I went to public schools my whole life. My elementary school was a very strong school, my junior high was pretty bad, and my high school was a very good school. My high school had a lot of black (30%) and vietnamese kids (5%), but was mostly white. It was diverse enough for me to learn what a cold drink and hard quarter were. There are some pretty fucked up things in the Louisiana performance standard rules. The high school I went to was on probation several years ago because it hadn't shown improvement in stardardized test scores in three years. What is fucked up about that is the school was way above the state average in passage rates. It had the highest passage rates in the parish and was in the top three in the region. The school was never taken over by the state, but it was labeled as a failing school and got a D grade because of this. My kids would go to Mag Woods Elementary which draws heavily from Gardere. It is a terrible school, and it shouldn't be. But no person in the neighborhood with the ability to send kids to private school is going to send their kids to a school with a bunch of kids from Gardere. And the problem isn't with the kids. The kids I know from Gardere are good kids with a shitty lot in life. Our church does a lot of outreach in that area, doing mentoring, and recreation leagues for the kids, and bringing them lunches. The problem is with their trashy parents who won't put a lick of effort into their kids lives..
The tricks of the trade are just to not give up on kids, to build a positive, rather than a negative relationship with them. Sometimes, the unmotivated kids have parents that do want their kids to do well, but they don't know how to help them succeed. Other times, the kids have a home life where they are the parent in their own home, caring for younger siblings, etc. With those kids, I understand that homework, etc. may not get done, so I try to teach them to the best of my ability while I have them in my classroom. There are many kids that will surprise you--years later they come back and are doing well. I get them in middle school, which may be the toughest age group to teach. They are so awkward and unsure and immature and (often times) lost. But, again, the public school system where I teach is a largely successful one, with excellent special education resources, etc. I've known kids that succeed, even when their parents don't care, but of course, it gets harder. When a large percentage of the kids in a school have this particular problem, it is hard for kids to make it. I attended a seminar on teaching kids in poverty a couple of years ago; every school in our district sent teachers and staff. One of the really interesting tidbits that I took away from the day was that children born into poverty often have parents that do not talk to them or with them at all. A poverty-stricken child can come to school and may have only heard the spoken word a quarter or less of the time than a child with educated, middle class parents. Therefore, their vocabulary suffers greatly, and it hurts them in school. I know with my own kids, I use as advanced vocabulary as possible. When my 7-year-old was three, we were at her dance studio where her big sister was taking recital pictures. She was pouting over something, and my little one told me, "She's being petulant." A woman next to me asked, "Did she just say petulant?" My little girl turned to her and said, "Petulant means pouty." Kids from poor backgrounds have no idea about such things and may not even really know what pouty means, either--even in middle school. Hence, standardized tests are a nightmare for them; they are, in fact, culturally-biased.
I home school my son. California is the poster-child for no child left behind. No child left behind= an inch of homework for 1st graders because the standard is so high. Teachers can almost never achieve meeting the standard during normal school hours. By home schooling I can actually monitor my kids progress along with his strengths and weaknesses. It also helps for a family that likes to travel. If lil man wakes up shitty he can get the day off without worrying if something was missed or playing catch up. His social life is actually better (we worked hard at this) than with the same kids every day in a class room. He gets more exercise than he ever would at school. Huge swell comes in and we surf instead of school! The relationship between my son and I has never been better. We are drawn much closer from this experience. This is not the answer for every kid but it is refreshing knowing that as long as we are in California, we can decide the value in our child's education and apply it by choice. Not every state has that or a system that encourages home schooling. We are fortunate that we can have a parent at home to offer the option. I plan to home school him for at least another year however, we insist he attends high school. It is important he receives the social dynamic that comes with those years.
I do, but I can say I am certainly unqualified to be considered a teacher. I have a wealth of resources and he does test above the state average. He test better from home schooling then he ever did before. Being a smart kid, he makes my job easier.
Thanks, Stacey. The things I take for granted . . . Where we live now, public school isn't an option for our daughter (15). But if we were still in Florida, she'd likely be in one of 2 good public high schools, for the reasons everyone has mentioned above.
there's a million different stories, but i came out convinced that my education was shitty and all i did was teach myself. in retrospect i think the same way. there was no ingenuity from the teachers, no passion. 100% teaching from a book. Never gave it relevance to students. Showing why learning is important provides motivation---without it, what you are left with are the handful that are motivated because they think daddy wont love them if they get a B, and everyone else coasts. need better teachers period. drop the unions. pay them twice as much in bad schools as in good. make michelle rhee doe secretary.
My first son went to head start and did very well. When my first ex and I were starting out we didn't have much. I was in school and working two jobs, and she was going to school. The program my son went to was great, they were very attentitive to the kids, and it seemed all the children excelled. Maybe it was because we lived in a small town, or the teachers actually cared... but my son went in to first grade a head of most the other kids.
I'm sorry that you had shitty teachers, but I firmly believe that there are more good than bad teachers, and the good ones do not simply teach from a book. Anything can become a "teachable" moment, and good teachers take advantage of them. At my school, we make a habit of celebrating learning by highlighting our various rigorous programs and recruiting students into them. In the South, teachers unions are almost non-existent. They are around, but they have no political pull. In the northern US, I think they are probably a bigger political entity. But I know of no teachers in my building that worry about tenure (which doesn't exist in Texas, though after the 3-year probationary period, it's harder--though not impossible--to fire a teacher without cause. My administrators regularly document and get rid of less competent teachers, though.) I also don't see teachers just waiting around for retirement and drawing a check without working their asses off. You're awfully jaded about education. There are good schools and good teachers out there. Unfortunately, many underprivileged kids don't get access to those.
Like I wrote, there are a million different stories. It was a while ago in one little spot of the country. But this was supposedly in the best school in the parish. Can't imagine what it must be like in the poor schools.
