FIRST PERSON - A REAL EDUCATION: When a Reporter Becomes a Teacher, She Learns Something

Columbia Jounralism Review ^ | March/April Edition 2002 | Christina Asquith

[bleudevil]

I believe you about teachers sending their kids to private schools, but I have a comment to make about their motivations. Some of them might be doing it because they don't want to have their children in their same schools - don't want to worry about favoritism when their own child is one of their students, or to have their children looked on as "teacher's pet." One of my elementary teachers did that with her children, and I don't think it was because she thought our school was bad.

This theory would hold true only in small towns where teachers live in the neighborhoods in which they teach.

[Unknown Freeper]

bump

[ladylib]

Some teachers enjoy teaching in private schools because usually the kids are better behaved and they can run their classrooms as they see fit. My sister-in-law (MS degree, science and math teacher, used to develop curriculum for Baltimore County when she taught in public school) thoroughly enjoys teaching in her Catholic school even though she makes about one-third less. She said she would never go back to teaching in public schools. There is some deadwood in her school, but these people are easier to get rid of.

[ladylib]

Years ago, the principal of our local public elementary school sent his children to the Catholic school right across the street, and at that time, the public school was considered the better of the two.

[Aquinasfan]

Most of my sources as a reporter had been administrators, union members, and school board members -- instead of students, parents, and teachers. And yet, much of what the school board dealt with was unrelated to what really happened on the ground.

DUUUUUUUUUUUH!!!

Oh well, better late than never.

[summer]

Re your post #81 - Excellent point. Thank you for mentioning it.

[summer]

Oh well, better late than never.

Yep! :)

[Diddle E. Squat]

Your welcome, and thanks for the info. You don't have to dig out the rules for the FL teacher of the year, your explanation already answered the questions I had. But thanks for the offer and all your hard work for Jeb and education. Someday he ought to give you a guided tour of the capitol building or an invite to a state dinner. Maybe they should form a green-hair club(in appreciation of grass roots!)

[summer]

Thanks for your kind words, Diddle E. Squat! :)

[backhoe]

Bttt^

[Cool Guy]

BUMP IN THE DARK!

[Steve Eisenberg]

These schools are now about to be taken over by various other groups, including Edison.

Right. Unfortunately, the Philadelphia media has done little that I can see to explain to parents how incredibly bad a school has to be before it will be given to outside management under the current cautious and slight reform regime. As a result, parents of children in the schools being "turned over" (unfortunately, an exaggeration) to Edison Schools, Inc. are in many cases buying the teachers union line that this is some kind of right wing plot to hurt their kids.

Our kids go to public schools in Lower Merion Township, right across the city line from Philadelphia. In terms of what we talk about on FR, the Lower Merion schools are pretty bad, with extensive sex ed and environmentalist indoctrination nonsense. But in terms of caring about every child, maintaining order, fair grading, and administrative help/intervention for weak teachers, the positive difference on the suburban side of the line is astounding. As this great article explains, a lot of what goes on in Philadelphia schools is pretty close to child abuse. With the right kind of journalism, families in Philadelphia would realize the solution in their hands of switching their kids to one of the many charter schools.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Stunning!

Thank you clasquith for your report.
Thank you summer for finding and posing this eye-opening report.

[TADSLOS]

First, welcome to the fray clasquith. I printed your article and had my wife read it. She's a 5th and 6th grade math teacher, working with kids whose skills are weak and/or have emotional problems in the classroom. She has her hands full. Although her teaching environment is not nearly as severe as depicted in your article, there are some parts that are strikingly similar, especially the lack of support piece. I think she could probably write her own article, but it may not be quite as dramatic as yours.

My wife is retired military and used to the organized, mission oriented ways focusing on positive outcomes that military assignments bring. She has her masters degree in special education and loves to teach. Personally, I don't see how she puts up dealing with the public school system's inane and downright quirky ways. It really must be her labor of love to give those kids something to strive for.

Anyway, thanks for your courage in writing the article and keep up the good fight. Summer, thanks for posting this ;~)

Sua Sponte

TADSLOS

[dixie sass]

Summer, this is a great article. It's time for the public to open their eyes and see what teachers have to put up. It's time for PARENTS to get involved, actually past time, they should have been involved from the first day the child came home from the hospital and instilled discipline and respect in the children. I am a staunch defender of teachers. There are bad ones, absolutely, and they are the ones that you hear about. We forget that there are good teachers out there who do care, but can't accomplish anything because of the system and lack of interest by parents.

I had a roommate in Savannah whose life was threatened. We called the police and reported it. The police and phone company were somehow able to trace the call and the teen was SLIGHTLY censured - Beth was fired because she dared to stand up for herself and her life.

Another friend in Savannah, left out of disgust with the feds, state and local requirements that left her no time to spend with students and help those who needed it.

She was a big influence after she left on our children. She worked with us and the children to better educate and help them with problems in the system.

Again thanks for the article

[Concentrate]

The heart of the problem is lack of discipline--especially in the inner city schools. Not many want to teach a class where the kids are really in control. And it's not only the children who are undisciplined; the teachers are overly protected by the teachers' unions and the resulting tenure.

Of course it would help if the parents got involved, but it's too late for that now in the degenerated culture of the underclass (please read: Culture/ideology or lack thereof, NOT race/genetics), whose children need to be taught self control by teachers and principals who have the power to expell incorrigible students.

People used to think that NY City was ungovernable, but Giuliani, a man with vision, proved them all wrong with his "broken window" theory. If a building has one small broken window visible from the street that is left unattended to, it is an open invitation to vandalism. Condoning even the small infractions of the rules paves the way to greater infractions, not vice-versa.

About 15 years ago, I lived near a fairly large otherwise beautiful park with hiking trails, streams, lakes and some wildlife, but which had years of litter all along and off the trails. I started picking up the garbage every time I would take a stroll with discarded plastic bags I found. In a few months, the park became quite clean, and I noticed that there was less and less littering going on. The park stayed clean for years!

True reform is indeed possible, but there have to be rules and they must be enforced, sort of like in the old days, but with a new twist.

Thanks for the article and the ping.

[dixie sass]

Discipline is taught by the parent from the day the child is brought home from the hospital. If the there is no discipline in the home starting with regular meal times and bed times and advancing as the child matures during the first year and so on, there will be no discipline in the schools.

We stick our children into daycare at the age of 6 weeks and expect the people employed by them to take over the parental responsibilities that we abdicated. The same with kindergarten and pre-school and etc.

The first year of a child's life is the most important and the next four are crucial in forming a childs character, d personality and other personal traits. By the time they have entered the first grade a child should be able to tell the difference between right and wrong. They should have already been taught manners. They should have been taught obedience to and for authority figures and much more. They should already have some knowledge of the alphabet and their numbers.

It seems that todays parents refuse to do the necessary discipline to achieve these results because they might damage "their precious child psyche" They are unwilling to do it themselves and will not allow others to do it for them. This, in effect, has lead us to the problems we are seeing now.

[Dec31,1999]

It seems that todays parents refuse to do the necessary discipline to achieve these results because they might damage "their precious child psyche" They are unwilling to do it themselves and will not allow others to do it for them. This, in effect, has lead us to the problems we are seeing now.

Yes, I agree with you. But for many families, the otherwise outcome has been decided, which is why cheap excuses from teachers'union thug sympathizers is really not helpful.