Schools and Personal Responsibility

The second of my ENGL 251 essays, this one draws its inspiration from my aborted career as a classroom teacher. Written as an example of "Exemplification" the assignment was to provide examples to prove your thesis.

One of the biggest problems with the Canadian education system today is the self-esteem movement. Starting in the 1980s, teachers were told that in order for students to achieve, they had to have good self-esteem. The consensus was that failing or disciplining a student damages their self esteem, leading to lower levels of achievement in school. The problem with this concept is faulty causality; students with good self esteem do not achieve. It is the other way around. Students who do well develop their own sense of self esteem, and more importantly, develop a sense of personal responsibility in their lives that allows them to achieve on their own. Canadian schools have failed in their duty to teach this basic concept and are doing long term damage to our students, in order to avoid short term pain.

I developed my own sense of responsibility in Grade 5, shortly after moving to a new school. I told my new teacher, Mrs. Clements, that I didn’t have to study for the science test the next day. She said nothing. She knew there was nothing she could say to make me take my science text home to study; instead she handed me all the rope I would need to hang myself. I had always taken pride in my marks so scoring a 35% on that test was an important bruise to my ego. Over time I took homework and test preparation much more seriously than I did before. Later, I would graduate, with distinction, from the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Education.

Schools no longer want to “damage” students by failing them. My wife required parental permission to fail any student. That permission was never given. Unfortunately for these struggling students, each school year builds upon the concepts taught the previous year. In some cases, like Mathematics, this makes it even more difficult to keep up. By the time these students get to high school, where social promotion is no longer an option, many of them find themselves so far behind, they cannot catch up.

The results of this misguided policy were found in the Mathematics 30 classes I taught in the Northwest Territories and northern Alberta. A typical Math 30 question would be “Solve for x in 7 log10 (5x) = 28”. The problem solution is relatively simple; only one step requires any skills that are new to a student taking Math 30. The step by step solution is below:

7 log10 (5x) = 28  // Divide both sides by 7 (basic algebra)
log10 (5x)  = 4  // New in Math 30: Rearrange to remove the log
104 = 5x   // Grade 5 calculation: 104 = 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 = 10000
10000 = 5x   // Again basic algebra, divide both sides by 5 to isolate x
x = 2000   // Final answer

Very few of my students were able to do this relatively simple question correctly. Not because I was unable to teach logarithms, but because they could not handle Grade 7 algebra, or in a few cases even Grade 3 division was too challenging. Why are Canadian students unable to master basic concepts in earlier grades? It is because they do not study for exams or do their homework as there have never been any consequence for failing. From the time they are in Grade 1 until the end of Grade 9, students today know they won’t be left behind. Teachers need to ability to ensure that students do not move on to the next grade unless they have proven mastery of the material they were given this year.

Unfortunately, classroom teachers no longer have the power to teach life skills such as personal responsibility in meeting deadlines. Lynden Dorval, a high school physics teacher in Edmonton, was initially suspended for giving students who had not completed an assignment a grade of 0 in violation of school and district policies. Without the threat of a zero on an assignment or an exam, Mr Dorval reasoned that students have no incentive to complete the work as assigned. They are not held accountable for their actions. Despite support from parents, colleagues, and even his own students, Mr Dorval was eventually fired by the Edmonton Public School Board.

Canadian students do not benefit long term when schools cater to their short term self-esteem at the expense of helping students develop the skills they need to take responsibility for their own learning and behaviour. Students who are struggling with the material do require extra help from their teachers and parents, and should receive it. Extra help should not include “doing their homework for them” or passing them off to another grade to become “someone else’s problem.” Such methods do not allow students to develop any sense of accomplishment.

Their self confidence can be developed in programs, such as at Cochrane High School, where students like “Steve” often begin their apprenticeship training in one of the trades. After struggling for years in the regular classroom environment, Steve blossomed in carpentry as he learned how to frame and build houses. Experiencing success for the first time in carpentry, he applied his new found confidence in his academic classes, finishing High School with honours and a clear path to success in the trades.

Twelve years after I failed that Science test, I ran into Mrs Clements at a teachers’ rally at the Alberta Legislature. I thanked her for letting me fail when she was still in a position to help me pick myself up. No amount of grade inflation would have assisted me over my lifetime than that single moment when I had to face the consequences of my poor choice not to study. At the time, I called her the meanest teacher I ever had. But now, twenty-five years later, because she showed me the value of failure, she is the best and most influential teacher I have ever had.