Forget Your Rules

I made this music player at MyFlashFetish.com.

Take me,

and let me in.

Don't break me,

and shut me out.....


I want to be part

of something.

This is just the story of

a broken soul......


As days goes by

my heart grows cold

I can't seem to let

this stuff pass me by.....


I'm burning in the heavens

and drowning in a hell

And my soul is in a coma.....

Don't shut me out

I'm reaching out and getting nothing.


Does anyone around me feel the same?

Put your fist up and vent your pain!

- "Take Me" Papa Roach



Since reading a bulletin from Colton's sister asking for people to sign her brother's guest book a few days ago I have been very bothered. I've never met him but from what I've read on the blogs and his mother's emails I really like this kid. He has an abundance of energy and sense of goodness....along with an extreme case of ADHD and Autism.

And it seems society at large is just pushing this kid away as an uncontrollable nuisance, as it does many others. After listening to the lyrics above from "Take Me" is it any wonder how some children grow up to be such angry and dysfunctional adults...and making the world a worse place because of it?

And we're letting it happen....And we CAN stop it


I have had at success with all types of students, including those with severe ADHD. And the greatest source of this success has come from giving them great amounts of love and a willingness to teach them they way they need to be taught, even if it means "breaking the rules".

But going outside the box in order to reach any student is almost a certain death sentence in the teaching world.

I am very fortunate to have been led and believed in by my past two principals, but even with this kind of support the teaching profession is still a difficult and dangerous job.....that's only getting worse.

I don't judge any "normal" teacher, as I'll explain below. But one day we're going to wake up and wonder what happened.....asking ourselves, "What went wrong?????"

As teachers most of us are given orders as to what to teach and how to teach it, and put our jobs in jeopardy if we even appear to question these commands.

The system uses kids as seat fillers for state dollars. And the very ones we try to help are often the same ones whose parents try to get us fired. In an effort to reach the greatest amount, we're basically asked to pretend we're trying to reach every student by covering our rear ends on our lesson plans......while in reality sacrificing those who are labeled too difficult and disruptive to our teaching....as well as numerous students who don't really learn from our way of teaching (which often is sit, listen, remember, regurgitate). We teach the way we were taught.

As long as you sit quietly, behave yourself and do well on the tests, we don't really care if you believe in yourself or can really think. With all we're asked to do and told not to do the effort is just too great....and the pay is the same either way. So why waste your energy and risk your job? It just doesn't make sense.

As a result many teachers don't dare venture out of the teaching box constructed for them. Many children are not reached and are simply asked to sit on the bench until they're traded away like baseball cards to the next teacher after the year is over..........a 13-17 year game, all for the "greater good" of the education system.

Many teachers hope to reach that "one" student a year, not because they are lazy....but because their hands are tied by the rules of the game from really reaching any more than that.

And the result is a massive dropout rate while graduating massive numbers of "successful" 'A' students who are unable to think for themselves, solve problems and function successfully in the real world.

And good people...good teachers...are left wondering what we're really doing....working in a profession that's getting harder and more demanding every year.....For What?!?

One mistake, the slightest error, a tiny risk.....and we're in trouble with somebody........We give extra attention to Colton who is not scum and we get in trouble for taking it away from others. We teach to the majority of the students and we get in trouble for not teaching to Kristen.

It is a complex and confusing career...and if we just follow the rules and cover our butts we will save our livelihood......no matter if ANY child, let alone ALL of them, really learns.

So we allow the dreams of the children to die...even murder them with our unspoken messages that they're just not worth the extra effort, risk and unending searches for how to reach each one of them.....how to show each one that they are truly special......truly important......

Thanks for playing though. Sorry it didn't work out for you. There's a wonderful consolation prize at the end of life called "death". Just be a good boy and girl for the rest of your life and you'll gain ascent into an everlasting heaven. You'll just have to settle for a modified hell on earth for the rest of your life since we're asking you to stop dreaming and start settling.

And we allow the dreams of our people to die as we send wave after wave of them out into a world needing super-thinking and super-confident problem solvers. Not one civilization has ever lasted forever as a world power. Rome lasted for 2,000 years....and is gone. America the Beautiful has held the title for less than 100 years....and is going, going, and will be gone.....as long as we keep throwing away the Coltons, Kristens, Taneiceas and everybody else in between.

Taneicea hasn't shown up for school anymore. I'm glad I ran down her van to shake her father's hand the day before. He hadn't returned any of my phone calls or come to the school all year. I shook his hand and told him how very, VERY special his daughter was and all she's accomplished and overcome this year

........As I was getting yelled at for holding up traffic I looked him in the eyes and told him I knew he was going to take good care of her because she was so important to this world. He looked at her with surprise and stopped trying to crush my hand, then smiled at me and said he would.....I think he meant it.

I smiled and waved to Taneicea as she drove away while being told I couldn't hold up traffic like that........Sure I could, and did......To make a difference in someone's life. Man's simple rules don't apply to man's great spirit.

After coming home and reading an email from Colton's mother, I was too fired up to study so I listened to Papa Roach and then watched Spy Game.

Please go back and read the post from the beginning after watching this scene from the movie, and then watch the video again. It's impact will be a lot greater......(just remember to pause the ipod played at the top)

And if you've been reading, commenting and even giving to my students over the past year or two (something that blows me away)......You'll understand how VERY important it is what you have been doing.

I copied the comments left on "Taneicea's Encore" to show them to her, and then she didn't show. I was too late. I won't make that mistake with any more comments left for a student. You ARE making a difference and your love, support and energy ARE part of the solution......the solution to keeping teachers inspired....the solution to SAVING DREAMS, to SAVING LIVES

(Kristen wearing my helmet and asking me if I think she's weird like students in other classes tell her she is. I told her she's beautifully unique and perfect, and that we're going to develop her talents so much that she will be free to be whoever she wants in the world, because she will have the tools to successfully operate and thrive in the world.

She placed among the top four speakers in class during a contest yesterday. Oh the places she will go....as long as we don't give up and have the strength to hold onto her UNTIL she gets there.)

WARNING: This video contains strong language that may be offensive to some





I've often been told to follow the rules and just do what I am told...and not to go off the reservation anymore. But if it means the child gets pushed aside, forgotten, thrown away....my response has always been the same.......Always very respectfully......But always very clearly...........

I don't work for you.

I work for the child.

Forget your rules!