> It was fantastic until someone told the VP, and the VP asked me if I was actually doing that, whereby they informed me that it was corporal punishment and absolutely against the rules
Funny how being told to perform physical activity is seen as punishment, but having to perform complex mental activities isn't.
Exactly! I'm not in an inner-city area, but a rural one and there's a lot of the same problems. The poverty level of the county I teach in is 20%, and a lot of the students have to go home, and often get no support at home. And it's a clear night and day between the ones who do get support and encouragement and those who don't.
Sadly, the biggest issue I see is that they want school to be, basically, training for a job and real life. So, since you'll never solve a system of equation on a job (or so they believe), they don't see why it should be taught. But, yeah, that's not getting into accountability issues with students and their families. It's a frustrating cycle, and is likely going to push me from teaching before too much longer.
I was at local selective school with students who overall did very well and ... only very few did homework or would watch videos unless it was graded or there was test.
Basically, grades were instead of pushups. We did good overall, but when it comes to homework with no punishment for not being done, people skipped it.
As for the shift needed in the culture of education, I totally agree. There needs to be a shift in accountability for the students, their families, and for schools. While there were parents who hoped their kids would do well at the school where I taught, there was a pervasive home attitude of school will get you nowhere. Many of the kids had no role models in their life where they could see any value to education. One VP I knew, in a neighboring district, married into a poorer latino family. They valued hard work, but only really understood hard manual labor type efforts. He was constantly hounded as he was going through schooling by them. "Why are you wasting this time at school? Why are you not doing more to provide for my daughter? Go get a real job." After finally becoming a teacher and then a VP and making more money than any other member of the family he married into, they started to see how education could be an investment. I don't know how you do that on a scale where the majority of socio-economically depressed families and communities can be exposed to the value of education.