While I'll be the first to admit I think most parents tend to believe their children are a bit brighter than they actually are, JP Fugler's recent blog post, entitled, "Your Child Is Not Special," still rubbed me the wrong way.
Fugler starts his piece with this:
"'You don't understand. My kid always makes straight As.'
That might be the most damaging statement to a child's education. Like many teachers, I receive a version of that story multiple times in e-mails, phone conversations, and parent-teacher conferences regularly. The parent is always well-intentioned when they say it, but this mentality is becoming an epidemic threatening educators nationwide."
I admit I'm interested initially. Please continue...
"I wish more parents understood that their child is not special. That they would listen to teachers like David McCullough Jr. when he told the 2012 graduating class of his school that there were 37,000 valedictorians in this country that year. That they would give their kids a more realistic expectation of life. It worries me when 41 percent of my male students claim they will have a future career path that involves a professional sport. Yet, statistically, not one of them will fulfill that dream."
Okay... That initial interest is starting to fade, but go on...
"Look, I'm not saying I hate students. Why else would I enter a field grossly underfunded where I am overworked for laughable compensation? I love students. What I do hate is any law, attitude, or person that gets in my way of teaching them."
You don't hate your students, but want to tell them all to their faces, "Yo kid, you ain't special! Capsiche?" Gotcha...
"Still, parents don't think I get it.
The thing is that I do get it. I was that kid with a perfect GPA. I avoided enrolling in classes that could jeopardize my rank, no matter how interesting I found the subject or how much it could benefit me beyond college acceptance. I still remember the first time I received a report card with a grade other than an A. I stared at that 70 in disbelief.
The required keyboarding course, which taught basic typing and computer skills, proved difficult for me. While most of my peers had a home computer, my parents were late to embrace technology. As a result, my initial grade suffered. Despite this similarity to my students who are struggling, my response differed.
On Monday, I asked the teacher if I could come outside of the regularly scheduled class time for help. She said before or after school would work. I did both. Every day for six weeks. In that time, I went from being the slowest typist in the class to the fastest. My grade skyrocketed to a 100.
Today, blame for grades is shifting from the student to the teacher. Work ethic is no longer a part of the conversation. Instead, we are swapping initiative for apathy, ambition for contentment, and responsibility for excuses. Parents think their child should not have to work for success because they deserve it. At the heart of the matter, parents equate hard work with the admission that their child is not gifted."
So not only does this guy think his students aren't special, but they're also lazy. Wonderful...
"A 2014 parenting article, aptly titled 'Your child is not a genius. Get over it,' explains that parents assign their child to one of two categories. First, parents gloat about their child's above-average intelligence, calling them special or gifted. But when their child falls short of unattainable expectations, parents deem them as special needs. We have stigmatized the category between the two that fits most of our population: average. This means parents would rather their child have a learning disability than be identified as average. Essentially, if their child cannot be the best, they must have an excuse as to why they are not.
Consider my classes. I require freshmen to study Immanuel Kant's Categorical Imperative and to be fluent in Greek philosophy. For the first time in their lives, some struggle in my classroom. Encountering a new feeling of inadequacy, they panic. Then, panic turns to blame. There is no introspection or attempt to change behaviors that led to failure. Parents take up the fight. In doing so, we are conditioning our nation's children to believe they are the center of the universe. We have raised a generation on false hope and fairytales. Today, teachers are paying the price. Tomorrow, the world will.
We have two choices of when our children can fail: now or later. Now, they are still in a safe environment with people willing to help them succeed. Later, it will be in the context of the workplace or with their own families when the stakes are much higher.
Instead of allowing them to fail, we will have failed them. There's nothing special about that."
I don't entirely disagree with everything Mr. Fugler wrote in this article, however, the tone struck me as, "I'm a burned out teacher; I could've been something more; I was smarter than all your kids back in the day and look at me now; oh woe is me; I'm going to blame the kids and their parents for my misery!"
The terms "special" and "gifted" are quite subjective and the fact of the matter is, parents are going to love their kids and think they are "gifted" or "special" regardless if that's at all the case from an academic perspective. Do parents perhaps allow their kids to dream too much and should they provide a better balance of reality with those fairy tales? Probably. But isn't Mr. Fugler essentially saying parents should quash their kids' dreams right away and provide them nothing but a healthy dose of reality? Where would we be today without dreams and without continually reaching for something more, for something greater? Where would we be if parents went by Fugler's logic and told their kids at an early age, "What do you dream of being when you grow up? Well, put that out of mind because it's never going to happen! You're not special! Compared to the rest of the world, you're nothing! From this point forward, be thinking about realistic possibilities for your futures! Got it?!? Oh, and by the way, I love you"?
Not only that, but Mr. Fugler comes across as a grumpy old neighbor who can't seem to stop ranting about today's youth: "Get off my lawn! When I was your age, I worked for a living, walked to school up hill both ways, built my own house with my bare hands at the age of 6! Your generation sucks! Go home and never come back! Rotten kids! Where'd I put my 6-pack of Coors?"
Yes, the youth nowadays is far worse than when you were a kid, Mr. Fugler, and this nation is doomed if things don't change back to the way they were when you were growing up. When have I heard that before? Oh, from just about each and every generation as they age.
Mr. Fugler: "Your child isn't special; get over it!"
My response: "Things change; get over it!"
Mr. Fugler seems to believe that kids/students is the sole demographic which tends to go through the fail-panic-blame cycle. Give me a break... As the saying goes, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree." I'm not sure what's more common, for children to blame someone else for their failings or for adults to blame another for their shortcomings. When the Twin Towers were attacked on 9/11, who did many Republicans blame? Former President Bill Clinton. When John Kerry fell to George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election, what did many Democrats blame? The voting machines. What did former USC coach Steve Sarkisian blame for his inappropriate behavior at a team function? Mixing alcohol with medication. What do many 9-5 workers do when one of their projects fails? Blame someone else on their team or in their department.
JP Fugler may be partially right, as parents tend to believe their children are more gifted than they actually are and kids (and parents) tend to resort to blame and excuses rather than take responsibility for falling short of expectations. However, Fugler is wrong in suggesting that it's just kids whom resort to this. It's not just a kid problem; it's a societal problem, and has been going on for generations. Also, while his students may not fit Fugler's definition of "special," each and every person has the potential to contribute to the greater good in this country; we all have strengths and weaknesses; and are all unique and special in our own little ways. Instead of blaming kids and their parents for his shortcomings, perhaps JP Fugler should follow his own advice, take responsibility, learn from his mistakes, and use that added knowledge to improve in the future. While stripping a child of reality is anything but healthy, stripping them of their dreams borders on criminal.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jp-fugler/your-child-is-not-special_1_b_8277996.html
Fugler starts his piece with this:
"'You don't understand. My kid always makes straight As.'
That might be the most damaging statement to a child's education. Like many teachers, I receive a version of that story multiple times in e-mails, phone conversations, and parent-teacher conferences regularly. The parent is always well-intentioned when they say it, but this mentality is becoming an epidemic threatening educators nationwide."
I admit I'm interested initially. Please continue...
"I wish more parents understood that their child is not special. That they would listen to teachers like David McCullough Jr. when he told the 2012 graduating class of his school that there were 37,000 valedictorians in this country that year. That they would give their kids a more realistic expectation of life. It worries me when 41 percent of my male students claim they will have a future career path that involves a professional sport. Yet, statistically, not one of them will fulfill that dream."
Okay... That initial interest is starting to fade, but go on...
"Look, I'm not saying I hate students. Why else would I enter a field grossly underfunded where I am overworked for laughable compensation? I love students. What I do hate is any law, attitude, or person that gets in my way of teaching them."
You don't hate your students, but want to tell them all to their faces, "Yo kid, you ain't special! Capsiche?" Gotcha...
"Still, parents don't think I get it.
The thing is that I do get it. I was that kid with a perfect GPA. I avoided enrolling in classes that could jeopardize my rank, no matter how interesting I found the subject or how much it could benefit me beyond college acceptance. I still remember the first time I received a report card with a grade other than an A. I stared at that 70 in disbelief.
The required keyboarding course, which taught basic typing and computer skills, proved difficult for me. While most of my peers had a home computer, my parents were late to embrace technology. As a result, my initial grade suffered. Despite this similarity to my students who are struggling, my response differed.
On Monday, I asked the teacher if I could come outside of the regularly scheduled class time for help. She said before or after school would work. I did both. Every day for six weeks. In that time, I went from being the slowest typist in the class to the fastest. My grade skyrocketed to a 100.
Today, blame for grades is shifting from the student to the teacher. Work ethic is no longer a part of the conversation. Instead, we are swapping initiative for apathy, ambition for contentment, and responsibility for excuses. Parents think their child should not have to work for success because they deserve it. At the heart of the matter, parents equate hard work with the admission that their child is not gifted."
So not only does this guy think his students aren't special, but they're also lazy. Wonderful...
"A 2014 parenting article, aptly titled 'Your child is not a genius. Get over it,' explains that parents assign their child to one of two categories. First, parents gloat about their child's above-average intelligence, calling them special or gifted. But when their child falls short of unattainable expectations, parents deem them as special needs. We have stigmatized the category between the two that fits most of our population: average. This means parents would rather their child have a learning disability than be identified as average. Essentially, if their child cannot be the best, they must have an excuse as to why they are not.
Consider my classes. I require freshmen to study Immanuel Kant's Categorical Imperative and to be fluent in Greek philosophy. For the first time in their lives, some struggle in my classroom. Encountering a new feeling of inadequacy, they panic. Then, panic turns to blame. There is no introspection or attempt to change behaviors that led to failure. Parents take up the fight. In doing so, we are conditioning our nation's children to believe they are the center of the universe. We have raised a generation on false hope and fairytales. Today, teachers are paying the price. Tomorrow, the world will.
We have two choices of when our children can fail: now or later. Now, they are still in a safe environment with people willing to help them succeed. Later, it will be in the context of the workplace or with their own families when the stakes are much higher.
Instead of allowing them to fail, we will have failed them. There's nothing special about that."
I don't entirely disagree with everything Mr. Fugler wrote in this article, however, the tone struck me as, "I'm a burned out teacher; I could've been something more; I was smarter than all your kids back in the day and look at me now; oh woe is me; I'm going to blame the kids and their parents for my misery!"
The terms "special" and "gifted" are quite subjective and the fact of the matter is, parents are going to love their kids and think they are "gifted" or "special" regardless if that's at all the case from an academic perspective. Do parents perhaps allow their kids to dream too much and should they provide a better balance of reality with those fairy tales? Probably. But isn't Mr. Fugler essentially saying parents should quash their kids' dreams right away and provide them nothing but a healthy dose of reality? Where would we be today without dreams and without continually reaching for something more, for something greater? Where would we be if parents went by Fugler's logic and told their kids at an early age, "What do you dream of being when you grow up? Well, put that out of mind because it's never going to happen! You're not special! Compared to the rest of the world, you're nothing! From this point forward, be thinking about realistic possibilities for your futures! Got it?!? Oh, and by the way, I love you"?
Not only that, but Mr. Fugler comes across as a grumpy old neighbor who can't seem to stop ranting about today's youth: "Get off my lawn! When I was your age, I worked for a living, walked to school up hill both ways, built my own house with my bare hands at the age of 6! Your generation sucks! Go home and never come back! Rotten kids! Where'd I put my 6-pack of Coors?"
Yes, the youth nowadays is far worse than when you were a kid, Mr. Fugler, and this nation is doomed if things don't change back to the way they were when you were growing up. When have I heard that before? Oh, from just about each and every generation as they age.
Mr. Fugler: "Your child isn't special; get over it!"
My response: "Things change; get over it!"
Mr. Fugler seems to believe that kids/students is the sole demographic which tends to go through the fail-panic-blame cycle. Give me a break... As the saying goes, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree." I'm not sure what's more common, for children to blame someone else for their failings or for adults to blame another for their shortcomings. When the Twin Towers were attacked on 9/11, who did many Republicans blame? Former President Bill Clinton. When John Kerry fell to George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election, what did many Democrats blame? The voting machines. What did former USC coach Steve Sarkisian blame for his inappropriate behavior at a team function? Mixing alcohol with medication. What do many 9-5 workers do when one of their projects fails? Blame someone else on their team or in their department.
JP Fugler may be partially right, as parents tend to believe their children are more gifted than they actually are and kids (and parents) tend to resort to blame and excuses rather than take responsibility for falling short of expectations. However, Fugler is wrong in suggesting that it's just kids whom resort to this. It's not just a kid problem; it's a societal problem, and has been going on for generations. Also, while his students may not fit Fugler's definition of "special," each and every person has the potential to contribute to the greater good in this country; we all have strengths and weaknesses; and are all unique and special in our own little ways. Instead of blaming kids and their parents for his shortcomings, perhaps JP Fugler should follow his own advice, take responsibility, learn from his mistakes, and use that added knowledge to improve in the future. While stripping a child of reality is anything but healthy, stripping them of their dreams borders on criminal.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jp-fugler/your-child-is-not-special_1_b_8277996.html
Comments
Post a Comment