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In Detroit, only 54% of public school students expected attend first day | Detroit Free Press | freep.com (http://www.freep.com/article/20110907/NEWS01/110907051/In-Detroit-only-54-public-school-students-expected-attend-first-day - broken link)
Not looking pretty. It almost makes me feel just pure pessimism but I don't think it's that hard of a problem to fix.
Money. If anything, more money wouldn't hurt at all. Updated books and technology and extra-curricular activities that are just as important as the core classes.
Parental involvement. Parents have to know what their kids are doing, and keep them out of trouble. This is probably more important than money but slightly harder to improve on because for as many parents who want their kids to do better, there are just as many who don't care or don't try hard enough.
Better communities. Too many schools are in dangerous neighborhoods and people who want their kids to do better aren't going to want to live in those neighborhoods. It'll be a continuing spiral of decay and crime until the neighborhoods are strengthened and people will want to live there again.
Then of course, we have to make sure that the kids are actually learning so they don't drop out and end up on the street contributing to the problems facing Detroit. But having more kids in school would be a start.
Eliminate the schoool board. BUT wait, the good citizens of Detroit continue to vote the idiots in..The people of Detroit have been convinced a bunch of theiving dolts are better than anyone else and the economics of DPS shows how badly the school board manages day to day operations.
If you look atthe charter school enrollments in Detroit, why are they at capacity (still in city limits and some of the biggest are in the downtown area) while DPS implodes?
A lot of parents in Detroit have given up with DPS and are sending their children to charter schools in the suburbs. Here is an example of one in Eastpointe where 90% of the students come from Detroit.
In Detroit, only 54% of public school students expected attend first day | Detroit Free Press | freep.com (http://www.freep.com/article/20110907/NEWS01/110907051/In-Detroit-only-54-public-school-students-expected-attend-first-day - broken link)
Not looking pretty. It almost makes me feel just pure pessimism but I don't think it's that hard of a problem to fix.
Money. If anything, more money wouldn't hurt at all. Updated books and technology and extra-curricular activities that are just as important as the core classes.
Parental involvement. Parents have to know what their kids are doing, and keep them out of trouble. This is probably more important than money but slightly harder to improve on because for as many parents who want their kids to do better, there are just as many who don't care or don't try hard enough.
Better communities. Too many schools are in dangerous neighborhoods and people who want their kids to do better aren't going to want to live in those neighborhoods. It'll be a continuing spiral of decay and crime until the neighborhoods are strengthened and people will want to live there again.
Then of course, we have to make sure that the kids are actually learning so they don't drop out and end up on the street contributing to the problems facing Detroit. But having more kids in school would be a start.
What are your thoughts?
Money has nothing to do with the quality of education.
First, you need to educate the parents on how to educate themselves and their kids. Detroit's about 50% illiterate. That's worse than the Third World.
That's a "Sick World".
You need to get rid of teachers and administrators who are not accountable to anyone, and simultaneously insist on accountability from both parents and students.
Bulgaria's teachers earned about $2000-$3000 a year, when their students placed TOPS in the world.....in math and science.
In fact, the Brits were sending their teachers over to Bulgaria, to learn from the poor Bulgarians....and see first hand, how the Bulgarians could accomplish so much, with so little.
If you're gonna spend any money on Detroit's kids, then spend it on feeding them, giving them nutritional supplements. Extend the school day, so no kid leaves school without his homework DONE.
I'm all for unions, but I've seen first hand (with my own child's school) that the principal's more worried about the Teachers Union, than she's about my kid.
In my case, I wasn't the stupid, ignorant, dirt poor, druggie, uneducated and illiterate parent. The teacher was mentally ill, borderline personally, who needed to take a leave of absence. Pronto. Yet she had more power, (and more rights at that school,) than any student or parent.
My son became suicidal because of the verbal and emotional abuse he endured at that school, and I could do nothing about that teacher because of the union. In fact, the school wouldn't even transfer my kid to another classroom. BUST that entire system, and start from SCRATCH.
That's the first and elementary step to saving what's left of a once great city.
As much as I respect a worker's right to join a union, I didn't see any underpaid, poor, abused or helpless workers at that school. All I saw was a bunch of well-paid teachers and administrators acting life a Sicilian Mob clan: an educational, administrative, bureaucratic, political MAFIA
Kids are not cars on the assembly line, and there is NO WAY, teachers
and bureaucrats should have so much power over our kids' education and future.
According to the Detroit News, all the 6-12 students in Detroit get "free" Netbook laptops.
"Detroit's about 50% illiterate. "
That fact is going to linger through time for the rest of our lives.
"DPS has ordered Netbooks for all sixth-12th grade students, but not everyone had a laptop Tuesday.[LEFT]
From The Detroit News: Schools | Excitement, glitches open new school year | The Detroit News (http://detnews.com/article/20110907/SCHOOLS/109070381/Excitement--glitches-open-new-school-year#ixzz1XNlLEWEP - broken link)"
Ah, so it's not as crappy as I thought. I was under the impression that DPS didn't even have books. Don't exactly remember what story I heard that from, but I wonder if this does anything to entice more people to put kids into DPS.
Ah, so it's not as crappy as I thought. I was under the impression that DPS didn't even have books. Don't exactly remember what story I heard that from, but I wonder if this does anything to entice more people to put kids into DPS.
Money has nothing to do with the quality of education.
First, you need to educate the parents on how to educate themselves and their kids. Detroit's about 50% illiterate. That's worse than the Third World.
That's a "Sick World".
You need to get rid of teachers and administrators who are not accountable to anyone, and simultaneously insist on accountability from both parents and students.
Bulgaria's teachers earned about $2000-$3000 a year, when their students placed TOPS in the world.....in math and science.
In fact, the Brits were sending their teachers over to Bulgaria, to learn from the poor Bulgarians....and see first hand, how the Bulgarians could accomplish so much, with so little.
If you're gonna spend any money on Detroit's kids, then spend it on feeding them, giving them nutritional supplements. Extend the school day, so no kid leaves school without his homework DONE.
I'm all for unions, but I've seen first hand (with my own child's school) that the principal's more worried about the Teachers Union, than she's about my kid.
In my case, I wasn't the stupid, ignorant, dirt poor, druggie, uneducated and illiterate parent. The teacher was mentally ill, borderline personally, who needed to take a leave of absence. Pronto. Yet she had more power, (and more rights at that school,) than any student or parent.
My son became suicidal because of the verbal and emotional abuse he endured at that school, and I could do nothing about that teacher because of the union. In fact, the school wouldn't even transfer my kid to another classroom. BUST that entire system, and start from SCRATCH.
That's the first and elementary step to saving what's left of a once great city.
As much as I respect a worker's right to join a union, I didn't see any underpaid, poor, abused or helpless workers at that school. All I saw was a bunch of well-paid teachers and administrators acting life a Sicilian Mob clan: an educational, administrative, bureaucratic, political MAFIA
Kids are not cars on the assembly line, and there is NO WAY, teachers
and bureaucrats should have so much power over our kids' education and future.
Money has everything to do with quality education--when it is spent on curriculum and students'needs. But when it is spent on trips and "vacations" for the school board there is less money.
I challenge anyone to take a close look at the top performing districts anywhere USA, and tell me they spend LESS money than average.
Top performing districts almost ALWAYS spent 50%-100% MORE than the average foundation grant per student.
If my district spends $7000 per student and another spends $12000, who will have a better performing school?
Detroit's problem is the $7000 doesn't get to where it would make the difference, ergo, less supplies, ancient books and falling down buildings.
Has anyone verified the students have the laptops yet?
And all this fiscal mismanagement is brought to us by...the UNIONS?? seriously??
Isn't it wonderful how the powers to be were able to lay every woe and form of destruction at the feet of the unions? As Vizzini has said many times---
INCONCEIVABLE!!
Money has everything to do with quality education--when it is spent on curriculum and students'needs. But when it is spent on trips and "vacations" for the school board there is less money.
I challenge anyone to take a close look at the top performing districts anywhere USA, and tell me they spend LESS money than average.
Top performing districts almost ALWAYS spent 50%-100% MORE than the average foundation grant per student.
If my district spends $7000 per student and another spends $12000, who will have a better performing school?
Detroit's problem is the $7000 doesn't get to where it would make the difference, ergo, less supplies, ancient books and falling down buildings.
Has anyone verified the students have the laptops yet?
And all this fiscal mismanagement is brought to us by...the UNIONS?? seriously??
Isn't it wonderful how the powers to be were able to lay every woe and form of destruction at the feet of the unions? As Vizzini has said many times---
INCONCEIVABLE!!
As a child, I had the "misfortune" of being able to study in a very poor country, where the students were given nothing more but a teacher, blackboard, chalk, pens, and paper. There was a map of the world on one wall. NOTHING, absolutely, nothing else. The school had no gym either. No auditorium. Nothing but old creepy classrooms and a small, tiny library.
The school building was over a 100 years old, hard to heat 'cause of ceiling heights, and the walls cracked all over the place, 'cause of an earlier earthquake.
I've more-less kept in touch with kids from that school, and an overwhelming number went on to university, becoming lawyers, professors, architects, engineers. The most successful kids from that bunch, are the progeny of the best educated, most ambitious and most committed parents. Neither the parents' wealth, nor the school facilities (or the lack of them) seem to have been predictors of future academic success.
When I returned home, (from that barren scholastic experience,) I was 2-3 grades ahead in math.
The physics, chemistry and biology that I was introduced to as separate subjects in grade 6-7, I only got to re-visit 4 years later, in high school.
In grade 4 I knew the entire map of the world, all the world capitals, and the major sources of wealth in each region.
In grade 4, I was also introduced to "Ancient Studies". I had to learn all about the ancients, Mesapotamia, Egypt, Greeks, Romans. I clearly recall having to memorize the names of all the Greek and Roman gods. I locked myself in a bedroom and just kept repeating all the gods' names until I eventually remember them all.
'Till today I remember having to memorize the geography of Siberia and the Urals....and I saved my atlas from that time, where in ink I had clearly marked everything I had to memorize on each atlas page, for my Grade 4 Geography final.
There was a component of that education where rote learning was a must.
By grade 3 you were expected to memorize the entire multiplication and division tables.
But then, once you passed the elementary state of memorization, the school emphasized research, analysis, and inquiry.
There was no lab, no computer. Just a bunch of healthy, well-fed kids, whose parents sent them to school every morning. The teacher was like a CAPO, and anyone making noise was kicked out for the day, sent home. The kid then had to explain him-herself to the parents, and the parents had to explain themselves to the teacher. There was accountability on all sides. The lack of money and equipment was NEVER an issue.
It was just a given, a common understanding, that all you needed to learn was a good teacher, textbooks, notebooks, pens and pencils, a ruler and a retractor.
t
All the knowledge that a 10 year old needs was already public. The school just had to effectively get it into the kids' heads. Parental commitment, collective and individual accountability, high expectations, the culture of excellence and betterment, were all part of the equation.
Another thing that I should mention is that the school gave me a sense of the importance of knowledge and culture in general. And not just for monetary gain.
Last edited by SadieMirsade; 09-10-2011 at 09:12 AM..
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