There is nothing wrong with these students’ brain cells. For a person to learn an academic skill, first he has to be exposed to an academic skill. The problem in this school is the lack of knowledge on the part of the educators.
Being exposed to an academic skill doesn’t make a person smart. Exposing a horse to a racetrack doesn’t make it a Derby winner. Exposing a worm to a bird doesn’t mean it can learn to fly. You can expose kids to the best teachers in the world, but that doesn’t mean they’ll necessarily absorb any knowledge. If it were just a matter of exposure, we could all be theoretical physicists.
Congratulations on winning the most ignorant post in this thread award!! Educators cannot teach students who are not present in the classroom, who are disrupting the lesson or who are not paying any attention.
Now read this excerpt from Michael Goodwin's column in the same issue of the NY Post: (bolding is mine)
"...When it comes to early education, the only thing New York City’s first lady, Chirlane McCray, doesn’t mention is parenting. Until she does, she’s guilty of neglecting the biggest force for change. McCray’s husband, Mayor de Blasio, called her “my best friend in the world, my closest confidante, my No. 1 adviser” and gave her an official job and staff. It’s safe to say, then, that she’s on message when she trots out the heroes of the civil-rights movement to rally support for his agenda. Coming from a black woman, that invocation is meant to assert moral authority and move Albany lawmakers to support the $2.6 billion tax hike de Blasio demands.
In truth, McCray’s approach is misguided and creates a false equivalency. Likening school failure to the race-based denial of civil rights paints modern society as the embodiment of Bull Connor, the Alabama official who loosed water hoses and snarling dogs on black marchers in Birmingham 50 years ago.
The suggestion to mostly black audiences that they must mobilize because the city is putting up impediments to African-American students defies reality. New York already spends more than $20 billion on education, much of it specifically directed to help poor, nonwhite children. Still, the racial achievement gap remains stuck at high levels.
As de Blasio has noted, only 11 percent of black city school grads are ready for college or careers.
Yet the first couple’s ideological bent, which favors collective society over individuals and families, leads them to believe the best ways to help children are found outside the home. They are looking in the wrong places.
So far, they display no interest in the mountain of studies showing that children raised in stable, two-parent families are far more likely to succeed in school and life. Conversely, dysfunctional families usually produce dysfunctional children, no matter the buffet of social programs.
Consider that, year in, year out, about 45 percent of city children are born out of wedlock. The total hits 90 percent in some black and Hispanic neighborhoods, and 70 percent in all The Bronx.
Attendance is another fundamental key to school success. One study found that 24 percent of black third- and fourth-graders in New York missed more than a month of school. The figure was 23 percent for Latino children, 12 percent for whites and 4 percent for Asians. Attendance rates are early predictors of graduation rates because most children who fall behind don’t catch up..."
Peddle your one-note tirade, based on nothing at all but your own ignorance, elsewhere. I have personally witnessed exactly what Mr. Goodwin describes. The largest ethnic group of students walking the halls when they should be in class are black students. Nearly always, the first student in a class to act out is a black student. Calls to their homes often result in "This number is disconnected" recordings. It is becoming more and more uncommon to see a student with the same last name as the parent/guardian. Most of the worst behaved and most academically at risk students prove, upon investigation, to be in foster care.
So these children are severely handicapped before they ever reach a classroom, by their irresponsible parent(s). A patchwork mishmash of online "instruction" and other stabs in the dark approaches is a parody of the education they should be receiving. I have personally witnessed some of these computer classes. Taxpayers, did you know that the kids are graded often on how long they spend logged on to the computer rather than what online coursework they completed? The minute the teacher's back is turned, they go to websites about high-dollar sneakers, pop music, games, etc., minimizing those windows when the teacher walks by. What a complete farce! No wonder their letters and emails reflected ignorance. They were a true mirror of what they had learned online!
I am quite sure that 99% of educators, with one hand tied behind their back, would best you in academic skills.