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So blame the education system not the poverty, not the crime rate, single or no parent homes.
It's not poverty or crime rate or parents that promoted these kids with failing grades.
It's the schools that taught them, tested them. It's the DOE that decides on curriculum...what to teach and how to teach it.
Plenty of blame to go around on this from the government and school leadership to the teacher, parents and students. Schools need to go back to basic math, reading, writing and history classes with some side classes of how to do everyday skills like balancing money, filling out job applications & resumes to name a few.
The kids failing in those schools, many of them would fail elsewhere. Doesn't matter if it's a Republican or Democratic city. If 41% of the kids in a school district have a 1.0 GPA, chances are, it's too late for alot of those kids anyway. Many of them likely had problems going back to early childhood years. I'm sure there are some very incompetent teachers. Plenty of incompetent students too.
The kids failing in those schools, many of them would fail elsewhere. Doesn't matter if it's a Republican or Democratic city. If 41% of the kids in a school district have a 1.0 GPA, chances are, it's too late for alot of those kids anyway. Many of them likely had problems going back to early childhood years. I'm sure there are some very incompetent teachers. Plenty of incompetent students too.
I'm sure there are also plenty of kids with undiagnosed learning disabilities, dislexia and the like, and true ADD (as opposed to kids drugged up so mom can sip her latte.) Add in poverty which the Baltimore public schools see in spades. If you want the surest means of predicting poor school performance look at income and education level of parents. And if you find a area where there was heavy drug trafficking you can add in kids who were exposed in the womb.
Once these districts are seen as low achieving all the parents capable of fending for their kids begin moving, paying for private school, or seeking out charter schools (although those are not uniformly great, either.)
The parents need to instill the love of reading, math, and STEM in these kids as opposed to sports/basketball. Nothing wrong as having sports as a secondary hobby, but it cannot be the primary focus.
How can the parents instill something in their kids that they don't have themselves?
All schools are a reflection of student performance, lack thereof. One could switch the student populations between the best and worst performing schools in the country. The former best performing school’ performance would substantially decline while the former worst performing school’s performance would soar with the greatest challenge being getting more AP classes.
The chronic truancy rate in Baltimore high schools is 39%. The challenges are apparent in middle school, if not earlier.
The Baltimore Polytechnic High School is a highly selective public school. 84% of student population identifies as minority and 100% “economically disadvantaged”. Yet, 54% qualify and participate in AP classes. While this school’s performance is not stellar compared to many magnet schools, it is light years beyond some of the other inner city schools.
How come these “ economically disadvantaged” students do well, while other kids of of same race/ ethnicity/ economic conditions can barely read? No question some realized the only way out of the ghetto is their time/ effort invested in education while others do not. No question some of the kids who do well come from similar chaotic home lives as those who ignore education and sometimes from the same family.
Adam Toledo( 13) was the kid killed by a cop in Chicago as he ran with a gun. His mom described him as a good boy who liked Leggos who wanted to be a cop. She failed to mention she had long lost control over her son, a chronic truant and runaway, who spent his time with hood rats. Who doesn’t bother to report their child missing when they are missing?
I am beyond sick and tired of the “ blame the school” thing.
Give it a few years. They'll all be 4.0 students before you know it! Everybody child is special and deserves a nice shiny participation medal, don't you think?
Oh and let's not stop there! These academic marvels should be able to drive a few miles down the road to attend Georgetown University! Not only that, their education should be free...…….wheeeeeeeeee! Isn't this fun?
I love how lowering the bar and getting everybody a fair shake is so empowering, don't you? See I'm a good guy! Not only can I pat myself on the back, I can sleep very well tonight knowing I'm making the world a better place....wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Gosh, I'm so glad I'm a leftist!!!
I'm sure there are also plenty of kids with undiagnosed learning disabilities, dislexia and the like, and true ADD (as opposed to kids drugged up so mom can sip her latte.) Add in poverty which the Baltimore public schools see in spades. If you want the surest means of predicting poor school performance look at income and education level of parents. And if you find a area where there was heavy drug trafficking you can add in kids who were exposed in the womb.
Once these districts are seen as low achieving all the parents capable of fending for their kids begin moving, paying for private school, or seeking out charter schools (although those are not uniformly great, either.)
I'm sure of it too. Alot of crap that either gets ignored, or alot of people don't know what to look for. ADD/ADHD, I have my questions. Many people who get diagnosed as such might not be ADD/ADHD, just dealing with other issues. It happens more with boys who don't have fathers at home.
In many cases, it's not how far the parent got in school. It's about how lousy that parent is. My grandparents got no further than middle school (they were sharecroppers until they moved to the Midwest). My father has a college degree. I do too. My grandparents were very much "look, we didn't go very far in school, but we're going to make sure you get a good education". My grandparents didn't take any mess when it came to school. Same with my father. He expected me to perform in school. Having a college educated father helped. It showed me that a good education helps. Also, his expectations of me were a big factor.
It isn't just "how far did your parents go in school". Very often, it's "do you have a strong father in the home?". "Do your parents understand the value of a good education, regardless of whether they got a good education or not?". "Do your parents keep books in the home? Do they expect you to read books?".
Being exposed to drugs isn't the only thing. Consider the kind of heavy metals, bad nutrition, and other crap those kids get exposed to. And then the fact that violence is just a fact of life for many.
Baltimore Schools are seen as failures by alot of people, especially from the late 1960s and onward. Private schools have been a big thing in Baltimore for quite some time. And since the 1960s, they've been a mainstay for those who could afford them. Many parents who could went to the suburbs, rather than pay for private school. Baltimore has basically been allowed to rot. The bad schools, drugs, and high violent crime rate are just byproducts of that. Baltimore used to be a major producer of cars, ships, and steel (steel that was used to build the other aforementioned products). And then through in alot of racial tensions that have long plagued Baltimore. Those who couldn't get out are just there for lack of a better idea. The high rates of broken homes, the problems that come with that, Baltimore keeps declining.
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