Posted on 02/10/2019 8:24:14 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Bad teaching is a common explanation given for the disastrously inadequate public education received by America’s most vulnerable populations. This is a myth. Aside from a few lemons who were notable for their rarity, the majority of teachers I worked with for nine years in New York City’s public school system were dedicated, talented professionals. Before joining the system I was mystified by the schools’ abysmal results. I too assumed there must be something wrong with the teaching. This could not have been farther from the truth.
Teaching French and Italian in NYC high schools I finally figured out why this was, although it took some time, because the real reason was so antithetical to the prevailing mindset. I worked at three very different high schools over the years, spanning a fairly representative sample. That was a while ago now, but the system has not improved since, as the fundamental problem has not been acknowledged, let alone addressed. It would not be hard, or expensive, to fix.
Washington Irving High School, 2001–2004
My NYC teaching career began a few days before September 11, 2001 at Washington Irving High School. It was a short honeymoon period; the classes watched skeptically as I introduced them to a method of teaching French using virtually no English. Although the students weren’t particularly engaged, they remained respectful. During first period on that awful day there was a horrendous split-second noise. A plane flew right overhead a mere moment before it blasted into the north tower of the World Trade Center. At break time word was spreading among the staff. Both towers were hit and one had already come down . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at quillette.com ...
There are a lot of good teachers. The vast majority of them mean well. They are limited by the lack of any discipline allowed, also too many of them believe the crap they are taught in ed school.
I feared my teachers - one whack from the wooden paddle with the holes to reduce air drag was enough for me. Nobody fears their teachers today - not even the 4 year olds in pre-K.
Good God, lady, get to the freaking point.
One third of pupils can’t read. That is totally unacceptable and unnecessary.
Why should millions of perfectly normal adolescents, not all of them ghettoized, resist being educated? The reason is that they know deep down that due to the color of their skin, less is expected of them.
The only cure is tough times...…………………………….
Without the support of the parents, the child is lost and destined to fail. This is the root of the “problem with the education system.” And throwing billions of dollars at it won’t help. The failure of the education system is a reflection of the failure of the family and society.
I’m not convinced that there are a lot of good teachers based on my personal experience. Which is not to say that the educational system’s problems are simply the teachers.
However I think when we started handing out degrees in education to teach any old subject we started going down the tubes. In the sixties every one of my teachers had degrees in the subject they taught. That’s not the case anymore. And I don’t see how somebody with a degree in education can teach history or English as effectively as those with degrees in those disciplines.
But again, it is my considered opinion that a great deal of public education’s problems relate to political correctness and incompetent administration.
Good read - from the jump:
“By far the most commonly heard word throughout the school, literally hundreds of times a day, like a weapon fired indiscriminately, was “nigga.” The most amazing story from those painful years was the time I said it myself.
Sometimes you just have had enough. One day a girl sitting towards the back of the classroom shouted at some boy up front, “Yo! Nigga! Stop that!” I stood up as tall as I could and said in my most supercilious voice, “I don’t know which particular nigga the young lady is referring to, but whoever it is, would you please stop it.” The kids couldn’t believe their ears:
“Yo, miss! You can’t say that!”
“Why not? You say it all the time.”
“Uhh… Because you’re old.”
“That’s not why. Come on, tell the truth.”
This went on for a bit, until one brave lad piped up: “Because you’re white.” “Okay,” I said, “because I’m white. Well what if I said to you, ‘You’re not allowed to say some word because you’re black.’ Would that be okay?” They admitted that it wouldn’t. No one seemed to report it. To this day, it’s puzzling that I didn’t lose my job over that incident. I put it down to basic human decency.
I found this to be true in the lower level classes that young teachers (those without seniority) have to serve in. The advance placement classes have good students who want to learn, or at least want to succeed.
The need for discipline in the schools as described by the teacher in this article is valid. Also the teachers need to be selected based on desire to teach and ability (and subject matter mastery). If the discipline is so bad that learning cannot occur, then things need to be changed. Whole schools should be closed. The schools in the article need to be turned into charter schools with vouchers. Students who do not find a school they are willing to succeed in should be provided with trade school and apprenticeships. The schools in the article are not places where any teacher could succeed.
Nailed it. Yes, but no one will listen, especially those parents that don’t give a damn and should not be parents.
Why do precious few adults admit the truth out loud? Because in America the taboo against questioning the current orthodoxy on race is too strong and the price is too high. What is failing our most vulnerable populations is the lack of political will to acknowledge and solve the real problems. The first step is to change the ”anti-discrimination” laws that breed anti-social behavior. Disruptive students must be removed from the classroom, not to punish them but to protect the majority of students who want to learn.
Black culture is evil.
Yep! Why doesn't she lead with the punchline?
Regards,
(Black culture is evil.)
The whole ghetto good rat crap that encourages young black boys that being educated is selling out is a damned virus.
It's communist indoctrination? It's child abuse? Are those secrets?
My cousin was a NYC school teacher. Very rigid curriculum and everything was kept under lock and key. She worked in a school with lots of foreign kids, most of which wanted to learn, according to her. But the curriculum was disastrous and the kids did poorly on exams. Being a bit of a nerd, she still had her textbooks from when she was in that grade. Against policy, she started teaching them with the material she was taught with and the same methodologies. Improvement across the board.
Fast forward, my nephew isn’t but a few years removed from high school. While no rocket scientist or angel, he went to school, sat in class and tried to pay attention as much as any jock could. He said that of a 50 minute class, his teachers spent about 30+ minutes just trying to break up fights, get kids off their cell phones or stop talking. And God forbid the kids involved were black. There was whole different set of rules for them and it wasn’t uncommon for momma, in slippers and house coat, to show up at the school because her kid was disrespected and they were going to sue.
Far cry from when and where I went, with Marist Brothers that were allowed to beat the hell out of you.
On a side note, since becoming a homeowner and being forced to pay school taxes(over 50% of my tax bill), I ask myself....Why continue to try and educate those that do not want to be educated? Why do we continue to feed kids breakfast, lunch and sometimes a dinner when they don’t want to be there anyway? I’m sure 1 or 2 might “wake up” one day, but the rest will be just as delinquent, disruptive and criminal if they didn’t even attend. And it would save all us a lot of money.
>>One third of pupils can’t read.
When you teach sight words instead of phonics, that’s the result. We’ve been doing it for 50 years or so, but the geniuses that run the education bureaucracies can’t figure out the problem.
The black guys who attend a political breakfast I go to have said for a long time “We need a better class of parents”.
An interesting article. I don’t know that there is a fix for these problems. These kids are the product of a completely failed world: schools, families, culture, everything. Their world has an absence of anything resembling civilization. A lot of them have adjusted to that failed world and will perpetuate it.
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