EduShyster has a guest column by a teacher who recently finished teaching at UP Academy in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The UP network has five schools. They are not charter schools, though their authoritarian practices appear to be modeled on “no excuses” charter schools. They are zoned 6-8 public middle schools. The schools get high test scores, and the US Department of Education recently awarded them $4.3 million to replicate. Its disciplinary polices are harsh and unforgiving. While the schools get high test scores, shouldn’t we wait and see what other results follow from such schools before paying taxpayer dollars to get more of them? I would never let my children or grandchildren go to such a soulless school, but that’s just me. In the case of UP academies, parents don’t have a choice.
I was hired to teach at UP Academy in Lawrence, MA starting in August of 2014. Everyone on staff had a duty and mine was to stand in the girl’s bathroom and make sure that the students were leaving quickly and that they only used two pumps of soap and took two paper towels. If they used more I was supposed to give them a demerit. Everything is timed, and teachers walk around with timers. Kids are timed when they go to the bathroom and when they have their snack so that they aren’t wasting valuable learning time. At orientation, which lasted a month before the start of schools, we spent an entire day on how to pass papers and how to get the students to compete against each other as they did this.
When it comes to math and English, UP Academy is teaching a lot, but there’s no emphasis on anything else. Students get social studies and science for half a year; PE and art are considered *specials* and students only get them for an hour a week. The only time students leave their classrooms is when they’re going to PE, art or lunch. After sitting all day, they have to line up in single file in total silence, not making a single peep, hands behind their backs, everything tucked in—like perfect soldiers. I’d have to transport them to my classroom, giving them merits and demerits along the way.
There were fifteen minutes total for the the entire class to go to the bathroom. This was twice a day, in the morning and later in the afternoon. There was an average of 32 kids in the class and when we called their names, they would indicate whether they had to go to the bathroom or not by saying *yes, thank you* or *no, thank you.* You’d start from the top of the list in the morning and those people would go to the bathroom. In the afternoon, names would get called from the bottom up. If students didn’t get called, they couldn’t use the bathroom. Students have two emergency bathroom passes they can use during the semester. If they use them up they get a detention.
There is more to read. Frankly, I find this bordering on child abuse. This is the kind of school that superior people design for other people’s children, not their own.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on Politicians Are Poody Heads and commented:
This doesn’t just “border on” child abuse. It IS child abuse.
It flies in the face of everything we know about child psychology and child development. It’s abusive and unethical.
I will go even further and call it modern day slavery. This type of treatment will not stop until people of color stand up and say enough is enough-stop using our children to make yourself look good.
Schools that encourage contempt for children. Schools that de-humanize children. Schools that treat children worse than dogs. And this is the cutting edge of modern day education reform?
B. F. Skinner’s behaviorism coupled with Frederick Winslow Taylor’s time and motion studies a la Scientific Management applied to children. Disgusting.
Nice observations.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
As Edushyster’s piece alludes to, the presence of Teach For America (or its spin-offs) is critical for this type of schooling to be accepted by a teaching staff. The TFA indoctrination process is real and the lack of training and super stressful environments contribute to the types of workers willing to do this truly racist type of education. Others have said it better, but I was just thinking about TFA’s role in this type of Orwellian teaching environment: http://mskatiesramblings.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-dangers-of-teach-for-america.html
I urge all viewers of this blog to read the Edushyster piece linked to in the posting and click on the link provided in this comment.
Must reads.
This is so sad and disheartening. What will these children do when they become adults and have to think and act for themselves? My cousins who grew up in East Germany had greater freedom of thought.
Greg B: the reference to another time and place is quite relevant.
From the interview:
[start]
The school is taking away the joy of learning. You don’t hear laughter. You don’t hear kids being kids. They took away my joy as a teacher. I would come home at the end of the day and I would tell my husband: *I don’t have a story to tell you. I don’t even want to think about it.* It was killing me. The school was taking away the culture of these children, almost of all of whom were from the Dominican Republic. There were two girls, they were sisters, and one was in 8th grade, the other was in 7th grade and they would come in every morning and they would say goodbye with a hug. They would get detentions if they were caught saying goodbye to each other. They were sisters! And they would get reprimanded for showing affection. They knew that with me they could at least hug goodbye.
[end]
Think of what it should mean to be a responsible citizen of this country, an informed resident of planet Earth, a caring member of the human race.
The school is teaching all the wrong kinds of lessons.
Thank you for your comments.
😎
This school environment is Orwellian at its worst. The only thing missing is public shaming and/or caning like they do to children in Singapore’s public schools. I’m sure there is a “want list” and the psychopaths behind this public education environment have caning and/or public shaming on that list.
There may be shaming. Success Academies shame. They put your test scores up, maybe make you sit out, take “privileges” away, wear a
different colored tshirt?
What if a child gets diarrhea? Constipated? What if they feel sick to their stomachs and have to vomit? What if a female gets/has her period and needs to change?
“After sitting all day, they have to line up in single file in total silence, not making a single peep, hands behind their backs, everything tucked in—like perfect soldiers.” NOT LIKE SOLDIERS, like criminals. Scholars equals dollars. Scholars is a euphemism for “little prisoner.” These schools are run like penitentiaries.
When are parents and students going to rebel?
“In the case of UP academies, parents don’t have a choice.” This because they are not charters, they are zoned? And so goes the choice argument, down the toilet. I’ve said many times, when your neighborhood school is shuttered, and left to rot, or replaced by a charter that serves 1st and 2nd grade only, your options if you can afford it are private/religious school, or go the chatter if it serves the grade(s) your kid(s) is in, or you go across town, on a bus, for an hour, in towns like Newark where the One Newark App generally didn’t give families their first choice. Regardless, choice means much of the time no choice. The choice has been taken away.
Do the parents care?
Is there an elected school board?
Who is on it?
Does it know what is going on?
Does it care?
Has home schooling increased in this area?
Just a few questions.
As a K teacher, I am not rigid or regimented. In fact, I am loving and rather flexible. I am against most testing in K. And I am FOR learning through play. However, that bathroom shenanigans…! I have one male student who thinks he is Spiderman – climbing up onto the urinals and scaling across them! One of my girls likes to climb onto the toilet and look over. Or look under. They are mischievous. So, when I take them to the bathroom (usually my aide does this), you bet I stand outside and count down from ten (slowly) while they are in the bathroom. Is this akin to using a timer?
I am a fourth grade teacher and I had a bit of the same reaction. I do a lot of the things mentioned – although I am considered by one and all to be a nurturing, public school, Alfie Kohnsh, constructivest teacher. My heavens, if I did not time snack it would last for an hour. Also, our art, gym etc. are called “specials” every school calls them specials, and they last for 45 minutes a day. Is that considered harsh? I am afraid it is a public school standard. Finally, I do not count soap squirts, or paper towel use, but I am watchful of bathroom use as I have many students who would gladly hang out in the bathroom four an hour.
Many of the things mentioned are a regular part of public school life. Many things mentioned are do sound horribly rigid and dictatorial.
Just thought I would comment from the trenches like kindergarteninterlude.
In our middle school, certain boys urinate on each other, on the floor and in the soap dispensers to as to get the thrill of seeing other boys wash their hands with their urine.
Curmudgucation has a lot of details in this blog/article today…. MCAS etc… and Fordham Institute with their hyper-marketing … This is the same thing Fordham did with the Sir Michael Barber hyper marketing that the MA Business Alliance pushed with the Board of Ed…. http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2016/02/fordham-provides-more-core-testing-pr.html It gives me visions of David Berliner’s description of Cronbach pounding on his head about validity. Why is it none of these people who do hyper marketing know anything about validity ?
What always strikes me as absurd about this regimentation is that if the kids go along with it you don’t need to use it.
Maybe the use of this discipline is to ensure you do not enroll anyone who resists. That way the school does not have to educate for real critical thinking.