Classroom Iconoclast

Outspoken educator Dr. Lorraine Monroe reveals the secrets of good schools.

by Debbie Gilbert

pend all you want on education, but if there’s disorder in the classroom, kids won’t learn a thing.

That’s why Memphis City Schools teachers, in a 1997 survey, named discipline their number-one problem, ahead of workplace issues such as salaries.

And that’s why the Public Issues Forum is bringing innovative educator Dr. Lorraine Monroe to speak about classroom behavior at a free conference this Sunday, September 13th. Held at the University of Memphis’ Fogelman Executive Center from 2 to 5 p.m., the forum will also include a Q&A session and a panel discussion featuring representatives from the Memphis City Schools board, Partners In Public Education, the Memphis Education Association, and MCS’ Safe Schools and Educational Alternatives program.

Dr. Lorraine Monroe

But the star of the afternoon will be Monroe, a dynamic speaker who gained national prominence after 60 Minutes aired a profile of her in 1996. She spent many years as a teacher and administrator in the New York City schools system before being invited in 1991 to establish the Frederick Douglass Academy, a college-preparatory school in a desolate Harlem neighborhood. She jumped at the chance to prove her conviction that all children can learn, regardless of their circumstances.

School-system veterans scoffed at Monroe’s optimism – until the end of that first year, when Douglass students achieved the highest test scores in the district. In spring 1997, more than 95 percent of Douglass graduates were accepted by colleges, including several Ivy League schools.

After six years, Monroe retired from her job as principal and wrote a book, Nothing’s Impossible: Leadership Lessons from Inside and Outside the Classroom, in which she outlined her tenets for success (“the Monroe Doctrine,” as she calls it). One of her chief points is that when life throws obstacles your way, you go around them, rather than using hardships as an excuse for your own shortcomings. That’s why she doesn’t have much sympathy for teachers who can’t keep discipline in the classroom.

“If a school has a program that is interesting, challenging, and varied,” she says, “and it’s taught by those who are interested in what they’re doing, who love kids, and who remember what it was like to be a kid themselves, then you have very few discipline problems.”

But all the teacher enthusiasm in the world won’t compensate for an absence of rules, she emphasizes. “You also need a discipline code, one that is fairly and pervasively applied, and it must have consequences.”

From Day One at Frederick Douglass Academy, students were drilled in the “Twelve Non-Negotiables” – rules they must follow without question. Wear the uniform. Do your homework. Arrive on time and be prepared to work. No radios. No gum-chewing. No fighting.

Lots of schools have a similar list of commandments. But the Douglass kids are made keenly aware of what a violation will bring: anything from a parent-teacher conference to being transferred out. Few of them break the rules – they’re too busy learning.

One might protest that Monroe makes it sound too easy. What about our violence-saturated culture, and the chaotic family lives of many inner-city children? Those problems can invade and poison a school’s orderly atmosphere.

“I’m not minimizing how some things get out of hand,” says Monroe. “There are some kids who are incorrigible and should not be in that environment, who should be in alternative schools.”

And teachers aren’t exaggerating when they say it’s tougher than it used to be. “Kids are more disrespectful,” Monroe acknowledges. “But it doesn’t happen when the teacher absolutely doesn’t tolerate it.” And it doesn’t matter how dysfunctional the child’s home might be: “Even if the line is not drawn at home, kids usually still can learn to be respectful at school.”

So why don’t all schools function as smoothly as Douglass? Because Monroe’s approach requires enormous energy and creativity from the teachers. “There’s no question that a real hard look has to be taken at teacher training,” she says, adding that higher salaries and improved public perception would help lure more talented people to the profession.

Monroe isn’t thrilled about conservative politicians’ current push for government-funded vouchers to send children to private schools. “What I’m about is helping all schools be schools of choice,” she says. “We need to look at why people want to pull their kids out [of public schools]. Look at the good programs and replicate them. Ask teachers to teach on a higher level, and expect more from kids. It doesn’t cost that much more.”