The Silent Treatment

Imagine a day where you are not allowed to talk or make noise all day. You must go through all your duties without talking, not even a whisper. There are peers all around you, also going throughout the day in silence. The others make little signs to you. Signs like waving "Hi!" with a silent gesture as you pass by. You sit side-by-side with your peers sharing the space at your work area, without talking, without making contact verbally, and without any verbal social interaction. On occasion, you may raise your hand to ask a question to the overseer. To go to the bathroom, you must make a hand sign and wait for someone to allow you  to leave.

That is how I've spent almost every day substitute teaching. Yesterday, I spent the day with a Kindergarten class in which I was instructed that their school is a "silent learning" school. No talking is allowed anywhere... except the playground. No talking in the classroom. No talking in the halls. No talking in the bathrooms. No talking at lunch. Nothing.

It is such an unnatural experience. I allowed my class yesterday to talk during free play times like stations (centers) and art. A teacher came marching into the room and informed the class that they were not following the "silent learning" rules. I was then chastised for not knowing their school and classroom rules. The children were not loud, quite the opposite. They were simply talking in regular, "inside voice" volumes. This is not the first time this has happened to me and is probably the reason I was banned from another school recently.

I am often asked, "How can we fix public schools?"

I'm beginning to think there is no fixing them. I am not allowed to have any voice (no pun intended) or say in how a classroom is managed. What's worse, the downturn in the way our society is instructed at public school is becoming much more strict and prison like than I've ever seen before.