Posted on 11/14/2002 8:11:46 AM PST by chris_in_nj
NEW YORK Reading, writing and litigation.
That's the lesson being learned at a growing number of America's public high schools, and it may be shortchanging your teen's education: Parents are now suing teachers and school administrators for failing their children.
"You have students who are failing tests, who are consistently not in class, and instead of experiencing the repercussions of their actions, their parents are suing the school to put them put them back on the cheerleading squad, put them back into school, even though they don't deserve it," the Heritage Foundation's Krista Kafer said.
In Arizona, high school officials allowed a student to graduate after her parents threatened to sue a teacher who failed her for skipping class and substandard test scores.
In Kansas, a teacher was sued for failing a number of students for plagiarism. After receiving no support from the school board, the teacher resigned.
And in Ohio, a student and her mother sued a school district and 11 teachers for $6 million, alleging the school's grading practices unfairly punished the girl for her repeated absences. The case was dismissed, but some say the harm was done.
"Even the threat of a lawsuit can have a chilling effect on a teacher's effectiveness," John Mitchell, deputy director of the American Federation of Teachers, said. "Teachers are the guardians of high standards whether it's academic standards or standards of discipline. So teachers need to be supported as long as they're behaving in a reasonable manner in their jobs."
Educators worry that these suits may force teachers to "dumb down" their curriculum.
And though under state and federal law teachers are protected from most lawsuits, that's not stopping some parents from filing.
"Is that so surprising when we have Americans who see the legal system as a way to make money, to get what they want?" Kafer said. "It's only a matter of time before that filters down to the young and we see this sort of behavior in schools."
Teachers truly are finding themselves between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, they're being told to raise standards by school boards. On the other, parents are asking them not to be too hard on their kids.
In the end, experts say it's the system that suffers.
Do a search for John Taylor Gatto and/or Charlotte Iserbyt. That will give you all the info you need.
You gotta be kidding me.
Democratic government works best when people do things for themselves and their own children -- that is what helps them to become competent, responsible citizens. Churches and other non-profit entities could step in to educate those who are unable to purchase education as they did before state funding of education. We might need tax-funded vouchers for the poorest children on a temporary basis to stimulate the development of more private schools.
We now have over 100 years experience with a mandatory, Government school monopoly and the results are in: it has failed students and society and is responsible for weakening every civic virtue needed for a people to be able to govern themselves. It is time to dump government schools and for citizens to take back this very important activity. Tocqueville wrote about how citizens cooperating to take care of this type of need was the real engine of democratic governance.
Ditto!
Lexington InstituteI will read all the threads you posted, but that's my main interest, and I'm not sure where to start.
There are HUNDREDS of links (within links) in my reply #6. There are articles that address the anti-intellectualism in schools. The book, "The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America" (Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt's, is an enormous tome of information on this country's education chaos.Though I cannot, at the present time, locate my web link for the 'Writings of Robert (Bob) Holland", his articles on education's conditions are recommended. He is now affiliated with the Lexington Institute. It would be worthwhile exercise to do an internet search for his articles.
We homeschool, even though hubby has been a public high school teacher for 37 years. He'll be retiring in 2 years, if he can hold out that long. He teaches US and world history. The school district has dumbed down the books over the years like you would not believe. The current world history book devotes 70 pages to anything prior to 1600 and 500 pages for everything after. There are more words devoted to the attire of Louis XIV than there are to the Reformation. The US history book is just as bad. It is called something like The Americans ... From Reconstruction to Today. 10% of the book devoted to Civil War and before; 90% to Reconstruction and forward.
Last year he was in a protracted argument with the administration over the grade EARNED (earned, mind you!!) by one girl in his class. She EARNED a B+, primarily because she turned in a project late because she was on a long weekend skiing trip. Her parents demanded that she be allowed to do extra work to bring her grade up to an A. It was ugly, and in the end, she got her A.
... faster than they otherwise would have.
No, they'll do just like their parents and get a check from the government containing money taken at gunpoint from you and I.
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