Secretary's Column
By Dr. Rick Melmer
Department of Education
Myth or mantra?
With all of the serious things going
on in our world, I decided to devote this month’s column
to a lighter topic – old educational sayings. These
sayings have been passed down through the generations,
and I’ve weighed in on several. Here goes:
Do not smile until
Christmas. True.
This saying has been
around for ages. The attitude is to be firm with
students early on, and you can always loosen up your
rules and regulations later in the year. Frankly, I
think this is a good rule – not only for classroom
teachers but also for leaders of an organization. It is
always easier to relax your standards than it is to
tighten them up after a period of time. Students and
adults respect discipline and firm rules and guidelines.
So, even though I would recommend smiling before
Christmas, it never hurts to begin with a firm
foundation in any classroom or organization.
Kids are different
today. False.
Other than being much
smarter than we were 20 and 30 years ago, I do not
believe that kids are different today. However, I do
believe that our world is dramatically different. The
electronic age is here. Media opportunities are much
more plentiful and, as a result, kids are growing up
much faster. Today’s kids are fundamentally the same as
kids were years ago. They are simply exposed to much
more information, which accelerates their knowledge of
the world.
It must be the
weather. True.
Whenever students in a
school are unruly, teachers will quickly blame a change
in the weather. I once debated about doing a doctoral
dissertation on this topic because I believe there is
some truth to it. I’m no meteorologist, so I am unable
to track whether unruly behavior coincides with changes
in weather patterns. However, I feel that we should
trust some of our veteran teachers when they say that
there is a relationship between these two factors.
Therefore, when the weather patterns appear to be
changing, get ready for an interesting day at school!
The apple doesn’t
fall far from the tree. True.
Any teacher that has
had parent-teacher conferences knows this statement is
true. All of us, whether we want to admit it or not,
take after our parents. So, next time you are pleased
with a child’s performance, don’t forget to thank his or
her parents!
We value parental
involvement. False.
Even though we
recognize the importance of parental involvement in our
schools, I still believe we have a long way to go in
this area. The fact is: Some educators still look at
parents as the enemy. Successful schools and successful
teachers understand how to get parents involved in the
day-to-day operations of our schools. In today’s society
where opt-outs and bond issues are important, getting
our parents and community involved is more critical than
ever.
We are from the
State, and we are here to help. True.
Even though there may
be people that believe the answer to this question is
false, I still believe that our role in state government
is to help schools as much as possible. We recognize
that the Department of Education has regulatory
functions, and yet it is my hope that a majority of our
time is spent working with schools to improve education
rather than ensuring you are following necessary rules
and regulations.
Maybe you have a couple of sayings that
I forgot to mention. If so, let me know what they are! I’ll
look forward to hearing from you. |
