expectations, reality

the students are as i expected. Only the administration suprises me. Although I expected disorginizatiohn and ineptitude, I am constantly shocked by the lack of common sense in the structuring drives me insane. Standing around the gym all day doesn't really seem to be a good substitute for instructional time. Kids are motivated by fear and humiliation. I want my kids to be good people, and I don't want to model bad behavior for them. The way you get people to do things shouldn't be through fear and humiliation. It's so negative and mean. What are you teaching children by employing a strategy like that? Is it too much to ask to ask kids and administrators to use reason?
The lack of dialogue is a little alarming, as well. The administration doesn't foster the kind of enviornment where dialogue is possible. It's all about the pecking order, it seems. The power structure dictates that I am to an administrator as a student is to me. Often, I don't even feel like an adult. Groaning silently to ourselves as the principal yells at us and then going back to the classroom to yell at our student whilst they groan to themselves silently? How will they treat their friends? How will they treat their children?

I have never beleived that humiliation was an effective teaching strategy. When people yell at me, I shut down. It doesn't make me want to succeed, it makes me want to escape notice. It makes me afraid, not inspired.

We need to treat our children with love. It's all anyone really wants, anyway.