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 ...
For their own good, blacks need to be
convinced that voting is acting white.
“Why continue to try and educate those that do not want to be educated?“
They’re not trying. They’re running detention centers.
"It is not poor teaching or a lack of money that is failing our most vulnerable populations. The real problem is an ethos of rejection that has never been openly admitted by those in authority."
"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."
"They also take revenge on a fraudulent system that pretends to educate them. The authorities cover up their own incompetence, and when that fails, blame the parents and teachers, or lack of funding, or “poverty,” “racism,” and so on."
What people, and this teacher, forget about our "failing" education system is most children graduate high school, and graduation rates have been going up since the 1960s-1970s. Which contradicts her point, whatever it is.
As a rule, I look to find the simplest answer to a problem. The “students” don’t want to be there and prevent others from learning. Fine, THROW THEM OUT. Enroll them in the school of hard knocks - a job, jail or death. The choice is theirs. And if parents complain, tell them to do a better job of raising their kid(s). Schools are NOT day care centers.
It’ll never happen, of course because we are stuck on stupid.
True...my issue is, why continue paying for them? They’re going to be perps anyway, why should we all be paying school taxes to give them a free lunch?
>What people, and this teacher, forget about our “failing” education system is most children graduate high school, and graduation rates have been going up since the 1960s-1970s. Which contradicts her point, whatever it is.
Your assertion presumes that graduation means the same thing it did 10, 20, 30 years ago.
It does not.
Social promotion is a thing. We graduate many who are functionally illiterate and/or innumerate.
“But there was one teacher to whom this limitation did not apply. He was a shop teacher...”
Shop teachers are allowed to require discipline in their classes, since the safety of students is an issue, due to the use of dangerous industrial machines and tools. Students who refuse to comply with instructions are punished or expelled.
The question is why do school administrators allow shop teachers to require discipline in shop classes but deny teachers of other subjects the right to exercise the same authority in their classes. Student safety should be paramount regardless of the class a student attends.
The children apparently were open to learning in the true sense. One might never know what a lasting impact that teaching moment had on their lives. True example of academic freedom.
“I think the point is at the end, after 4,500 words:...”
Teacher or not, this lady writes as if she’s designing click-bait for some low-grade internet journalism. I can’t see how she’d motivate a casual student. I was contemplating self-harm after just the excerpt...
A+ for this answer.
Compulsory public education has no place in a free society.
It's that simple.
It doesn't contradict her point. She mentions in the article that most of the kids in those schools graduate. She also points out that they're getting 12th-grade diplomas even though they have nothing more than a 7th-grade education.
75% of everything you learn comes from the home environment by the time you are in 5th grade. A uniform forced public education is a ridiculous concept as it is actually carried out in America. Generations with no skills and no discipline are pumped out every year. Perfect vote slaves.
We have a 4th grade reader text from 1911. Today it is college level reading material.
And the truth shall set you free.. :)
The system is working like it was designed to work...
“There are a lot of good teachers.”
I don’t believe that. I think there are a few good teachers. This isn’t the ‘50s or 60s and prior when teachers did it for the love of teaching.
A local politician had me compile anonymous data he received from a survey he had mailed to all residents. The teacher respondents - ALL of them - said they taught to have summers off, and not having to work hard during the school year while getting decent pay and benefits. And, BTW, their written responses were borderline illiterate.
“Why continue paying them”
I write about this here a lot. I believe mandatory school should end at grade 8 and that high school should have an entrance exam and a small fee.
Most posters here would rather pay for “schools” rather than have every central business district occupied by roving gangs of low IQ high testosterone minorities from 10 am to 5 pm, because they scare away customers and lower the quality of life.
If you see an alternative to those two choices, let’s hear it.
“they know deep down that due to the color of their skin, less is expected of them.”
Last night when channel surfing I stumbled on the abysmal FNC show, “The Next Revolotion”. He’s British - now US citizen, I think - and supposedly a conservative. Typical talk show (blah blah blah).
THEN the limey went in to a preachy rant about the evils of white privelege in America - how blacks don’t get any breaks, they score lower in tests, they earn less money, etc., and it’s OUR fault. His solution? Reparations (yes, he, an alleged conservative used that word) in different forms. He, a Brit, presumed to tell us how to fix things here. He was still blathering when I flipped to my go-to safe TV space, rapes and murders on ID, which usually is better than politics.
I tried to find an email address for his show, but it seems nobody uses email any more, and the only options are FB and Twitter.
The Bigotry of Low Expectations.
More powerful than most people realize.
“In homeschool world, our students compete in debates,”
We watched a high school debate last week here in east TN, with a homeschool group vs a public high school. Homeschoolers scored over 600; public school was 110.
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