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Donald Wood (pictured), an algebra teacher at McGavock High School in Nashville, Tenn., had a nervous breakdown in class. He threw desks and chairs, and it was all caught on video by a student.
A friend of mine in his first year of teaching told me before I started teaching that you have to be mean in the first year. No smiles, no joking, no laughing at their jokes. And every once in a while, you have to "go crazy just so they know." By going crazy, he would bang a stack of books on the desks so they would be quiet. Sometimes he'd throw things (not at the students, though) or just go off on a random tirade just to break up the monotony.
No one, and I do mean no one, wants to mess with a crazy person.
My friend explained that if you do this early on you'll have their respect for the rest of the year. No teacher gets in to teaching thinking that most of their time will be spent trying to discipline students, and if you want to avoid that, then you have to employ "tactics" such as these.
Unfortunately, in the case of Donald Woods, though, I don't think this was a "tactic." He seems to have really lost his mind. This was best evidenced when he admitted that he was the one who set his school on fire. This is NOT a tactic that will earn you respect with students, though it will definitely scare them. And me.
With teaching, you never want to let them see you sweat. Teaching is like a war, especially if your students are in the 7th to 12th grades. I've taught junior high and high school students, as well as college kids, in the city and the to 12th and the suburbs, and it's all the same. You have to come up with something early on to make them afraid to mess with you.
Though I don't condone breaking furniture, I do understand some of the frustration Woods must have been feeling. Students today are often overly disrespectful and irresponsible. Add in the obsession with texting and Trey Songz' latest ringtones that go off during class time and you have a recipe for disaster. But if you get control of the class early and often, which Woods clearly was incapable of doing, then you can win the war. Teaching is not a job for the faint of heart.
Of course, I've been on the other side, too. I was not the most well-behaved child, and I've been chased by a few teachers in my day (whom I provoked and probably sent to therapy). But, hey, I got straight As.
A report released in 2008, showed that in the United States, 15-year-olds trailed their peers in math in 23 countries, including Canada, Japan and Korea. The report underscored concerns that too few U.S. students are prepared to become engineers, scientists, and physicians, and the country is losing ground to its competitors. No surprise here. Did I mention that Woods was an Algebra teacher?
After the incident, Woods was hospitalized and put on administrative leave. If the federal government really wants to help the school system, forget No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top and all the other government programs doomed to fail. Find concrete ways to give teachers extra resources and support, or a Donald Woods' meltdown likely won't be the last.
Watch Woods in the classroom here:
Comments: (26)
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By: Shellfish789 on 10/12/2010 11:11AM
As a FORMER teacher....I k now what he is going thru...he is trying to teach a bunch of IDIOTS......I went thru the same thing.......I feel sorry for this man...and YES you can have a nervous break down teaching these IDIOTS...because they don't want to learn...they come to school with GHETTO-Gangster Attitude and they don't want to learn....they cause trouble in class and the FEW KIDS that want to learn can not learn because of DRAMA in the class room......the kids who want to learn are sitting silently, but they will be BULLIED BY THE IDIOTS......I can not even watch this whole video...because it bring back memories......It was wrong from him to throw the chair, but MY GOD look what he has to go thru...and whats really SAD....It's Black kids...That's the SAD thing about it.....I know all Black kids are not like this...but when I taught it was mostly the inner city kids causing the trouble for me......MY HEALTH and SANITY MEANT MORE TO ME than a paycheck.......and it all come from HOME TRAINING and having respect.
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By: jb on 10/12/2010 11:57AM
God Bless teachers, I couldn't do it!
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By: Zenobia on 10/13/2010 5:03PM
I am ashamed to have to agree with you. I ashamed that these kids are black who are taunting this teacher and causing the kids who want to learn to lose out because they cannot stop disruptive behavior long enough to learn the very things that will help them in the long run. I admire your ability to define that it is not always black kids, but here it is clearly the black students who are stealing education from the other kids, black and white. How do I know this? My mother taught school for over thirty years.WE are BLACK. I was an exceptional student and taunted all of my life for being "brainy" etc by folks who did not want to learn. I have taught on a lower level. Pre-schoolers who were actually UPSET by my wanting to teach them nursery rhymes and "children" type things but they knew all the lyrics to rap songs, all the nasty little booty dances they learned at home and could out-cuss anyone I ever knew. Yes, someone black will demean me and say something about my upbringing, etc....but no matter who has fought and died in civil rights years, who has tried to better the situation, and who is in the white house, there remains a set of pants-sagging, non-productive, whining, complaining, talking loud on the cell phone, irritated and upset black folks, who for the life of me, I cannot understand.
I can sit here and blame rap, or poverty, or whatever, but it goes beyond this...because we had controversial songs, dances, leaders, etc....
This is a new breed. This is a whole group that I do not understand and as much as I do not understand them, I would like to embrace them, and love them and teach them, but they are not receptive. This man was at his wit's end. We holler, "There are no more dedicated teachers".
This man was not allowed to do the one thing he went to college to do and that is to TEACH. He did not envision so much hostility to such a simple thing. He merely wanted to teach.
I hope that he will get help and perhaps be allowed to teach in a better environment.
I already know where the disruptive young people in this video are headed. I weep for them as well.
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By: Skeewee on 10/14/2010 12:21AM
My heartached for this teacher due to this NCLB act tht passed everyone schools are scared to be ecognized as a failing school. No children are suspended and basically teachers have to babysit the hoodlums who refuse to work and still teach the ones who want to learn.
All children know they will be passed if they are special education or already failed twice. The only hope is when these criminals get to 9th grade they will drop out while the others who want to learn can. The sad part is ignorant people breed like rabbits and we have to pay for generations of alcohol drug babbies. They come in all ethnic roups and people thought Obama would change this idea that everyone is going to college and fix our system but he made it worse and kept all the nuts in a classroom.
New teachers are leaving and giving them the best students is causing many schools to fail. Retaining senority teachers is going to effect our country because their true love for teaching is not being passed on to new teachers.
Our educational system is basically shot to hell and I would not encourage anyone to enter this profession. Major in Science, Math, Medicine or Criminal Justice because you will always have a solid high paying career.
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By: Shellfish789 on 10/14/2010 7:50AM
The school system is so bad....I can't even begin to describe it....1).you have Bad-Ass Kids that have this "GHETTO-Gangster" attitude coming to school...they are disrespectful and DANGEROUS!..2) you have teacher who don't give a damn or have giving up and/or BURNT OUT because of all the DRAMA....3) they send BAD teachers in INNER CITY SCHOOL....from what I was told teachers get paid thousands of dollars more to go into these inner city schools....so they "Jump on it"...and they sit there and do less than minimal teaching...because they have an attitude "THEY NOT GONNA LEARN ANYWAY or BE ANYTHING" so I'll just do less than the minimal.....yes they build new school in some inner city area...but they have the same disrespectful kids and BAD teachers...so two wrongs do not equal a right or progress in education.....I HOME-SCHOOL MY SON!
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By: Linda Abbey on 10/12/2010 3:39PM
What happened to the days of suspending a student for misconduct? Too many parents filing lawsuits against teachers? Perhaps if parents were not so quick to blame teachers for all their children's behavior issues, then our educators would not get to the point of this level of frustration.
Perhaps if schools had enough staff to allow teachers real breaks, instead of loading them down with all the "enrichmnent" requirements teachers would not get to this level of frustration. Other professions get breaks daily.
However, there should be a remedy of expelling students who disrupt classes. Maybe an alternative school for habitual problem students like the detention of my generation EXCEPT, parents would be billed for the cost if their children had to be placed in detention so that the public schools could get back to art of education. The old saying - hit them in the pocket book just might give parents incentives to assure they are sending their children to school to learn. Parents and our education system allows, and even expects, teachers to spend their own money providing resources for the courses they teach... doesn't it make sense to fine parents for the additional costs misconduct causes?
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By: bestausweh on 10/12/2010 5:37PM
Where are the parent these days?
Working two jobs to keep a roof over their heads leaving no time for the kids? But that does not exclude them not taking the time to discipline and teaching them respect for others. This has now crossed generations and there is now no one for generations to teach kids discipline and respect. The parents are now as messed up themselves never having learned or been taught the right priorities. I hope this teacher did not lose his job over this. I hope they gave him a rest and transferred him somewhere else. But where else? This problem is now rampant. Even the rich are now home-schooling their kids. Who wants to be a teacher is this environment these days?
Hopeless times!
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By: Skeewee on 10/14/2010 12:19AM
Please a child can curse a teacher out and they will ask you what did you do to provoke it. Call the parent they will curse you out for bothering them. Some our our schools are prison babysitting centers and probably teaching in jail has more rules.
No one is making parents responsible for their children. Its the teachers fault if the child does not come to school. Kid stays up all night with parents does not come to school on time and teacher is pentalized because the kid is consistently late. What sense does that make? Teacher must spend her planning time documenting that she called parent to tell them the child is late and as if they do not know. Can't plan a lesson because you are wasting that time making phone calls.
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By: Shellfish789 on 10/14/2010 8:01AM
You know....some of these parents are just as "GHETTO GANGSTERS" themselves and seek the opportunity to cause trouble with the school or the teacher....they would rather SPEND MONEY ON DESIGNER STUFF than to go to the library with their kids or even buy a book at BARNES and NOBLE.....then when their kids act out...they want to come in the school ALL HUFF UP ready to fight the teacher or principle because their child has been SPOKEN TO ABOUT THEIR BEHAVIOR.......IF SOMEONE OFFERED ME A MILLION DOLLARS TO TEACH.....( and I've been offer lots of money to teach again)...I WOULD NOT TAKE IT!!!! like I said MY HEALTH AND SANITY and my LIFE..MEANS MORE TO ME than MONEY!
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By: tired of POOR ME attitude on 10/12/2010 4:19PM
Ghetto rats don't deserve an education they don't respect ANYTHING!
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