Posted on 09/06/2007 12:10:36 PM PDT by suspects
Like many public school parents, my wife and I spent the last days of summer sorting through our kids’ complicated school supply lists: Color-coded binders, color-coded notebooks, color-coded index cards. But even we were surprised how far things have gone at Lawrence High School:
Color-coded kids.
Superintendent Wilfredo Laboy has divided the students into six separate “schools” based on curriculum. The dress code goes even further, requiring students in each “school” to wear matching shirts. Kids studying the arts wear red, for example. The math kids are brown shirts while the “humanities and leadership development” (whatever that is) wear white.
White, brown and red - separate but still equal. They get an equally lousy education, with or without the matching outfits.
Laboy loves the uniforms. “It creates team spirit, it creates identity, it creates collaboration,” Laboy told The Boston Globe-Democrat in an audio posted online. “You axe [sic] every kid, and they’re delighted to be here.”
Uh, no. Why don’t we axe . . . er “ask” them how they’re doing in English class, instead.
Actually, we already know. Only 29 percent of Lawrence High seniors are reading and writing at a 10th-grade level, according to their MCAS scores. The state average is 69 percent. And a mere 22 percent of Lawrence High MCAS takers are proficient in 10th-grade math, compared to 67 percent of their peers.
Laboy’s solution? Not testing. Definitely not testing.
“I don’t think a test is the only way to assess a child,” Laboy says. Then again, this is a college grad who failed the state’s Communications and Literacy Skill Test three times before finally passing in 2003. No wonder he’s not a fan of standardized tests.
Instead, Laboy goes for the color-coded polo shirts. More “team spirit” and “collaboration.” Oh, and more money...
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonherald.com ...
But what does Teddy think about it?
What lunacy. Might as well dress them in Mao shirts like the Chinese.
Reason #15,272 to Homeschool
Sounds like our delusional school superintendent. He just started the job at a failing district. State test results were beyond dismal yet this nutcase said the other day that in two years, he expects to be listed on some magazine’s top 50 school districts in the country.
Reason #15,273 to Homeschool
At least they will be comfortable in their new life. Most of the "artsy" types spend their entire careers in such positions.
Brown shirts? Where have I seen that phrase before.....?
Totalitarian Temptation placemarker.
ping
I say it therefore it is. This is just like the "improve their self-esteem and they'll do better in school" arguments. It's based upon NOTHING! If you're a member of a successful team, yes you want to be identified as being a member but getting a shirt doesn't make a team successful.
I read the article. It is people like this superintendent who give the teachers who are articulate and do care a bad name.
I would not work in that school district for anything nor send my child there.
Of course, the home school crowd is about to chime in and say how we teachers are collectively at fault and we are a waste.
Oh well. I have essays to grade.
Very depressing.
This is unreal. Public education has truly gone off the deep end. These public school articles are suitable for “Twilight Zone” episodes.
There is no question about that.
I would not work in that school district for anything nor send my child there.
I'm with you. We live where we do, not where we used to, because of some similar issues.
Of course, the home school crowd is about to chime in and say how we teachers are collectively at fault and we are a waste.
It's such a shame that is such a given here. My friends who homeschool are appalled by how homeschoolers are represented on this forum.
Oh well. I have essays to grade.
I don't believe you.......public school teachers NEVER do anything once they leave the class room (I don't know if I should put a sarcasm tag, or a rabid homeschooler voice tag here)
You're right --- but thankfully they are really not the norm, except in certain isolated locales. Outside of those locales, this nonsense is rather rare I would venture to guess.
No papers for me tonight. I did just get back from 'back to school' night for my younger kid. Kind of bittersweet as she is a senior *sniff*
Yes, why would a district hire a superintendent who seems to be just barely literate?
I would not work in that school district for anything nor send my child there.
Dittoes.
Oh well. I have essays to grade.
Yes, I'm 3/4 of the way through a stack of tests, and haven't started on the labs yet...
You know, I hear that a lot that these issues are “just isolated locales”. That they “never happen here”. But... they happen somewhere. And a lot of them - zero tolerance idiocy over swiss army knives, teachers sleeping with students - seem to happen in decent suburban schools. Heck, the district where I grew up had a high median income, was 90% white, and had two pipe bomb incidents the year I was 16 (I knew the parents of one of the kids involved).
So... not picking on you... but if everyone instantly claims “it’s not like that in my district”, well, where is it happening? Because I get about eight pings a week on something just weird in the public schools.
Homoeschoolers grade papers, too, and don’t get paid for it either. They do it on their own time, along with all the teaching. And they still get to pay taxes to get nothing in return.
Jen, if you look at my responses in most of these cases you will see that I left a distict because of the type issues you mention.
We not only moved out of the school district we lived in — we moved to ANOTHER state. No school is perfect, I never said one was, the same goes for school districts
When I was in high school a girl was attacked by a man in the bathroom.....that was in 1977, in an all girl Catholic HS........this stuff is not new, nor confined to public schools, just reported more.
Where I live now has a low median income of <$35,000, a huge migrant population, and we have relatively little problems in our schools. I know this because I am in the school on a regular basis, attend school board meetings, am active in the community, and pay attention to what is going on around me.
So.......not picking on you, but I’m sick and tired of the holier than thou “homeschoolers” who choose to categorize ALL public schools by the few deviants that are out there.
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