HIGH FALSE ESTEEM LEADS TO UNETHICAL PRACTICES

HIGH FALSE ESTEEM LEADS TO UNETHICAL PRACTICES

By Domenick J. Maglio PhD. Traditional Realist

The pressure for parents and teachers of the United States is to develop high self-esteem in children is based on a false concept. Higher self-esteem of a person is supposed to transform them into a more receptive emotional state for learning. This is supposed to result in more effortless retention of information and increased ability to present themselves confidently in many situations. Early successes supposedly strengthen self-esteem throughout one’s life.

This psychological effect may be productive when the child is young. As a person matures, they run into other learning factors. When children meet hard or uninteresting subject matter, many of them begin to turn off, refusing to persevere until they conquer the material. This side effect leads to personal disinterest in particular areas which cause deficiencies in their learning process. They are confident in subjects of interest and ignore and avoid areas of learning that are more challenging to them. Eventually these subjects of little interest increase in complexity further causing the student to be turned off by the subject matter.

Everyone is aware of the youngster’s brightness as these children seem to show off their knowledge as often as they can. This behavior at times hinges on obnoxiousness but the message is clear, “I am definitely very intelligent.” Their strongest supporters are their parents. The single child parents have limited knowledge in comparing their youngster to other children, but they are defenders of their child’s reluctance to focus on the task at hand. They are excuse makers for the youngster’s avoidance behavior by pointing out their advanced knowledge in other areas.

These high false esteem students have greatly proliferated in our nation with the practice of “no winners or losers and everyone receives a trophy” philosophy. In schools grade inflation has become the panacea for helping students from seeing themselves as failures. By public schools giving all children a minimum of 40 points before they answer a single test question lowers the academic bar. It preserves their false self-esteem. This is a useless crutch that leads to more dependency on others to bail them out of a lackluster performance.

The emphasis on higher grades has placed great pressure on teachers meeting these unrealistic expectations of students and parents. Teachers are put between a rock and a hard place. If the teacher graded accurately on homework and tests the students, parents and administration would be irate. Lowering the grading standards is the easiest way to survive in the public-school system. This encourages sloppy and incorrect procedures to be overlooked. The word gets around giving the teacher the reputation as an easy mark. Since the teachers have little backing from their administration, they capitulate their professional and personal integrity. The teacher embellishes their student’s evaluations upgrading every aspect of it.

Teachers have to placate everyone in the system to maintain good standing. These short-term solutions to everyday practices force teachers to lose their souls. This forces the teacher down a path of dishonesty. There is no personal gratification in a professional position that is not in the interest of the client/student. A teacher giving inflated grades becomes a mercenary not an inspirational role model to assist the student to be a well-prepared future success. High salaries and benefits with no personal gratification of witnessing students learning how to learn is not sufficient compensation for not doing what is right. It cheapens the teacher in the process.

By many teachers not giving their full effort to help students learn how to conquer their disinterest and retain necessary information they are hurting their academic success. Deep down teachers know that sloppy and shoddy work by the students does not deserve positive recognition with high grades. It only reinforces the students’ negative practices and produces inadequacy.

These inadequate and unethical practices to appease the bureaucratic school system is not limited to teaching. It is seen in all professions: law, medicine, business, government. Yet, it does not give teachers a valid justification to accept these derelictions of their duty for these students are our nation’s future.

There are conscientious teachers in public schools who do go against the grain of bureaucratic red tape. They are exceptions to the rule. They do deserve and receive their financial compensation but most importantly they regularly taste the personal gratification of knowing their mission of teaching youngsters is a success. Almost every day they witness the positive growth of their students.

The bureaucratic system feels the pay and benefits are enough, but the teachers do not without a meaningful, fulfilling and therefore rewarding career. Most public-school teachers no longer are allowed to positively change a youngster’s life because the bureaucratic system has crushed their ability and enthusiasm to be a good teacher. Teachers whose goal is to help children are often pushed out by the bureaucratic system.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN  and a recent book entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World. You can see many of Dr. Maglio’s articles at www.drmaglioblogspot.com.

IT IS NOT WHAT THE TEACHER KNOWS OR HAS TAUGHT

IT IS NOT WHAT THE TEACHER KNOWS OR HAS TAUGHT

By Domenick J. Maglio Ph.D. traditional Realist

In our present educational industry we are producing teachers with an erroneous belief that the more courses, certificates and degrees obtained, the better teacher they are. It is true they will receive a higher pay level with more credentials but these pieces of paper do not insure the quality of their teaching.

Being a great or even a good teacher does not depend on the teacher’s ability to regurgitate information, have a large vocabulary of educational jargon or even the know-it-all aura that she or he is the next Robin Williams in the “Dead Poet Society.”

It is not how much the teacher knows or has lectured about, but rather what each of her students has absorbed and really knows.

When a child passes a current test, it does not indicate the child has placed the information in his long-term memory. Short-term memory is what most of our public schools are testing. Children learn particular information, which they are tested on during the week although not all the questions are corrected or marked. The teacher moves on to other material regardless if the student knows it or was even present.

There is no flexibility for the teacher to assist each child individually because of time constraints. The teacher is mandated to move the entire class forward. The teacher has to religiously follow this top down curriculum, which is highly influenced by the state and presently by the national administration through Common Core. The standards and expectations are rigidly set for particular grade levels not considering the developmental level reached by each child.

The detailed script given to the teacher by the administration restricts her creativity with rigid time lines to be met. The creative freedom they can take is limited to augmenting the lessons. This can be accomplished at their own peril since it can interrupt the pace causing the entire class to fall behind the tight schedule.

This robotic process governing modern teachers is killing the teacher’s gratification of being a significant person in student’s lives. They no longer have that daily time or the years of student involvement they had in neighborhood or small schools. The fifty-minute or even two hours is not enough exposure to develop the strong student-teacher relationship that is necessary to impact academic and character development of the student.

This handcuffing of our teachers is making many caring and wonderful people resentful. Their best ideas and inclinations in teaching are being stifled against their better judgment to conscientiously follow their detailed instructions.

The worst part of this process for the teacher is the students that she taught overwhelmingly forgot what she had conscientiously taught them. The teacher initially gets upset with students that are unable to perform well in their subject areas. “I taught you this information. I can’t believe you forgot!” Eventually the teacher realizes not only her students but most of the students in other classes are not doing well on normative testing. Her anger rightfully turns directly to the unreasonable approach she is forced to use.

The only conclusion that any honest teacher can make is the directions from above are flawed because they are not working. On deeper analysis the teacher realizes that the students needed more reinforcement and review to put the information permanently into his long-term memory. Too many teachers feel there are too many things to learn in too short a time for the majority of students. There is also no time allowed for internalizing new information and integrating it with other knowledge to gain a clear understanding.

These counter productive educational practices are happening all over the country and are devastating the morale of teachers. They want to make a positive impact on the lives of their students as teachers did in the past.

The spotlight has to be shifted from the elaborate school facility, the incredibly complicated educational programs and “entertaining” highly credentialed teachers. The emphasis has to be returned to enhancing each student’s academic ability and ultimately to his performance to be a self-learner.

Education is and should be all about the student’s mastery of academic skills and character development not a vehicle for social engineering of a utopian society.

The individual student’s performance should guide the teacher not unrealistic standards that sound good on paper but are creating unnecessary failure for bright students and dedicated teachers.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. You can visit Dr. Maglio at www.drmaglio.blogspot.com.