Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Good school districts and good schools aren't the problem.
You will usually find that parents are involved and have expectations from their children.
Discipline issues are not taken lightly by parents.
Then you go into the "challenged" schools where parents don't answer calls, don't show up for meetings, blame the teacher and don't deal with the issues their children have.
The kids know this and use it to their advantage.
I've been in "challenged" schools for over 3 years now and across 4 districts.
The patterns are the same. If the parents don't care the kids don't care.
And teacher's hands are tied as far as dealing with discipline issues in the classroom.
Exactly.
One of my kids had a discipline problem and the school they go to has a wide variety of kids....some not challenged and some very challenged.
I could literally hear the wary tone in the teachers voice disappear when I didn't argue with them and supported the discipline involved etc. They had braced themselves for blowback and got none from me....and by the end of the phone call seemed almost happy in tone. I could tell that conversations like mine didn't always occur.
Read the posts. Saw first hand what the OP quoted. It is so easy for so many to blame teachers today, since every one
went to school ... they know first hand what goes on. It doesn't matter whether you are teaching in the inner city or
some blue ribbon school because students have learned what they can get away with.
^^^^^^^
this...I live in a top rated district, with very involved parents...therein lies the problem, they are sometimes too involved. The discipline problem is not confined to "failing inner city schools". You would not believe the crap that goes on at my kids schools, because as soon as a rule is made, some stay at home mom, complains about how unfair it is to her child, and eventually the school caves. To say it pisses me off, is an understatement. Our school has a dress code, yet, some of the girls look like streetwalkers, coming to school in a sweatshirt, tights and UGGS boots, or they wear pajamas. What happened to decorum? My kids know, the shorts will not be too short, and the only pajamas worn will be to bed! The PARENTS complained so much, that now kids are allowed to use their cell phones during the day. OMG, whatever did our parents manage, not being able to reach us during the day? Add that to the fact, that some of their teachers just flat out suck, I cant wait until my last graduates. I am so tired of getting, notes/letters home from teachers with typos. I am also tired of supplementing my kids math classes. These teachers totally make them dependent upon calculators, which drives me bananas!!! Okay, enough of my rant, I could go on and on and on..............
Fire every principal in every school with digressing poor grades and bad behav problems right away...( failure to meet expressed employment objectives)...then go to the faculty and ask who wants to be in charge put your hand up or submit resume.... most important 'eliminate all the ones that put their hand up or received resume' and interview the remaining including sitting in on a few of their class's to get a handle on leadership talent and how the youngsters respond to the personality- focus meter achieved in the classroom.. just to get started.
Last edited by stargazzer; 03-12-2013 at 02:36 PM..
I don't think it is possible to nail down any particular reason for education failures. I tend to think it is our current culture which in some ways is bizarre in the extreme. We repeat this mantra of freedom which has come to mean license to do whatever you feel like doing because my values are just as good as yours. Drawing lines or standards of conduct are difficult at best and impossible at worst. Perhaps one problem is that most of our school teachers come out of liberal universities and colleges which is most I gather. They bring their values concerning human relationships with them. What a shock to find that you have a classroom of students whose values don't include work ethic or responding to direction by authority figures. Teachers have to compete with IPADs, Facebook and a host of media for the attention of students. We throw more money at education than other modern countries and it makes little difference if reports are accurate. The American disease is spreading though. Even Japan and China are having problems in schools now. People who offer simple solutions don't appreciate the nature of the problem which, again, is cultural changes especially as we continue our leftward leaning.
Education is very simple to fix and it has nothing to do with money. It has everything to do with firing everyone in key positions and change...including since it was mentioned, outlawing all comp device's in the school including instruction and projects. Failure equals loss of job, no survivors or promises accepted..starting with all the top brass. Goodbye...go sell cars or something and see how you make out.
What a logical solution. Fire any & all people involved in the schools for poor attendance or grades. Don't bother looking into the parents involvement or the students actually, you know, STUDYING & RESPECTING their teachers. Let's just blame it on everyone else.
What a logical solution. Fire any & all people involved in the schools for poor attendance or grades. Don't bother looking into the parents involvement or the students actually, you know, STUDYING & RESPECTING their teachers. Let's just blame it on everyone else.
I think that that has become the American way of life which is, blame it on someone else. I don't think we have the capacity to look ourselves in a mirror and say, "my fault". Seems many comments on these forums are of that category. It is "their" fault and fill in the blank. Psychologists have developed loads of syndromes and mental issues to blame someone or some thing for what individuals are responsible for. I don't think there will be a reversal of this. Why would there be? Just some examples come to mind: blaming cigarette manufacturers for my habit. Blaming beer companies for my DUI. Blaming teachers because my kid has homework or blaming parents because their kid doesn't follow rules that schools won't enforce. It is the banks fault that I bought a house I could not afford. Prisons seem to be full of people who are there because it is someone's fault besides theirs. Doomed.
What a logical solution. Fire any & all people involved in the schools for poor attendance or grades. Don't bother looking into the parents involvement or the students actually, you know, STUDYING & RESPECTING their teachers. Let's just blame it on everyone else.
My kids have been through some very different school districts. I mention this because if they were a scientific experiment, my husband and I would be the constant element. My parenting styles have not changed with these different school districts. I have always been very involved with my childrens' schoolwork and demand respect for their teachers, like I said earlier.
However, they did perform MUCH better when they were at the schools in the higher socio-economic school district. It was a stark difference. At the very-low income schools, the teachers had given up. The principal told me their main goal is getting kids to show up. His exact words were, "If they are sitting in the chair, we are at 99% of our goal." I'm not saying he was a bad person, I actually really liked him. But he was beaten down by the job and knew he was fighting a losing battle. He just wanted to make sure the school kept it's funding. Sad. A huge portion of the kids didn't speak English and there were over 40 languages spoken. So, a big chunk of the budget went to hiring interpreters and 2nd language teachers.
Please name another profession that is under attack other than teachers (don't include politicians). I would love to see
someone go into a classroom, construct a lesson, teach that lesson and have a 97% success rate. BUT: you also have
to be a temporary parent, counselor, therapist, mentor and forced to rely on the administration to back you up.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
