Michael Swickard
It did not take me long to find myself in trouble. Thirty minutes into my first day in kindergarten, the powers-that-be just flat ran out of patience with me acting like a boy. So I was put in “time out.”
That was a surprise to me because I went to school that first day to “Help them run the joint.” They were not appreciative.
We reached the first difficulty with the teacher jerking me off the boy I was sitting on and scolding me briskly. But I was not listening, so I do not know what she said. Gosh, I thought to myself, I hope the rest of the day gets better.
It did not.
Two things I learned quickly. First, the school personnel did not like boys who acted like boys, and I was a boy who acted like a boy. It was not just kindergarten. Throughout my entire time in public school I was in trouble most every day for acting like a boy. It was nothing all that bad, but I was loath to sit quietly listening to stuff to which I had no interest. I wiggled and was distracted and pushed first or pushed back with other boys.
Mercifully for both me and the school system, I reached my last school day. It was the day before high school graduation. Several of us boys were acting like boys. We were sent to the office where we got one last swat. They had beat on me for a dozen years without changing my behavior one iota, and still they could not resist one last swat. I snuck a wad of gum onto the handle of the swat paddle when no one was looking and left.
I thought school was stupid beyond words because they wanted me to not act like a boy, but I was a boy. Here is how stupid: When someone pushes you there were several things that could be done. They thought I should raise my hand meekly and wait to be called upon before I said, “That big DUM just pushed me.”
Or, I could take care of it right then, which is what a boy does. I pushed back, which provided an instant satisfactory boy feeling. But it also caused teachers to frown and yell at me for acting like a boy.
Someone was stupid, that is for sure. They got on me every day for all those years without once changing me from acting like a boy. Every day for all those years they only had one thing to say: “Do not act like a boy.”
This is still the single most identifiable problem in public schools. The boys act like boys and it disrupts the operation of the schools. I see it happening every day. The little secret in public schools is that some teachers know how to manage boys and most do not. Whopping on them does no good. You have to treat boys like you do spirited horses. Run them in the round corral for 30 minutes and they are much more docile. Make them stand or sit quietly and it boils up in them until they just run amok.
Here is stupid personified: When a boy acts like a boy, what is the first thing the schools do? They take away his recess and make him sit quietly while all of the other boys run and yell and get some of the boy out of their system. So a little later public enemy boy acts up again so they take away the next recess.
At the core the problem is that schools have a one-size-fits-all mentality despite swearing on a stack of curriculum guides that they do not. How you treat high-spirited boys is much different than girls. Rather than think that everyone should act like a girl, perhaps a different management technique should be used.
Boys have been acting like boys for about 5,000 generations, while the modern schools are only about five generations old. What are the chances that boys will stop acting like boys? None. What are the chances that the leaders in public schools will understand this point? Also, none.
Swickard is co-host of the radio talk show News New Mexico, which airs from 6 to 9 a.m. Monday through Friday on KSNM-AM 570 in Las Cruces and throughout the state through streaming. His e-mail address is michael@swickard.com.