Saturday, November 22, 2008

I Almost Barfed

These signs sickened me as I rode the E train this morning. In a time when money is so tight, the city is spending money on advertising how wonderful our schools are. There might not be enough money for smaller classes, tutoring programs or even custodians but there is plenty of money for Bloomberg and Klein to blow their own horns. Keep It Going NYC Public Schools, in red.
Increased graduation rates by what method? By teaching kids what they need to survive college or life or by lowering standards so much that almost everyone gets by but know nothing.



Yes, Keep It Going, NYC Public Schools, in yellow.



NYC has also increased the number of days a year a teacher must work by adding mindless, waste of time staff development days in August, on Election Day and on Brooklyn-Queens Day. NYC has also lengthened the school day. It is now easy to remove a disgruntled teacher to the rubber room. Thousands of teachers are without classrooms.

We have schools that were built to hold 1800 holding 5000 students. Students are learning in substandard trailers, closets and bathrooms. Schools start before sunrise and end after sunset to accommodate the huge crowds.

Encourage your students to not report any incidences that might occur in your school. Crime is only a crime if someone knows about it.


Keep It Going In NYC Public Schools, in green.






12 comments:

MsMalarkey said...

So where ARE these new seats? My building is bursting at the seams, only blocks from the new Yankee Stadium that wasn't *supposed* to get taxpayer money.

What the hell are they trying to prove anyway? These kids are not any smarter than they were pre-Napoleon Bloomberg. My "approaching standards" kids are on 3rd and 4th grade levels in 6th grade. I have a Level 3 who can't write a sentence. It's bullshit.

NYC Educator said...

Brilliant.

Chaz said...

I couldn't say it better myself.

Mrs. T said...

Yes, with all that advertising, that's probably 2? 3? 14 children left behind?
We have talking trash cans in our cafeteria. Yes, you read that correctly- talking TRASH CANS- plural. I'm sure they cost a pretty penny and they serve what purpose? Every time I throw a napkin in and here the recording "Thanks for keeping our school beautiful!", I mutter to myself, "yep, and there's one child left behind- right there."

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the post. I saw those signs, and felt the same way... it's good to have an intrepid photographer/teacher blogger...

Jonathan

JUSTICE not "just us" said...

You are my "sheroe". Thak you for telling like it is. With your permission I would like to use these pictures to write an open letter to a newbie teacher at my school.

Thank you again. It is one of your best post in a blog that means something!

Dissident teachers are removed to the Rubber Rooms. The Reassignment Centers are the "Guantanamos of the DOE". They need to be shut down!

Anonymous said...

So more lies for Klein and Bloomie to sell to Washington and the rest of the country!!!

Catherine Johnson said...

don't get me started

Catherine Johnson said...

OK, I'm starting

I sat in on the Curriculum Committee meeting a couple of weeks ago & the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction and Technology actually used the phrase, "marketing to parents."

Catherine Johnson said...

We pay for a public relations person who, I learned recently, is employed by BOCES. This means that public relations is so central to NY schools that it is a service BOCES offers to districts.

That's the bad news.

But there's good news, too!

This fall our BOCES-provided "school communications specialist" was recognized for outstanding achievement in educational communications by the New York School Public Relations Association. This was announced at a recent board meeting.

We are winning awards for marketing to parents and we are using the fact that we are winning awards for marketing to parents to market to parents.

Pissedoffteacher said...

Catherine--that would be funny if it wasn't so sad and true.

Anonymous said...

Furthermore, as a former NYC Dept of Education teacher who has been the victim of 5 attacks at the hands of his own students and threatened to be shot by an unmedicated, bipolar student who was a confirmed member of the Latin Kings, I can say that principals are told not to put incidents into the Dept. of Ed online system. They are told that the more incidents they put online the less money they will receive for the school in the next school year. So the schools with the highest actual crime, like my old school in the Bronx, rarely report the crimes that occur.