"A reading coach in Missouri told me a revealing story."
"[A] puzzled third-grader looked up and asked: 'What’s a vowel?' "
Bruce, suggest that next time you name the school, its location, and its principal.
There is no reason to politely and respectfully keep them anonymous.
If you shame them publicly, then they will change. The media will force them to.
My first obligation is to protect the tutor; so I was vague on location and gender. But it was a Missouri anecdote.
My hope is that the media there will notice somebody picking on Missouri, and we’ll see some of the response you envision. Not just toward one school but throughout the state.
Bruce, here’s why exposure works.
Years ago, we were living in the Bay Area (California, San Francisco suburbs) and had preschool children at the time. I was just waking up to the realities of public school education and noticed an expose that happened almost by accident.
It seems that a 5th grader — nay, more than one — received an “A” on an book report that was replete with errors in grammar, spelling, sentence construction, word usage, etc. Sentences from the essay were printed in the newspaper. The community — San Francisco at that — was outraged. The writing was truly wretched, even for a 5th grader.
The school was embarrassed in a major way. The teacher was identified — an idiot liberal, no doubt — and was driven to tears by the humiliation; she had an explanation, of course, something to do with self-esteem and expression and that some essays were only graded for creativity and expression, not for writing. Nevetheless, the principal backtracked for days and agreed that a teaching philosophy that forgave flawed English, no matter what the circumstance, was wrong. I don’t expect, and I wouldn’t wish, that the teacher be fired. But I would hope that she keeps her sweet little lefty, feel-good teaching practices inside her head and just teach the three Rs.
That’s why you should expose what happened in Missouri. Take no prisoners. Let the details see the light of day. Okay, don’t mention the boy’s name or the tutor’s. But don’t let the teacher, principal, the school, or the district administration escape without a wrist slap or more.