Mr LeJeune & His Podium: This Is What Teachers Really Have to Deal With
I have the unenviable pull today to say something I’ve held off on for a long time as both a public school teacher and a writer for this revivalist site.
I am also a person saying it knowing he is part of the blame because he is a piece of the society that has created it.
And I want everyone reading this to know a couple of things to start: my students scored off the charts on both the LEAP and ACT tests. The following words are not coming from a teacher who is just bitter at the system because his students scored low.
No, they scored high. Obscenely high. Among tops in the state. That is not a boast, it is a fact, and a necessary one so you don’t assume I’m a raging liberal who wants to remove any and all school accountability measures.
And no I don’t at all promote CRT, or any other woke ideologies you may assume because I am an English teacher. Scott wouldn’t have me writing for this site if that were the case.
All of that aside…
Facts are facts. Reality is reality.
There has been a lot of talk in Baton Rouge about bills and politics and how to improve public education. I want to offer a little something different.
One reason test scores in my classes were so high is because I was well aware of the landmines all around us and I actively coached my students to watch out for them. That may sound great, “yeah every teacher should do that, that’s part of the job,” but I offer that no, it isn’t. Because some of the landmines involve things that are so completely out of our control that oftentimes students don’t even see the point I’m making before the landmine actually comes to pass in their own lives and they see and experience it.
Consider how much emphasis is placed on children doing everything nowadays. They are involved in more sports and groups and clubs and activities than some of us can count. Much of this is promoted at home, which as a result diminishes time for peace, quiet, family meals, and prayer. As conservatives we recognize the fallout of the loss of all of that in our society, sure, but do we unpack that line of thought just a little bit to understand what that does to an adolescent’s attention and concern for school work? Do we realize how much this impacts their motivation to take accountability tests? Do we consider this with our politics and bills?
With just this factor alone, students don’t have the mental space to care. With just this factor alone, because it is so far-reaching, my article could be done.
But it isn’t.
The result of such society- and home-created apathy is often poor performance in school. And that poor performance is blamed on teachers, who have zero say in what goes on in that family or in that home that is more times than not disjointed because of divorce.
I’m sorry, let me correct myself. That isn’t even a home. Many kids have no home.
Add to that thousand-headed monster a bit more. Consider the reality that students can miss an obscene number of days and still be able to do some ridiculous “time recovery” during the school year that does not at all match the rigor of a well-run classroom. I wish I could display my attendance sheets over the years. The thick collection of “A’s” is not for superior grades, I can assure you.
Add to that factor the reality that there is a lengthy process, one that must be documented in fine detail by both teacher and administration (so as not to get the lawyers involved!), in order to have a disruptive or uncaring student removed from the classroom. This is not an issue I encountered much, in truth, but I defend teachers as a whole here. It takes only one student to ruin a class culture, and if they aren’t being removed in a timely manner, because we’re supposed to extend “grace” to them 99 thousand times, academic performance will absolutely suffer–for all students in that classroom.
I think there was a bill being discussed on that in the state Legislature, but who knows.
Add to that factor the reality that in this sports- and activity-heavy society students are less student-athletes and more athlete-students. Just consider what NIL is doing to the mindset of the upcoming generation. Everybody deserves a jersey. Everybody deserves playing time. Everybody is on their own unique God-planned pathway to college All-American status and a career in the pros.
This is something actively promoted by some teachers too, along with some of the coaches.
But perhaps most telling is something we all know–it is some parents who are pushing this too.
(Let me emphasize that before I continue–I am talking about society in general, not the numerous parents who have supported their children’s efforts and therefore my efforts in the classroom. This is a rant at the collective).
Everywhere in a young person’s life–and I know this because they tell me–there are adults telling them that school isn’t important, that they didn’t have to learn how to read in order to be successful, that you’ll never use that stuff in real life, that you’ll never have to write, that you’ll never you’ll never you’ll never you’ll never……………….
Also, we’re going to call you out of class to size for letterman’s jackets. And for your teammate signing with this or that college. And to go down to the office because Mom has a hot pizza for you or the cleats you forgot for practice (I stopped this type after my first year!). And to get some film work in with Coach. And to provide eye witness testimony to the latest drama and trouble going on at school where 600 witnesses are needed to prove that so-and-so was vaping in the restroom.
Throw in all the suspensions for that stuff while we’re at it, the missed work, the “Internet being down at home,” etc etc etc etc.
I cannot tell you how many times a meaningful, deep discussion was interrupted and derailed by things like this.
The list goes on and on.
Understand that I think much of that stuff is awesome. I’m glad students get to experience it. It’s what high school should be about, which indeed should go beyond the books. But don’t tell me, after a year of disruption after disruption, that my skill and integrity as a teacher is dependent on a test score you yourself haven’t even promoted. I’m defending teachers today, not begrudging the wonderful non-academic things we offer students.
And all of this is my experience in a school where the administration actually does care about its teachers and tries its best to minimize all of this. But they are navigating their own landmines too. I am not casting stones at them today either.
Most of it all goes back to, you guessed it, the home.
Which leads me to even more gasoline. Throw on top of everything I’ve mentioned adults telling their children that the LEAP isn’t all that important, not to worry about it. Throw on top of that the fact that the state makes it necessary only to pass one of two LEAP tests between freshman and sophomore years. Throw in everyone and everything with the message that this stuff really isn’t all that important, child, now go play Fortnite in your room instead of picking up a book to read, and what you have is a generation of students who have to be motivated with pep talks from Vince Lombardi to even think about spending more than ten minutes on the LEAP test before they put their head down on a dead keyboard.
Yes, I’ve proctored LEAP tests with students who did that. It is embarrassing to see how many have their heads down, done with the test, after just a few minutes of “effort.”
And this is the teacher’s fault, remember. All of it.
I have not even scratched the surface on what teachers have to deal with trying to navigate the cacophony of psychologies, moods, administrative policies, district policies, student-family policies (all of which collide!), schedules, weather, not-working Internet, and so much more. And don’t forget that observant students noticed we took away all-important school for a sham pandemic and locked them up for months. They noticed it. And they returned to school caring a whole lot less, trust me. I see it, and they tell it to me point blank.
It is more a conscious thing for them than you know. Young people are not stupid. They recognize, on some level, what government did to them–and how unimportant education became at the drop of a hat one day back in March 2020.
Yes, I understand, we don’t want Critical Race Theory being taught in the classroom. We want true history and facts being taught. We want the conservative, patriotic way.
Well I’m a conservative in most regards. And I’m telling you, there is so much more to it than that.
I am a teacher who brought God, Christ, into the classroom. I got resistance for that at times, but for the most part, I believe this is why students as a whole performed the way they did on tests. I don’t think it was the English instruction, because I like everyone else had to endure the circus that is public education in America. And I certainly don’t think it was because they all liked me, because my class was considered one of the most difficult on campus.
No, I believe it is because to the best of my ability, I brought God to them. I took the risks to say that all of these other voices in their heads were wrong for trying to steer them away from this and steer them more enthusiastically toward that. I know there were parents and teachers who resented me for that, but it was something I knew I had to do in order to get those students not just to score high on a test, but to believe in their place and their role in a civilization that desperately needs mending, in a civilization that needs to bring the importance of marriage and family life back to the forefront. (Guilty).
I don’t think these are all risks that should be on the to-do list for teachers, nor do I think they are in the job description for the sub-$50K we earn per year, so maybe everyone should reflect on the fact that no politics or governmental action will fix test scores or anything else about our sad state of public education until God and Christ himself is placed firmly where he should be in the classroom and society at large yes, but most importantly, in the home.
Until then, it will continue to be just another Tower of Babel story with us babbling away trying to fix things with the latest piece of wet duct tape. God will not allow us to succeed with any politics or bills because he loves us enough to call us to his Sacred Heart with our entire selves and our entire families, not just with a piece here and there.
This is ultimately why I left.
Now I can say his name however and whenever I want to say it. I just hope those I care about most will be listening, because we need them to grow into parents who will remember these things, who will know that I will never stop being Mr LeJeune tapping his fingers on the podium for them.
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May everyone named directly or referenced indirectly ask forgiveness and do penance for their sins against America and God. I fight this information war in the spirit of justice and love for the innocent, but I have been reminded of the need for mercy and prayers for our enemies. I am a sinner in need of redemption as well after all, for my sins are many. In the words of Jesus Christ himself, Lord forgive us all, for we know not what we do.
