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In reply to the discussion: A 13-Year-Old's Slavery Analogy Raises Some Uncomfortable Truths in School [View all]Javaman
(62,528 posts)Last edited Tue May 8, 2012, 10:45 AM - Edit history (2)
This is from a 13 year olds perspective at the classroom level and not a view on the systemic problems of the education system.
The problem of todays education system isn't teachers, it's the system which has now over arching corporate control, lack of funding, ever evolving education curriculum and treating national education as a political volley ball to be batted around at will to serve lobbyists, politicians and corporate interests.
The slow dismantling of various teachers unions, the firing of long time teachers and hiring "cheaper" new teachers with virtually no experience and with no mentoring programs is a deliberate effort to erode the system and allow it to be easily controlled by outside forces.
In conjunction: there are good teachers out there of all races. The problem teachers face isn't so much that they are bad teachers (although there are many), it's that the curriculum as been skewed so much toward teaching toward state and national mandated testing, that the art of real teaching is taking a backseat.
Once upon a time, teachers were able to go off curriculum to discuss topics at length. Now, they have to try and eek out the odd 5 to 15 minutes here and there to try and reach the students.
We have lost art, music and gym, we have lost civics, language programs and many after school activities in much of our grossly underfunded school system. Yet people still complain as to why kids don't get a proper education.
The working parents, couples and single, are at wits end to engage their child between struggling to maintain an income and a cohesive family. As a result, more pressure is put upon the teacher to try and "parent" kids. Yet parents get bent out of shape when their kid gets a poor report from school.
Teachers with no support from the parents and parents who perceive their child as doing no wrong or are unable or unwilling to be reasonable, is a failing cooperative endeavor.
The constant de-funding of schools, the rewarding of better schools and removal of funds from the "under performers", is destroying our kids education. Why punish an under performing school? Many times they are under performing because they don't have the funds to allow teachers to properly do their jobs.
While this student makes the comparison to slavery by equating white centric teachers as "masters" to the "slaves" of students of color, this students perspective is skewed to only her microcosm.
While I do understand the students perspective, I can only state that it's from a limited view, however, what I do hope happens is that it opens a debate on a wide range of topics concerning the problems with our public education system. One of which is funding.