Schools need focus on learning, not discipline

People talk about rights, but no one seems to want to talk about responsibilities.

The cultural shift from responsibility to rights is nowhere more glaring than in our schools. Growing up, I remember hearing, "With privileges come responsibilities." School was considered a privilege. Now, it is seen as a right — something "you owe me."

The older generation will tell you that, in their day, if a kid came home with a "U" (unsatisfactory) on a report card, there would be immediate consequences and no excuses. If you played sick to get out of tough assignments, you were too sick to play with friends, and you had to stay in bed. If you tried to blame the teachers for having to go to the principal's office, you would be marched to school to apologize to the teacher and the principal. You just didn't lose assignments or forget to do your homework. You just did it — or else. Teachers and parents were to be respected.

Not so today. Schools simply mirror society. They are more litigious, more regulated and more impersonal than they were when today's grandparents attended; and, they are now a place where the burden of proof for a student's problem shifts to the teacher.

In their fervor to show the public how tough they are on educators, legislators have piled on more regulations and created a contentious climate by claiming teachers need to be more accountable. By innuendo, they give the impression that teachers are not professional and must be watched.

The stream of regulations places an undue burden on local schools to write more policies and regulations that focus on rights, rather than responsibilities. Is it the right of a student to disrupt the classroom and deny other students a learning environment? Or is it the responsibility of a parent to work with the school to help students learn that it is not their right to deny others the opportunity to learn?

Now, the reality is that teachers, for fear of having to defend themselves from not following the myriad regulations in the school's policy manual, try to ignore the disruptive student while keeping the room of 35-plus students from disintegrating into chaos.

When schools are over-regulated, it sets up a tense atmosphere where school employees are weary and live by the rule. This results in an unfriendly environment where it is difficult for parents to ask questions.