Seven Years a Teacher: An Engineer’s Perspective On Public Schools

By Charles J Yates, PE

A concise analysis of the basic problems with our Public Schools, and a succinct guide to fixing them! Once in the classroom I learned the limitations of the current platform that dictates the operation of Public Schools in the United States. This book addresses 25 primary and secondary topics that should be addressed if we are serious about Public School reform in the United States. Each chapter is easily read and digested in 20 minutes. The reader should find each chapter entertaining as each contains at least one story that showcases the problem and the ensuing discussion is brief and to the point.

The author grew up in Wyoming, attended an exploratory high school attached to the University of Wyoming, earned a Bachelor of Science with honors in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wyoming, worked in the mining and chemical processing industry in Wyoming and Colorado, taught high school math for seven years, and is now retired in Jackson, Wyoming.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Apr 8, 2015
• ISBN: 9781483428031

Book preview

SEVEN YEARS

A TEACHER

An Engineer’s Perspective On Public Schools

Charles J Yates, PE

Copyright © 2015 Charles J Yates Consulting LLC.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

The stories in this book are fictional. The names, characters, places, incidents, and chronologies are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, institutions, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-2804-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-2803-1 (e)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 03/23/2015

CONTENTS

Introduction and Philosophy

1   Graduation Week at Burning Mountain High School

2   1964 Corvair Monza Two Door Hardtop

3   Basic Statistics Without Formulas

4   Do International Tests Favor European Students?

5   I Bet That I Can Get A Lower Score Than You Can!

6   The Power of One

7   Great Teachers Make a Great School…..Or Do They?

8   It Will Scar Her for Life

9   You F______ Douche Bag

10   Bullies, Bathrooms, and Busses

11   Mom! Call the School! I Am Going to the X-Games

12   Boobs, Butt Cracks, and Drawers

13   Pepper Spray and Baseball Bats

14   One Hundred Pushups for the Math Teacher

15   I ‘Wannabe’ A Professional Soccer Player!

16   My Son is Gifted and Talented

17   Don’t Let My Son Fall Through the Cracks

18   How to Play the Cheating Game

19   I Need to Copy Your Homework

20   Every Student Needs an iPad® Or Do They?

21   Teams Produce a Better Result Than Any One Individual

22   Is the One Room Schoolhouse Model of 100 Years Ago Valid Today?

23   Sages and Scribes

24   The Hispanic Students are Now Gringos!

25   Computer Game Designers and Foreign Relations Studies

26   The Path Forward

Abbreviations

Glossary

Reader’s Guide

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to all of the students I taught at Coal Ridge High School, who energized and enriched my life every day, and reminded me with their intellect, enthusiasm, humor, insights, and politics that we are indeed in good hands going forward!

FORWARD

Dear Reader,

If you have picked up this book, you are about to embark on an incredible journey. I have had the great pleasure of not only having Mr. Charlie Yates as a teacher, but the honor of calling him my friend. While in high school Mr. Yates taught life lessons. Well, actually it was math class, but as I have grown older it isn’t the math lessons that have stuck with me during my life. It was the things that could not be taught out of a textbook that continue to guide me in my life. While he taught math, some of the greatest things that Mr. Yates left his students with were his stories of life. He taught us not to give up and to always try, no matter what. Mr. Yates always encouraged his students to be the best that they could be. He genuinely cares for his students. Whether the students were in his class or have graduated, Mr. Yates always has time for them. Mr. Yates continues to inspire me and I am so lucky to have such an inspirational man in my life.

Amber Pagni, Class of 2011

In the small town of New Castle, Colorado at a school named Coal Ridge High School, math teacher Mr. Yates was a man whom many will never forget. Some students will remember him for his incredible teaching abilities while others marveled at how he could outlast students a fraction his age in a push up contest. For me and the majority of my classmates, our fondest memory is when Mr. Yates would sit on his stool at the front of class and with his coffee thermos in one hand he would begin his famous story time. Everyone looked at story time as ten less minutes spent learning about the radian circle; however, the lessons I learned from his stories have proven just as useful to me as the pre-calculus material he taught! Mr. Yates has a way with words and his entertaining anecdotes have the ability to captivate audiences young and old. It was Mr. Yates’ college and career stories that persuaded me to pursue a career in engineering. As a college student just embarking on my life’s path, I am tremendously grateful to have received such valuable and wise advice through the crafty story telling of the one and only Mr. Yates.

Gunnar Pagni, Class of 2012

PREFACE

I did not start my second career as a high school math teacher with any thought of writing a book on my experiences. I have historically been a conversational critic of our public schools because of the ranking of the United States compared to the other 65 first world countries included in international test scores. I have also been critical from the viewpoint of a father of three daughters who actually experienced an education that was short on rigor and long on athletics, activities, and social inclusion.

Once in the classroom I learned the limitations of the current platform that dictates the operation of Public Schools in the United States. I have written a book which addresses 24 primary and secondary topics that should be addressed if we are serious about Public School reform in the United States. Each chapter is easily read and digested in 20 minutes. The reader should find each chapter entertaining as each contains at least one story that showcases the problem and the ensuing discussion is brief and to the point.

I am an engineer by training and am knowledgeable about the relationship between the design of a system and the quality of the product. I am very certain that the current platform for educating our students in the Public Schools in the United States will not produce test scores that are stellar when compared to other first world countries. Nor will the system produce what we call ‘proficient or advanced’ for all of the students in the system. Our system, is in fact, mediocre among first world countries. This mediocrity will haunt us as a nation until we reform the Public School System.

Charles J Yates PE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I owe a deep gratitude to the Garfield RE2 School District, based in Rifle, Colorado, for the opportunity to teach high school math, at the age of 57, after I retired from a wonderful career in engineering and industrial management. It was a great second career.

I am indebted to my daughter Molly Potas, MA, MA for all of the time and effort she spent in working on constructive solutions to pedagogical problems; she teaches English in Meeteetse, Wyoming.

I am indebted to all of the readers and editors of my manuscript; my daughter Julie Yates, Esq, my wife Anita, Ginger Ragazzi, Beth Sass, Jeanie Humble, Kelly Morrison-Lake, Craig and Dee Parks, Jim Roth, Jeanette Petersen, and Terri Ell.

Charles J Yates

INTRODUCTION AND PHILOSOPHY

The public schools in the United States are either doing very poorly or they are right on target! It depends on your point of view and your philosophy on education.

The public is bombarded by highly publicized negative information on the Public School System in the United States; both on the news networks and in the form of advertisements. These participants in public discourse point out that among the top 65 countries in the world, in academic excellence, the United States ranks in the middle. They point out that this was not the case 30 to 40 years ago, when we ranked near the top.

What has changed in the world that has caused the United States Public School System to fall from the top of the pack to the middle of the pack, when compared to other first world countries? Two things have changed. Other countries have invested great effort and resources in their educational systems, many times with great results. The United States Public School System has been on a different track. Our public school system has chosen to address the social ills of our society in the classroom. In our attempt for social inclusion of all students in all circumstances, we have diluted the quality of the product of our system, OUR STUDENTS. While we have concentrated on a high school diploma for everyone, social promotions, and social inclusion in the classroom, our focus on academics has suffered.

This is not an academic thesis on pedagogy. You will not find it littered with sources and citations.

The intended audience is not academia, although they could benefit greatly by reading this book.

The intended audiences are parents, school boards, and administrators; as well as the public at large.

While teachers are not perfect, they are not the makers of the problems addressed in this book. However, by reading this book, they will gain insight into the complexity of problems attendant to our public schools.

While I am an educator only as a second career, I have received a wealth of insight from teaching in the public school system for 7 years. I taught high school math in Western Colorado as a second career after retiring from the mining and chemical industry. My college education is in mechanical engineering. My career moved from engineering to industrial management over the 35 years following graduation from the University of Wyoming. During that time, industry underwent cataclysmic changes as we struggled to remain competitive with an ever changing world. The changes were difficult and destroyed many careers and businesses that were slow footed. Our economy has survived as one of the two largest in the world and our standard of living has survived as one of the highest in the world.

Are there any lessons to be learned from business that are applicable to the current state of our public educational system? The answer is a resounding yes! In this book we will explore our historical path forward as the United States lost its competitive advantages in industry, regained its strength, and continues to move forward at an ever accelerating rate of change. The changes required to the public school system are simpler than you might think.

I am a story teller. I have accumulated a life time of interesting stories from people of all ages and backgrounds. I frequently told stories in the classroom to impart a life lesson. This book is full of stories. For this author, the best way to open a discourse on the changes needed in our school system, is through story telling. Each chapter starts with a story and then delivers a lesson on the limitations of the current public school system in the United States. Each chapter is intentionally short. Each chapter can be read in 20 minutes. Taken all together, these changes can represent a giant step forward in our competitiveness on the world stage. They are not easy to implement. They take moral courage and risk; risk in the form of the backlash of many of the stakeholders in the current system.

The thought that I would ask you to ponder as you read each chapter is this: if you were asked to design a public school system for a country of 300 million people that had no such system, and you chose the one that we currently have in the United States, what would be the expected results? The results would be exactly what we have! A system that values social inclusion of all students in all circumstances, and delivers a mediocre academic product; that product being OUR STUDENTS, OUR CHILDREN, OUR FUTURE!

Charles J Yates PE

CHAPTER ONE

GRADUATION WEEK AT BURNING MOUNTAIN HIGH SCHOOL

THE WORTHLESS HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA

I leave my classroom and enter into the dark hallway. The hallway is reminiscent of my days in the mining industry, long tunnels with very little light. All of the lights are off for energy efficiency and only a small pool of light from the emergency lights mark the way to the front office and the copying machines; I need to make copies of my final exams. The school is deathly quiet at 9:00 in the evening as the air conditioning is also off for energy efficiency. I feel like there is no one else in the school save a custodian who is not in my wing at the moment. The copy room is dark, but as I enter the administration complex, I notice a strong sliver of light emitting under the door of the Futures Room, which is part of the Guidance Office. I finish my copies, turn off the light in the copy room and as I pass the Futures Room, the door opens and one of our guidance counselors exits with two boys and they head to the bathroom. I recognize both boys. It is common knowledge among the teaching staff that they will not be graduating with their class on Sunday. If they have put any effort into their time at Burning Mountain High School (BMHS), it has been to make sure that they do virtually no work in any class and present as many management difficulties as possible for their teachers and administrators.

Tyson and Javier look worn out and dispirited as they shuffle to the bathroom. Their guidance counselor looks exhausted but determined as he acknowledges my presence and heads to the staff restroom. I will discover later that they have been working long days for less than a week to initiate AND complete on-line courses in order to graduate with their class on Sunday. The on line classes at our high school are overused and misused. Normally, they last an entire semester and serve to take students who are management problems out of the classroom or in a rare case to fill in a requirement for an average or above average student. So these two erstwhile students are blazing through on-line courses with the ‘aid’ of a guidance counselor. As this information filters through the teaching staff, there is a general level of disgust, frustration, and resignation that acknowledges that indeed these two boys will receive a high school diploma on Sunday. They recall all of the efforts they have made to work with both students over four years without any reciprocal effort on their part.

Sunday is a blue sky day in the Rockies, with a slight breeze, a brilliant sun and the football field stands filled with parents, friends and families. The vista in all four directions includes mountains, trees, sky, and little else. I reflect on the year as I sit in my gown waiting for the ceremony to start and my opportunity to deliver the commencement address for the teaching staff. As I watch the Graduates of 2012 parade onto the field, I recognize almost every one of the 100+ Students who comprise the graduating class. Maria will be graduating number two in her class and going to Colorado State University and major in pre-med. Greg will graduate in the top ten in his class and has already received a scholarship for the Colorado School of Mines. Gideon will go to Western State and major in football and whatever else it takes to stay eligible, ever hopeful that somehow his future will include football. He, as yet, does not know that his back will be broken in two places and he will somehow miraculously be able to continue playing football for some time in anticipation of his next and final injury that will finish all of his football aspirations. Max is an average student and will run up large student loans to pursue his dream of being a graphic designer for computer games. He is about as likely to attain that goal as Gideon is to play professional football. Kathleen walks out of formation, detached from the other students, and gazes abstractedly at something on the BMHS scoreboard. Kathleen has serious learning disabilities and reads and writes at a second grade level. She is devoid of all social skills and has no friends in this parade of students. I also spot both Javier and Tyson, who with conspicuous sunglasses and bare legs under their robes make a sport out of disrupting as many of their classmates as possible on the short journey to their chairs for this occasion. I smile and wave at Trista Charta, who as Valedictorian, will deliver the commencement address for the students, and will enter a nursing program at a private university. She is the second Charta sibling to be Valedictorian and probably not the last. I can also picture what the future portends for most of the other 100+ Graduates who also find their chairs in front of the crowd.

The remarkable thing is that all of these Graduates will receive the same diploma from Burning Mountain High School. You can post all 100+ diplomas on the wall and you will not be able to differentiate between their capabilities and work ethic. All college recruiters know this and will use ACT and SAT scores to sort out who they want at their institution and who they will not admit. They will also check grade point averages (GPA) for a calibration of their attendant work ethic. They will also look at their school and community activities if the applicant pool is particularly competitive. They will not look at their high school diploma from Burning Mountain High School; it will tell them nothing. Of all of this information, their ACT or SAT score will carry the most weight and will carry the day and send them on their way to the sorting corrals of life. This is due to the fact that it is the only barometer the recruiter will have that compares them to other students on a national basis that is objective. There is no requirement that they take an exit exam, pass their 10th grade CSAP (Colorado Student Assessment Program) tests at a proficient or advanced level, or even pass a rigorous benchmark of attendance.

This will also be the first time in many of these student’s short lives that they will not be welcome at a multitude of educational institutions that they would like to attend. The public school system is