My Classroom From Hell

The Wall Street Journal ^ | Friday, January 24, 2003 | JOSHUA KAPLOWITZ

[TroutStalker]

It was May 2000 and, during my senior year at Yale, I turned down a job with an Al Gore pollster to teach in an inner-city school.

Five weeks later, I found myself visiting Emery Elementary in Washington, the school where I was going to teach. As the interim principal showed me around, he cautioned: "The one thing you need to do above all else is to have your children under control." Easier said than done, as I was to discover in a spectacular way.

[TroutStalker]

There was a similar article about this posted not too long ago here, but I can't find it to link.

[Boxsford]

Every once in a while I will read stories like this and they reassure me that our family is doing the right thing by homeschooling. These horror stories continue to get worse through the years. I fear to the point where they will no longer resemble a school at all. Perhaps that has already taken place in DC.

[ArrogantBustard]

I was a white teacher in a mostly black school, and certain students hurled racial slurs with impunity; several of their parents, I was told, said to my colleagues that they didn't think a white teacher should be teaching their children -- and some of my colleagues agreed.

I await Fat Albert's appearance to eliminate all vestiges of racism.

[FreedomPoster]

Ping

[dd5339]

Wow, this isn't the type of school we grew up with.

This only stregthens my beliefs that the liberals and the NEA are pursuing a higher agenda of creating generations of out of control, ignorant people.

Glad Vic and I have made the decision to homeschool.

Semper Fi

[RightOnline]

Inner-city schools are "hell holes" because that's exactly what the parents of those kids want.

They raise them to be little heathen beasts without a hint of discipline or societal restriction......and then bitch about how "they aren't given the same chances" as the so-called "rich".

I just don't care any more.

[SpinyNorman]

Sounds like another case of whitey holding back poor innocent little black kids!

What a shame that his career was so unpleasant and short-lived. He went into the situation with a severe disadvantage: he was white. Funny how the racism of the kids and their parents is okay because it is black on white. You can see how the parent's racist, bigoted attitude trickled down to the children. That is what will hold them back in society, not whitey.

The really sad thing is that the liberals in higher education, while overlooking this travesty of education in this and other primary schools, will seek to address it by giving free "malanin" points to many of these kids so they can get into colleges and universities. Talk about treating the symptoms and not the disease!

I agree with big Al Sharpton: there is still a racism problem in this country. It just happens that much of it is in the black and hispanic communities (and others, no doubt). It is bad enough when racism by whites against blacks holds back a promising student or job candidate, but it is infinitely worse when the minority populations hurt themselves by their own bigotry. Seriously, how smart is it to deny your own children's chances of success by showing no interest in their education.

Other racial minorities, in particular, East Asians, East Indians, Jews and others have prospered beyond all expectations by taking exceptional interest in their children's education. This even happens in black and hispanic families where the parents are involved in the children's education, so it is not really a racial problem. It is a parenting problem, and the liberal teaching establishment is doing little on nothing (judging by this article) to rectify the problem.

You can't help people that have no interest in helping themselves. Truly sad.

[dano1]

BTT

[Zack Nguyen]

That is not a school. It is an insane asylum.

[ladylib]

Now they want preschool for Washington, DC's children. Why start the downward spiral into the cesspool that is Washington, DC's public schools any sooner than you have to:

http://hslda.org/docs/news/hslda/200301/200301231.asp

Believe me, preschool isn't going to help these kids. K-12 hasn't done anything to help these kids.

[Centurion2000]

Still, Andre's mother pursued civil damages. I refused her offers to settle if I paid her $200,000, a demand that ultimately came down to $40,000. The school system settled her claim in October 2002 for $75,000 (plus $15,000 from the insurance company of the teachers' union).

Hate to say it but if I was this guy, I'd have been pricing hit men in D.C. It's cheaper.

[Protagoras]

Abolish government schools and the problem disappears.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

This is what results when you have the don't care NEA, combined with don't care parents.

[Sloopy]

I was a white teacher in a mostly black school, and certain students hurled racial slurs with impunity; several of their parents, I was told, said to my colleagues that they didn't think a white teacher should be teaching their children -- and some of my colleagues agreed.

What would happen if the parents of white students in a mostly white school said that a black teacher should not be allowed to teach THEIR children, AND some of the teachers agreed?

[Protagoras]

This is what results when you have the don't care NEA, combined with don't care parents.

They care. But they care about things other than the education and well being of the children.

Abolish government schools, they don't work better than any other government programs, and the consequences are worse than not getting your mail, etc.

[Protagoras]

What would happen if the parents of white students in a mostly white school said that a black teacher should not be allowed to teach THEIR children, AND some of the teachers agreed?

Double standards are standard.

[hosepipe]

The public school system has been made an educational ghetto to resemble the houseing ghetto...

[arm958]

Mr. Kaplowitz, a former liberal, ......

[Vic3O3]

ping

[adx]

My Classroom From Hell

Stuff like this convinces me that, yes, indeed, there are children who should be left behind.