Pia Alexander was a great teacher, an instructor at Cal State Long Beach.
She was from Canada, but her parents were from Denmark.
At that time in my life, I was a major "Kierkegaard" fan, and so I
asked for her opinion on anything that she knew about the writer.
She was a lot of fun. She commanded a great deal of respect in her
classroom.
She expected us to get as much work done as possible.
She also taught, in my opinion, the most important class that any teacher
can take — Classroom Management.
The teachers in training, including myself, wanted to know everything that
we could about how to control our classes, how to keep students in their
places, how to get through lessons without anyone of the students taking
advantage of us.
Our greatest fear — disrespect! We were so afraid that students would not
listen to us, that they would walk all over us.
I remember one gentleman, a Vietnamese who spoke French, who shared with the
class this pressing fear.
I was with him all the way.
Teaching is not for everyone. That's just the way it is.
The class met once a week every Wednesday night. I was working with an
interesting assortment of teachers. I was also so high-strung in those days. I
could barely tie my shoes, spiritually speaking. I cannot believe how insecure
I was in those days, so unsure of what I wanted in this, so unclear as to where
I was headed.
There I was, going through another year of schooling, putting off the real
world. Classroom Management was supposed to move teaching from the theoretical
to the empirical, yet even this class had more fluff than substance.
Not that it was Pia Alexander's fault. My frame of mind was simply not ready
for the rigors and demands of the teacher profession, and the turmoil which
runs most public schools throws almost any learning in the classroom out the
window from the first day that we walk into an actual classroom.
I liked some of the activities that we did in that class. We created posters
discussing the different ways to plan lesson while minimizing student
misconduct and disrespect. I remember watching a video with a teacher now
teacher-trainer telling us how where we stand in the classroom will assist us
in keeping tabs on anyone who is out of control.
The whole class made teaching seem really easy, even whimsical. The reality
was quite the opposite, sadly.
I liked some of the students whom I worked with, fellow teachers-in-training
like me who had no idea what to expect.
In that class, I got hired for not one but two sub jobs — as a paraeducator
for the county, as a substitute teacher for a local school district. So far so
good, so it seemed.
I remember the continuation school principal from the Long Beach district.
He was a tough, tall, bald black man who brooked no argument from anyone. He
demanded respect from the students and the teachers, but that evening he came
to talk to us about interventions. He got so tired of the pile of referrals
which came to his office, that he got in the teachers' faces, telling them that
they better start doing more to deal with their kids on their own time, instead
of merely sending them out of class.
He hired the worst kids to play security on his campus: "You get an A,
or you get an F, depending on how well you keep the campus." That was an
unorthodox method, in my opinion. If it worked for him, then so be it.
For that class, I had to read a bunch of books. Two of them dealt with
classroom management tips and scenarios. I answered all of them with nary a
hitch, but none of that could really prepare me or anybody else for the
challenges which would face every one of us during student teaching.
I cannot forget another compelling element of the class — some of the
teachers were already in their own classrooms. They were already teaching, and
at the same time they were completing all of these courses in order to complete
their preliminary credential. One of the ladies, Samantha, was so burned out,
she could barely keep up with the mess that she was going through. She even
shared with the class that one of the students whom she was tutoring had
screamed at her, the result of a drug-induced frenzy. Apparently, the student
got afraid because he felt that the teacher was threatening him in some way.
Samantha was still worked-up about the whole thing. Nothing had prepared her
for a student addicted to drugs. Wow! I had no idea that this was the insanity
that would fly in my face in the years to come.
Teaching was going from bad to really bad during that time. Teachers were
getting more students, classrooms were getting bigger, and the education budget
was getting the ax. There we all were, teachers in training, with no idea what
was headed our way.
The Classroom Management Class imparted some unique and nifty insights, but
nothing really substantial, at least nothing that I could easily remember. Such
is the sad state of education then as well as now, and now it has only gotten
worse.
And no class today or ever can prepare a teacher for the mismanagement that
has taken over our public schools.