Thursday, June 10, 2010

The Collapse of Discipline and Respect

It's general, not just in the schools and streets but in the homes of rich, middle income and poor. I blogged on this subject before, "You Can do What you Want to do" 6/20/07; "Spanking in Schools", 8/20/08; "Disrespect Revisited", 11/20/07; "Bad Decisions Have Created Bad Schools", 8/02/06; "Strictness Isn't the Same as Being Mean", 8/02/06; "Why We're Reluctant to Reprimand Other People's Children", 7/27/06; "Shift the Blame", 2/28/06; "What's Ahead for Your County (Peoria)", 3/04/06 and other blogs on disrespect and lack of discipline enforcement.

I write this article because I know Mrs. Valda Shipp believed that schools and classrooms get quickly out of hand once the "kids" figure out the teacher, principal administration and boards weaknesses. As far as I know, she never let that happen to the kids under her care and education.

Ever since Dr. Harry Whittaker left the Superintendents job and retired, discipline at #150 has gone down hill in a hurry in too large a % of the school.If the firing of Mrs. Shipp was over discipline problems expect the new @27 million new Glen Oak School to be one of the most costly mistakes made by Ken Hinton and the school board.

Failure to enforce discipline problems have been THE major reason for the decline of the American Public School System. Under any circumstance the district will lose another disciplinarian Principal.

Both Valda and Mark's two daughter work for Mark in his successful insurance business. Both are courteous and friendly.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's hard to discipline a child for mouthing off or any other insubordination in Dist. 150, and I suspect in many other school districts, also. These children know you cannot touch them, though I am a believer that children should not be beaten at home, nor at school. The problem is often lack of parental support for the teacher.

I cannot tell you how many teachers have relayed to me that when they call the parent regarding behavior, more often than not the parent's response is, "Well, what did you do to piss him/her off?"

Dear God.. save us!

katiesmom1803 said...

Good morning, Mr. Widmer.
I find your blog very interesting, but I have to point out a significant error in your reporting. Mrs. Shipp has never been the principal at Harrison - she was the principal at Franklin Edison before going to Glen Oak.
I'm assuming that you are thinking of your visit with Mrs. Perkins when you went to Harrison, as the children were well-behaved and respectful there. In my experiences visiting Franklin, however, under Mrs. Shipp, it was not!

Merle Widmer said...

My confusion of schools. The kids at Harrison under Mrs. Perkins were well-behaved. On my visits to Franklin Edison were Mrs. Shipp was principal prior to being promoted to principal at Glen Oak my observations were that discipline and respect of the kids to Mrs. Shipp was positive.

Sorry about confusing schools.

Anonymous said...

The reason the children were so well behaved at Franklin under Mrs. Shipp is because she had "councilled" out all of the behavior problems. Franklin went from 700 plus students when she became principal to under 450 by the time she left.

Anonymous said...

We need a few thousand Joe Clarks and we need to turn them loose.