Cancel Public School

A friend who volunteers at a Sunday school in Harlem for low-income children called me the other day, greatly upset: She had been working with a pair of students who failed to learn the assigned reading, which was a short psalm or a prayer. She thought perhaps the fourth graders, a boy and a girl, weren’t applying themselves. The truth was much worse: The two children turned out to be illiterate.

Their public school teachers had passed them, grade by grade, into the fourth, and no one had ever taught them how to sound out words. Their teachers graded spelling tests and assignments—they knew they were passing kids who couldn’t read.

I read a book a while back about the sorry state of education, published in 2003. Back then, 18 years ago, it saidthat in 2003 about 80% of high school graduates were functionally illiterate, unable to read and write beyond 4th grade level.

Another I just read more recently was about how unions are destroying education. Government run “public” schools were unionized in the late 60’s. Since then the quality of education has gone consistently down. Unions demand higher and higher pay, while pushing through rules that make it impossible to fire inadequate or incompetent teachers, and who suffers? The kids. When I was in high school, this country rated #7 worldwide. A few years later Isaw a news report stating we were #17. When obama was resident we were #28. Now were below #30.

In days gone by, people like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison were fully home schooled. Their parents worked the fields all day, with horse drawn plows, chopped firewood with axes, hauled water from the well in buckets, and still found time to teach their kids to read and write, usually using the Bible and what is now considered classic literature for freferences. They went on to form this country and their descendants invented things like tractors to pull the plows and chainsaws to cut the firewood. Even things invented in other countries were invented by people schooled at home. Ben Franlin invented bifocals so he wouldn’t have to change glasses constantly.

Today, I read not long ago about a teacher who sued to get his full paycheck while doing a prison term (5 years I think) for possession of cocaine. And got it. And it was possession of more than enough to sell, not just a gram for personal use. Completely incompetent teachers cannot be fired. And they show up at union meetings to demand higher pay EVERY. TIME.

In florida a few years ago they implemented a school voucher system. If you didn’t like your kids’ school, send them to one you do like and send that school your voucher, that school would get your kid’s share of government funding (taxes).

It was quite successful, in 2 years kids were showing a noticeable improvement in education until it was shot down by a lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed by the teachers union.

I taught in an inner-city parochial school for a short while before getting transferred to a suburban school. Our students were in better shape than those from the public schools, but that isn't saying much. When I started, the principal warned me that the average incoming freshman had a 2nd grade reading level. They had a lot of trouble learning any meaningful content and couldn't comprehend what was in their textbooks.

Unfortunately, the system was built upon dishonesty. If students earned failing marks and you dared to give them what they had earned, admin came after you. Your performance rating took a hit and you endured repeated administrative reviews of your teaching methods. Teachers quickly learned how to structure their grading to pass kids if they turned in something - anything - that could be assigned points. Grades were boosted through test corrections, open book tests, group projects, etc. I couldn't wait to get out of there. The suburban schools had similar administrative policies, but the overall academic level was higher.

While there are plenty of failings in our educational system, I think the weakest of the students reflect problems at home. Children who have inadequate pre-natal care, are exposed to drugs and alcohol in utero, or have nobody to read to them as toddlers can hardly be expected to perform well in school when they reach the magical age of five.

"Perhaps teachers are afraid to fail kids because they’re afraid of the parents."

Depends on the school, the location, and school leadership. I found inner-city parents usually too disengaged to meet the teacher, so they were seldom feared. Admin insisted on passing grades, so teachers fell into line to keep up their performance ratings.

In the suburbs, parents are more aggressive in advocating for their children. It can be very unpleasant to have one of these screaming parents in conference over failing grades or cheating. If you're in a tuition-paying system, they have a lot of leverage unless admin stands up to them. They threaten to pull their tuition money and admin generally caves. Teacher gets 'talked to' or grades are revised in the system over the summer. Social promotion at its finest.

"He won in the end."

Good for him. You have to get your ducks in a row with these things. Gather your evidence and talk to key admins before the parents are notified. I usually won my battles, but I learned to be selective about them. Mostly I worked with natural consequences. Students who cheat on homework usually test very poorly, so they make their own punishment. I didn't give a lot of credit for homework and monitored test integrity like a hawk. Worked for me, for the most part.

With a disruption of regular families, and no “grands” or “aunts” around, and some around that are nonfunctional because of their own illiteracy, just giving every child an iPad and high speed wifi isn’t going to fix anything.
If every literate adult taught even one person how to read, at any age, it would still not make a significant change.

And aaaaaallllll that money is just getting pissed away.

So, you cannot help everyone, just like spaying/neutering dogs and cats, there is still going to be a problem. But if you can, then do what you can.
Be a mentor to someone. If all you have ever done is just survive, you still have SOMETHING worthy to teach. We can’t keep relying on idiots.

Agree......

Part of my management style in business was to set both a mentorship program and encourage continuing education for all employees from the loading dock to the executive suite.....

Good management practice is to encourage the positive growth of your employees.....

This translates to your personal life with both your own family, friends, and acquaintances.....

This requires you to lead by example as well.....

Parents are the CEO of their families, they must encourage and lead. if they aren’t literate there are plenty of community resources to encourage education.

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