By Selwyn Duke

The St. Petersburg Times is running an article by one Melanie Hubbard, an erstwhile college professor who decided to take a foray into teaching high school.  She speaks of classroom horror stories; of undisciplined, uncivilized "students" who have no respect for anyone or anything; of an environment in which the inmates run the asylum.  Writes Hubbard:    

You can’t go home again, but you can go back to high school. In fourth
period, the girls in the back hate my guts because I grade their
vocabulary for accuracy instead of giving them full credit for
completion. One girl throws her weight around, muttering up and down
the aisles about her grades and ‘this teacher.’ The class is listening
to me at the board, so I decide to ignore the behavior and go on with
my lesson. But I am shaken. Last week, Adam raised his voice to me over
a grade, and he has been audibly dissing me to his peers. I’ve had him
suspended over it, but he’s back. Between the girl bully and the boy
bully, I feel so bad that the next day I am reluctant to give back
graded work to any students. So bad that, in consultation with my
chairman, I do not record zeros for make-up work that the girl bully
has clearly had a fellow student complete for her. I just can’t take
the grief.

. . . three weeks later this same group of boys writes a short story together
and reads it to the class — a short story featuring a tiny ‘new
teacher’ with sweaty armpits and vampirish ways. As Benjamin sniggers
through the increasingly unprintable exploits of a character they
clearly despise, I ask him to stop. He doesn’t stop. This is not a
roast or a ribbing; it is all-out disrespect. I sit for a long moment,
ever the educator, attempting to work out an appropriate response. I
would like to teach them through this. I do not want to have to
discipline them. After all, I have a sense of humor, even about myself.
But they have handed me a steaming pile of crap, and it will not do to
turn their efforts into a lesson on ‘indirect characterization’ or
narrative conflict and resolution. ‘Wait for your assistant principal.’
The bell rings, and half of them flee to lunch. I fill out a referral.
The next day, they’re in public school boot camp off campus, learning,
I hope, something.

I suppose the most amazing part of this story is that Melanie Hubbard is surprised.  Did it really elude her that this is the state of many high schools in America?  Did she really think that, after decades of liberalism’s attacks on virtue and tradition and with the prevailing permissiveness in our culture, the kids were sitting at their desks like Beaver Cleaver? 

This is how I know that Hubbard is part of the problem.  She’s another quasi-journalist who gets published in a newspaper and reports the obvious as news.  Wow, children raised in our no-accountability, feel-good, self-esteem-oriented world are spoiled, barbaric brats.  What a revelation.  It much reminds me of when psychologists came to us and stated that, after many years of research, high-tech evaluation and great effort, they can report with assurance that boys and girls are different. 

I don’t mean to place undue onus on the hapless Hubbard, as she was caught up in a fatally flawed system.  Having said that, her attitude reflects the problem.  She said she ". . . can’t take the grief" and that she doesn’t ". . . want to have to discipline them [the students]."  Well, I’ve got news for her.  Doing the right thing in life often involves taking the grief.  Moreover, it should be recognized as a given that working with minors involves disciplining them.  Has she ever heard the term in loco parentis?  Even children from good homes will not consistently follow just rules if left to their own devices.

The Melanie Hubbards of the world would do well to remember that if they’re not willing to take the grief, why should they expect others to do so?  Yes, our problem is a systemic one, but systems comprise millions of individuals, and it is the behavior of those individuals that makes the system what it is.  Our schools are increasingly anarchic because we have parents who don’t want to "take the grief" and discipline their children, and school administrators who don’t want to "take the grief" they would have to endure from students and parents if they did so.  And here I’ll mention something Edmund Burke said: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."  If we’re not willing to take the grief, grief will become our constant companion.

As for education, in many quarters it has become a farce.  Oftentimes we just go through the motions, pretending as if schools like the one in which Hubbard worked are serious academic institutions.  The truth is, as I’ve said before, education is impossible without two things we sorely lack in our society: Discipline and obedience.  Why obedience?  Well, how can someone learn from you if he is not first willing to listen to you?

Think about it.

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