How I Joined Teach for America —and Got Sued for $20 Million

City Journal ^ | Winter 2003 | Joshua Kaplowitz

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[Tribune7]

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[Valin]

That's why I get the big money! :-)

[LetsRok]

Animals. Nothing but animals reverting back to their real history.

[nmh]

Liberal utopia run a muck:

"But the training program skimped on actual teaching and classroom-management techniques, instead overwhelming us with sensitivity training. My group spent hours on an activity where everyone stood in a line and then took steps forward or backward based on whether we were the oppressor or the oppressed in the categories of race, income, and religion. The program had a college bull session, rather than professional, atmosphere."

Above are is the credo of liberal MENTALity.

[Freedom'sWorthIt]

Good post. Classic liberal insanity at work in that school.

[cyborg]

If I were teaching in that school, I'd take those gifted students and just go to the school library. Let the hoodlums devour eachother. It's a rare person like Joe Clark and Jaime Escelante that can control bad students. However, I don't believe Joe Clark and Jaime Escelante would have a job today. Joe Clark was booted out by students' parents remember?

Not everyone can homeschool, so I would provide a homeschooling-type environment for the students interested. That article is pretty sad though.

[Valin]

On a typical day, DeAngelo (a pseudonym, as are the other children’s names in this and the next paragraph) would throw a wad of paper in the middle of a lesson. Whether I disciplined him or ignored him, his actions would cause Kanisha to scream like an air-raid siren. In response, Lamond would get up, walk across the room, and try to slap Kanisha. Within one minute, the whole class was lost in a sea of noise and fists. I felt profoundly sorry for the majority of my students, whose education was being hijacked. Their plaintive cries punctuated the din: “Quiet everyone! Mr. Kaplowitz is trying to teach!”

Ayisha was my most gifted student. The daughter of Senegalese immigrants, she would tolerantly roll her eyes as Darnetta cut up for the ninth time in one hour, patiently waiting for the day when my class would settle down. Joseph was a brilliant writer who struggled mightily in math. When he needed help with a division problem, I tried to give him as much attention as I could, before three students wandering around the room inevitably distracted me. Eventually, I settled on tutoring him after school. Twenty more students’ educations were sabotaged, each kid with specific needs that I couldn’t attend to, because I was too busy putting out fires. Though I poured my heart into inventive lessons and activities throughout the entire year, they almost always fell apart in the face of my students’ disrespect and indifference.

They're not all "animals". What's needed is discipline. Unfortunately this is verboten with the educrats.

[LetsRok]

This is directly due to influence from their parents. The parents don't care and treat school as free daycare, and they want a quick paycheck if they can find one.

[Temple Owl]

VOUCHERS--VOUCHERS--VOUCHERS Our first black president vetoed a D.C.pilot voucher program which would have given kids like these a chance.Our first black president sent his kids to a private regligious school. Our first black president should be castrated.

[justshutupandtakeit]

I'll take "animals" like George Washington Carver, Duke Ellington, Thomas Sowell, Alan Keyes, Scott Joplin or Walter Williams any day. Are you as racist as your post makes you sound?

[agrace]

Gads! I read the whole thing. Amazing.

Me too. It is unbelievable how much schools have changed in 20 years. Frightening to think what they will be like in 20 more.