Posted on 07/22/2008 8:47:36 PM PDT by Amelia
...Longer school days and longer school years work. Giving principals the power to hire good teachers and fire bad ones works. High expectations work. Giving a teacher freedom to hug a child who needs hugging works. Parental involvement works. Counseling for troubled students and families works. Consistency of effort works. Incentives work. Field trips that expose kids to possibilities you can't see from their broken neighborhoods, work.
Indeed, the most important thing I've learned is that none of this is rocket science. We already know what works. What we lack is the will to do it. Instead, we have a hit-and-miss patchwork of programs achieving stellar results out on the fringes of the larger, failing, system. Why are they the exception and not the rule?...
....If that investment of $3,500 per annum creates a functioning adult who pays taxes and otherwise contributes to the system, why would we pass that up in favor of creating, 10 years later, an adult who drains the system to the tune of $60,000 a year for his incarceration alone, to say nothing of the other costs he foists upon society?...
...In other words, stand up. Get angry. Stop accepting what is clearly unacceptable. I'll bet you that works, too.
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...
They left out phonics, basic math foundation and history that is not dumbed down and rewritten.
Teachers' unions won't allow that.
Giving principals the power to hire good teachers and fire bad ones works. High expectations work.
Teachers' unions won't allow that either.
Giving a teacher freedom to hug a child who needs hugging works.
Not with CPS witch hunts and trial lawyers ready to folluw up with lawsuits. A teacher would be a fool to hug a kid.
But just keep shilling for the Democrats Leonard. They have done so much for black people.
Remove all emotional arguments and entreaties, and you have a pretty good but much shorter article... ;-)
More money. The public schools just need more money.
Give them your money.
Sincerely,
The IRS
Not sure on that one. Does anyone actually have any evidence of that?
vouchers should lead to more private schools. The rest will follow and whatever else works.
I see a lot of merit in some of his other points. Hiring excellent principals with authority to hire, fire, and lead their staffs in pursuit of excellence is valid. We seem to have systems whereby principals administer the buildings, and curriculum supervisors in the district manage the educational process. Teachers are hired through some group process, and seldom fired. The chain of accountability is weak, and should be more responsive. I also agree that interested, involved parents make a huge difference. Kids need parental support for the logistics of managing homework and projects, and they need the example of parents who value education and hard work. Many youngsters from poor neighborhoods are sadly lacking in this parental support, and schools need to have enough flexibility to draw in the parents or help fill the gap in other ways.
Longer day/year is only beneficial if schools get rid of the cr*p and actually teach, like the KIPP Academies:
http://www.kipp.org/01/whatisakippschool.cfm
“KIPP schools share a core set of operating principles known as the “Five Pillars”: High Expectations, Choice & Commitment, More Time, Power to Lead, and Focus on Results.
“One of the “Five Pillars” is more time. KIPP students are in school learning 60 percent more than average public school students, typically from 7:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. on weekdays, every other Saturday, and for three weeks during the summer. Rigorous college-preparatory instruction is balanced with extracurricular activities, experiential field lessons, and character development. In spite of the long hours, average daily attendance at KIPP schools is 96 percent.
Getting rid of stupid feel good curricula and putting the elementary back in elementary education will fix the education system. The last thing I want is to subject American kids to more school the way it is now.
Folks keep saying that, but when I was in elementary school almost 50 years ago, we got out of school for the summer on Memorial Day, and went back AFTER Labor Day. It seems we also did much better in school than kids do today. Wonder why that is?
The rest of Mr. Pitts' argument is good, and is common sense, but as another post mentioned, the Teachers Unions won't allow it. But then, the Teachers' Unions have only ever been in favor of whatever is good for the teachers, not the kids.
Since he is talking about kids who are at risk after school it does make sense to keep the kids in school longer. I would suggest that a program that provided after school sports and homework hall (where tutors are available) would make a positive impact on the level of each kid in the program. The kids would not be “latch key” at the upper grades or cost the family child care at the lower grades. Kids could be accountable for homework, which is one thing that was left off the list, likely because no teacher can hold a class responsible for homework when they have no way to do it after they leave the school.
I would say that you echo many parents in the system who say, “educate my kid on your time, when he/she comes home I have other things for them to do”. I agree that more of the same stuff that they are getting now is not the answer, but a longer day with the right mix of activities would lead to a larger rate of graduation. IMO.
And don't talk about teaching what we used to think of as school subjects, especially history and English. No. None of this is an improvement. The intentions aren't even particularly good. Competition is the only answer to getting any improvement in public schools. They must be faced with losing their students to competing schools somehow. Then they will revamp their teaching and discipline and become better schools or be finally relegated to babysitting the children of those parents who really don't care.
Pitts also needs to include allowing parents to move their kids elsewhere—public OR private via school vouchers.
But I won’t hold my breath waiting for that stand.
You are correct - if you don't have a good curriculum to start with, you can't expect much from the end result.
Leonard is in Florida, where the unions have some degree of power, but in the rest of the south, they really are nothing but a lobbying group.
In any case, even in D.C., the unions have recently made some concessions, and it's possible they would in other areas, if those demands were made by voters and administration.
I agree that a teacher is taking a great risk in hugging a kid, particularly if the teacher initiates the hug!
IIRC there is some evidence of it, and it's what some of the charters, such as KIPP, which are successful in the inner cities are doing.
I do recall reading somewhere that the kids in lower socioeconomic groups tend to regress more in the summer than other students do. In inner cities, it also tends to keep students out of the toxic street culture more.
I know it’s going to be like fingernails ona chalkboard to some, but longer days and longer school years does not make for a better education. Any homeschooler can attest to that.
It’s not the AMOUNT of time that makes the difference.
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