Posted on 05/09/2005 8:56:55 AM PDT by RetiredArmy
A GOOD WEEK FOR GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS ....
... but then, what week IS a good week for turning your child over to the government to be educated?
Dacula High School, Gwinnett County, Georgia
You heard about this last week on the show, and you saw Larry Nease on CNN this morning. "Doc" Nease is a science teacher at Dacula High School. For the past 10 years or more Doc has had a policy in his classrooms that if you fall asleep or disrupt the class you will get a zero for your class work for that day, or your grade will be cut drastically. Little Wesley, the football player, fell asleep in class. In fact, after an assignment was handed out Wesley the Football Player just put his head down on his desk and went to sleep. He did his assignment that night and handed it in the next day, as was allowed. But he got his zero. Wesley the Football Player's Daddy came to school to complain. Did the principal stand by the teacher? Nope. Did the Gwinnett County School Board stand by the teacher? Nope. Doc Nease was fired. Twenty-three years teaching, and he was fired because he fulfilled a promise he made to his class -- in writing -- that if you fall asleep in class you can get a zero for that day's work. The dictate from the teacher was included in a class syllabus that all students had to sign. I'm told that our football player's parents also signed the syllabus. No matter. You just don't screw with high school football players.
Spencer High School, Columbus, Georgia
You've heard about this one too. Spencer High School. Columbus, Georgia is a heavy-military area, home to Ft. Benning. Kevin's mother is an Army Sergeant. She's in Iraq. Kevin is in Spencer High School. Kevin's mom calls him on his cell phone ... from Iraq. It's lunch break at the high school, so Kevin goes outside to take the call. One of our wonderful government teachers sees him and demands he hang up. He explains that his mom has called from Iraq. This matters none to the teacher. She demands he hang up and tries to grab the phone. In the tussle the call is disconnected. The teacher starts marching Kevin to the principal's office. His mother calls back. They refuse to allow him to take the call. He gets belligerent. Who the hell wouldn't? He knows his mom is in dangerous territory. She could die that afternoon in an insurgent attack. He wants to talk to her ... they won't allow him to answer the phone. End result? He gets suspended for 10 days. That suspension has now been reduced to three days ... all due to public outrage.
Bow High School, Bow, New Hampshire
Isabel Gottlieb is a great student. She plays in the school band. She is taking advanced placement classes. Things like calculus and biology. She isn't going to be allowed to graduate with her class. Why? Because she didn't take a required PE class. Physical Education. She holds varsity letters in three sports at Bow High School, but she didn't take this particular PE class. She was told that in order to graduate she would have to drop one of her advanced placement classes and replace it with the PE class. She said no. Now she isn't going to get her diploma. There is no PE class offered during summer school, so that means she might not be able to go to college next Fall. Trinity College in Hartford, CT comes to the rescue. She will take her GED test over the summer and Trinity has accepted her for the Fall semester.
These kinds of idiocy can only happen at the hands of government. All of these incidents .. and don't we all know that there are so many more .. happened in government schools .. and all within the last week.
There are several things that must happen in our nation is going to survive ... and survival is by no means guaranteed. One of those things is that the American people need to come to the realization that it is counterproductive to the cause of freedom and economic liberty to turn out children over to the government to be educated. Year after year the quality of education in this country goes down. These government schools are under the full and complete grip of the largest, most powerful and most feared union in this nation .. The National Education Association.
There was a reason why Karl Marx insisted that government control over education was an essential step in bringing about the communist state. Government education is no less necessary to the growth of government power today than it was then.
Well this one is coming from the horse's mouth. I am a public school teacher, and these stories only touch the tip of the iceberg. There is no character building in schools now. If the students can pass a test then all is justified, the ends justify the means, no matter what kind of snot ball the student is. My Asst. Principal came to me last Friday and kindly asked me to pass a 16 year old in my 7th grade Language Arts (English class) because he is too old to be in middle school. Now mind you, this guy all year just came to class and slept. When he wasnt sleeping he was disturbing my class, now the admin. wants me to pass him. Also this year, our curriculum was replace by a priority curriculum. What is the priority curriculum? A curriculum that instructs teachers to teach for the state/federal mandated standardized test. What ever happened to teaching for the next grade, to teaching skills and strategies one could use throughout their scholastic careers? There are about two to three more stories I could share, but the point is schools and school systems rarely stand their ground when it comes to reinforcing students to become responsible citizens.
Sorry. Just kidding. I homeschool..
Please share your stories. People need to hear them to hopefully get out of their states of denial.
Good for you.
ping
One more from the files. This story just shows what teachers are up against. Two years, I had a student who, by the end of the year, was failing my class and two other teachers' classes. His mother came to the school in April in a heated rage because I sought not to inform her that her child was failing. I asked her did she see her child's report card; she told me and the asst. principal that she had not seen her child's report card since October. I then asked the parent did she know that report cards are sent out from the school every 4.5 weeks; she answered in the affirmative. I then told her the phone number that I was calling to tell her about her son's progress in school; however, the phone was disconnected. She told me that the phone number that the school had listed was her old phone number, so I ask her did she call or visit the school and give her new phone number. She said she DID NOT. She then asked me and the asst. prin. why was nothing sent home to tell her about her son's lack of progress. I told her that I did send something home; it's called a report card. She then retorted, "You cant send a report card home and expect the child to show it to the parent." I almost flew off the handle. We went back and forth a while then the mother asked me and the asst. prin.--now remember this is late April--,"So what can my child do to bring up his grade?" I was apoplectic. I couldnt believe it. But actually, that was not the most troubling part. Later that day, the principal told me to change the grade, so the student could attend summer school and past the 7th grade. I have others, but I think that I would be redundant in telling them.
One more from the files. This story just shows what teachers are up against. Two years, I had a student who, by the end of the year, was failing my class and two other teachers' classes. His mother came to the school in April in a heated rage because I sought not to inform her that her child was failing. I asked her did she see her child's report card; she told me and the asst. principal that she had not seen her child's report card since October. I then asked the parent did she know that report cards are sent out from the school every 4.5 weeks; she answered in the affirmative. I then told her the phone number that I was calling to tell her about her son's progress in school; however, the phone was disconnected. She told me that the phone number that the school had listed was her old phone number, so I ask her did she call or visit the school and give her new phone number. She said she DID NOT. She then asked me and the asst. prin. why was nothing sent home to tell her about her son's lack of progress. I told her that I did send something home; it's called a report card. She then retorted, "You cant send a report card home and expect the child to show it to the parent." I almost flew off the handle. We went back and forth a while then the mother asked me and the asst. prin.--now remember this is late April--,"So what can my child do to bring up his grade?" I was apoplectic. I couldnt believe it. But actually, that was not the most troubling part. Later that day, the principal told me to change the grade, so the student could attend summer school and past the 7th grade. I have others, but I think that I would be redundant in telling them.
A friend of mine was a school secretary for a while at a local high school. They move problem teachers as well as problem students from school to school without ever really letting parents know what is going on.
The system is broken. Good teachers who want to help students succeed are not rewarded. Kids who don't want to be there are allowed to remain and disrupt things for the other kids. They need to put those kids into a work training program and let them go to work. You cannot make someone who does not want to learn learn anything. They need to experience life without education to perhaps, someday, value education. They need to experience the consequences of their actions. Our "No Child Left Behind" society does not allow those people who need to learn things the hard way the opportunity to do so.
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