Teaching today beyond challenging

Even though we sometimes support different candidates, Sid Hicks and I have been friends since the hippie era in our small east Texas hometown.

Our craziest stunt was hopping a boxcar on the spur of the moment in college in Commerce, Texas, the night before winter finals.

We thought it would stop in Greenville, 18 miles way. Instead, it stopped in Plano, 70 miles away.

Coatless in a freezing rainstorm, we hitched a ride with a hippie chick transporting marijuana into Dallas in a pickup with one headlight.

When Greyhound refused our offer of $9.47 for two tickets, we called hometown friend Ann Mahaffey, living in Dallas, from a washateria at dawn. She drove us back to Commerce — but we missed our first final.

At that point, our future careers in education looked bleak.

Over a recent catfish buffet, the teacher shared a few tidbits about public education.

Standardized testing hurts students.

“They are taught to write to prompts for tests instead of how they actually need to learn to write for college and life,” Hicks said.

A dual-credit — course credit for high school and college — high school teacher and community college adjunct instructor, Hicks is not criticizing teachers.

“They are judged by how their students do on standardized tests — not how they prepare them for college and life.”

Hicks says the companies devising the tests are greedy.

“At one time high school students in Texas had to take 15 standardized tests,” Hicks said. “That was absurd because counselors, teachers and administrators spent all their time prepping for tests.

“Because of school and parent complaints, it’s been reduced to five.”

Hicks says Pearson, the dominant testing company, became so blatant about donating to Texas legislators in return for selecting them, legislators finally had to respond to schools and parents and prohibit them from getting contracts.

“These companies use college professors who have never taught in high school to devise the tests,” the cattle farmer said.

Partially because of texting and social media, Hicks has seen a degradation in students’ writing.

“The kids write first-person and use present tense about events from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries,” Hicks said. “I have to teach them not to use pronouns like ‘I’ and ‘we’ in essays.

“I’ve even seen students use ‘u’ for you, and constantly write in fragments and run-on sentences.”

According to the 25-year teaching veteran, some parents who pressure teachers don’t understand the challenges teachers face.

“One screw-up can cost a teacher their job,” Hicks said. “Teachers have to be extremely mindful of all kinds of things going on beyond what they’re teaching.

“They have to watch what they say, their reactions to students, to parents.

“And things that happen outside school, such as a suicide, may disrupt the entire year.”

Hicks, who has taught history, English, social studies and special education, has had students tell him they are “gonna get my momma or daddy up here.”

“I’ve also been fortunate to have parents who told me they knew what a pill their kid is,” Hicks said.

“Of course, some parents think their kid can do no wrong.

“Quite often, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

Contact Wendel Sloan at: [email protected]