Today’s academic climate endorses a cheap imitation of self-esteem. Consequently, ill-advised teenagers feel good about not knowing anything – at least while they’re in school. But why should they study? Grade inflation, another academic problem, ensures average students receive above average grades. Fortunately, an old cure for these problems still exists – some call it “telling it like it is.”
With Marine Corps experience, I was teaching high school English a few years ago when I celebrated and panicked all at once. I read a letter from a student who had written,"Dear Mr. Culpepper, The first day I was in your class, I wanted to kill you.”
Naturally, the sentence compelled me to continue reading. It was clear and brief -- exactly how I encouraged students to write. I was fairly certain an apathetic student wasn’t the author. As I learned he no longer harbored his initial impulse to murder me, my adrenaline tapered some. But my pride in his opening sentence lingered on.
The boy’s name was Nick. He brought me back to our first day of school: “You'd put me on the spot with a simple question; you could tell I wasn't plugged in, and you called me on it. You weren't going to settle for the "stoner" image, for me to just take up space in the class. I was really mad.”
Yes, I mugged the politically correct idea of building self-esteem that day. The Marine inside me admonished Nick for not paying attention and for copping a bad attitude. I wasn’t friendly when I squinted and spat, “I don’t know what you’re pissed about. I’m here to help you, and you’re mad at me because I want you to learn? I care more about you than you care about yourself, and you’re mad at me? That’s disgusting. You’re mad, but you should feel ashamed.”
Today, common sense and Marine Corps leadership principles run opposite to modern and asinine education theories. The Marine Corps builds morale through real challenges. Marine training immediately targets an individual’s deficiencies and then works to strengthen or eliminate those flaws. Working together to accomplish tough objectives, individuals develop a healthy respect for teamwork. In the Marine Corps, an individual acquires a meaningful understanding that “life’s not all about me.” Marines learn how not handling individual responsibilities can hurt people they care about. I wanted all my students to understand this lesson, too.
Respecting Marine Corps values, I designed my class and teaching style with similar goals: present real challenges; identify and correct individual faults; teach self-discipline; demand hard work; achieve success; and build self-confidence. Feelings and sensitivity had their place in my style and classroom, but we focused on the students’ need to develop thinking skills.
Students’ self-respect seemed to follow naturally as we worked hard together. Students learned that I expected a lot from them and that they should expect a lot from me. When I was tough on them, they understood I wanted what was best for them. My concept was simple -- stick with the skills I had learned as a Marine and apply them to teaching English. Executing the concept was the challenge, but it worked. Students’ attitudes and effort improved.
As with Nick, sometimes this process required breaking a student down before building him back up. Nick appreciated the tactic: “It made me take a hard look at myself and motivated me to prove there was more to me; you motivated me to give you my best. You also reminded me of my love for literature. You were the first teacher to confront me, to make me care, and over time you gave me a lot of self-confidence with my writing.”
Developing students requires both praise and correction. Students need challenges and boundaries. Completing tough assignments and overcoming a harsh scolding builds confidence and character. Teachers should feel obligated to help students learn and recover from mistakes. Ignoring bad attitudes and apathy is inexcusable, but so is ignoring good effort and small improvements.
Again Nick valued these concepts: “You really care about your job - about us learning. That sincerity really connects with students. It really made a difference in me. After completing your class, I looked at teachers differently. I began participating, got more out of classes, and was able to connect with other teachers.” Nick needed only higher expectations and a little encouragement.
My methods to develop students (often described as a unique blend of classroom boot camp and humor) may have approached career suicide occasionally, but an email from Nick’s mom captured my technique’s value: “Male teachers are few and far between (at least in my son’s case) and in his case, it was somewhat of a stepping-stone. / Your everyday conversations regarding how valuable their free education was and the need to consider their future – there really is a life they need to plan for just around the corner – began to hit home. This was a kid who had sunk to the lowest of lows in academic achievement and was seemingly unable to find his way out. Yet, he began to care.” My method was simple – being politically incorrect supported students. Being the opposite did not.
Eventually, students must confront reality and swallow the facts concerning their self-inflicted or school-supported shortcomings. Meanwhile, our teenagers continue falling behind in core subjects they will need as adults. I’ve witnessed these students struggling unsuccessfully to convince themselves of some bogus self-esteem education quacks insist all students should have -- regardless of a teenager’s own bad attitude or foolish decisions. Today mushy feelings pollute the classrooms while social experiments sit critical thinking and indisputable facts in the corner.
Of course, none of us need to worry. We just need to remember – we’re all above average.
(Lee Culpepper is a Marine turned high school English teacher. Currently, he is writing his first book, Alone and Unafraid: One Marine’s Counterattack Inside the Walls of Public Education. Contact Lee at drcoolpepper@yahoo.com. Read Lee’s archives at wlculpepper@townhall.com)
