Teachers' Letter Bomb

New York Post Dot Com ^ | 4 March 2004 | CARL CAMPANILE and FRANKIE EDOZIEN

[Neets]

March 4, 2004 -- Courageous teachers at a Brooklyn high school - fed up with unprepared and even illiterate students - made an impassioned plea to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein yesterday to end social promotion. The teachers at Clara Barton HS sent Klein a plaintive letter - signed by half of the 120-member faculty - saying it's impossible to educate students who were allowed to graduate from elementary or middle schools without having learned the basics.

[Neets]

I am in total SHOCK!!

Kudos to these teacher's for not being afraid to speak up!!!

[OXENinFLA]

Bump to that.

This teacher just grabbed the 3rd rail w/ both hands while standing in a puddle of water.

[Cicero]

Vouchers would be one possible solution. Another would be to try to figure out some sort of job training for students who simply cannot pass academic courses. But flunking students who are flunking is a good first step.

[knarf]

Rush read an article from a 22 year old yesterday? that was as conservative as we would like to think our kids could/would be.

Are these teachers the gen x offspring of the hippies that went into the teaching profession from out of the 60's?

Yo, teach ... you go, dude/girl!

[Darksheare]

Last time I saw a teacher speak out against the system, she was denigrated as a whore by the rest of the faculty, smeared, and pretty much run out of town.
I guess alot of people are fed up with things the way they are.
(Not that the incident mentioned is the norm, but it did raise my eyebrows.)

[Tacis]

THE TEACHERS UNION DOESN'T LIKE ONE GROUP OF MEMBERS BLAMING ANOTHER GROUP OF MEMBERS!!

The blame always falls on George Bush who has never provided enough dollars to pay the teachers more for doing even less.

These inappropriate comments might also lead to criticism of affirmative action in college admissions. When the same minority kids get their HS diplomas and are accepted to college solely because of race/ethnicity, what makes anyone think the the TAs who run their college classes (professors are writing papers to further their own careers and don't have time to actually teach) are going to do any different? And, when an employer sees a city black kid who went to a city college, he knows what a lazy schlump he is dealing with. Maybe that's why the employer would ALWAYS rather hire a Mexican or Indian illegal.

The answer to improve public school education is to get rid of the unions!!

[TheSpottedOwl]

It's about time. The schools are more messed up than ever.

[Lee Heggy]

Placing these 'students' along with those who support such idiotic policies as 'social promotion' in a large wire cage and then totally immersing them for an hour is another possible solution. As a post secondary educator I can't imagine anything more tedious and unrewarding than the semesterly winnowing out of those 18 year old 3rd graders who can't read or write, (let alone want to learn) due to the massive failures of public education and a culture that glorifies the 'hood' and the values of hip hop.

[Timm]

What's with these bosses? Why have grade three if a kid can just start in fourth grade with "extra help" without learning anything in the previous grade?

[kenth]

Placing these 'students' along with those who support such idiotic policies as 'social promotion' in a large wire cage and then totally immersing them for an hour is another possible solution.

Just make sure you leave enough room for the parents too.

[LiteKeeper]

SPOTREP - EDUCATION - SOCIAL PROMOTIONS

[nobody_knows]

Doo yu reelly theenk thay rrr beein fare tho?

[Neets]

nobody_knows.

[Seruzawa]

Some teachers have some guts. My wife's aunt was a school teacher in Wyoming in the 40's-60's. One day she told us exactly what destroyed the schools. She said in very unequivocal terms that it was "Those damned psychologists. They're the ones who destroyed the system of discipline and forced us to pass failing students on to higher grades. We'll never fix the schools until we get rid of those people."

It was the only time I ever heard her swear.

[Eska]

Social promotions have been norm for a certain number of students for years.

What are you going to do with a severe FAS student that is 20, still in school, and at the 3rd grade level? It would be nice to blame the alcoholic parents who are responsible but that will never occur.

How about a violent SED child that's headed down the institutionalization highway; and yet maybe one out of three become productive citizens because of the continued intervention at school?

How about the sexually abused child that is scarred for live with a burden people can't even imagine. Better to keep him in school rather than have him murdered in the home.

Vast majority of social promotions involve kids with immense social/psycho problems. It all begins in the family and is a reflection of certain segments of our society. Reason why the largest amount of ed problems are not found in higher income suburbs but in lower income areas that experience massive social dysfunction.

Not many easy answers that are politically acceptable; but we can always blame the teachers.

[drypowder]

While viewing the PBS documentary about the Civil War I was amazed to see the letters written by those young men demonstrated a level of literacy beyond that of a college professor of today. In comparison, I'd say our educational system is right up there at the bottom of the abyss. This teacher is truly a welcomed anomaly.

[lysie]

I have some school papers/tests of my mother's dating back to the mid 1930s. Not only were the tests much harder, but penmanship was outstanding.

[fella]

Excellent ...... The demonrat/NEA plans for the future of the United States is well under way.

[Lee Heggy]

"Social promotions have been norm for a certain number of students for years."

Yes, but that doesn't mean it should be continued. The special cases who can learn in a special environment should be given a chance for sure. No easy answers to this subject. I don't so much blame the teachers as much as I do failed ideologies and those who perpetuate them. It should be obvious that we need to get back to much of the curriculum of the past. Penmanship and Civics along with the other basics and force parents to raise their children rather than foist them off onto a system that is over burdened and misguided by good intentions.

Why do we require a license and training to drive a car and not to have children?

[kittymyrib]

Penmanship...another thing we've left behind. Practically all high school students today can only print. They do not know or use script or cursive writing. Beautiful writing, both physically and intellectually, is a thing of the past.
As an aside, a teacher acquaintance went from a small West Texas school district to a large New York district and was utterly amazed that his work-load was half as great and his paycheck was twice as large, and best of all, there was practically NO accountability compared to Texas requirements.