[BertBeagle]

article from todays Charlotte Disturber (should be posted in every grade school classroom). I would add that it needs to be preached to all - not just inner city pupils :

Want respect? Then earn it
Why should students expect what teachers should be given?
JACK CALAWAY
Special to the Observer

Of reasons why four Charlotte-Mecklenburg high schools can't muster passing grades on end-of-course tests, the most puzzling is one that blames teachers for disrespecting students.

Like many Charlotteans, I graduated from an integrated public school system that catered to a unified culture -- one that held teachers in highest esteem. Maybe that's why I'm perplexed about today's "dissing" hierarchy and how it leaves faculty holding the accountability bag.

Let me tell you how respect and accountability partnered to produce self-sufficiency in my day:

Elementary school teacher Edith Shaw once frog-marched me out of reading circle and into a dark storeroom for repeatedly talking out of turn. After securing my mouth with tape, she warned me to keep it shut, locked the door and left.

It would never have occurred to me that Mrs. Shaw's creative timeout was a "diss." Students didn't get respect. Educated, taxpaying adults got respect. How could I be disrespected?

I didn't sulk. I didn't rationalize that my embarrassment justified retaliation. Instead I spent a spooky half-hour pondering why I was there and how to avoid a return visit. The answer was obvious. I had disrupted class. I was the "disser," not Mrs. Shaw, who graciously helped me sort things out when she returned. Later that day my parents disciplined me more woodenly.

Take education seriously

The message they delivered in my childhood can be translated into adultese: "Getting a public education should be taken seriously. It's how you get real respect. A lot of folks are paying good tax money for your opportunity. Don't blow the chance."Mrs. Shaw's efforts and my accountability paid off later that year when I read the textbook to my family at one memorable sitting. Their beaming approval was an epiphany: Being respectful, paying attention and excelling at schoolwork -- heck, even accomplishing it only satisfactorily -- leads to good things.

Today Mrs. Shaw might have to wear a sack over her face for fear some pupils would interpret her occasional scowl as a sign of disrespect and rationalize that into turning their backs on education. That lack of student accountability might help pupils succeed in getting Mrs. Shaw fired. I doubt it will get them past exams.

Coddled too long by Dr. Spock

Maybe kids -- and parents -- have been coddled too long by Dr. Spock. Maybe it's time for Michael Corleone to explain obedience, discipline and self-sufficiency: "Don't take it personal, Jackie. It's just business. Community business. The community wants a return on its investment. Follow instructions, study hard, pass tests and earn a diploma. Then we'll talk about respect. Capice?"

Maybe it just takes a while for some of us to conclude that book learning is a great equalizer, something that can solve a lot of personal problems. It doesn't differentiate which side of town we're from, whether we're NBA material, or from which latitude our ancestors arrived. Climb aboard! Knowledge can fly you away from despair and over economic mountains that bar you from the mainstream.

I doff my hat to parents -- or, in their absence, to faculty, community leaders and ministers -- who are preaching that to inner-city pupils who might diss their chance for real respect. Turn street-smart into book-smart and you can forget about middle-class flight. The mainstream will flow to you.

In my day it took dedicated teachers, involved parents, friends who were helpful study partners as well as tough test competitors, and a respectful me to make the "equalizer" work. Forty-five years ago high school graduates were expected to become breadwinners capable of priming education's financial pump when their turn came.

That brings me back to the taxpaying aspect of education.

Students, prime the pump

Since my graduation in 1962, this nation and state have enacted major social programs and tax credits intended to give able-bodied folks a jump-start, not a perpetual free ride. Education -- virtually free in the case of a public one -- is how you keep your car rolling once you've been jump-started.

The old Kingston Trio song "Desert Pete," by Billy Edd Wheeler, tells the story of a thirsty cowboy who stumbles across a pump in the middle of the desert. He finds a jar of water and a note:

"You've got to prime the pump, you must have faith and believe. You've got to give of yourself 'fore you're worthy to receive. Drink all the water you can hold, wash your face, cool your feet. Leave the bottle full for others, thank you kindly," -- Desert Pete

Some might yell, "Show me the money!" Pete would answer, "Show me the grades!"