I Teach Middle School Science and SB6 is a BAD Bill

I am a middle school science teacher. I teach and use the scientific method daily at a Title One school. I don’t get many of the “good” students. Most of the kids who will do their work are in the pre-IB program. All of the kids in the pre-IB program walked into school on the first day of this year able to pass the Science FCAT. Not my students.

You see, it took me 3 weeks at the beginning of the year to get my “Z” period class to walk in quietly and sit down. Yes, we practiced every day 2-3 times at the beginning of class. I have still not won the battle to have every student enter the room with a pencil. Yes, you read that correctly, a PENCIL.  They are in 8th grade and do not have a pencil every day!

Before you blame their previous teachers, how about a little background? One is the child of a broken home where the mother is a former drug addict. One is gone now gone due to being expelled for bring drugs to school. One has a serious mental illness and medication doesn’t work. One has been suspended multiple times this year for who knows what. Eighty percent of them are in intensive reading classes. None of them like to read. Most are behavior problems. Several are unable to see the whiteboard because they need glasses or have lost their glasses or won’t wear them because glasses conflict with their image of themselves. Do you see where I am going with this? With the exception of a bright, but lazy gifted student, none scored above a “2” on the fifth grade FCAT test.

But you know what? I love this class now. They know how to enter the room. Everyone has made learning gains this year. We work, we  have fun with labs and yes, I still have the occasional struggle with discipline. I have the few responsive parents on speed dial and stay late at night to update parents. We have come so far this year. But is it enough?

Here is my concern: My students are benefitting from my 20 plus years in the classroom. But will that translate to enough to maintain my salary if SB6 and its companion bill in the house pass? I think not. So Florida will lose another teacher because I will take my skills and degrees somewhere else. This is about self-respect. I will have none if SB6 passes because the students and parents will know that all responsibility will fall on my shoulders.

Is the real purpose of SB6 to get teachers such as myself to leave so we can be replaced with brand new teachers who wouldn’t last the day in my “Z” period class? It can’t be because scientific studies back it up because they don’t.

In parting, let me share what a child psychiatrist told me about this bill, “If Florida wants to be at the top of the world in education, why don’t they look at what the countries at the top do? They observe children carefully, nurture them, and put them on an educational track commensurate with their abilities. We don’t want to do that and this plan will never work because it is not educationally valid. Too bad we’re so short-sighted.”

There is nothing I can add.