Posted on 11/04/2021 4:59:12 AM PDT by Kaslin
resident Joe Biden delivered a message and a warning to our country in a speech that I, along with many others, wholeheartedly agree with: "Any country that out-educates us will out-compete us." He is entirely correct. However, while his words are vital and motivating, they must be accompanied by actions.
Biden delivered this speech in a city with the nation's worst school system: Baltimore City School District. The figures aren't simply stunning; they'll make your heart skip a beat and your stomach turn. In the Baltimore City School District, 41% of high school students have a GPA of less than 1.0 on their report cards. That equates to Ds and Fs in important classes such as math, science and history.
It gets worse. Of the 171-plus schools in the school district, there just so happens to be one school that came under scrutiny because there were 21 students who haven't attended school in years. Imagine how many "ghost" students, as they call them, are in all the other schools that haven't yet been investigated? The total taxpayer cost to educate those "ghost" students, as far as we know, is estimated to be approximately $331,653.
This news is shocking, but it gets even worse. The Baltimore City School District has one of the highest budgets of any school district in the country, with a total budget of $1.4 billion. What now remains for us to know has yet to be discovered due to the lack of transparency of the school district. So, what may be more shocking is not what we know but what we don't know.
People pay attention when Biden speaks, especially teachers, who happen to be disproportionately supportive of him. That being said, given the fact that this problem has persisted for generations, the Baltimore City School District's teachers unions, educators, students and parents alike must take a serious look at the future they are creating. They will serve as a case study for our country, demonstrating how we can transform the awful into the extraordinary, or fail to perform and ruin the lives of many for generations to come.
Without reform, we can be certain that we will see crime, death and the litany of ills that will result and that are resulting all while the government remains silent. These consequences are part and parcel with a poor educational system, limited intellect and poor home life. This is because the American dream becomes attainable only when a child has a good education. When government and parents fail to recognize the importance of education, their children grow up with little, if any, meaningful knowledge and without the ability to think critically.
No one should become a teacher just for the purpose of making money. Yes, they should be paid a living wage and should be protected from unfair regulations. That pay and protection, however, should never be at the price of the students they educate. A teacher who teaches just for the goal of earning money is an employee, not a teacher; that is a distinction that we often fail to make. We put a lot of faith in our teachers. We let them teach our children behind closed doors; we let them instill certain values in them; and we let them change their perspectives and worldviews. That is why we need teachers who want to educate because it is the right thing to do, and we must protect them at all costs in order for them to be able to earn a living wage.
Unfortunately, teachers unions, particularly those in the Baltimore school system, have lost sight of what it means to be a teacher, inevitably breeding a generation of teachers who would rather see their students fail and take to the streets if it meant they could earn just a little bit more money. As a result, students are unable to reap the rewards of a quality education that teaches them both substance and the ability to be well-functioning members of society, and they will inevitably turn to the streets and rebel against the system that failed them.
Despite the importance of specific knowledge, understanding specific subjects from specific courses is not necessarily the desirable objective of a good education. Rather, a good education should give a child the capacity to think critically, appreciate diverse points of view and engage in rational decision-making, something which they would not be able to accomplish without a solid education. This is why Biden's statement was as crucial as it was correct: We need to improve our children's education if we are to succeed on the global arena.
Despite the fact that the United States is one of the world's most powerful countries, our intelligence rankings are far from exceptional. The United States, for example, is ranked 29th in the world in terms of IQ. Our rival international superpower, China, is rated fifth. Another crucial element is how well students succeed in math and science. The United States is placed 25th in the world, behind China, which is ranked first.
The United States has the power and the resources to adjust our presence on the world stage and be not just the world's foremost superpower but the most intelligent country in the world. It is time that we stop treating education as a condition and instead treat it as a luxury that every person, no matter their income or social status, can afford. There is no tangible item that can enhance your life as much as a good education. Once we realize this, we will be able to inspire our children and their parents to work hard in order to earn that priceless education and to be the greatest people they can be.
Education reform could propel the GOP into a major majority party if they move on it decisively. Charter Schools, vouchers, school choice, competition and significant reforms for public schools is a winning issue. It could also defeat the Dem party forever if the GOP can properly explain to Blacks that this is their ticket out of the hood and into mainstream society.
At the end of the semester, when I would make out final grades, I noticed the absences listed on the computer rosters were far different from the ones I kept in my roll book - meaning someone who had access to supposedly secure attendance rosters and was “cooking the books” - students I hadn’t seen for weeks, if not months, were mysteriously counted as present almost every single day.
I was being overridden somewhere.
You just witnessed some administrators earning their pay.
Cooking the books is mandatory in many professions in 2021.
This. Exactly. Of course there are some bad teachers, and some that do nothing but teach CRT. The Union absolutely protects bad teachers, and definitely endorses Democrat politicians.
But there are a lot of teachers who care very much for their students and want them to lean.
Federal involvement by the Holder JustUS Department in discipline since Obama has seriously undermined the ability of all students to learn. Special Ed law protecting behavior problem students has also undermined the ability to discipline students. Now we have “Peace Circles” and no consequences because there were too many black students being disciplined. Of course they actually did the things they were to be disciplined for, buy obviously disciplining black students is rayciss.
When you leave the predators, gang members, and disruptive in classes, teachers have to spend most of their time trying to maintain order in their class rather than teach.
Those that are disruptive, and the predator gang members ruin the educational environment and intimidate other students who want to learn. No one wants to be singled out, or acting white. If you put a teaspoon of sewage in a barrel of wine, you have a barrel of sewage. Without the ability to discipline, and remove highly disruptive students, you poison the learning of all.
Administrators love to blame teachers for the students not learning, but to make one group responsible for the bad choices of others changes nothing. A student calls you a “fat bald a$$ Mo**** Fu****”, and is sent to the Dean or Principal. Ten minutes later they are back in class after being talked with. Three Kids come into a classroom not their own and drag another student out of his desk and pound the snot out of him hitting him with a chromebook in the hear and they hold a Peace Circle with the 4 boys. Discipline is gone and the schools are out of control.
Administrators also punish teachers who try to hold kids accountable for their attendance, work production and grades. Administrators will poorly evaluate teachers with too many failing students (which the students earned by not working or attending), and the teacher will be gotten rid of.
The only thing I can see that will work, after being in education for over 32 years is to remove the disruptive and those that do not want to learn. Put them in training programs, train them in trade or put them in jail. Get them out so that the students that actually want to learn can succeed. Of course that will never work, because surely it is too white a solution and is rayciss.
“The guilty folks here are the school boards.”
The root cause of the problem is the parents.
Ghost students, you betcha. But my school district went one better. Any grade lower than 50% was automatically changed to 50%.
So let’s suppose I gave four tests during a quarter. A student was absent for two of them, and didn’t bother to make them up (not unusual). And let’s say that student scored 72% on the other two.
I enter: 0+0+72+72. The average is 36%. The student should fail.
The computer reports: 50+50+72+72. The average is 61%. The student passes. And the superintendent gets to brag about the district’s low failure rate.
Good post, yours. As you noted, discipline is a major problem. Disruptive students are no longer disciplined. So one or two of them can completely destroy all learning for the good kids.
I taught in urban public schools for decades. Even in my worst classes most of the kids were decent. They had attendance problems, but when they were present they were willing to work.
Unfortunately one or two disruptive kids could - and did - ruin learning for everyone. And the administration did nothing.
As a side note, part of the blame rests on George W. Bush. His idiotic ‘No Child Left Behind’ program ignored the trades, and tested only for math and English. So most trade classes were eliminated.
Kids who wanted to work with their hands were instead shoved into advanced math classes. No wonder those kids were not very motivated to learn.
Lol. Sorry, no one listens when Brandon speeds.
“all get jobs in HR”
Lol! Zactly. I have always worked in high tech fields like lasers and electronics, mostly DOD contracts. Have always said it must be hard working in HR in these companies knowing 98% of the employees are smarter than they are. Snort!
That’s a side benefit. The primary purpose of the public schools is to fund Dem politicians through kickbacks from the NEA and to reward Dem constituencies in the teachers unions and to give phony, worthless diplomas to blacks and Hispanics.
I remember seeing a breakout by race of educational statistics in the US: whites performed as well as the top half of Western European students, more or less what you would expect. American Asians matched even higher East Asian levels. Blacks and Hispanics dragged the national averages way down.
“...41% of high school students have a GPA of less than 1.0 on their report cards. That equates to Ds and Fs in important classes such as math, science and history.”
Perfect little democrats!
This crap gets published continually, ie that US students are ranked poorly compared to other countries. I looked up the testing scores by race of the students. US students who are Asian rank right up there with Asian students in Asia. US students who are white rank in the top 5 or so in the world. US students who are black and those who are Hispanic drag the average down.
“The school system works as intended. It makes sure that children are taught that White people are evil, which is what their objective is.”
Along with making sure that minorities (and the kids of idiot white parents who still use them) will fail in life.
They figure, I guess, that immigration coupled with Asians who use public schools ONLY for daycare and instead go outside of the schools to get their kids educated.
“Get rid of the DOE and let the states and locals take care of our children. Our children don’t belong to the government.”
Definitely an improvement, but it will take far more to recover the schools even to their depressed levels of 50 years ago, now that the ‘teachers’ and others are so rabidly polarized.
“But the (teachers) union has nothing to do with how the core subjects are being watered down.”
Are you smoking something?
Start with abolishing the Department of Education.
“Q. What are the four words that make an educator and a Democrat tremble with fear?
A. “I am a parent.””
LOL, good one. For the above to be true, parents would have to be able to DEFUND ‘educators’. So, until then, you can replace the ‘tremble with fear’ with ‘laugh’.
.....parents need to be able to DEFUND ‘educators’.......
Great idea.......pass the word.
“Great idea.......pass the word.”
I tried. Not only do most parents, even conservative ones, think you’re a nutcase to question the super-high quality of our schools, they even SEND THEIR OWN KIDS to those institutions.
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