Posted on: Thursday, December 18, 2003

ISLAND VOICES
Give teachers, students a voice

By John Witeck

Your Nov. 28 issue had an excellent commentary by former state Rep. Jim Shon entitled "A day in the life of a student." I valued his providing us some accurate insights about what most students endure each day at school.

I taught as a high school teacher for more than a year and a half and want to share my similar view.

Each day our public schools do the impossible. Given their limited resources, the schools provide a setting for learning and the kids' development of their social and mental talents. Our public schools succeed because most teachers go the extra mile, dip into their own pockets, work 50- to 80-hour workweeks and labor often in poor conditions, for the sake of the students. Their pay is minimal. The lifelong relationships between teachers and their students are what counts most for so many teachers, the supreme value.

As a city worker, I have better access to copy machines and more supplies than I did as a teacher, who needs these aids even more. As a teacher, I bought pencils and little rewards for my students and did photocopying at my own expense rather than rely on the school's machines.

The temperature in my classroom often exceeded 90 degrees for four to eight weeks of the school year. Some teachers bought their own fans or air conditioners/coolers to make the classroom bearable.

Shon pointed out several things that would help our schools: more money, better conditions, smaller class sizes, an expanded and more relevant curriculum and places for studying.

I would also add better pay for teachers and a more manageable teaching load — four instead of five classes per semester. Also, lighten the reporting burden on them.

The public schools have become so bureaucratically driven, with increased requirements for handling special-education needs, having mandatory conferences, drawing up education plans, dealing with kids coming from broken homes or suffering the effects of having a parent or parents with drug-addiction problems, and documenting everything that it's become a nightmare.

There's one other crucial thing we need to add to Shon's prescription, and one he hints at by focusing on the student's school experience. Our students need to have a greater voice and more decision-making power if their schooling conditions are to change. Education cannot be made meaningful to students by folks who don't know what is going down.

The suggestions of local school boards and more standardized testing, or the vaunted system of a Canadian locality being touted would probably make things worse, if effected.

This is what has happened with the federal government's ill-advised initiative No Child Left Behind act, a short-sighted, punitive initiative that will leave thousands of schools behind and undermine them.

If we want a democratic society, then we need to begin the instruction for citizenship in the schools. This is not done by giving students boring texts on civics to read and regurgitate. Rather it can only be achieved by empowering students and their teachers to have the major say in decisions and policies affecting the schools.

To be fearful of student voice and student power is to be fearful of democracy. This unwillingness to empower students shows a lack of faith in our youth and in their ability to use the knowledge they are acquiring to make judgments.

Lastly, the media and politicos should stop their public-school bashing.

Public schools should merit the highest support and respect. We should help them achieve the highest goals, not abandon and defame them as is the current case, or try to regiment them through culturally biased standardized testing and punitive treatment if the scores are below some arbitrary threshold.

Let's make our public schools our most vital business, and insist the schools, the teachers and the students are given the resources they need to achieve their maximum potential.

John J. Witeck is a training specialist with the city Department of Environmental Services. He is also a part-time instructor at Honolulu Community College.