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Dear Bladen County!

I am writing this letter as a parent and as an educator. Our county continues to go through disrupt each year as teachers and administration is moved around. It’s no longer an issue for the Bladen County School Board, this is where our County Commissioners need to come in.

First and foremost, our society is on the brink of destruction. Our children do not have respect for themselves or others, our children are entitled, and as parents it’s our job to correct this. The children now, the ones that are currently enrolled in school…those are the people that will be making decisions for us as retired citizens. Think about this for a second, are you comfortable with your child making decisions for you? I love my children, they are smart, well-mannered and somewhat educated. If things continue to go as they are, I don’t want them making decisions for me. Our school system has suffered since Hurricane Matthew. Children that have been in school since 2016 have had no stability. This does not include those who come from bad homes. We’ve had Matthew, Florence and covid. Children who have been in school for 8 years, are at least 2 grade levels behind academically and maturally, to no fault of their own. Our county is one of the poorest counties, so add to that children who are raising siblings. Children who do not have food, do not have parents, are raised by elderly grandparents or who have one working parent on night shift. We are responsible for the next generation. Sitting by while there is bickering back and forth will never accomplish anything.

We all complain, but guess what, we are part of the problem? We elected our government officials. We chose who would represent our areas. Those representatives then chose who should represent our school system. Every teacher that has been in a classroom will agree with me on this next statement. You should not be in any type of administration or leadership position in the school system until you have worked in a classroom, because here’s the problem. We vote in people based on popularity, not skill. We vote on them based on bribes, not on the best interest of our children. Essentially, this disruption in our school administration is our fault. Over the last decade or perhaps longer, think about what we have taught our kids.

If you don’t make a team…don’t worry…I’ll call the school board and you will be on there. Not, well we need to try harder so you will make it next year. I don’t want a kid playing with my kid on a team just because their parents cried. That kid then knows they don’t have to be a teammate in the sport. They can do what they want.
If your kid back talks a teacher…you call the administration. This is another reason our administrators and school board should be led by people who have been in the classroom. There is no support for our teachers. It doesn’t matter if your kid is right or wrong, our children don’t know their places. That’s what parents are for. We are supposed to be the ones to debate with the teacher.
Because we have administration or leadership that isn’t familiar with the classroom, teachers are not supported. Teachers are not backed up. Teachers are then to the point that they don’t care. So, your kid doesn’t learn anything anyways because the teacher is there just to babysit. Why teach when your class will have a constant disruption? If you have no support, then it just comes to the learning in which our kids are accustomed to…computers.
Another issue…because teachers don’t care and have no support…they could care less about getting grades in or getting them in on time. So, as parents, we are surprised when report cards come home. If they do come home. I’m speaking on behalf of a parent and a teacher. You get your grades in, stay in contact with parents throughout the semester…they go to administration because their child is failing your class. As a parent, teachers who don’t put their grades in on time cause an uproar at home. Then there are teachers who put in 3 grades for the entire nine weeks. HELLO!!! What does that tell you? Three grades. A kid can’t possibly bring a bad test grade up because there isn’t anything else to allow for that.
It takes a principal at least 3 years to establish a good routine, good disciplinary plans, testing strategies, teaching interventions and order. Half of our schools have gotten a new administrator every year. Why do you think the kids are in such an uproar? Each administrator is different. They come in with new ideas or come in with a mess that the last administrator, didn’t leave, but didn’t have time to work through. Again, this is another reason why those leading our school board should have classroom experience and not just a year or two.
One of the things that use to drive students was sports. They may have not liked their teachers, but they kept their mouths shut and did their work because playing time revolved around the classroom, not the other way around. Now we have “daddy-ball”. A parent wants their kid to play so bad that they volunteer to be an assistant for every sport, just so their kid can participate and be a star player. It doesn’t matter if that kid is good. Because coaches don’t have support, because teachers don’t have support, we end up with lack of enthusiasm for sports. Look at our high schools’ football winning streak. Football is a big money maker for athletics (this has to be common sense), no one is going to go if the team is constantly losing. If our team is constantly losing because we’re playing based on money and not ethics, then we’ll have more schools shut down. Or, you have that parent that pays for all of the teams’ meals. Guess what, we have churches who do that and would love to do that. Just so that they could minister to our children. So why aren’t we pushing more for that?
The little bit of parents that have money to help fund the school, use that to their advantage. Kid doesn’t make a team, daughter dressed like she was advertising, kid caught with marijuana, kid doesn’t do schoolwork, kid has a smart mouth…parents call the school board. There is no chain of command. Most of the times administrators have no clue what’s going on. Then we have the kids who have no support at home. They are the ones that are disciplined. This is a true statement…you know it is because this is how society works.
Why do letters come home at the beginning of the year? Those letters state what is to be expected from each classroom, the school rules, school ethics, clothing policy, athletic policy etc. We are asked to read those with our kids, sign them, our kids sign them and return them. What’s the point if when there is an issue, we don’t just pull the letter out and say, “you signed here that you understood the rules and consequences”. No need to waste more time, energy or a breath. There are no consequences anymore.
This is one of my favorite things. We offer meals to students, but they have to come to the schools during the summer to eat them. They can’t get to school on a regular day without school transportation. What’s even funnier is, during the school year, because we are a Title 1 area, all of our students are made to go through the lunch line. The ones who do not want lunch, go right through the line, grab a plate and head straight to the trashcan. If they can throw food away all year long, why can’t food be delivered on regular bus routes every other day. We don’t even have appropriate people at the board to allocate money in the areas that it is needed.

I don’t think most parents realize that a large portion of our schools are employed with substitutes. These are not retired teachers substituting either. It’s to a point that some of our surrounding counties are bringing in teachers from other countries to work with our children. At this point in Bladen County School history, parents need to act the way we should. We need to make a demand for the best interest of our children, no matter what we personally want. You notice all of our administrators that have been moved this year? We did that. We did that with our selfishness, trying to live vicariously through our kids, with our complaining about how tough a coach is, etc. I want my kid to have a tough coach. I want my kid to have a tough teacher. I want them to have someone to hold them accountable, call them out respectfully on their mistakes and then give words of wisdom. I don’t want to spend 100s of dollars each season on gear, food, game entry and travel just for my kid to sit the bench because we need to let the entitled kids play. Our high schools have done well with administration over the last couple of years. It’s even harder on them because our kids do not have stability in lower grades. We aren’t employing administrators that are not only good administrators but work well with their demographic. We had that this year…saw potential, change and growth and then did as we do every other year and took that away.

Do you know why some of our kids become failures after high school, or do not do well in college? Because of how we raise them in k-12. We haven’t prepared them for a future of ethics and work. We’ve prepared them for a sense of entitlement. There is great bitterness from this parent and teacher in regard to our school system. However, it is my fault as well as everyone else’s that we have allowed it to get this far. Are we all going to pull our children and homeschool? Are teachers going to quit their jobs and go home, then teach a group of students in their homes? Neither one of those options are logical. So, what are we going to do?

Sincerely,

A concerned parent and educator