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So, how many of you read the article before you started nattering on about "agendas"? The school the teacher was in was essentially an alternative school for kids who, for one reason or another, couldn't function in regular public schools. The newbie teacher naively thought that he was going to be able to "fix" kids with problems that ran much deeper than being functionally illiterate.
Family dysfunction is the #1 reason that children and their public schools "fail". This dysfunction runs the gamut from parental mental illness, substance abuse, homelessness, violence,etc to just plain ignorance of how to act, dress (including hygiene), behave. You fill a classroom with kids from these kinds of situations, and why is it surprising that the classroom reflects the chaos that's these kids' lives?
I guess you're criticizing his writing a book. Ok. But his story is likely repeated, with varying intensity of issues, by thousands of first and second year teachers every year.
Such strong opinions yet they overlook the bold without hesitation.
It sounds like the teach taught high school ether at in the Bronx or Brooklyn. I can attest what this teacher went through. I remember my first year in publich high school here in the city. My first day I nearly saw a student get stabbed with a screw driver. In class I saw a 14 year old girl drop a condom in math class. There was a gay black English teacher, and the Jamaican students used to slander the gay teacher. The end of the month the gay teacher had left the school. A month later a drive by happened by the school entrance. This is when I realized that high school is gonna prepare folks for the eventual trip to Rikers Island, or a trip up the river.
I'm not sure what causes these problems in public high school in NYC. Some of the problems stem from broken homes, fatherless homes, foster homes, living in shelters, dual parents, but parents are never home to supervise their kids or assist them with homework, poor role models, follow the leader. The thing is that their are kids who want to learn, but its just a couple of kids that ruin it for the whole entire class which can bogs down the learning experience.
In short. I feel sorry for the teacher who had to go through what he is going through. NYC supposed to be the greatest city on "Earth", and no teacher should no go through what this man had endured. I can only assume that the NYC high school system in select neighborhoods has gotten worse and yet gentrification has not improved the cities educational system with suburban liberal white sentiments. I don't think socio economics is at the heart of this. If so than poor immigrant Asian, kids from India, China, Korea would run amok like poor African American, Dominican, Jamaicans and so forth in our public school system. Instead poor Asian kids study hard and enter into top public schools, even if they don't get in, they still try to do their best. I put blame on poor parenting. I wish the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were still around. These regimes did a good job with social engineering parents and kids alike. Last, but also, the teacher should have prepared himself for what he was going to go through. Helping kids from broken homes from the greatest city on "earth" is no walk in the park!
Last edited by Bronxguyanese; 01-18-2016 at 03:10 AM..
Do you have any historical examples of governments, say in the 1400s, providing free public education to its population? Why were the literacy rates so low until the 20th century?
Are we really comparing ourselves to a time when we were hunting, gathering and bartering?
in U.S. history, the idea of public schools gained traction in the 19th century, and that was even limited.
I actually agree with you that security is the first concern of government, with education being second. In my opinion, government shouldn't do much else actually. But for the record, John Adams believed that free public education through primary school should have been a part of the Constitution.
I actually agree with you that security is the first concern of government, with education being second. In my opinion, government shouldn't do much else actually. But for the record, John Adams believed that free public education through primary school should have been a part of the Constitution.
I also agree. Sadly the US adopted British form of capitalism. In Britain and America, the kids work and toiled. Traditioanlly children had to work during the 19th century and not go to school. The unification of Germany under Bismarck changed all that where children had to attend compulsory school. Free education was also thought up doing post Napoleonic Europe amongst liberals.
Read and comprehend the bio of John Adams. He viewed good and free education as a means rather than an end in itself. Adams was very good in explaining the reasons for his views that it's hard to miss it.
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