in paper trails, Individual Education Plans (IEP), and behavior referrals. Alternative behavior management models have come to replace detention, out of school suspension, and expulsion, the older model for deterring negative behavior. In fact, in many Public and Charter schools, Administrators have put the bulk of burden of discipline on Teachers, which is unprecedented, a violation of Teacher Union negotiated practices, and extremely cumbersome. The effect is a reported reduction in suspensions and interventions, with the development of Alternative School systems. In true embrace of these methodologies, school administrators have instituted such models in classrooms across the nation, increasing numbers to positively report, while ignoring a growing trend. High annual teacher turnover and burn out has begun to change the faces within the classroom annually, and often by semester, as teachers in response to the new workload, prefer to resign positions in less established, Alternative Discipline schools for institutes with firm administrations and proven discipline records. Gone are the days when elementary children and secondary students could hope to be taught by the same teacher as their older siblings. Gone are the days when school Administrators and Principals held together strong schools with values, conviction, and accountability. In fact, the truth about high teacher turnover in today's schools, particularly charter schools,  is a symptom of their problem. How can a school with over 60% teacher turnover, produce a graduation and college acceptance rate at 80-90%? By placing behavior management in the hands of teachers, and out of the office of administrators, who ordinarily would develops in-depth school-wide discipline plans to institute in the overall school plan and culture. This is a total violation of the essential goals of restorative justice and alternative behavior models, and the evidence of the hidden facts of discipline gone array in today's schools.

As a result, Teachers dedicate 25-30% more of their classroom planning and teaching time to resolving behavior issues. The extra time is often unpaid and highly stressful, resulting in additional parental, IEP, & counselling meetings. By the end of the school year, teachers are exhausted from literal physical fatigue, emotional drain, and lack of personal time, which is reduced by additional time spent on behavior modification. In comparison, while teacher work schedules have increased across K-12, School Administrators, Principal, Vice-Principal, Deans, have less work loads, shorter days, arrive late/leave early, and an increased salary.

Lighter work loads for schools administrators does not mean the job is getting easier, it means there has been a transfer of work to teachers. If a student is sent out of class for constant profanity, or being a class disruption after multiple warnings, and the Principal sends the student directly back to class, the unresolved issue is left back in the hands of the teacher, while creating the thought in the student's mind that there are no consequences for misbehavior. The unresolved misbehavior must be dealt with during class time, and often leads to miscommunication and worst problems, then the initial issue. Essentially, this type of cycle is a violation of most Teacher Contracts according to established procedures incorporated in many Teacher Union Contracts in the 1970s. However, this type of situation is becoming more common in schools with less resources, novice Administrators, and overloaded Teachers. The alternative behavior model has created less work for Administration, but drowned the teacher in a cycle of behavioral management and stress. Essentially, we are witnessing the fall of the American Public School system into disrepair. A disrepair that may be the strategy of private investors and educators.

Doing A Job: Principal
The initial benefit for having a professional clerical team for public schools was because on site School Administrations could record on site data, organize essential functions of schools outside the classroom, and handle problem situations should they arise, leaving the teacher, the job of simply teaching. This argument was dominant in the early negotiations for higher salaries, and has continued to the present day with the highly important piece, Administrative accountability. Principals answer to School Boards, and their direct Superintendent Supervisors, and are often sucked into the political theater which engulfs both the School Board and the office of the Superintendent. Principals also receive evaluations which assess their performance through Administrative benchmarks and are completed by their immediate Supervisor (who is not onsite), and teachers. Often, this evaluation process misses the everyday nuisances, like does the Principal have a strong presence on the school campus, in the hallways and in the classroom? Does the Principal promote, encourage, and enforce a positive school environment. Thus, the possibility of retaining School Officials whose performance on paper is proficient, but concerning real onsite criteria, may not be included in an evaluation such as teacher support, workday routine, event planning, and communication is lacking, creates a stressful workplace for teachers. The real physical presence of Administrators on campus, in classrooms, and in formal assemblies of the students, is a major factor in establishing school culture and deterring negative behavior. Often, the lack of resources to have a sufficient number of Administrators, such as Deans, to effectively operate a school site becomes the first symptom of a declining school, failing school-wide policy, and overburdened Teachers. Still, a Principal can set the tone for a great learning institution with an visual implementation of planning, or become engulfed in the politics of the position and find themselves behind a desk, behind a closed door, while teachers struggles to educate students, and balance their lives with long work hours.

The Union Vs. The Union:

This article is not anti-Union and promotes a more robust representation. It is important to know, teacher unions have to fight to negotiate working salaries fairly distributed by the budget and for the rights of teachers in violation or accused of wrong doing. This fight often can be resolved between the County Representative and the teacher. However, when negotiation and mediation have run its course the court system will decide where the violation has occurred.

A Teacher's Union which primarily defers to resolutions between the School and Teacher is an extension of the school system. This type of Union cannot fight in the best interest of its teachers because the "in house" investigation rules and regulations are entirely different from a court case, and often uphold violations of the teacher's negotiated contract. A Teacher's Union which uses the local court system is in fact a true representation of the teacher and can obtain the rights and privileges teachers deserve. Still, school Administrators, Principals, Deans, Board Members, & Superintendents all enjoy an alternative unions, and inflated salaries made off the backs and often in opposition of teachers. Educators should understand the entire system and when their interests are placed against each other. Only then can the fight to educate be waged appropriately for America's schools.

Conclusion:
Is the number of students in a school more important than discipline? Why is high teacher turnover an indication that school Administration has become docile and ineffective? Finally, will the Teacher's Union be able to appropriately defend the rights of teachers? If the strategy against America's Public School System is to allow them to self implode from disorganization, then higher numbers, lack of teachers, poor Administration, and poor representation will be the causes, to the effect. The people who benefit from this failure, other than the peons in the halls of power, will be the Private Education Institutions, the American Penal Systems, and the large Corporate interests. The people who will suffer, will be the average Americans, who cannot afford private schools, the minorities, and the poor. Unfortunately, the people who will suffer are the majority of Americans.

Written by Mr. Cowan Amaye-Obu (Teacher)

How The West Won: Why The Hip Hop Throne Lives On The West Coast?

                                                   
                                                                   Advertisement From Hot 97 (1996)
Ask around who is the best rapper in the game today? You might get, "Kendrick Lamar," or "The Game." Of course you will hear, "Jay-Z," and South Florida is definitely going to throw, "Rick Ross," on the table. And "Common," of Chicago, dropped another classic album. "Nas," remains like a reigning legendary god with Harvard University's WEB Dubios Research Center dedicating a Fellowship, in his honor. The Greats still remain at the top of their games, and the influence of Hip Hop Icons like "50 Cent," "Diddy," "Snoop Dogg," "Scarface," "Eminem," and "The Lox," measure in real economic terms. The entire Hip Hop World fell silent when word of the Infamous, "Prodigy," of Mobb Deep passed away. A huge figure, controversial, and real in his message and ultimate goal. In his wake, we are reminded that the presence of an authentic movement with conscious wordplay is the essence of Hip Hop, and what its original goal has always been, to spread a great message or story across great distances. Who can deny that the West Coast is representing like no other coast or region, today?

After word in 2014, Dr. Dre signed a deal to sell his Hip Hop influenced Headphones, Beats Electronics, to Apple for over $3 Billion dollars, giving Dre nearly $620 million in one year, the entire West Coast applauded. The Game dropped The Documentary 2, and 1992, two critically acclaimed classic albums. Compton Rapper, YG bursted in the game and dropped a film on Netflixs. Nipsey Hussle has kept the competition live and street. And last, but not even the least because we are not going to talk about "Snoop Dogg," Kendrick Lamar is challenging the dominant discourse in America with his controversial albums from Overly Dedicated (2010) to his latest, Damn (2017), to see what is going on in the Black community. The drum beat of the West Coast cannot be ignored and is putting the issues of Black Life, front and center, to all Americans. The clarity of issues from police brutality, economic disparity, judicial injustice, gang violence, misogyny, marijuana inequities, and promoting unified movement is all here, on The West. The After-School Generation (2008-2017) of Hip Hop in the North and the South, cannot escape the "party life," and therefore, their message and wordplay has suffered tremendously. Their nursery rhymes and delivery often ends up jokes, but what they represent is still respected, even if it is a shadow of better times.

Why does the Hip Hop Throne live on the West Coast? During the East Coast-West Coast Wars, it was a matter of debate. Which coast is saying something real versus delivering Gangster-isms, 'Pimp'isms, and other misleading messages that the Old School did not accept, and the New School glorified in? The new After School Generation is guilty of the same sin. The answer is, the West Coast stayed the same and on message. The East Coast went from lyrical beasts and jazzy beats to Down South bass lines and catchy phrases. The New School heads asked what happened to New York since Cash Money, Master P, and Trick Daddy burst on the scene? The East Coast Giants still rock and tour like Ghostface and the Wu, Fat Joe, Busta Rhymes, The Tribe Called Quest, and Onyx. The Southern Giants coming on the coat-tails of Outkast and The Dungeon Family still rides with Lil Wayne, TI, and Young Jeezy. South Florida and The Midwest have their own categories, but the unified movement for the entire coast, is missing. Call it ego or shortsightedness?  The singers are "bodying" the rappers here, on the East. But on the West, The Dub (W) is King.

 Hip Hop culture can look to California as an example for how to support and move as a unit, as a team, and as a movement. And if you're sleeping on The Game's last two albums, or Kendrick Lamar's Damn, well maybe you're stuck in the party-life too!

Written by Mr. Cowan Amaye-Obu
WestOaklandImports@gmail.com

PS. Shoutout to Uncle Murda!

Hollywood, The Capital of Propaganda, Not for Me or Other Respectable African Americans...

                                                     Photo courtesy of Hulu
Amid the barrage of movies, television premieres and season finales, popular commercials, and streaming channels are the major Entertainment Studios, Record Labels, and their sponsors. In 2016, the major production houses of Hollywood racked in $11.17 Billion. The American Music industry racked in over $7.7 Billion, and the new, but powerfully stable internet streaming channels like Netflix made $8.8 Billion, alone. The Age of Hollywood, never looked better or so promising. Especially, when even the major Hollywood Sponsors like The Pentagon, Silicon Valley, the Beverage Companies Coca Cola & Pepsi, Big Tobacco, and the top American Breweries are also reaping record profits. Hollywood and the major studios are pushing so many images, ideas, and personalities on television and the internet, even your personal cell phone cannot escape the business advertisements and commercials. The agenda in Tinsel Town, the capital of Propaganda, is whatever sells, White Americanism, Youth-ism, violence & Blind American Imperial Militancy, Extreme liberalism, Gay Feminism, Average Humor, a sprinkle of color for diversity, and of course, no recourse, except for the occasional apology.
                                     
                                Photo Courtesy of Hulu
Move Over Bill Cosby. Bring In Empire

The saddest part about losing the image of Bill Cosby to the recent sex scandals is not only the fall of an American Icon, but the departure from original wholesome Black Entertainment with values to the re-emergence of American Black caricatures on television and cinema.

 Image the excitement and utter disappointment for an African American film winning the Academy Award (Moonlight 2017), to witness two adolescent boys kissing, with my teenage son and elementary daughter. These are not values encouraged within my home or the African American community at large, so why would Hollywood propagate these ideas attempting to implant in the psyche of my children and the minds of others?

The quality of African American cinema and music has not only taken a nose dive, but the image of African Americans onscreen and on the radio has once again been hijacked by Foreign Idealists. These Idealists have no value nor class, but they expound themselves to be the very pillars of African American society, having merely existed on the fringes because of their loose morals. In this current Propaganda Hollywood atmosphere, these powerful Black Directors, producers, actors and recording artists are brilliant because they fit the exact role designed for them to play. They are the American Black Caricature, exactly what popular White American Entertainment wants and imagines Black America to be. For this reason, these individuals are most dangerous to the African plight in America.

The earliest attempts by African Americans to grace the silver screen and music recording industry carried not only genius and talent, but class and a sense of struggle. Remember Mahalia Jackson's gospel songs, Bessie Smith's Blues, and Josephine Baker's jazz, brought the best of the Negro to the stage and held everyone in awe? Remember Harry Belafonte and Dorothy Dandridge, or Sidney Poitier, Hattie McDaniels, and Claudia McNeil? How about Ruby and Ossie Davis, and the old geniuses, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder and "the classy," Bill Cosby? These magnificent entertainers laid the foundation for African Americans in Entertainment by being the opposite of what Hollywood expected. Their avant garde performance was to be ordinary "negroes," and to show how average Black life really was and it was genius. It was from their respected work to have Black life portrayed on television, that Black Cinema and music, in the late 1960s and 1970s were allowed to flourish to the level where Hollywood exploited the Black American movie and record market for the lucrative sales and images. Many Black Actors and Artists not mentioned, but well respected were influenced by this same core and time period. Still, the lesson the community learned was that the image of African Americans must be created and maintained by talented African Americans. White America will always casts and perpetuate negative types for Blacks. This lesson, gave Black cinema Bill Cosby, Whoopi Goldberg, Carl Weathers, Oprah Winfrey, Robert Townsend, and Spike Lee in the 1980s and Kenaan Ivory Wayans, John Singleton, Denzel Washington, Will Smith and Martin Lawerance in the 1990s. At the core of African American entertainment was the common struggle of bringing ordinary Black American life to the stage or radio. So, what has happened? Please excuse those celebrated performers who have not been listed in the article for the greater point.

From the Cosby Show to The Real Wives of Atlanta and from Roc & Family Matters to Empire, the fabric of African American Entertainment has lost its value. The image of African Americans has fallen back to the same Black caricatures from the original Birth of the Nation and early Hollywood films. Why? The answer is the focus has shifted from simply having a normal Black image on screen to the notion of what it takes to be award winning in Hollywood. It is no longer enough to be Black American famous, but to be this notion of "White" famous. Then, in comes the classification of being an A B or C list actor. No one wants to be a C list actor, so what do I need to do to be more famous? Forgetting that the African or Black image is most important, these brilliant actors, producers and Directors take on parts which are lucrative and questionable. Often, these questionable parts are the only parts available for African American actors, so, do you want a job or do you want to be out of work, out of sight, and soon out of Hollywood?

As Hollywood continues to flood television, the internet, and radio with whatever sells, White Americanism, Youth-ism, violence & Blind American Imperial Militancy, Gay Feminism, Average Humor, a sprinkle of color for diversity, and of course, no recourse, except for the occasional apology, the image of African Americans suffers from lack of originality and moral character. The dangerous contradiction to the traditional struggle of African Americans to create a positive image of themselves represents the current confusion of this Black Entertainer generation to understand their responsibility to our community rather than their ego and themselves. As long as Hollywood continues to encourage their intellectual madness and major sponsorship agendas, for the sake of entertainment, there is no message coming out of Hollywood in a movie, television show or song that represents true African American excellency and the struggle for something ordinary and better. With few exceptions of course. We thank the producers of Birth of a Nation, Power, The Carmichael Show, Steve Harvey, all of Tyler Perry's work, and other quality African American Productions/Broadway shows.

"Check your ingredients, before you overdose on the cool -Lupe Fiasco The Cool."



Written by Peter L. Commons
PeterLCommons@gmail.com