Posted on 06/17/2009 5:09:20 AM PDT by Islander7
A startling number of children are falling through the cracks at one Chicago Public School. More than half of the kids didn't even pass the eighth grade. As CBS 2's Jim Williams reports there is fierce debate about who's to blame.
It is a debate that gone on for years in poor communities: do you blame the schools for the students' poor performance or do you blame their parents?
The mother of a one student who failed eighth grade says she got no warning her son was struggling. The school says she was notified, and other parents insist she did not do enough.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbs2chicago.com ...
Future dem voters.
Future? Nope....already and totally convinced that government will rescue them from all bad decisions. They are taught this by ACTION in the public school system...
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Yep! Like gerbils on an exercise wheel!
Round and round it goes. The child is on welfare. Goes to school and it taught that he deserves welfare. He has kids and the welfare wheel spins and spins.
My wife teaches Kindergarten and she agrees with you. Every year the kids seem to arrive knowing less than the previous group. There is one area in which they are highly advanced, “everyone owes me something.”
Very good point! Given their IQ was is a reasonable expectation?
What if these kids had been adopted into the very best and most educationally dedicated families. What if they attended the best schools with experienced teachers dedicated to helping them in every way.
How many could do the work? What would be the failure rate even under the very best circumstances?
Perhaps a 40% failure rate is to be expected and the schools are actually doing a good job.
Finally, perhaps **no** institutional school has any effect whatsoever. Perhaps little or no learning happens in the classroom. Perhaps the only thing an institutional schools does is send home a curriculum. Perhaps it is the child and the parents who are doing the “homeschooling/afterschooling”.
It is **important** to know the answers to your question and mine because the model we have now may be completely ineffectual. It may actually be a form a child abuse for the poor child who must suffer through it.
If the child does not have the IQ to master the material then sending him to government schools as they are now structured would be an abusive frustration for him.
If little learning is happening in the school. If the school is for the most part merely sending home an “afterschooling” or “homeschooling” curriculum for the child and parent then two things are happening:
1)For the child in the functional home, the current model is **wasting** 30 to 35 hours of the child's best hours in the week. These children would be better off if they could spend less time in school and more time at home.
2) For the child in the dysfunctional home, these child need an institutional setting that attempts to duplicate at school what should be happening at homes. These kids need a school that not only teaches the child but teaches the parents as well. George Will calls these paternalistic schools. The KIPP schools are an example.
And...What is the government school doing to help teach the values that would strengthen the family? Answer: Precious little! In fact, the government school teaches the very values that destroy families.
Then the government teachers turn around and blame the very families that they are in large part responsible for creating! Unbelievable!
“Alexandria, Virginia makes many excuses for them.”
So does Smalltown, NC. Current excuse is the town’s Confederate Memorial Statute keeps black kids from going in the public library.
No joke, the latest editorial said that statue with his gun scared some kids and that it was a bad example for children when you were trying to keep them out of gangs.
Correct!
And the results of mass abusive frustration at the orders of the State are plain to see for anyone who is willing to look.
“Every year the kids seem to arrive knowing less than the previous group. There is one area in which they are highly advanced, “everyone owes me something.”
WOW...This is so true. What is worse, these children definitely have capability. I KNOW this firsthand. They CAN handle a rigorous academic curriculum. Unfortunately, most don’t get the chance.
Indeed, it is. That's why the parents might as well educate them outside the school system. I don't live in Chicago, but I do have some experience with the public schools where we live. The teachers and administrators expect parents to "go along" and say "yes" to everything. They don't want us to be TOO involved. And they definitely don't want us to take too much control by homeschooling because they view homeschooling as a threat to their job security.
What percentage?
What is the natural academic HS graduation rate? That is, left alone to do as they desire, and without cheating on tests (by the school) what percentage of 18 year olds can master 4 years of history and english, math through trig, biology, chemistry and physics, and a foreign language?
And I mean white suburban kids, not "deprived youth".
In 1941, the white HS graduation rate was 25%. That's probably pretty close to the real rate.
If it's over 40%, I'd be astonished.
In 1941, the high school graduation rate for white children was 25%?
Not that I doubt you, but do you have a link for that?
How interesting it would be if true
What in the world makes you think these parents would be even vaguely capable of homeschooling their children? Please point to something in the article that shows that any of the parents of the failing children ever gave two toots about their kids BEFORE getting the notice they were going to fail?
The one child who has now decided to buckle down and do well is ONLY doing so because his actions finally caught up to him.
Sadly, the only people who cared about these failing kids were the schools, who did the right thing in not allowing them to continue on without learning the basics.
By all means, homeschool your own children if that works for you, but don’t pretend that the majority of these parents have the time, the ability, the patience, or even the desire to homeschool.
Tarrell had failed English two times before, but Dennis thought he was doing better...On an encouraging note, Dennis says her son is so upset he failed eighth grade, he is now determined to be a better student, pass his classes this summer and go on to high school.
Well, I certainly hope that he will apply himself to his studies this summer.
The data is from the first WW Ii draft class, no I don’t have a link.
My post was in response to the “Another Reason to Homeschool” comment
and I agree with you, hopefully he will have learned the value of hard work in regards to his education
A 25% graduation rate from the “Greatest Generation”
Well, at least it looks like the school is standing fast and refusing to change the grades of students who have failed to achieve a minimum level of competence.
Sorry to say, but every parent is a "homeschooler." Simply speaking standard English at home is a big plus. I must stop posting now, too much IPA.
I didn’t think that those parents were capable of homeschooling their kids.
But in this case, the teachers were not capable of imparting knowledge either.
I just noted the irony of public educators (some, I understand) who criticize homeschooling because parents couldn’t teach their own kids, when teachers aren’t doing any better.
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