I sent the following letter to the Oprah Show Producers. As expected, it went unnoticed among the thousands they receive daily. I am presenting it to show my anguish at the estimated 14 million students punished and humiliated by failure.

An Open Letter to Oprah Winfrey

No child abuse is more insidious and pervasive than the shame and suffering inflicted on millions of school children by punitive, repeated failure and grade retention. In the mismatch between teaching and learning, the school labels them failures, publicizes their failure and makes the failure the students’ fault and problem

Unable to avoid failure, and the accompanying embarrassment and pain, these deprived students resort to defensive ploys such as clowning, disrespect, apathy and hostility to avoid exposing their discomfiture. Being “bad” is preferable to being dumb. Defiance precludes exposure of incompetence. Teachers, concerned with class control and group instruction, treat the defense mechanisms as causal factors instead of symptoms, punish the offenses rather than acknowledge misbehavior as a cover-up.

Compelled to attend class, at-risk students live in fear-–fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of judgment, and fear of being labeled “dumb”. Most of all, they fear they may actually be dumb, making defensiveness a matter of survival.

Until teachers recognize the pain, fear, and life-altering shame, they will continue contributing to at-risk student’s anguish. Tragically, students cannot help themselves. The daunting stigma of failure is incessant because of the false assumption that failing students “Ask for it.” Teachers expect students to pull themselves up by their bootstraps--an impossibility--.they have no boots.

Unquestioned tradition and unexamined myths permit the pernicious failure and its debilitating consequences to continue. The shameful abuse needs to be brought to the attention of the public. Only through public awareness of the tragic dilemma of these suffering students with a call to action, can their imperiled lives be salvaged. Publicity, concern, and pressure can offer the helpless, hapless, innocent students the ultimate defense—exposure of their plight on the Oprah Show. Thank you., Oprah.

Sincerely,
Bill Page
615-833-1086
billpage@bellsouth.net
www.teacherteacher.com

Note: In my concern for teachers struggling to maintain class discipline amidst the student disrespect, defiance, and parental detachment, I became acutely conscious of the plight of those same misbehaving students being subjected daily to humiliation, punishment and failure--an even worse predicament than the teachers' dilemma.
The causal relationship between teachers’ struggle and students’ suffering is directly related. Angry, frustrated, and discouraged, teachers have some choices, however limited and seemingly futile. But, students, compelled to attend school where they are being demeaned, denigrated, and damaged for life, and have neither viable choice nor understood voice. The best hope for the suffering students is for a respected model to advocate for them.

From “At-Risk Students”, a new book by billpage@TeacherTeacher.com