Don't make the teachers scapegoats

[Sancho]

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/dont-make-the-teachers-scapegoats/1128332

"After Reagan, President Bill Clinton jumped on the teacher-bashing bandwagon, lamenting that we should have a "process for removing teachers who aren't competent." Clinton came up with a plan that would deny funding to schools that hired "unqualified teachers."

Then, along came President George W. Bush and No Child Left Behind. Beneath much of the benign language, NCLB, for all intents and purposes, is a blueprint for blaming teachers and making the privatization of our public schools more palatable by offering charter schools as the panacea.

Now President Barack Obama has succumbed to the Blame the Teacher Syndrome with his Race to the Top program. - snip -

Diane Ravitch, author of the The Death and Life of the Great American School System, puts into perspective one main difference between the students of charters and traditional schools: "The students who are hardest to educate are left to regular public schools, which makes comparisons between the two sectors unfair. The higher graduation rate posted by charters often reflects the fact that they are able to 'counsel out' the lowest performing students. ... This is not a model for public education, which must educate all children."

[laughingliberal]

1. "The students who are hardest to educate are left to regular public schools, ..."

This is the part the charter fans never want to address. The game is rigged in favor of charters.

[whyverne]

2. We have a local school on strike. I hear a lot about "greedy teachers".

I like to point out that the top 25 hedge fund managers in this country make more money than 500,000 teachers put together. Half a million. Than I ask, "Do you even know what a hedge fund manager does?"

Of course this does little good as class warfare is dead in this country. We already lost. The worker class will only fight for the scraps dropped under the banquet table.

[Sancho]

4. the pundits report international competition...

the highest rated schools (Finland) pay teacher about the same as engineers when they graduate; they are unionized. My wife is in her 34th year of teaching public school (five degrees; two in education). She makes about the same as new college graduates in most fields.

She is in one of the "good" schools with parental support, but still has seen a second grader with a gun; students with cocaine; amazing poverty in a generally middle class town, and serious overcrowding. We had a 6th grader come to our house and confess she was pregnant. She teaches kids with diabetes, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, AIDS, and autism mixed in with everyone else. The Florida GOP is trying to siphon off all the better students to charter schools, get rid of experienced teachers (they cost too much), and segregate if possible.

Anyone who hasn't tried it should put 30 fifth graders of mixed backgrounds in a small room (including a few special education kids) and make yourself stay there for a couple of hours. Then try to teach them math and how to sing a song and the scientific method during your two hours. Welcome to teaching!

Maxwell is dead on with this editorial in the St. Pete Times.

[Klukie]

7. +100000

[dkf]

3. And don't condemn a good percent of our kids to dropout status and a life of poverty.

This is the reason we cannot truly fix poverty, our people don't have the education needed to get more than a menial job where they must compete with all the illegal immigrants we invite with open arms. Instead we think we fix poverty by giving people food stamps and welfare. It is all so backwards.

[ejpoeta]

5. no one thinks food stamps and welfare FIX poverty. it helps the POOR survive it.

you have people with kids trying to feed and clothe them who work two or three jobs and may not have the time to sit down and help their kids with their homework. they probably may not even see their kids much. the kids are then sucked into gangs or other bad things thus continuing the cycle. but let's blame the safety net for causing the problems. the problem is that we need to value education which it seems many do not anymore. teachers get paid crap for what they do..... managing to teach a classroom of probably too many kids with varying levels of educational ability or emotional issues. but what do we need education for.... easier to keep giving the rich all the money and push the middle class out if people don't have critical thinking skills necessary to do anything about it.

[Klukie]

8. Right on!!!

And we need to value policies that support families. Why have we allowed our society to grow at such a pace that both parents (and single parents) are unable provide the proper attention that is needed to raise a child!!!! Our current growth rate is unsustainable to the family unit....no matter what the dynamic of that family unit.

[Klukie]

9. Their will always be a class of society that will be destined to work..."menial Jobs"

That is a reality...Not everyone can be a rocket scientist!!!! Maybe if we would recognize this and support and push for policies that recognize "menial jobs" and pay them more than below the poverty rate!!!

[ejpoeta]

10. tell that to schools like in ny that decided everyone needed to get a regents degree.

now, when i was in school i was in regents because i excelled at school. some kids struggled just to keep up with the regular classes. when i left ny for a year and a half and realized that regents was worthless outside of ny, when i came back i told them i wasn't interested in a regents diploma. then i ended up in three english classes the 2nd half of my senior year and ended up with one anyway. bastards. but i digress. not everyone is meant for college. not everyone is meant to be an engineer. if they want to then they should be able to go for that. but for those who aren't.... how about training for things like mechanic and carpentry or something. construction? i know there is boces for high school kids here. we need to not give up on kids, but assess THEIR goals and help them to get there. and help their parents help them to get there.

[dkf]

11. These dropouts aren't training to be mechanics (a pretty complicated occupation if you ask me)

They are training to be incarcerated or to be the next generation of food stamp recipients.

[ejpoeta]

12. they could be if started early enough. kids don't all learn the same. some are

the kind who learn from hands on stuff. like fixing cars or building things. by high school you may lose them. my husband has a lot of mechanical skills because he learned them early. now his circumstances were different.... like, if you want to go to this function you better get the car fixed, so bob and his brother would go out and fix it. they read the manual for their father. now i may be biased but if given the right upbringing they both could have been working for NASA or something. as it is on their own they have achieved.... tom graduated with a double major and is an engineer. their parents grew pot in the basement. their dad was an alcoholic who beat his wife. when i met bob he and his brother were basically working to pay the bills for their parents, buying them cigarettes etc. yet somehow their dad had the nerve to think they owed him! asshole. but i have totally gone off subject.

instead of having a cookie cutter, they need to first of all know the kids..... secondly they need to pay attention to the kids and see what their strengths are and their weaknesses. that doesn't say you ignore the weaknesses, but you can sure highlight the strengths. every kid is good at something. they give up and lose interest when you ignore those strengths because they aren't good at the stuff you think is the only important thing. you can find what they WANT to be doing and make that an incentive for focusing on the stuff they don't like so much.

[dkf]

13. I agree with that and definitely do not diss mechanics or other trades.

My ex boyfriend was a mechanic and he often had to trouble shoot for the less savvy mechanics. He apprenticed at a shop and after he got his associates degree became the lead mechanic over all the old timers. Then he went to work for the Federal Government and became a supervisor. No dummy there!

[ejpoeta]

14. i bet the old timers weren't too happy. but he probably had the stuff....

like bob. to see it in his head and know from hearing and all that. and that is a skill very adaptable. bob now works fixing cash registers and atm machines. he has been a truck mechanic, went around building stuff for stores like the grills and stuff.... i personally think he works better like he does now.... he has a company van and goes around fixing things at stores and doesn't have an 'office' really.

[dkf]

15. My ex could fix anything. And the old timers appreciated him because he solved things they couldn't.

Even when he moved to the Feds he became a supervisor after 2 years of working there.

[ejpoeta]

16. that's good. i have known people who don't like that. they feel insecure or something.

[stray cat]

6. We need accountability across the board and a desire to not write off students

Whose families can not afford to move to the right areas that guarantee decent schools. Right now the system supports educational ghettos

[yurbud]

17. any school that can be selective has an extreme advantage

[Tutankhamun]

18. Amongst other things, it's a way to screw over those who aren't white.

Said the white boy.