Unfinished business; They don't like school

School would never just have a school on Everest. Our Unfinished Business A series of programs tape recorded designed to acquaint you with unresolved social welfare problems produced by the Ohio State University under a grant from the Educational Television and Radio Center in cooperation with the National Association of educational broadcasters. Today's unfinished business they don't like school. Does it matter whether a child like school or not. If a child does not like school should the school find out why are we

expecting the school to do the work the home should do. These are important questions we should like to explore a bit with you by listening to what certain children themselves have to say about it in actual recordings we made all of those we interviewed have been court cases. Let's start with a girl who could not keep up with the others in her grade. Why did something wrong you don't. Just let it go detention. Didn't you know that is what I did what was a man and. Few smart children kids in school think it should be just smart and right. What do you mean by detention pretension. What was for school two hours three hours you know we had to study and we didn't have changed the teacher the tension any question saying we're supposed to be quite so we don't get school. Well did you study on your own or did somebody help you or start you know we

didn't know what you know. When you were in detention. Now these human stories that you say didn't help you either know what went with your school hard work at the time you want to know your team do you think if you had had somebody after school itself that possibly it might have helped you see. Somebody that you could have talked to a lot of your difficulties with the teachers did you have trouble with your study tomorrow. Yeah yeah I sort of remember that. Many school systems recognize that slow learning pupils need to be placed in classes which take perhaps three years to cover the work normally done and two they know too that there are many of borderline mentality who can benefit from staying in the regular school program but who require special classes with heavy emphasis on

manual training and a minimum of academic work. However there are endless communities in these United States which have made no provision for the child of below average mentality to say nothing of schooling for the severely mentally retarded. Here's a boy who has had some difficulty in school because of adjustment to the curriculum who blames his teachers for his troubles. Do you find much difference in coming to the school is it hard to get the work here. Yes. Why do you find it more difficult. Well I don't like to separate teaches it. They don't find Isn't there some difficulty maybe because the courses these classes of different things just study are different from the other school. You know they're not that hard. You know by taking a sheet but I don't like the teacher I would say and what's the trouble with them.

Well that brought. Their way you mean to smart. Well they act like they're big shots because they went to high school. What would you do if you teach well if I was a teacher I wouldn't be a stick to seven teachers in a school. District about what. The things are. What things what type of things to me. Well you certainly cheer in a teacher tell you to moo for not doing nothing. Talk Terry not me or kick you. Teacher kicks you yes or do you get along all right at home. Well at times you get along all right. Well it seems to be the main travel well by dead picture and I have to tell you that that's all the trouble I have. That's enough as you try to defend your mother when I see you haven't ever trouble at home and away from her one time.

Why do you do that. Well there was go take back what. What to get back yard. They can run the other school you ratted you haven't a traveling going. Getting promoted right along. I felt three years now of course this lad had several difficulties but did you notice the reference to teachers who aroused intense hostility in Him by their treatment. We do not want to minimize for a moment the problem of discipline for boys like this but there should be a better method than the one they use to listen to these boys when they're just junk in school principal. He just knew you were back in. How did you feel about school before that beginning. Like are some things you like to. Like. Shall you mention this teacher that grab your room enough to do that many of your ability

to love me you love me too. I wanted you to tell me something about what kind of school you were going to when I get what you're feeling about school. No I think it's very nice. You know I think it's a right thing. Teachers are absolutely second knocking around. You do your thing. I am I think I got kicked out of school last year for spitting and understanding teacher can do a great deal to help a child to adjust to life. Unfortunately there are still some in our school systems who may know their curriculum and methods of teaching but who do not understand children and their problems. There are also those who are so frustrated and unhappy themselves that they fail to draw out the best in their pupils. I'm thinking of one teacher or advanced one of a set of identical twins and failed to promote the other who had the same

intelligence quotient. She was reported to have said I like to break up twins. The first in spite of the fact that the girls had just gone through the crushing experience of losing their mother by death. And I'm thinking of a boy whom we met in juvenile court who was probably started on his career of antisocial behavior because he was kept in the same sixth grade for three years with the same teacher. He was large for his age and not inclined to make Lee obey. Psychological testing proved that he was average in mentality. He was a girl who is surely better. Like you. Yes. And I think he wants to go back finally. Just. Because they're clashing. Right. Make sure you buy your.

Parachute. I mean I feel sorry for you but I will tell. Because that's not going to make them stop. I have. A lot of kids just my acted out. But I'm I'm. Free. To. Act like their I'M HIS they. Asked me. Still barking. Kept going to school. She tells of a teacher she especially disliked. She. Says. She said Why. She says I don't like anything like me. You are. Just proud.

I know I. Mean it's just you just get set up charts and tracks and all. And I personally know there are I mean are you on every star. That of course is the girls version of this that she was impudent and uncooperative. We do not doubt teenage girls wrestle with emotional problems that make them hard to deal with. Their guilty conscience or sometimes leave them to blame their teachers and even their parents. This is particularly true in the case of truancy. The attendance officer or whatever term may be used to describe the person assigned to check on attendance at school needs to be even more understanding than the teachers in school. This girl is a correctional institution. What reasons did you get for not liking school. The teachers lost. You don't it might be individual teacher he said.

And the school did you have anybody like a counselor or somebody who had other guidance program that you felt you could go into with your personal problems. There was nobody in your school that you can go to and talk about your dislike for these teachers. And were you on probation parole. Today. You have junior officers. Yes me. But you know you can check that and see that I went to school. So. They were just checking on your school attendance and you didn't have a chance to explain to them. Why you didn't like school. Once I skipped school you couldn't except sit there and check and see. Did you talk over with anybody at any time her dislike for the individual people or the individual person. You didn't tell anybody about it. Do you think as you look back on. The Times.

Riots few months might say you know what if somebody had been in a school or in the court and could have helped you possibly win a gun and they have truant officers at school or resenting teachers. You see I want to know. And what did he do. Well I really would. Call up where I was. When they couldn't find me I wasn't you know my mom and dad didn't know where I was tryna come out looking for me. A place where people can go. And then they find her meet me in school the next day and morning Brandon what do they do. This stark I know you don't care about how you got clean. See it was so. Here's another girl in the same institution I've been in the crowd one time and for step and we just go.

That was when you were committed here. Yes ma'am yes ma'am. Would you know why. No ma'am. Amazingly many counties still do not seem to realize the importance of a thorough investigation of each case of repeated absence from school. Such absence as a danger signal the trouble lies ahead. Notice how this boy and his friends started drinking playing truant. Was this just a regular tire. Yes just right. The reply here so. You know at least three of us. Wouldn't school. You would come to school and this is during the day. Yes this girl drifted into real trouble well the school failed to check closely on her. I wonder if you feel that possibly if somebody had been in your community who could have helped you

you wouldn't have gotten into the difficulty that you got into. Well now. I'm going to talk to my mother. But kind of scared. You know the thing that if I really had some time to think were you in school did you play hooky from school you know how often could you just guess about how often you were absent from school when you really didn't have a legitimate excuse. It's only once a week. And when you were absent from school already getting in that it would go in your room just saying you know I was there. Did anybody in your school district or in your town come and talk to you about the reason you were absent from school. No. Nobody checked out no truant officer visiting. If you're anybody with any such time. Have you been taken down

to the court or were this truancy from school. You have how many your teachers in school today and about why you were absent from school so much. Well I prince that he is going to the office. And what did he tell you. Or what kind of questions did he ask you. Well he was Sampson I neither told him I was sick. Did you. I don't know if you're going to be from school you know. They just don't require excuses from home so that you get back into school. How do you go about that. I use the word of an excuse and they don't check the handwriting or our grades. Do you feel that you couldn't do work. That's the reason they were or do you feel that you just weren't interested in school and that's reason there were a lot just interest. Was there anything that home that was bothering you so that it

took away from your interest in school did you go along with your family. You see I knew my family are younger or you want to mention. And did you ever feel very close to any of these brothers. And you didn't get along with your mom and dad you know why didn't you have any idea where you could be free to give me. Well what do you mean by more freedom to go out at night. Right now it's time to keep me. They made me smile. You know break me down. I just can't gain what they want me to stay home or they want me to stay home. We want them to go out for special occasions.

Yes like can you tell me where I can go to shows and combine them. Dance parties get things new. So you saw your family did you some freedom. Yes me. But you felt that they didn't give you enough freedom. Yes the idea. Did they give you as much freedom as the other kids in your game but you still want to walk. It's not only falsified written excuse notes that open the door to trouble. There seem to be other easy ways to stay away from school because of our poor into a state check up system on school registrations. I remember a boy in juvenile court who confessed that he had not been in school for four years because he moved from place to place and from state to state. Tell us about the school you say that you haven't really been to school since you were 13 and that people didn't know

you were anywhere. How was that. Well to start off with I went down I had been going to school regularly anyway and been off for a couple weeks. Now and. You know I didn't live at home. So I went out and told him I was moving to West Virginia. And they believe me. Very afternoon I went to. I went no morning told principal I was. Moving out got my books and everything and took him home. After you know I went back downtown on the way back home I stopped in the store his cooperation with. Refrigeration. And put in my application to go to work the next morning I went to work. They didn't ask for your aid or did you have your your draft card by the way. They are when you fill out an application you have to show you show the guard your.

Registration. Had you already gone down to register have been mistreated by. There since October. Before so I was asked any questions about you have. If you throw me a going to. Ask one question Did you ever see any of them again. I see him few of a lot of years later I see one of the teachers no do what I want to do you think that's a good way for boys to do you think that's a good way for school to do if you're the principal of the school. How would you run. I think I keep a better watch on boys. That's not good for guys. After a while you're out of school you go and work in a few places. You find out that your school will help you out a lot a lot more than you could. He would have to work so so hard. Anything made up your mind that when you get out of the industrial school here. You're going to try to pick up some

school. Yes or I think I try to pick up another three years anyway. Trying to get my diploma that way I'm at least get a better job. Well I think that's pretty smart. Did you notice the reference to registration for the draft recruitment offices also often failed to work closely with the schools in the registering of teenagers for military service. And these youngsters are often lost to the school. It is very easy for boys to falsify birth dates often in collusion with their parents and then a spy was employed by a firm that apparently did not check carefully with the schools before hiring him. It is common practice for employers to also neglect returning student work permits to the Board of Education. The result is that often a boy works for one or two days on a work permit and then quits and fails to report back to school. We asked some questions of a counselor at a girls correctional school.

I wonder if you could tell me a bit about these girls with whom you've been working and those you've interviewed. What do you feel me lacks in the communities from which they came. With a school standpoint I would say it's the lack of understanding. The part of enough teachers I think that possibly a lot of teachers feel that this academic subject matter is the important thing not only the teachers but the administrators. They press the teachers and therefore the teachers think that they have to get the academic subject matter across no matter what. And it's a lack of understanding on the part of those individuals. The lack of understanding of each child as an individual with their individual problems the lack of realization that all of us have come from. Should I say well-to-do ones or were there standing parents where there are no problems of the other community lacks the register in the

lives of these youngsters and leave them out with just the two of them can see. Yes I would say also. Standing on the part of the courts and lack of cooperation again between the schools and the courts I think that many of the course particularly here in our state feel that if a child has made a mistake no matter how small or how major it may be within the community. They think that the only place for them to come is the girls industrial school and they reprimand the children in that way rather than trying to help them work through their problems so that they can become a useful citizen. And in that way we bring in the girls and consequently they see better what they have to play. The problem that they have song is increased tenfold. You mean that after they have been here and have to return to their communities that the battle then of trying to help them become well

adjust to the respectable services to vote harder than if it never believe it was that. That's right. I very definitely feel that way because so many of our girls in here come back and do to prove violation or due to the need for another placement. I have said that the people in the community have rejected them because they're supposedly bad and I put that in quotes and they don't want their children associating with people like that in the community does not mean they necessarily. Pro visions for the girls like that were as if they had never been to an institution they don't have that stigma which is attached to even a detention doesn't seem to carry that state. We're known as you think of these cases of the girls up here. It is there quite a difference here between counties with their facilities you find some counties that are sending youngsters up here for comparatively trivial reasons trivial to live can say

while those wait until there's quite serious delinquency. Yes I very definitely feel there is a difference in the county and if you talk to the girls or if you read the records you will see that some are set. I say just for truancy from school because I consider that a minor juvenile delinquency offense and then you will see others that are sent up here for repeat sex delinquencies or advanced in court adult. Yes the school must not only understand the whole it often must take the place of the home when it failed hard. Did you get formal court. My sister and I. And my. Pretty. What type of players do for. Just

one. More. And she didn't know she never got to do anything about it. The trouble with most people. Use of my people

was your characters. And just the Bears. Just

what did you feel if your kids. The school can help our boys and girls to become well-adjusted and happy even when their homes fail them. Are they providing the special services needed in your community particularly workers who will interpret the home to the school and the school to the child. Or is there unfinished business to be handled. They don't like school.

The technician and the Heinz unfinished business was produced by station and cooperation with the school of social administration of Ohio State University. From the Educational Television and Radio Center this program is distributed by the National Association of educational broadcasters less sponsors speaking. This is the network.