Is it an instructional problem?

Boy, I'm of two minds on this.

On the one hand, I agree with the people tonight in class that were having a hard time imagining a problem that is not instructional. We're teachers (by and large) and that's what we do -- instruct! It's hard to imagine a discussion with, for example, a principal that goes like this:

"Jim, your kids' test scores are low. Your kids aren't getting long division. What do you think you could do about that?

"Well, I don't think it's an instructional problem. . ."

Ok, maybe that's an oversimplification. But I almost raised my hand and asked for an example of a non-instructional problem that might come up in schools.

However. . .

Then there are the cell phones in Carter's class. You mean the kids don't know they aren't supposed to have a cell phone?? And I have to be honest, I am really wondering about the kids who don't know how to find files or programs, or where to save. Sure, they are having that problem in class -- that I believe! But do I really think they haven't been instructed in this before? I know that in my kids' elementary school, they work with files and drives all of the time. They have a shared drive they can't leave stuff on; they type, save, and print stuff; and I'm pretty sure my 13-year-old occasionally lost things in elementary school that he didn't save in the right place. So is that an instructional problem? Maybe. . . Maybe partially, anyway.

I keep thinking about a bill (I think it was a bill. . . the legislature is not is session yet, are they?) they were talking about on the radio the other day. Without getting too specific. . . let's just say they are concerned about a certain content area in high school health class. The sponsors of the bill are worried that our kids aren't getting enough information because they have so many pregnant teens every year. Um. . . excuse me?? Do we really think our teens don't know how they are getting pregnant? Sorry. This is not a lack of information!!

Maybe there are more "non-instructional" problems in our schools than I was thinking before.