Posted on 05/02/2016 8:21:13 AM PDT by DogByte6RER
I-Team: French teacher at HISD school doesn't speak French
HOUSTON - How do you teach a French class, if you don’t even speak French?
The I-Team discovered that’s exactly what is happening at the Houston Independent School District’s Energy Institute High School in the 1800 block of Sampson Street.
Sharonda White’s son Nathanial is a junior at the school.
"I thought it was a joke, I couldn't believe this was happening,” White said.
We asked her son about his classroom experience.
I-Team: “Does your teacher speak French?”
Nathanial White: “No sir.”
I-Team: “Have you ever heard him speak a word of French?”
Nathanial White: “Bonjour, but everybody knows that.”
The teacher, Albert Moyer, said in a brief phone interview that the extent of his French education was just one year in high school.
So why was he hired? To replace Jean Cius, a certified French teacher for more than 25 years.
“It makes me extremely mad,” Cius said. “I feel bad for the fact that the kids are not learning.”
Records show after a dispute in December, the school's principal removed Cius from campus.
But when he was later declared fit for duty, HISD did not give him back his old job, or any teaching job for that matter.
Cius was sent to another HISD campus, where he said he was assigned to monitor the halls.
“I feel so bad for the taxpayers because they're paying me for not doing anything at all,” he said.
However, Nathanial White's report card shows H-I-S-D is still using Cius as the teacher of record.
(Excerpt) Read more at khou.com ...
‘Oeuf’ means ‘egg’. ‘Chapeau’ means ‘hat’. It’s like, those French have a different word for everything.” -Steve Martin
Yes, obviously he spoke French and was able to teach it effectively.
I took his class for all four years. Then I got out into the world and realized “nobody WANTS to talk to those people!”
I went to a good Prep School. The course was called Conversational French, and it was very good! Later in college, one of my room mates was Frech, and that’s all we spoke.
I’m trying to be optimistic. The fix is already in but momentum will carry on for a bit. Even a dead snake writhes about for a bit.
“Perhaps this teacher Albert Moyer “identifies” as completely French, you haters! ;-)”
Maybe he identifies the English language as the French language, and we are the haters for telling him, that he does actually speak English.
“I had a Spanish teacher who could barely speak English. Dumber than a corn tortilla too”
Remember the words to the old Cheech & Chong song... “Mexican Americans, they go to night school and take Spanish, and get a “B””
Just pronounce your “r”s like you have a hair ball in the back of your throat when you say merci. You’ll do fine.
I simply ascribe it to lack of practice. You have to be immersed, in a situation where you can’t get by on your own language, to really learn to use another. Also, it can be exhausting mentally, so we usually try to avoid it.
A big problem is finding people who know the subject AND have "education major" credentials.
The solution for high-school is obvious. Allow anyone who has taught the subject at the college or community college level for 2 years or more, to teach high school.
It's rather silly to require an "education" degree to teach high school seniors, but not college freshmen.
Good point.
You can be a fluent reader and yet very bad at speaking the language. (I know!)
If you want to teach, say, math, you should be required to get a degree in math. And you should also have to take some education courses. Because those education courses do have value. I've taken them, and while a few were useless, I've benefited from most of them.
The math degree is for the 'what' part of teaching. The ed courses are for 'how' part of teaching. The
I knew a guy who was a French teacher assigned to teach Spanish.
He was taking Spanish at night at the second-year level to try to keep ahead of his students who were beginners. He was a quick study, and he knew French and Latin quite well, so he was doing pretty well.
So he’s using the Bernardo de la Paz method?
Yep. Especially teacher’s unions.
My guess is that maybe this “teacher” is a coach. Too many coaches are asked to teach other subjects that many of them are not qualified to teach, IMO. The only exception to that I ever saw was my high school algebra teacher. Smart as a whip and knew his stuff. He was also the basketball coach. He moved on to become principal and eventually school district superintendent.
Mine was smoking hot. I don't think half the class cared whether she spoke French or not.
Houston’s fine but HISD has ALWAYS sucked very, very hard. Largest school district in the country, if I’m not mistaken.
I attended high school in Houston in 1970-1971. I took a German course from a black teacher who was also very fluent in French. She had a bit of a twang, but she was fluent in German, I’ll admit. Students called her “The brown Frau from the Black Forest”.
There is sauerkraut. In my lederhosen.
3 semesters of college French (no high school).
When LaBelle came on the radio, I could identify the reflexive and the inversion.
If I had to go to France and survive, I could order fish, cheese, beef, cake, ice cream and something to drink.
LOL. Might be able to find a hotel.
Other than that..........(not my best subject at all)
A college teacher basically needs to just impart knowledge. He doesn't have to worry much about motivating his students. And it's no big deal if a students washes out of a college course. In fact, that's often a good thing. A pre-med student who washes out of a college chemistry class is just getting a needed wake-up call.
But a good high school teacher needs to both motivate and instruct. And you must try to prevent anyone from washing out. So it's a slightly different situation.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.