Sad state of inner city schools.

[charrison]

How I Joined Teach for America -- and Got Sued for $20 Million

It is a long read, but worth it.

This is a pretty sad story. Schools are denying the discipline that kids need and everyone suffers for it.

 

[Bignate603]

That is insane...

 

[ROTC1983]

Originally posted by: Bignate603
That is insane...

Man, I can't believe some things that don't reach the media. To me that sounds really important to get this kind of news out, yet it isn't. A sad state of affairs these days

 

[notfred]

Fvcking ghetto dumbsh!ts and thier kids.

 

[SuperTool]

This is right on. In Russia we had "special" schools for retards and troublemakers. That way everyone else could learn and not be dumbed down.
I know a teacher here who is afraid of being sued by his students, or racism allegations.
In US, students are cattle.

 

[Orsorum]

Originally posted by: SuperTool
This is right on. In Russia we had "special" schools for retards and troublemakers. That way everyone else could learn and not be dumbed down.
I know a teacher here who is afraid of being sued by his students, or racism allegations.
In US, students are cattle.

Soooo many "In Russia" jokes I could make... but I won't.

My mom is a 36-year veteran of the public school system; I don't think I've ever heard her tell a story even remotely like that. Of course, she's taught in relatively wealth (upper middle-class, white) neighborhoods - but even so, she can probably relate in some sense.

Really depends on where you teach - at my high school, fights routinely got broken up by teachers, with no threats of lawsuits or any of that BS. Maybe it was just my high school.

 

[datalink7]

wow... unbelieveable.

 

[tcsenter]

But the training program skimped on actual teaching and classroom-management techniques, instead overwhelming us with sensitivity training. My group spent hours on an activity where everyone stood in a line and then took steps forward or backward based on whether we were the oppressor or the oppressed in the categories of race, income, and religion.

Yep, that's pretty much the crux of today's "cultural diversity" or "sensitivity" training. I had to take a "sensitivity" course at my former employer, which was located in a predominantly black blighted urban center and had a very diverse workforce. It was mandatory training for all employees.

I thought it would be pretty cool, because I had recently read this article about miscommunications and misinterpretations along cultural lines, and how one party can offend another without knowing or meaning to due to cultural difference. So here I expected that it would be a "give and take" approach; I get to see how someone might be put-off by something I said, and they get to see how I might get put-off by something they said. Communication, even miscommunication, is a two way street.

Haha, fat chance. If I could give a short and sweet overview of the content of the entire course, it would go something like this:

"Ok, now all you racist oppressors go on this side of the room, and all you poor victimized oppressed groups go on the other. Great! Ok, now all you racist whites, look over at the group you are oppressing. Don't you feel guilty about what you have done? Yes? Good, because you should.

Class dismissed."

 

[Orsorum]

Originally posted by: tcsenter

But the training program skimped on actual teaching and classroom-management techniques, instead overwhelming us with sensitivity training. My group spent hours on an activity where everyone stood in a line and then took steps forward or backward based on whether we were the oppressor or the oppressed in the categories of race, income, and religion.

Yep, that's pretty much the crux of today's "cultural diversity" or "sensitivity" training. I had to take a "sensitivity" course at my former employer, which was located in a predominantly black blighted urban center and had a very diverse workforce. It was mandatory training for all employees.

I thought it would be pretty cool, because I had recently read this article about miscommunications and misinterpretations along cultural lines, and how one party can offend another without knowing or meaning to due to cultural difference. So here I expected that it would be a "give and take" approach; I get to see how someone might be put-off by something I said, and they get to see how I might get put-off by something they said. Communication, even miscommunication, is a two way street.

Haha, fat chance. If I could give a short and sweet overview of the content of the entire course, it would go something like this:

"Ok, now all you racist oppressors go on this side of the room, and all you poor victimized oppressed groups go on the other. Great! Ok, now all you racist whites, look over at the group you are oppressing. Don't you feel guilty about what you have done? Yes? Good, because you should.

Class dismissed."

Very, very accurate. I've been to a few of those types of classes.

After a while, you learn that these people know absolutely nothing of what they're speaking; you learn to ignore all that.

One of my favorites in the whole "diversity training" was the "homelessness awareness" group on campus... I was like, WTF? These people are breaking the law and ruining the gd city - they have shelters and assistance programs readily and easily available to them. Good lord!

I guess that's what I get for living in Seattle.

 

[tcsenter]

One of my favorites in the whole "diversity training" was the "homelessness awareness" group on campus... I was like, WTF? These people are breaking the law and ruining the gd city - they have shelters and assistance programs readily and easily available to them. Good lord!

lol! The next 'fashionable' sensitivity training championed by leftists will be "Felon Sensitivity: How not to enrage or offend the former convict your employer hired, thus preventing him from killing you."

 

[Orsorum]

Originally posted by: tcsenter

One of my favorites in the whole "diversity training" was the "homelessness awareness" group on campus... I was like, WTF? These people are breaking the law and ruining the gd city - they have shelters and assistance programs readily and easily available to them. Good lord!

lol! The next 'fashionable' sensitivity training championed by leftists will be "Felon Sensitivity: How not to enrage or offend the former convict your employer hired, thus preventing him from killing you."

Hehe.

It's great being an RA...

Actually, it's not all that bad... just comes up, every now and then - there are certain campus groups that really make me laugh my ass off, if only for their blind ignorance and naivete.

 

[dafatha00]

That's the sad truth to many of todays public schools. $90,000. Outrageous.

 

[charrison]

bump

 

[SlowSS]

All I could say is wow. I feel for those students who are there to learn to better themselves
but unable to due to few rude and distruptive kids thanks their fvcktard parents.

It is sad reflection of our society when we can't even touch someone without getting sued.

 

[xuanman]

Wow, that's a really great article. I taught English classes through Americorps, but I had an excellent support staff that definitely was not afraid to be disciplinarian...and it was in an inner city school. So much depends on the personnel involved.

 

[Hoober]

And I thought my job wasn't great... wow. Thank you for the article.

 

[Queasy]

Shocking but I'm really not surprised. The D.C. schools are some of the worse public schools in the nation along with Philadelphia and New York. How they got that way I don't know, but it is truly tragic and occurs on the institutional level, not the funding level. D.C. schools receive over $10,000 a student so it makes you wonder where all that taxpayer money goes and why is it not being used better.

There was a bloc called Apple A Day about a college graduate in a similar situation in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. But, just checking his blog, it is obvious that he got in some sort of trouble for pointing out some of the fallacies of the school and district administration (for example, the schools bought multiple copies of Sister Act 2 for the children to watch but could not provide enough toner or paper for the teachers to do lesson plans, worksheets, and excercises).

 

[yowolabi]

Wow, good read. Of course we have to keep in mind that it is his side of the story, and he might have actually been too forceful with the kids. I have taught in a setting with young children and other teachers and observed what went on. There's nothing like a willfully disobedient 9 year old to show you what kind of violence you're capable of.

Discipline in public schools has long been one of the main barriers to learning. You can't count on parents to keep children in line while they're at school. You can't even count on them trying. I hate to see a child put out of class, because that child will just act up worse as he falls farther behind his classmates, but 2 or 3 people shouldn't be able to hurt everyone. My gf was a d.c. charter school teacher and she would tell me about how it was always the same 2 kids she'd yell at all day in her 1st grade class.

I think corporal punishment is a good thing. As long as it's supervised, controlled, with parent's permission, and not too severe. If the parent does not consent, they should be told "either you get your child under control, let us do it, or find another school." There was a 3rd grade teacher in the same school as my gf, and he really did give his students a swat or two occasionally, even after the principal found out and told him to stop. He was fired eventually, but while he was teaching he was the most loved by his students, had the most orderly class, and spent more time teaching than anyone.

 

[Saltin]

A story of poverty, crime and ignorance perpetuating itself. What a suprise.
The saddest part of that story is the students who wanted to learn and couldnt.
Consistent troublemakers and violent kids should be transferred to boot camps where they are forced to learn and behave. Move them out of the projects and into a military environment.
Screw sensitivity and compassion.

 

[axelfox]

Where are the parents in all of this? The parents should be very involved in their children's education. But then, you got the crazy "that's not my kid" parents.

I think teachers should be paid like 100,000 a year with full immunity

 

[tcsenter]

Shocking but I'm really not surprised. The D.C. schools are some of the worse public schools in the nation along with Philadelphia and New York.

Hey don't forget the Detroit school system, which was SO bad, it had to be been taken over by the State of Michigan in a form of state receivership.

 

[charrison]

Originally posted by: tcsenter

Shocking but I'm really not surprised. The D.C. schools are some of the worse public schools in the nation along with Philadelphia and New York.

Hey don't forget the Detroit school system, which was SO bad, it had to be been taken over by the State of Michigan in a form of state receivership.

These failing schools are an excellent example of why vouchers should be available. The parents can that give a damn can easily move thier kids out of these hell holes and then these hell holes will rapidly collapse.

But of course the teachers unions are against such things and the left thinks vouchers would only be good for the rich.

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: charrison

Originally posted by: tcsenter

Shocking but I'm really not surprised. The D.C. schools are some of the worse public schools in the nation along with Philadelphia and New York.

Hey don't forget the Detroit school system, which was SO bad, it had to be been taken over by the State of Michigan in a form of state receivership.

These failing schools are an excellent example of why vouchers should be available. The parents can that give a damn can easily move thier kids out of these hell holes and then these hell holes will rapidly collapse.

But of course the teachers unions are against such things and the left thinks vouchers would only be good for the rich.

Yep, one of the great contradictions of the left. They are pro-killing babies in the womb but anti-school choice which would probably help reduce teen pregnancy because the children would be getting educated instead of knocked up.

 

[Vic]

My father taught for 30 years in inner-city elementary schools (he retired ~15 years ago). Everything in that article is dead-on true and the problems have only gotten worse. Much worse in fact.
One of the funny things about my father's career is that he switched to a school in an affluent neighborhood for the last 5 years of his career. Not surprisingly, those were the best years of his career. Parents were helpful and supportive, kids were well-behaved and attentive, and my father was finally recognized for being the excellent teacher that he was.
So who wants to teach in inner-city schools? No one. And for damn good reason.
Who's at fault? The parents of unruly children, without question.

 

[Zebo]

Inmates running the assylum its a shame. Kids especially boys need disipline or else we'll live in a world of crime and prisons when they grow up. Our HS football coach/gym teacher got fired cause he grabbed one student by the ear who grabbed some girls ass. Fine man but this punk and his lawyer father got him fired. Today 15 years later it's a different world in the schools. At a elemetary school dance kids are dirty dancing, FU is part of thier regular vocabulary, and they arn't really learing anything. Mine go to private school but it's getting worse there too. Seems there is no "old school" values tought anymore in schools. I don't know sometimes I think we are evolving by treating our kids as our friends and other times I think we arn't prepoaring them for the "cold hard world" and facts of life out there.