The "Treatment" Room

Imagine a hospital emergency room full of people. These folks come from different backgrounds and have had a variety of experiences, some negative, over their lifetime. Depending upon need, some individuals are diagnosed, treated, and released. Some may require an overnight stay. Others may require a long stay, medical intervention, and/or surgical intervention. The variance in an individual's "health" can be staggering. Consider the following excerpt from Thomas Francis' book entitled, The Emergency:

"Health. We use the word all the time, but what it is, really? The World Health Organization provides an aspirational definition of health: "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." By this definition, none of us is ever fully healthy. Whether we witness violence as a child or we're stressed as an adult, consume too little food while young or too much when we're grown, compounding and interacting physical and social exposures beginning in gestation and progressing over time shape our bodies into a state just short of complete well-being. When these functions work well enough, we call ourselves healthy and are free to pursue meaning in our lives." 

What if classrooms were like hospital treatment rooms? Students are patients and educators are practitioners. Educators assess learning, physicians assess health. From there it can be considered in general terms:  "treatment" plans are made based upon initial assessment and treatment begins. Progress is monitored and adjustments, if necessary, are made. These practitioners do not work alone, they typically work in teams, different members have different roles and areas of expertise (EC, ESL, content, MTSS, school psychologist, social workers, etc). The progress, or lack thereof, of the treatment plan is analyzed by the team and feedback is provided to the team and to the patient...oops, student.

I think the power to heal is comparable to the power to teach. Every physician had numerous teachers on their road to successful (hopefully) medical practice. Physicians abide by the Hippocratic Oath. According to Britannica.com, physicians pledge to "prescribe only beneficial treatments, according to his ability and judgements; to refrain from causing harm or hurt; and to live an exemplary personal and professional life." I realize these are just words, but most physicians I have encountered (in life and on television) take this oath very seriously and it seems to inspire and impact them in a positive way. What if educators had an oath that inspired us, positively impacted us, and banded us together? This is not a novel idea, I found one opinion piece by Anthony Cody (article linked here) in EducationWeek from 2007. There are many parallels between medicine and education...they are most certainly inter-related and inter-dependent. Why not develop an oath for educators? What would educators pledge to do? How would we agree on an acceptable oath? Who/what would be the inspiration for it? I know our children should be an inspiration given educator impact on our populace. My hope is that an oath is not needed to re-energize educators and remind them of their infinite value, but if it is needed, then let's get to work!

                                                              

Disconnect - Shared Purpose?

I have never understood when a disconnect exists between administrators and teachers. We all fall under the umbrella of being educators, so I feel as though we should have more in common than not. Administrators and teachers also, generally speaking, have similar shared purposes: academic support & progress, behavioral support & progress. Alas, my experiences have been mixed when looking for consistent admin-teacher synergy. Many days I feel as though I am more successfully connecting with and supporting students, and their parents, than I am with supporting and connecting with teachers. To be frank, I sometimes feel resented by teachers when I connect/support a struggling student and/or their parent. I have scoured my teaching memories for instances of feeling this way towards administrators, but my memories are of cooperation and shared purpose (not well understood back then, but present nonetheless). On my worst day, I recall thinking that administrators should be more vigilant about catching the smokers under the stairwells...I never even thought about the consequences for the student...I was just tired of the smell of cigarettes.

Merriam-Webster defines an educator as: "one skilled in teaching" and "a student of the theory and practice of education." Maybe educational theory is a potential source of disconnect. I am aware of five (5) theories:  Behaviorism, Cognitive, Constructivism, Humanism, and Connectivism. I subscribe to a mashup of cognitive, constructive, and humanist theories. Surely our views on educational theories cannot correlate to disconnect...all the theories lead to, or attempt to lead to, learning...right?

How about classroom management theories, perhaps a disconnect exists here. Below is a link to a resource summarizing three (3) types: Operant, Choice theory, and Student-Directed learning.

• https://www.theedadvocate.org/understanding-three-key-classroom-management-theories/

These all sound reasonable...the article even mentions how these management theories may correlate to enhanced student motivation and less need for punitive consequences...a win-win!

One potential disconnect may be beliefs regarding student discipline. Discipline certainly has a role in education, as it does in many other fields. Here are a few definitions for discipline from Merriam-Webster: "Control gained by enforcing obedience or order" and/or "orderly or prescribed conduct or pattern of behavior"...these are versions of noun usage. Most school folks use the transitive verb for discipline which is: "to punish or penalize for the sake of enforcing obedience and perfecting moral character", "to bring a group under control", and/or "to impose order upon". The use of the transitive verbs sound, to me, very military-ish (Sorry Beetle Bailey). The last definition is semi-palatable, "to impose order upon", especially given that order is certainly necessary in schools, but to impose upon does not sound like a collaborative situation and a collaborative approach is most certainly the direction education is moving. Less "command and control" and more "collaborate and innovate".

Views on disciplining other people's children can be a source of consternation for all involved. Check out this article from the National Association of Elementary School Principals:

• https://www.naesp.org/resource/speaking-out-disciplining-other-peoples-children/

I am on board with this kind of thinking and action. Effective and situationally sensitive (What?!?! No zero tolerance or mandatory minimums!?).

Student "discipline" should be more than meting out punishments. The "discipline" should be incorporated into the efforts of community-building, which would include all of the above theories, styles, strategies, etc. That could bring us all together...community-building, one classroom at a time. This will involve punishment from time-to-time and if we can just get close to being on the same page, then we may be able to move mountains. I leave you with a thought-provoking article by Alfie Kohn. 

• https://www.alfiekohn.org/blogs/cl/

Cheers to community, collaboration, and innovation!

"Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues" - A Brief History

Who does not love good music?! More than that, how about a piece of music with a great story, has thought-provoking lyrics, haunting steel guitar(s), and a seemingly endless array of musicians who have re-made the SAME piece of music?! Well, look no further....I present "Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues".

There are a few questions to ponder prior to listening to the tune:  Who is Charlie? Where did he live? Did he have a prescription for those "pills"?, and how much precipitation does Charlie's town actually get each year?!

My intent it present my Top 5 and, of course, generate a highly influential blog post that earns me millions of dolla bills, garners global attention on folks named Charlie, and facilitates world peace. Actually, a laugh or two will suffice. 

Numero Uno!

We begin with the original by the prolific Danny O'Keefe. Is that a raccoon hat he is sporting?

Number Two!

Dwight Yoakam taking the #2 spot with his Tex-Mex (my opinion) take on the classic!

#3!

Elvis, need I write more? I did not think so.

#Quatro!

I love that Chuck felt the need to adjust the age....when are we not a kid anymore?

Nummer Fünf!

Excuse me, is this Tom Hank's wife?

I hope you enjoyed this whimsical music journey....pls Like, Comment, Subscribe, RT, Repost, etc. 

#satire #music #charlie #goodtimes