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Class Warfare

Focus on "Good" Students Is Ruining Schools

William L. Fibkins

With budget cuts looming every year, administrators and union leaders find themselves in a never-ending game of promoting how good their school is and why budget cuts will derail their ongoing success. The vehicle they choose for this ongoing self-promotion is what William Fibkins calls the “dazzle” approach, which focuses only on “good news.” Overtime administrators and staff often come to believe the positive reviews of the good news process and overlook or abandon those students who don’t make good news but instead act out, fail, cause trouble and give the school a bad name. These are the “bad news” kids, and their lives are not newsworthy.

This book is about the unintended consequences that can occur when the "good news” process becomes heavily embedded in school life -- a process that creates two different worlds in a school community that often prides itself on fostering unity and belonging. The school media promotions may say “All is well here,” but this positive spin belies the divisions that breed isolation and estrangement for both the “good news” and “bad news” kids, which gives rise to class warfare in the school community.

In a culture in which some students are valued as more worthy than others, being a more worthy student can have a serious downside that is as risky as being an unworthy student. This book explores these often hidden consequences and what school and community leaders need to do to right this sinking ship – a ship that seems sturdy and well-built to onlookers but is abusing its crew to keep afloat.

Some schools operate on a system which uses high achieving students as a commodity to pass school budgets and downplays the cries of troubled students to be included in “their” school. Good news gets headlines while bad news is shifted to the back page or left out, resulting in an “all is well, problem-free” picture of the school.

R&L Education

Pages: 104 • Trim: 6⅜ x 9⅜

978-1-4758-0012-8 • Hardback • March 2013 • $66.00 • (£51.00)

978-1-4758-0013-5 • Paperback • March 2013 • $34.00 • (£25.00)

978-1-4758-0014-2 • eBook • March 2013 • $32.00 • (£25.00)

Subjects: Education / Classroom Management, Education / Educational Policy & Reform / General

Class Warfare

Focus on "Good" Students Is Ruining Schools

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

With budget cuts looming every year, administrators and union leaders find themselves in a never-ending game of promoting how good their school is and why budget cuts will derail their ongoing success. The vehicle they choose for this ongoing self-promotion is what William Fibkins calls the “dazzle” approach, which focuses only on “good news.” Overtime administrators and staff often come to believe the positive reviews of the good news process and overlook or abandon those students who don’t make good news but instead act out, fail, cause trouble and give the school a bad name. These are the “bad news” kids, and their lives are not newsworthy.

This book is about the unintended consequences that can occur when the "good news” process becomes heavily embedded in school life -- a process that creates two different worlds in a school community that often prides itself on fostering unity and belonging. The school media promotions may say “All is well here,” but this positive spin belies the divisions that breed isolation and estrangement for both the “good news” and “bad news” kids, which gives rise to class warfare in the school community.

In a culture in which some students are valued as more worthy than others, being a more worthy student can have a serious downside that is as risky as being an unworthy student. This book explores these often hidden consequences and what school and community leaders need to do to right this sinking ship – a ship that seems sturdy and well-built to onlookers but is abusing its crew to keep afloat.

Some schools operate on a system which uses high achieving students as a commodity to pass school budgets and downplays the cries of troubled students to be included in “their” school. Good news gets headlines while bad news is shifted to the back page or left out, resulting in an “all is well, problem-free” picture of the school.

Details

R&L Education

Pages: 104 • Trim: 6⅜ x 9⅜

978-1-4758-0012-8 • Hardback • March 2013 • $66.00 • (£51.00)

978-1-4758-0013-5 • Paperback • March 2013 • $34.00 • (£25.00)

978-1-4758-0014-2 • eBook • March 2013 • $32.00 • (£25.00)

Subjects: Education / Classroom Management, Education / Educational Policy & Reform / General

Author

William L. Fibkins is an author and consultant. He focuses on reforming education by retraining and mentoring teachers, counselors, and administrators in order to meet the needs of today’s teenagers. Doing so by establishing a “circle of wellness” in our secondary schools that creates many open doors of help for every member of the school community headed towards the margins of school life.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1: Rise of Consumer-Driven Schooling
Chapter 2: The Cost to Good News Kids and Parents
Chapter 3: The Cost to Bad News Kids and Parents
Chapter 4: The Cost to High School Principals
Chapter 5: The Cost to Guidance Counselors
Chapter 6: The Cost to Teachers
Chapter 7: The Impact of the Bifurcation of American Society on our High Schools
References

Reviews

Dr. Fibkins book is a brilliant analysis of what is wrong with our high schools and what we need to do to make sure “ every” student is seen as worthy of opportunity, dignity and respect....As a Director of Social Services Agencies on both the East and West Coast, I have observed many of these students in search of some relief, hope, and a new beginning not offered in their schools. Fibkins exposes a school culture which encourages good news kids and their parents to dictate how their school operate and serve their personal interest of “What’s in it for me,” “How to get ahead and stay ahead,” and “Get into the best colleges and universities.” Too often the bad news exists at the margins of school life with little hope and dreams for a productive future. They are on the outside, not in the mix.
— Charles Langdon, clinical professor, School of Social Work, Stony Brook University, New York

Warning! This book is dynamite. It will blow up everything you thought you knew about how to run a high school. In Fibkins' world, focusing everything on high-achieving students ruins the school for everyone: bad students, parents, teachers, administrators--and the good students! Dr. Fibkins is not kidding, but stick with him. Behind the negativity is a startling vision that could turn your world upside down--for the better.
— Kenneth Guentert, President, The Publishing Pro LLC

Class Warfare

Focus on "Good" Students Is Ruining Schools

William L. Fibkins

Class Warfare

Focus on "Good" Students Is Ruining Schools

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