Just in Time for School...

Guy Strickland's Bad Teachers

Reviewed by Kathy Livermore

It's in all the papers across the nation, included in articles listing the various means by which our Federal, State and District Educrats promise (really, really this time) to boost student achievement in public schools - improve the quality of the teachers.  And, gosh, that would be swell.  The published results of teacher certification tests have been a shock to those of the public who haven't had children in the system for a while.  Sadly, those who have long had control over the education of teachers, beginning with their Elementary school years, are the same folks who remain in control of the solutions to the problem of the increasingly ignorant teaching staffs of so many public schools.  We are not the first generation of Americans who have been promised stupendous outcomes from more rigorous certification tests, relevant teacher-training courses, freedom at the district level for hiring and firing, and, last but never least, higher salaries.  The results of what passes for these educator-led improvements, however, have often proven disappointing.  In the area of teacher training, for instance, we stand aghast at the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent in California to prepare for the implementation of Whole Language.  Goals 2000 (or Blueprint 2000, or whatever) earmarked millions for the training of teachers; one Pasco County teacher told me of a class called "Bridging" where grown men and women wasted hours building bridges with marshmallows and toothpicks.  Yet student achievement scores continue to decline - go figure!

If districts fired all of the teachers currently doing an atrociously inadequate job of imparting skills and knowledge to the children in their classrooms, the public would be correct to shudder at the overwhelming task of those who would remain.  The fact that, right along with demands for greater teacher quality, we currently are being deluged, via media, with Educrats' uproarious consternation at the prospect of teacher shortages, makes so much as a token implementation of this solution even less likely.  Besides all of that, where are better- educated teachers supposed to come from - the OBE classrooms of the last 10-15 years?  We're to assume that a couple thousand more a year will help the "profession" rake in - whom?  The home-schooled?  The privately- schooled?  These and the field professionals who are turning to the job of teaching as a second or third career would all still be faced with administrators who, for their own reasons ($$$), will remain bent on controlling teaching methods and materials, and on squelching any better-educated, research-based opinions of difficult-to-manipulate outsiders and new-comers.  It's more likely that these well-meaning people will find themselves treated with as little respect and decency as (ugh!) parents.  In this corner of Florida, we have yet to hear our local college and university Education Departments do anything but crow about what an exceptionally marvelous job they are doing preparing their fledgling teachers for the realities of the classroom.  Until these folks turn themselves around, I personally hold little hope that we will see much significant difference in the quality of the schools in the near-enough future.

How Bad Are They?

"The best college students never chose teaching as a major or as a career.  Of those who chose teaching, the best ones never got hired.  Of those who were hired, the best ones left teaching early in their lives.  Of those who are still teaching, most don't care whether your child learns or not." (pg. 140-141)

          "Across the nation and across the years, teacher candidates score far below average on the SAT, the American College Test, the Graduate Record Exam, and the National Assessment of Educational Progress." (pg. 141)

          "A study in Dallas found that half the teachers 'fail' a test of simple logic.  A look at the hiring record of the Los Angeles school system shows that many of the newly hired teachers are almost literate ... almost." (pg. 141)

        "It's hard to believe, but the evidence also shows that school districts look at this pool of very weak candidates, and then hire the least capable ones in the pool!  Incredibly, the brighter candidates are not offered jobs; the less intelligent ones are hired." (pg. 141)

So run, don't walk, to the nearest book store and pick up your copy of  Bad Teachers, written by the maverick, Californian educator, Guy Strickland.  Mr. Strickland has made his career in the education field as an award-winning teacher, a school principal and, currently, a consultant who works "individually with students to patch up the damage of bad teaching." (pg. 4)   He wrote this book as an aid to parents against the entrenched school bureaucracy which "defends its incompetent teachers with a myriad of weapons, including codes of silence, labor unions and contracts, stonewalling, and stalling maneuvers....The parents are completely unarmed and are unaware of the weapons arrayed against them." (pg. 5)

Bad Teachers opens up with the fairly typical scenario of a Mom receiving a note from her son's elementary school teacher requesting a conference.  Embedded in the Mom's ruminations is a rather interesting statistic that would take many parents by surprise - that in the "typical" school, 15-30% of the staff will be somehow inadequate, with 5% of these teachers doing actual damage.  When looking at this estimate - and most of the rest of the figures in this book - it's wise to keep two things in mind: (a) the data has been gathered and published by the system and (b) the figures are averaged nationally and therefore will be an understatement of the problem faced in states where the students assess at the bottom of the heap - like Florida.

Everything in the system works to ensure not only that bad teachers continue teaching but that all blame for learning failure "pools at the foot of the child." (pg. 13)  Parents are also too often prone to blaming either themselves, their child or both.  Even parents who start out manning the battlements will find themselves squashed by the practiced effectiveness of the operatives in a system that has raised its own adeptness in deflecting accountability to a fine art.  Strickland outlines the effects of bad teachers combined with parents who enable the schools to get away with harming their children.  Students subjected to just a few weeks with a bad teacher can have their personalities deformed for life through losing all of their self-confidence as well as their natural love of learning.  Anger, disruptive behaviors, or disengaged apathy are also much observed results of bad teaching when coupled with parents, good or bad, who fail to rectify the problem.

Step one in better supporting a child in this predicament is seemingly self-evident: listen to the child.  The cues are sometimes subtle, given the youth of the children.  Signs of trouble can range from selectively timed stomach/headaches to no longer answering questions about their school day, hiding their school work, and all manner of homework problems including having no idea how to do it.  Strickland offers advice on how and what to ask your child when more information is needed about what his/her school day is really like.  "Ask general questions that don't seem too personal or prying.  How do the other kids like the teacher?  What does the teacher do when the kids don't understand the assignment?  What does the teacher do when the kids misbehave a little?  Is there a teacher's pet?  What does the teacher do while the kids are working?  Do the kids think the teacher is fair?" (pg. 20) 

"You have read all the hopeful articles in parents' magazines about constructive parent-teacher conferences, so you know what is supposed to happen.... The truth is, those constructive parent-teacher conferences articles were often written by teachers, not by parents, who assume that the teacher in the conference is a qualified super- teacher like themselves, who think of teaching as a 'calling' rather than a job.  They assume that the teacher is all-wise and all-knowing, and that the parent is helpful and cooperative but not too bright.  The possibility that the teacher may be the problem never occurs to the authors of those articles.  Even the possibility that wisdom may sit on both sides of the table is never considered." (pg. 23).

Dealing with parent/teacher conferences takes up a large part of this book.    Strickland suggests making lists of questions for the teacher, especially if one already knows that the teacher is a true ally who is intent on solving the child's problems.  For parents who suspect the teacher may be the problem, or who simply don't know what the situation is, Strickland offers coaching in listening closely to what the teacher says for what can be revealed about that person's competency and attitudes.  Several examples of what teachers will say, as opposed to what they could actually mean, are given to fit different problems.  The following are brief synopses of scenarios described at much greater length in the book: 

"MISS JOHNSON: Joe has trouble sounding out new words....  POSSIBLE MEANING: Joe has never been taught phonics, the process of associating sounds with letters....

MR. THOMAS: Mindy doesn't read out loud very well..... POSSIBLE MEANING: Mindy has had very little practice at reading... Mr. Thomas listens to Mindy read about two minutes per day...

MR. CLARK: I have a teaching credential from Mirrortest College.  POSSIBLE MEANING: The truth is that there are thousands of colleges in this country, and only forty of them are truly 'selective,' meaning that they accept less than half of their applicants.  Of the others, the over-whelming majority have no entrance standards at all...He was given good advice by the career counselor, who told him, 'If you're a dumb jock, major in physical education.  If you're just dumb, major in education.'  

MRS. CAFFREY: Alison needs to study harder for tests... POSSIBLE MEANING: Mrs. Caffrey has never taught study skills, so Alison has no idea how to study for a test..." (pgs. 36-53)

Strickland writes a full analysis of these and many other scenarios with well-developed sections on specific questions to ask the teacher once the teacher's area of complaint is known.  When a child is being accused of misbehavior, for instance, and the parents' honest reaction is, "Are we talking about the same kid?", helpful questions to ask would include: "...when and under what conditions do the disruptions occur?  Does the misbehavior involve only Linda, or does it always include other children - perhaps with a particular child?  What form does the disruption take?  Does Linda display a lack of respect for the teacher or does she consistently violate one of the teacher's rules?  If she is talking, when is she talking?  Is she talking to the teacher, to a friend, or to the class?  Is she talking about the schoolwork or about unrelated subjects?  Is the talking distracting, malicious, disrespectful, or just overly enthusiastic?  Ask Mrs. Bach whether the talking is a problem for the class, for Linda's neighbors, for Linda, or just for the teacher?  And be sure to ask Mrs. Bach how much, and under what circumstances, the students are ever allowed to speak." (pg. 67) 

Is The Teacher Illiterate?   Look for:

"1. The absence of notices from the teacher about class activities...If there are no notices, it could mean that the teacher is a poor writer. 

2. Notes from the teacher that contain misspelled words and grammatical errors; this isn't just a clue, this is plain evidence that the teacher lacks fundamental skills.

 3. The absence of graded papers, especially compositions.  If the child is never asked to write, it may be because the teacher hasn't the skills to correct written work....

4. Missing subjects.  If the teacher is very poor in a particular subject, she is likely to avoid it and concentrate instead on things she knows better...." (pg. 127)

 

"Why do schools hire people who can't even read, write or compute at the eighth- grade level? ... most of them were hired directly as classroom teachers of children, and most of them were hired with full knowledge of their lack of basic skills." (pg. 126)

In general, a parent/teacher conference will result in a teacher- instigated plan of action to correct whatever the teacher has defined as the problem.  Mr. Strickland astutely addresses the aftermath in a chapter titled "When the Conference Is Over but the Misery Lingers On."  In cases where parents and child are following the improvement plan, but there is no improvement - or the situation is getting even worse - the problem will need further investigation at its only other logical source. There is excellent advice for getting into the classroom for first-hand observation despite rules disallowing visitation (suspect in themselves); however, this would work best for a non-working parent since a one-time/advance-notice visit often results in observing a show-and- tell setup.  Better advice for the working parent is to talk to the parents of children who have already been through a year with the teacher in question as well as to the parents of your child's classmates.  This can prove to be the only sure way to get a more well-rounded perspective on your child's situation, plus how widely learning or behavior failure is occurring.  (Teachers are all too fond of having parents believe that their child is the only one in the whole class with a problem.)  Should the parent become convinced that the teacher is the problem, Strickland advises that the parents eliminate the possibility of any learning disabilities before blowing into the principal's office.  His chapter on detecting these disabilities is especially valuable because it acknowledges the prevalence of mislabeling, and it gives parents lists of behaviors to note at home so they are not relying strictly on a teacher's diagnosis.

The possibility of disability having been discounted, the parents are then treated to full-blown descriptions of all the warning signs of a number of teacher inadequacies from flat-out lack of basic skills (see box), through method obsession ("...approved teaching methodology is not even aimed at student learning; its goal is classroom management, which is a whole lot different from learning." pg. 133), to teachers whose goals have nothing to do with student achievement or who have no goals at all.

The follow-up conference made necessary by the incompetent teacher's failed improvement plan can be loaded with pitfalls, and Strickland carefully walks parents through everything from the timing of the meetings to avoiding bad repercussions falling on the child once the teacher has him/her behind closed doors again.  Parents are also much better prepared for these showdowns once they have read through the most typical defense strategies used by bad teachers everywhere and how to respond to each one.  There is the ubiquitous "Blame the Victim", the "Mr. Chips", "Stonewall", "The Dr. Jekyll Defense" (this one's interesting), and so on.  There is even a strategy labeled "The William Buckley Defense" which I am sure would not please the namesake.  ("This defense, the propagation of obfuscation, has been advocated by the Antioch School District in California: 'Using a variety of words to describe a program or strategy and rotating to a new synonym they haven't picked up on seems to slow them [the parents] down.'" pg. 168)  Time and again, Mr. Strickland warns his readers to control their tempers during these conferences.  It is obvious that he understands the anger and frustration of the parents whose children are being hurt, but he insists that parents keep their minds on what would be best for their child.  Again he includes scenarios describing the situation, what you want to say and what you should say.

  "It bears repeating here that your chances of winning the principal over are better if he knows you...and the parents whom the principal knows best are the ones who have 'bought' the school.  Although the idea sounds overtly calculating, the simple truth is that if you are the parent who supplied the terrarium for your child's classroom or donated a personal computer to the library, there will be a desire on the part of the school to keep you happy." (pg. 186)  

Still no change?  With the same attention to detail as in the pre- ceding chapters, Strickland outlines the why's, how's and wherefore's of dealing with the principal, as well as the reasons for, and ways to get around, the myriad obstacles standing in the way of success.  Here one finds suggestions on how best to get a student reassigned as well as how to increase ones chances of getting a good teacher to begin with.  Once again, it is best to try to avoid confrontation and to have reasonable goals in mind.  It is also essential that all information or opinions the parents bring to the principal be backed up by documentation.  The parents are at a strong disadvantage on this point since the system is awash with records on their students, their teachers, and test scores per subject and classroom, to which parents are not given ready access.  I know of one parent who keeps every single paper her daughter has ever brought home, organized by date, in a large accordion file which she then takes with her to every conference.  This parent has had occasion to question low report card grades.  These papers came in handy because when her daughter's teachers flashed their grade books at her, she was able to whip out the pertinent papers, thereby proving that the grades recorded in the books were lower than the grades on the papers. 

Given the many reasons why a school principal will not prove helpful in getting a child away from a bad teacher, the parent may come to believe that the school superintendent would be the next logical step in seeking help.  The "bad teacher" problem is now the "bad school" problem, and in order to transfer into what the parents hope will be a better school with better teachers, they will need district- level permission.  Mr. Strickland makes it clear that this really could happen, if the parents are lucky enough to live in a very small school district that has a well-educated, well-meaning superintendent.  Less fortunate parents will be treated to many diverse, deflective maneuvers - and this can go on for quite a while before they ever get in to see this exalted personage.  Since the superintendent will never overrule a principal nor acknowledge that a problem could have been caused by any of his minions, it's best to come up with some other reason for the desired transfer, such as job or day care location, or to describe the problem in no-fault terms such as "a mismatch".   If still stumped, there is a section on how best to approach the school board.

Time and space will not allow me to cover all the valuable material in this book. Suffice it to say that there is also much here that will be of help for the parents whose children face a bad teacher in the private-school sector.  There is also excellent advice for the parents who are thinking of opting for the home-school solution, either temporarily, in order to avoid one bad teacher, or more permanently for those caught in a bad district.  Bad teachers are treated equally, no matter where they may be found.  The only solution Mr. Strickland does not recommend is having a child "just stick it out".  He believes that all the evidence proves this could be far too damaging.

While I have already heartily urged many parents to read this book, I do have just a couple quibbles.  As I stated earlier, I believe the problem with bad teachers is understated; indeed as Mr. Strickland progresses, it seems likely that he knows the statistics he cites underestimate the problem for all too many school districts.  At times, Mr. Strickland shows a lack of knowledge of what is going on in many classrooms.  "A century ago. Children were required to memorize the alphabet sounds, addition facts, and the multiplication tables, just as they are today."(pg. 110) (Emphasis is mine.)  Many of today's public school curricula deliberately de-emphasize phonics and math facts, most notably OBE and a multitude of school-to-work programs which go unmentioned in this book.  Not in any case does Mr. Strickland address the situation where failed curriculum and methodology are adopted as a matter of policy, nor how our current funding formulas encourage this unethical behavior.  These policies can render even the best of teachers almost completely ineffective at the elementary levels, and floundering in their attempts to teach the resulting masses of unskilled and unknowledgeable at the upper levels. 

The omission of the connections between curricula design, funding and teacher education sometimes leads the author to contradict himself.  On the one hand, he rightfully assigns the blame for learning failure to lousy teachers, while on the other hand, he bemoans what he assumes to be the lack of adequate teacher-training in the labeling of learning disabilities and the insufficient accommodation of different learning styles.  The fact is that much current teacher- education course time is spent on these topics as part of the same "classroom management" training which he severely criticizes elsewhere.  These courses, however, do not teach the prospective teachers that it's the ineffective teaching of skills, knowledge, and discipline that will bring about much of the learning failure and behavior difficulties they will encounter in their classrooms.  Because of this on-again/off-again disconnection between cause and effect, it appears that Mr. Strickland believes that learning disabilities will abound even in children exposed to good teachers teaching proven curriculum.  This opinion is not backed by the research.  He goes so far as to recommend that the parents of private-school children use the public schools for testing and special education services, with no warning about the abuses taking place through many of these diagnostic devices and the programs fed by them.

"Far too often the intent of counseling is to modify the child's behavior.  For a child stuck in a class with a bad teacher, modifying her behavior means training her to accept the evil that is being done to her and to live quietly under oppression.  If that is what the school wants, reject it, because the cure is worse than the disease...If a principal knows he will reject your request, but will have to justify that decision to his boss, he will call in the counselor or psychologist to back him up.  On staff therapists may be good at helping kids, but they may also be good team players, good at maintaining the status quo, and good at keeping their eye on the next rung of the career ladder in the school district." (pg. 210-211)

These quibbles aside, I highly recommend this book to everyone interested in the education issue, whether they have a child in the system or not.  Few inside views are as refreshingly honest, and scary, in portraying the struggles of today's public school children and their families.  It is obvious that Guy Strickland cares deeply about children and is motivated strongly by the desire to help parents help their children survive in a situation where all seems stacked against them.  Mr. Strickland does not mince words in portraying a system that has become mindlessly destructive to children in the interest of job protection for incompetents.  The people so aptly described in this book are the ones who stand adamantly against allowing parents any choice when it comes to their children's education.

You can bet your bottom dollar- no one would ever choose them!

Download this article in MS Word Format

From IVBE's newsletter Voices -- Fall, 1999