[verga]

What kind of education will a child with the best parents get from urban schools such as this?

Your question is a non sequitor. A teachers job is to teach the curriculum, not to be a referee, lion tamer, etc.... How much more can a teacher do if the children behave a civilized human beings as oppoesed to these delinquents

While your point is true, it's irrelevant to the issue being discussed.I disagree my point is the single most relevant issue. Children in other countries learn more and better simply because they behave better. The crap that happens here is not tolerated.

[gogeo]

Your point, while true, is still irrelevant. You speak as though parents send their children to teachers, not schools.

The public school system, for better or worse, is the delivery vehicle for what we call education. Teachers are just one cog in the machine...call it the system, the blob.

The blob is dysfunctional; it does not work. What's more, the Blob trends toward eating more resources and producing worse results. There's no part of the Blob that functions; not one. That's not an accident.

There's no prospect that students will face accountability anytime soon. Everyone understands why...that was the point of the article.

There's no prospect that parents will face accountability anytime soon. Everyone understands why...that was the point of the article.

There's no prospect that the academics that offer illogical theories of education will be called to task anytime soon...nor the schools of education who turn out increasingly irrelevant graduates.

There's no prospect that incompetent teachers will face accountability anytime soon...that's the purpose of paying dues.

Public schools...the Blob...function as a machine designed to avoid accountability on the part of all involved. So long as that is the case, nothing will change...except for the worse.

Teachers are part of the problem. Pointing out that things would be better, if someone else would clean up their act, carries no weight with anyone.