The Worst School Class in The United States
The Worst School Class in The USA
Throw off your labels – by Richard Jones
There was a school in south central Los Angeles. It was the worst school district in the nation in terms of performance, violence, behavioral problems.
In this school there was a class in that was the worst. The kids were “out of control”. They were “learning disabled” and “emotionally disturbed”.
The principal could not keep a teacher in that classroom. Several teachers just quit on the spot because the kids were so difficult to manage.
As January approached there was “NO TEACHER” assigned to that classroom and it was very unlikely they would find one. The principal was desperate.
In the meantime, an enthusiastic and motivated young teacher just graduated from a local university.
She graduated in December making it more difficult to find a teaching job. As fate would have it she came in contact with this job in the worst classroom in the worst school in Los Angeles.
The principal took her to the classroom. Introduced her to the class, told her to do the best she could, and quickly left. He did NOT tell her about the problems of the class and its ranking as the worst in the school… It was January.
He would simply hope for the best and pray for summer.
Amazing Results
Around June he began to get testing scores back and he was stunned to see the problematic classroom ranked number one. He also began to hear rumors that the kids in that class were “incredibly well behaved and had great attitudes”.
He went to the classroom and witnessed this himself. A highly engaged and intelligent group of kids. He was stunned.
After class ended he approached the teacher.
-She said playfully, “Sir, I know what you did”.
He thought she had found out that his secret plan of throwing her to the wolves.
He responded: “I’m sorry, what do you mean?”
She said “You gave me the gifted class and I am forever grateful”.
The principal was stunned again: “What do you mean?”
Locker Numbers
At that point the teacher brought him over to her desk and opened a desk drawer that had a roster of kids with numbers next to them:
- Jones: 123
- Smith: 145
- Allison: 126
- Lane: 122
She said: “… these are their IQ’s”
To which he responded: “I gave you the worst class…. THOSE ARE THEIR LOCKER NUMBERS”.
The teacher thought the kids were gifted so she interpreted their disengagement, rambunctiousness, challenging behaviors as boredom. So she went home every night and put in extra time to engage them.
SHE TREATED THEM AS IF THEY WERE GIFTED AND THEY RESPONDED AS IF THEY WERE GIFTED.
Labels and Behavior
When we label someone: learning disabled, anxious, depressed,emotionally disturbed, hopeless, chronic relapser, etc…” They respond and act accordingly.
If “experts” tell people they are constitutionally incapable of anything… these people believe it.
We set people with substance use disorder up for failure when we tell they can’t recover because they didn’t do recovery exactly the way they were instructed.
When we tell people with serious and persistent mental illness the best they can hope for is to take their medication and not cause problems we set them up for failure.
When we put kids in arbitrary categories they live up to those categories.
***The above is based on a true story
April 23, 2018 @ 12:51 pm
Rich, this is well written and very true. As a former HS teacher I can attest to this. It is so exciting and satisfying to bring that potential to reality and see a student grow and beam in his accomplishments. However, what do you do when the addict refuses to believe that he can get better? He researched the statistics and decided he’s a statistic and it’s hopeless. He knows we love him and accept him where he is. He is grateful and tells us he loves us; he hugs us with tears in his eyes. He’s never stolen from us or treated us poorly. He knows he’s hurting us but is unable to stop. We continue to try to encourage him, but sometimes loving families are just not enough. His addiction has so altered his brain that his reasoning is totally illogical and irrational despite his presentation before others. He feels he is worthless and his trying to get “well” is useless. He fears relapse worse than death itself. Additionally, he has a life threatening heart condition requiring surgery very soon but is refusing it. He has decided to let this condition take his life as he hasn’t enough guts to commit suicide. The law is useless; unless his suicide is imminent the law, the courts, the police and even the doctors could care less and refuse to intervene. They do not see addiction as a disease of the brain that alters emotions and decision making skills. This type of suicide is recognized as his free will and choice despite the altering of those very emotions and decision making skills. They appear compassionless. It is so much easier to just throw them all in jail or leave them to rot as long as they don’t cause problems. They do not recognize that sometimes severe addiction requires that loved ones should be able to have their addict committed against their wishes as they do in some 30 states now, but not SC. We’ve exhausted all means. At this point we’ve turned him over to God. We won’t be the first to lose a precious son whose phenomenal potential will never be recognized and we won’t be the last. God will get us through one way or the other. Only He can change our son’s broken heart. We hurt terribly but he’s in God’s hands now, either to heal or to take home. We’ve been told that we’ve gone way beyond what most parents have done. But, nothing we’ve done has changed anything; so, we accept His Decision. We will continue to live one day at a time, as hard as it may be some days, and continue to find gratitude and the beauty in each day.