Posted on 02/14/2004 7:18:36 AM PST by George Frm Br00klyn Park
WBAL AM-RADIO Baltimore
Ron Smith's "Something to Say" Commentary
School Budgets, Teaching and Teachers
Friday, February 13, 2004
“I could see the fury in their eyes,” said Baltimore Teacher’s Union President Marietta English upon her arrival at the polling place where city school teachers voted “no” to accepting a pay cut to reduce the budget deficit faced by the reeling school system.
It’s clear that teachers feel they shouldn’t have to suffer for the financial ineptitude of their bosses. One can sympathize with their emotions; especially since many of them regularly dip into their own pockets to pay for classroom supplies the school system doesn’t deliver.
But the problem remains, a $58 million cumulative deficit, and something has to be done about it. There doesn’t seem to be a way to avoid hundreds more layoffs and other belt-tightening. It is a crisis, simple as that.
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While on the subject of teaching and teachers, it is good to remember that public school teachers are the real front line in our continuing war against ignorance, illiteracy, social inequality and cultural despair. How are these front line troops being trained? What are they themselves being taught in their college classes?
These are questions that journalist Rita Kramer sought to answer more than a decade ago when she embarked on an extensive tour of the Ed School World, visiting 15 campuses across the country, talking to students, faculty and administrators, attending classes and then visiting the elementary and high schools where the trainees had their first teaching experiences.
What resulted was a most instructive book, "Ed School Follies : The Miseducation of America's Teachers." It’s a must read still for anyone who would like to understand what’s happened to the teaching profession in this country. There are still many skilled and inspiring teachers, make no doubt about that. But the system is stacked against them.
Furthermore, the inane No Child Left Behind Act that the Bush Administration has pushed down the throats of the states is the bastard child of the modern educational theories so devastatingly detailed in Ms. Kramer’s book. It, as you probably know by now, mandates that in a decade, all American school children meet the same educational standards in key subjects at certain ages. That this is an impossible goal doesn’t matter. It makes sure that massive fraud will ensue on the part of educators who will have to lie and cheat in order to satisfy Uncle Sam.
Educational reform is much needed, but the proliferation of mush-minded teaching theories makes it all but impossible. As Ms. Kramer put it so well:
“No amount of restructuring or empowerment, no amount of money spent on salaries or programs, will make much difference until we place knowledge itself at the center of educational enterprise.” Currently, she adds, “Knowledge – real knowledge in the form of facts, not ‘thinking skills’ or feelings of self-worth – is about the least concern of the professional education industry.”
I would never consider "hiding" anyone away, no matter what the handicap, but I can see some of the parents' logic behind their wish to have their children mainstreamed. Also, non-handicapped children benefit from spending time with disabled students -- it takes away the stigma of the handicap and gives the kids a better understanding of the many ways God made us.
But I feel sorry for the child who's not quite up to speed with his classmates. My concern is that this child will become the victim of a self-fulfilling prophecy -- he believes he's stupid because he's always the last one to finish. So he never develops the desire to try, because, no matter how hard he works, he comes in last. In a class with his peers, he would experience competition and success along with his failures. Personally, I think that's a healthier situation for mildly disabled children.
Infuriating, I know. My son's teacher refused to believe he couldn't work with his desk facing another student's desk (that "Island" concept -- two desks side-by-side, facing two others). I asked her to move him, but she refused.
One day, she decided to "punish" him by isolating him at a desk by himself in the front of the class. For three days, he was happy as a clam and getting his work done. I made the mistake of thanking her for doing what I'd requested. She promptly moved him back to the island, he promptly pulled out his book and started reading.
Yes, I would love to be an "overpaid" teacher. Just for your information, I have a doctorate in education and am certified to teach in Florida. I tried to obtain a teaching position last year, but alas, I'm an old white guy. They need not apply. Oh, and by the way, I would have made much less than a Baltimore teacher and would have had a lot more minority students than most Baltimore teachers. And don't give me that junk about working after hours to grade papers and such. What, you think most professionals work only 40 hours a week? Get real. Ask some IT guy how many hours they spent off the job updating thier skills. How about you talk to an accountant and see how many hours they're working this month? That is if you can ever find them at home during tax season.
Bottom line. Yes, I would love to be an "overpaid" teacher and I will try again this year but I think my chances as an old white guy are pretty slim, regardless of my qualifications.
No, I don't. Been there, done that. Actually, teaching is a second career for me, and I took a huge pay cut when I began teaching. I could give you pros & cons all day long, but then everyone would think I was complaining about how horrible teaching is.
Believe me, if I thought it totally horrible, I'd go back to my old profession, but I don't think I'm overpaid compared to what I could be making elsewhere - then again, I have a technical degree, and that's in demand both in teaching and in "real life".
Yes, I would love to be an "overpaid" teacher and I will try again this year but I think my chances as an old white guy are pretty slim, regardless of my qualifications.
What field? I don't know what part of Florida you're in, but in my area, teachers are always in demand, and I don't think your age would be a problem.
Some fields are less in demand than others, however.
Middle school math and high school business. I'm in Escambia County and we're always crying about needing teachers and the pay's too low. However, when you can find all the teachers you need at the "low" starting pay, then there is no shortage. I will admit that they had to hire teachers who were not certified, but hey, they were minorities. Half the teachers hired last year were black, while 20% or the county is black. Go figure!
So in your area, what percentage of white guys did they hire last year? Look around your school and tell me what percentage of teachers are white guys? Ya, I thought so!
Yes, the "Equal Protection" clause has been used a lot by the courts, just as the "Commerce Clause" has been used by Congress to imply that Congress can pass whatever legislation it wants to as long as it can make a hand-wave to the commerce clause
The position of the various courts these days, seems to be that no government funding of any activity is allowed unless every identifiable group benefits equally from it. Thus you may not fund libraries for people to read in, unless illiterate vagrants are allowed to also use the facility as an informal shelter. Thus you are not allowed to fund public schooling unless each identifiable group comes out with an equal level of educational attainment (which is the point of "No Child Left Behind").
In this legal climate, government funding (especially federal funding) of any activity comes with a huge mass of strings attached.
The only solution, once the system has been made sufficiently unworkable, is to abandon it entirely, as increasing numbers of middle-class parents are doing. Up until now, the upper-middle-class has been able to escape the social pathologies of the underclass by moving deeper and deeper into the suburbs. As soon as that approach becomes no longer workable, you will see increasing middle-class support for radical change
I did the same with my middle daughter in 1st grade. She would get into these upset crying episodes in the late morning, and they wanted to drug her to calm her down. Later on, as I was able to more closely observe her at home, I discovered that she was hypoglycemic (my wife's side runs to diabetes and hypoglycemia), her episodes were due to low blood sugar, and the fix was to just make sure she had a high-protein breakfast
… because NOT ALL third graders will be reading at the third grade level. SOME will be more advanced, and SOME will be behind their peers. The “No Child Left Behind Act” mandates that NONE will be behind their peers … and NONE will be more advanced. This is impossible.
It does NOT mandate that none will be more advanced.
We're in a high minority area, and our teaching staff reflects that, but there were several white guys hired last year. I don't know the exact percentage of the new teachers that would have been, but 100% of the new teachers in my dept were white guys, and I think 50% of the new social studies teachers were. I don't think we had any new math teachers last year.
Where we are, the schools can't hire non-certified teachers if there are certified teachers available. I don't know how your district gets away with it.
I seriously see NCLB as an attempt to begin that change. I've been really surprised at the number of FReepers who reject attempts to bring accountability to public education.
As her blood sugar lowered, she would become increasingly irritable, obsessive/compulsive (everything had to be done one certain way), and irrational until something finally set her off, and she would go into a crying jag lasting up to 15 minutes until she fell asleep. Giving her fruit juice or soda would make her better immediately, which gave me the big clue as to what was going on. Changing her diet to cut out processed flour and sugar for breakfast, and add in meat was the long-term fix
It brings some accountability, at the cost of a radical shift in resource allocation. It's the latter that bothers a lot of parents, with the stress on bringing up the bottom 10%, at the cost of the education of the other 90%
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