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Some of these posts have been interesting and many are concerned (and correctly so) about the quality of teachers, regardless of where they got their certificate and training.
What is very telling, is that one of my earlier posts about the source of the 'testing gap' and achievement gap in our society, NO ONE has discussed it. Liberal politics, the Great Society, Welfare State on steroids, etc. have placed America's Black families in a terrible position. Throwing more money at it clearly has not worked.
Black Americans must address this and soon. How can America rise again if the majority of our lowest social tier of the population is happy to be subsidized, incarcerated, and accept low standards for their sub culture? We have a Black middle class...but it is not powerful enough to lift their brothers and sisters up if they don't want to.
Children born in single parent homes....with mutliple fathers who are not contributing to the childrens support and education, will always be at a disadvantage. Black men must MAN up and Dads and legal husbands...or we will see an ever greater gap in achievement. Teachers cannot be the only ones responsible for turning this around.
Educators, your thoughts? Or, are you like the people of the Harry Potter series and stay silent, daring not to speak his name, Lord Vorldamort?
Well, I won't speak for others, but the bolded paragraph is why I wouldn't address achievement gap with somebody like you. To do so would be to provide a platform for a biased agenda I'd rather not promulgate.
The problem I have with the views in that paragraph is that you are holding one race responsible for certain members of it in a way that you are not holding another. As a teacher, I see it as my responsibility to help all students, and to do more for some who may need more than others. But I don't feel responsible for white people that have chosen to trash their own lives, or who commit mass murders, or drive drunk, or any of a host of other ills. A white meth dealer doesn't reflect poorly on all white people, yet you see a segment of the black population tarnishing the whole race. Why must 'Black Americans', the majority of whom are not 'happy to be subsidized, incarcerated, and accept low standards for their sub culture' be responsible for all black Americans?
I'm fortunate to work at a private school that is highly integrated, probably 50% white, 40% black, 10% Latino or Asian. The qualities of these kids are not determined by their race. The parents care enough to pay the tuition to send their kids. Yet, if three of my white students were walking down the street, laughing and joking, most people wouldn't bat an eye. If three of my black students did the same, people would be tightening the grip on their purse or wallet, crossing the street, avoiding eye contact, etc. Like it or not, that happens, and it happens because people view things like you do, through a lens that says it is reasonable to generalize about the whole race because of the actions of a few. When I see three black teenagers walking down the street, I don't freak out because I realize they might be just like the kids I enjoy teaching so much.
So back to your achievement gap. Discussing it would simply allow you an opportunity to hurl some smug talking points about how awful black people are. I hesitated to write even this post because you'll simply use it as an opportunity to do just that. So fire away, you'll find plenty of others who will be happy to shout into your echo chamber. While there may be legitimate discussion to be had about the topic, it won't happen in this thread.
2. It could mean they value education, AND they come from a place where the way they were taught to study and interact with authority growing up pays off in American schools. It also helps to have a receptive audience who is already inclined to think you are smart.
And you definitely cannot underestimate the impact on how your teacher treats you when they think you are smart and capable vs thinking you are not. You will get praised more, shown more opportunities to learn more and get more direct and indirect encouragement.
When our society tells you an entire group of people is both stupid and too stupid to care, this plays a huge Rome how the people are tasks with educating you treat you. If you start with the premise that some kids are thugs and start treating them as such from age 5, you will cause irreparable harm.
Some of these posts have been interesting and many are concerned (and correctly so) about the quality of teachers, regardless of where they got their certificate and training.
What is very telling, is that one of my earlier posts about the source of the 'testing gap' and achievement gap in our society, NO ONE has discussed it. Liberal politics, the Great Society, Welfare State on steroids, etc. have placed America's Black families in a terrible position. Throwing more money at it clearly has not worked.
Black Americans must address this and soon. How can America rise again if the majority of our lowest social tier of the population is happy to be subsidized, incarcerated, and accept low standards for their sub culture? We have a Black middle class...but it is not powerful enough to lift their brothers and sisters up if they don't want to.
Children born in single parent homes....with mutliple fathers who are not contributing to the childrens support and education, will always be at a disadvantage. Black men must MAN up and Dads and legal husbands...or we will see an ever greater gap in achievement. Teachers cannot be the only ones responsible for turning this around.
Educators, your thoughts? Or, are you like the people of the Harry Potter series and stay silent, daring not to speak his name, Lord Vorldamort?
So much to answer in this.
Seriously, black parents often do care a great deal about educating their children, but they distrust the school system. Many poor black parents have had terrible experiences with school *and* they may be unable to understand the jargon of the mostly white teachers who don't get their home culture.
Please read Vivian Paley's discussions of classroom culture, in particular White Teacher or Kwanzaa and me. In those books she has frank discussions with black middle class parents and with black teachers. She has gone into classrooms in inner cities, in other countries, in private and public schools and has a lot to tell us about how we dishonor black culture in our schools. If we want the children to succeed, we must build communities that let us see them as people who have a culture of their own that must be acknowledged.
1) As someone stated, asian groups are not monolithic. More importantly, Asian groups, unlike natives, blacks, or latinos choose to come to the US. The government is very selective about who can get work vistas and they're given to immigrants who have high educational attainment or are on the path towards it. Peasants in Asian countries aren't even assessed on international test even though they may "value" education because their governments know they would bring the average down.
Many Asians are natives to the United States as are many Hispanics. Not only are Asian groups not monolithic, but neither are blacks or latinos.
The stereotype of the Asian with high attainment is actually just as racist as the stereotype of the black who cannot learn.
And you definitely cannot underestimate the impact on how your teacher treats you when they think you are smart and capable vs thinking you are not. You will get praised more, shown more opportunities to learn more and get more direct and indirect encouragement.
When our society tells you an entire group of people is both stupid and too stupid to care, this plays a huge Rome how the people are tasks with educating you treat you. If you start with the premise that some kids are thugs and start treating them as such from age 5, you will cause irreparable harm.
Was he cuffed for cutting in line or was he cuffed for resisting being corrected for his infraction? There was a national news article about a student who was arrested, cuffed and brought to jail for "doodling". The doodling was not the problem. The student's reaction to being corrected was the problem.
1. So when Asians score so high on their tests and get good grades (on average) it does not mean that their culture values education more than others? What's a Tiger Mom?
Being Asian, let me set the record straight.
A very substantial percentage of the Asians who come over here are fairly well educated and literate, so it shouldn't be a surprise that large numbers of their children do well in school. This isn't true for all Asian communities - the Hmong, for example, who don't fit the profile of a Chinese graduate of Peking University coming over to work for Google, struggle with many of social maladies that affect other groups.
"Culture valuing education" is probably less of a factor than the opportunities available and the environment. How does that explain large numbers of illiterate people in China or India until recently?
Was he cuffed for cutting in line or was he cuffed for resisting being corrected for his infraction? There was a national news article about a student who was arrested, cuffed and brought to jail for "doodling". The doodling was not the problem. The student's reaction to being corrected was the problem.
Why would any of this need to escalate Tom cuffing. Where is the step between like going to the principals office.......
A very substantial percentage of the Asians who come over here are fairly well educated and literate, so it shouldn't be a surprise that large numbers of their children do well in school. This isn't true for all Asian communities - the Hmong, for example, who don't fit the profile of a Chinese graduate of Peking University coming over to work for Google, struggle with many of social maladies that affect other groups.
"Culture valuing education" is probably less of a factor than the opportunities available and the environment. How does that explain large numbers of illiterate people in China or India until recently?
Generally speaking, the harder it is to get here the less likely someone who is poorer or less educated will be able to get in. Unless it is close by. And if it is amazing in your home country, you aren't leaving. Immigrants are a pretty self-selecting group. You generally need to be super motivated or fairly privileged to come over her. You do have the freedom to make the choice so you are more likely to make it work even when times are tough.
The idea is to bring in motivated, save-the-world, philanthropic types to minority, low income areas where other good teachers don't want to be.
I think it's a thing of the past. I think when TofA was created a lot of the older generation of teachers was in fact complacent and didn't want to teach in the 'ghetto'. And many that did were bad teachers. I know a lot of TofA teachers, so I know that to be true. But that generation of teachers is retiring.
I believe the new generation of educators going through the proper Teacher Education channels is much more liberal, and they actually do care about remediating our lower performing schools and would prefer to work there. And teaching is so competitive now, others will take a job in a lower income area, even if they didn't want to in the first place.
So, in that sense, the TofA model has become sort of outdated in my mind...
Tolerating what goes on at urban minority schools has nothing to do with being "more liberal" few teachers are conservative especially in the cities. People generally don't like being assaulted, being disrupted or immersed in a culture of failure & negativity. The new teachers will quickly become disillusioned and leave as well. The Atlantic ran a long piece from a young minority teacher about why she left teaching.
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