ISS High School Office - Mr McCallum's Blog

The Right Thing? Thinking

2008-02-12T15:20:00.000+08:00

Here is a “typical” email or letter I get every so often … the situation is that a student has had their hand phone taken in school time, and the parents are going away, and want the school to return the hand phone.

Dear Mr McCallum,

My son/daughter had their hand phone taken in school by Mr Teacher. We have no way of contacting him/her over the (long) weekend (both my husband and I will be away).

Can you please return the hand phone to them.

They will come by and collect it tomorrow morning.

Thank you,

Mrs Parent

It clearly is hard being a parent, and well meaning parents often feel they are caught trying to do the “right thing”. Let’s look at this letter from a few perspectives, examining “what is the right thing?”, and what the possible results are.

The Right Thing? Thinking 1

“The school took my child’s hand phone because they were using it in class / school. This is against school rules, so I will respect the school rules and not ask for the hand phone back.”

Results – Child knows that the parent is supportive of the school period. School consequence upheld.

Results – The original “safety” concerns still exist for the parent (who cannot contact their child when both parents are away). An interesting parental twist with a “real world consequence” to this would be for the parents to indicate “Son, your safety is important to me. Because you have used your hand phone in school and the school has taken it away, we need to be able to contact you when we are away, so you will have to stay home, and use the home phone instead. We’ll see you Sunday afternoon when we are back, you can go out then”.

The Right Thing? Thinking 2

“My child is wrong to have used their hand phone, but I feel that their safety is an important factor. As I am travelling this weekend, I will demand that the school returns their hand phone.”

Results – Although the “safety issue” is resolved, the overarching message and learning for the child is (a) “my parents will bail me out of trouble I get myself into” and (b) the school’s rules don’t matter.

Results – Internal “fairness” problems and “consistency” problems for the school. What is the school’s response going to be when other students want their hand phones back for the weekend? They all know that another student got their hand phone back, and want the school to act fairly.

Results – Internal “trouble” for the principal. The Principal requires teachers to confiscate hand phones if students are using them in school. Teachers pass the hand phones to the Principal, who keeps them for a week. When teachers find out that the Principal is returning hand phones to any parent who says “we are going away, please return the hand phone”, respect is lost for the Principal, and the motivation of the teacher to bother enforcing a school rule is diminished.

The Right Thing? Thinking 3

“My child is wrong to have used their hand phone, but I feel that their safety is an important factor. As I am travelling this weekend, I will demand that the school returns their hand phone. I will, of course, ask the school what other consequences they can use instead of holding on to the hand phone.”

Results – The “safety issue” is resolved.

Results – The school is able to maintain “internal fairness” and “equity”, and teachers know that the rules won’t be modified.

Results – The child knows that the parent values the school’s authority, and that the child must be accountable for their actions.

I am the parent of an 11 month old, and a 3.5 year old – and parenting is tough. I can only hope that I will have the parental resolve to deal with the situation in 14 years time with Thinking 1. Thinking 3 also works, but is option 1 is still the optimal. I fully accept and acknowledge that it does have a lot of complications and logistical considerations that go along with it.

I have a simple system in place at school that sort-of helps with Thinking 3. This is that we return the phone to the student over the weekend, but we collect the phone back again the following school day – AND – the weeklong confiscation of the hand phone starts AGAIN – from the first day. You would be surprised how many students will actually beg their parents not to ask for the hand phone back, as they don’t want it taken for another week upon return to the school!

Facing the Giants

2007-12-21T15:48:00.000+08:00

If you haven't yet watched the "Facing the Giants" video posted in my blog earlier this year, please take a minute and watch it now. It's a fantastic video clip. When you've finished, check out Steve from Rochester, NY, in this inspiring basketball clip. Now what dreams are you going to commit to?

End of 2007 Message

2007-12-19T16:46:00.000+08:00

Hi! An end of 2007 message for all :)… a departure from my rants and raves about attendance!

I am grateful to live in Singapore, where Christmas is joyously celebrated alongside many other religious traditions of other faiths, and everyone is included. Sure it may be a bit commercial, but later this week my wife and I will be taking our two kids to the mall next door to “play in the snow” … an avalanche at 7pm and snowfall at 7:30pm. Then we’ll go inside the mall and do some Christmas shopping, and buy some apple juice and spices to make mulled cider back home. Ok it is just a bit commercial, but at least it is still called Christmas and is not a “seasonal festive event”.

Well not much turns my stomach when I read it but I nearly fell off my chair when I read on Yahoo! recently that Westaff, a temp staff company that supplies Santas to malls in both Australia and the United States, had decided to instruct its Santas not to say “Ho Ho Ho”, and instead say “Ha Ha Ha”, as among other reasons, “it was derogatory towards women”.

Give me a break.

Improving workplace equality, addressing inequalities towards women, minorities, and children are all noble causes and worth every effort and for sure we aren’t doing enough fast enough. But Ha Ha Ha? Have we lost our minds? What temp agency idiot came up with this one? And how did it survive past the first “pitch meeting”. Was it a temp staff that made the suggestion, or was it a senior manager at Westaff? Sure, there will always be idiots with agendas out there that think up these things, and they have every right to their moronic ideas – but Westaff – how did this idea make it out of your boardroom?

My second favorite Christmas show is It’s A Wonderful Life, with Jimmy Stuart. I had never seen it, but about 15 years ago my girlfriend (now my wife) showed it to me and we now watch it every year. You should too, at least once. My third favorite Christmas show is A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, just about any version will do. It is a classic. What is my point, you might be thinking. Well, my favorite Christmas show is one that must be watched by absolutely everyone on the planet. I’ve only seen it once, but it burnt an impression so vividly that it remained part of my personal Christmas psyche.

It is episode 110 of South Park, and aired December 17, 1997. Forget the name of the episode, and all references to Mr Hanky, but spend a minute and watch the South Park Elementary school presenting “The Happy, Non-offensive, and Nondenominational School Play". It is a great example of censorship and good meaning parents going amuck. If you ever get a chance to see the show, look what happens when we take ourselves too seriously, and try not to offend anyone. I don’t particularly like South Park, and on the surface it is offensive, but strangely enough, the creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are great social commentarists.

This Ho Ho Ho thing would actually be funny (Ha Ha Ha) if it wasn’t so absurd. Many of us reading this didn't even know “ho” was offensive in some contexts - and for sure children have no clue about how a "ho" can be offensive to women. Last time I checked, a "hoe" was a garden tool. And why stop with Ho Ho Ho? Maybe Santa’s elves are offensive to some, and Mrs Claus, is she an appropriate modern role model?

Why is it that we spend so much time worrying about offending people, and such little time actually doing anything about helping people who actually need help? You can be sure that within miles of wherever you are reading this right now, there is a child going hungry, a women being sexually exploited, a child being abused, and a family living in fear of domestic violence. I bet if we had the resolve we could actually find just one of them and make a difference. Maybe that is what Westaff was trying to do; maybe they were just trying to make a difference ... maybe I have it all wrong. Really? Yeah, right … or was it just a major case of C.Y.A. (cover your a....) in fear they would get sued by some opportunistic buffoon.

If we’re serious about eliminating offensive language or expressions from our vocabulary try starting instead with the folk etymology of the common expression “the rule of thumb”. Look it up. You might be surprised. You might also never use the term again.

I wish you the very best as 2007 comes to a close, whether you have just celebrated Depavali, or are celebrating Christmas, Chanukah, Tohji-taisai, Eid al-Adha, or any of the other great religious or cultural holidays that make this world, and its people, so wonderful and diverse.

With best wishes,
Mark McCallum

2007-03-16T09:01:00.000+08:00

Is Determination Important in School, in Life, In Organizations?

I recently came across this great video clip of the movie "Facing the Giants". You won't regret taking a few minutes to watch the video ... it is a great example of persistance and determination.

.

We had our Parent-Teacher conferences this week, and a parent asked me "why do you have the motivational posters in the boys toilets?".

Well, I put the posters in the toilets because students are "captive viewers", and it is pretty hard to ignore them :)

I put the posters up because they happen to be true - like this quote by Vince Lombardi "The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will."

In school, we see the students who have the "ability", but not the determination or persistence. Then we see the students with more motivation than ability, and amazingly enough - success comes down to determination and persistence than just ability. It has been my experience that an average student with dogged determination, persistence, and good habits does better than the brilliant student who has little motivation or determination.

What are your thoughts? What do you think is more important - ability or determination?

Be sure to watch the video!

2007-03-16T08:39:00.000+08:00

AND MORE ON ATTENDANCE!

(please also read the main article on attendance further below in this blog)

Attendance related items continue to take up a lot of time. I have inserted below a recent email from a parent who I feel isn't on the same page as I am with regards to the importance of attendance.

PARENT EMAIL -

Dear Mr. Mark McCallum!

My name’s PARENT NAME; STUDENT’s mother. I want to let school know that he will not able to come to school on DATE. We have bought air ticket for him to go back TO COUNTRY during the holiday. Because of airline’s schedule, he can’t make it. I wish the school can understand the situation. He will catch the flight at 10 am.
Thank you so much!

MY REPLY (Perhaps too direct?)

Dear PARENT,

Please excuse my directness, however, this is a regular occurrence for STUDENT. I am concerned what message it sets to students when parents let them depart from school a day early to start their vacation early.

If you or your husband requested to start your holidays early from your employer (or an employee requested an extra day leave to catch flights) I would imagine that it would not be possible. We are trying to instill a sense of responsibility with our students, a sense that school IS important, and that students shouldn’t miss school due to (a) better flight schedules or (b) poor planning to book flights.

Again, please excuse my frankness and directness. I only want the best for STUDENT, and do not believe that the best for him is allowing him to miss school to start holidays earlier or to catch flights.

I have written my thoughts about students missing school and attendance in newsletters and other mailings. You can also read my thoughts on my Blog, by visiting http://isshighschool.blogspot.com/.

Sincerely,

Mark McCallum

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Parents and students - I'd like to know your thoughts on the issue - should the school just turn a 'blind eye' and let students start their vacations early? What do you think? Does it really matter if students miss days of school?

2006-08-21T08:17:00.000+08:00

Excerpts from (various) HS Newsletters on attendance

Help! Please call the High School Office if Your Son or Daughter Will be Absent or Late!

I continue to seek your help in contacting Ms Kan (HS secretary) each morning at about 8:00am if your son or daughter is not coming to school. This also sends a clear message to your son or daughter that education is important. HS Office: 6470-0119 Email: hs@iss.edu.sg

More on attendance …

What I am trying to build is a sense of importance regarding education. Was your school experience anything like mine? – I never missed school. Snowstorms, sicknesses, toothaches, diarrhea, the plague, my parents sent me to school. There was even one day when I broke a tooth in half and my parents made me go - I was sure they would "let me off" for that. My guess is that yours did too.

I am also trying to build a sense of responsibility and accountability in our students. In several years they will be in the workforce and must understand that they have to show up for work. The building blocks of professionalism, accountability, and good habits are being formed now. There is no boss in the world that would accept an employee coming in ten times late in a four-month period. There is no boss in the world that would accept continual absences. Now is the time to foster these solid attitudes in your children – we look for your support in enforcing these routines with your sons and daughters.

And more on attendance …
Our attendance procedures are very clear. In the past, I have spent a lot of time determining what is Absent (excused) and (unexcused), and in justifying these decisions to parents who do not agree. Incidents I have had include (apologies in advance if some of these look familiar!):
“I cannot get flights on holidays, I want to take my son out four days early to start our break, can that be excused as there are no flights available – it isn’t my fault” (my view on this – we publish the calendar almost a year in advance – book your flights early!)

“My child is moving houses, and needs 2 days to make the move, please excuse him from school” (my view on this – move on the weekend)

“My daughter is tired from going away for Activity Week. It will take her two days to recover from jetlag” (my view on this – your child’s chaperone / teachers are tired too, as is almost everyone else on the trip, but they are still coming to work / school, teach your child to be responsible and send them to school)

“This holiday is a very important time for my family, my child won’t be in school three days before the holiday, and for the week after” (my view on this – school should be your child’s top priority)

“I couldn’t get flights to Singapore at the start of school, please excuse my son from the first week of classes” (my view on this – we published the start date almost a year before, this is very poor planning and a bad example for your son or daughter)

After wracking my brains with these excuses, trying to determine what is “excused” and what is not, I realized a while ago that … “if the student isn’t sitting in their chair, they are absent!” - simple and easy to apply. Students will be permitted to miss a maximum of eight days in any semester for valid and legitimate reasons (Absent – explained or Absent - unexplained category). Please note that three lates are considered to be one absent for the purpose of this calculation, and that any day missed before or after school trips will count as double absences.

Students who “fail on attendance” will fail the semester on attendance – this means that they will receive failing grades on their report cards and final transcripts, and will not receive credits for the semester. Eight days of work represents missing thirty-two classes, a great deal of class time.

Mr McCallum
Head of High School

2006-05-10T11:52:00.000+08:00

Why on earth aren't students allowed to use cell phones at school?

Great question, that I hear from students weekly, and from time to time from a parent (sometimes angry) whose son or daughter has lost their handphone because they were using it in school.

Technically speaking, our school rules state that handphones are not permitted on school grounds. The reality, however, is that no teacher will go looking for a handphone if they don't see it, or hear it. The only time a handphone is taken is when it is seen or heard.

There are a few reasons why we have a "no handphone" rule, in no particular order:

School should be a place of interaction, conversation, and face to face dialogue. We are increasingly in a world where we (especially students) live "online" or "virtually". Communication after school and into the night is more and more via SMS, chat-rooms, email, messangers etc. If we were to "open" the school hours to allow handphones, many students would lose another time where they could/should be developing communication skills.
Handphones, in school, are a nuisance. How frustrated is everyone when a handphone goes off in a movie theatre? Imagine how frustrating it would be when handphones went off in the classroom.
Handphones are a target for theives. We are very lucky to have a (generally speaking) safe atmosphere in the school, one where students can interact without fear of their personal belongings being stolen.
Handphones get lost. We (the High School office) have spent hours tracking down "handphones that were stolen", only to find out that the student "dropped it on the bus" in the morning.
Globally (not at ISS) there is a huge problem of "handphone cheating". This is students using handphones during tests to get answers from their friends, who are outside. I recently read an article in Newsweek that said that soon the SAT exams, in the United States, will have metal detectors at the gates to remove all handphones to curb cheating. Again, this has not been a problem at ISS, but could always be if we are not careful.
We, from time to time, find cases where student A asks to leave class to use the toilet. On the way, student A sends an SMS to student B, saying "meet me in the canteen". This is frustrating, and disruptive to class.

There are other reasons, which I will post from time to time. In the meantime, students don't use your handphones in school and parents thank you for your support!

A few other general comments -

It doesn't matter whose handphone it is, if a teacher spots someone using the handphone, it will be taken away even if the handphone was borrowed.
The consequence for a first handphone offence is one week (with SIM card)
The consequence for a second offence is up to one month.
Immediate confiscation of the handphone has proven to be the single best deterrant (at all) to handphone use. Detentions, and other consequences, have not worked.

2006-03-07T04:30:00.000+08:00

Is a High School relevant to the workplace? What lessons can you learn to take to the workplace?

One thing that surprises me the most when I speak with students is their belief that how one behaves in the workplace is somehow different than how they behave at school. When students come late, I sometimes ask “what would your father say to their employees if they came late”. “They would be very angry” is the most common response. “So why is it acceptable for you to come late, then?” I reply.

If every student treated school like a “job” or their career, we could accomplish so much more. My favorite show on TV is The Apprentice with Donald Trump. I like it much better than Survivor (which focuses on manipulation and popularity), as the boardroom scenes in the Apprentice come down to who messed up the most being fired.

Let’s parallel work life to school life. What would happen if you were always “sick” on days when you had major projects due at your work? You were most definitely be fired. But what happens when you are absent on days when you have projects at school? You are definitely not fired! What happens if you come late to work too often, or miss work without even calling in to say that you will be away? Now, is this similar to the consequences of being a student?

So here is my challenge. I would like every student in High School to view school like a business. Your teachers are your boss. Now how does that change your belief about school?

Raise your standards, raise your “game”, and don’t get “fired!”.

2006-03-03T13:07:00.000+08:00

What do I have to do to get this to be your best year?

Okay, here it is, as direct as I can possibly be -I want this year to be your best year ever. The problem is that’s not something I can give you. I can’t give you the “secret” injection that makes you do better. There’s no such thing. I have said before “You can’t hire someone else to do your pushups,” and you can’t. No matter how much you may want something, you won’t get it until you work for it.

Making this year your best year ever doesn’t take a lot of extra work or effort, but it does require your commitment.

Make a commitment to being organized. I find that students waste a lot of time simply by being disorganized. Keep your notes organized in arch files, and write your homework in this diary.
Keep your study time focused. I find that students who tell me they spend three hours every night doing homework don’t actually do homework for three hours. A lot of time gets wasted preparing, shuffling papers, talking on the phone, “organizing”, and other non-focused behaviors. You know it, I know it, your teachers know it. You can’t hire someone else to do your pushups, and you can’t hire someone else to learn your work.
Take responsibility for your own learning. Stop pretending you understand when you don’t. If you don’t get it, ask for help. Stop “hoping” it will make sense later, it won’t. If you know that you can’t focus sitting next to your friend, take responsibility, and sit at the other side of the class.
Talk with your parents. There is a huge correlation between students who do well and students who communicate with their parents. Parents – there is also a huge connection between students who do well and parents that set and stick to boundaries.
Look at who your friends are. Generally speaking, your grade point average won’t be any higher than the average grade point average of your friends. Interestingly enough, your parents’ salary will likely be in the same range of that of their friends as well. Yes it matters who you hang around. Want to do better in school? Maybe consider making new friends.
Stop making excuses. Don’t have your work done on time? Fess up. Didn’t do half of your homework? Admit it. All of your teachers have heard every excuse in the book, and I can promise you that by trying to come up with what you think are great excuses, you only annoy your teachers.
Set goals. It is a well-known fact that those who set clear goals and write them down have a MUCH higher possibility of success. Write down 10 goals for the year, keep them in your pocket, and review them every day.

It isn’t hard to make this year your best ever, but it is up to you. So, stop making excuses, stop procrastinating, step up, and let’s go!