Tuesday, September 07, 2010

They Killed Kenny


For those too mature to watch South Park (obviously I am not one of them), I will tell you that Kenny, one of the little boys, comes from a very poor family. He always wears a parka pulled so tightly that it covers his face and muffles his voice. In the first five seasons, Kenny would die in almost every episode and then reappear the following week. Doing something so despicable to a poor boy didn't really matter. No one, except for his friends and his family would miss him.

Bloomberg, in his infinite school budget wisdom, has killed the fourth year of high school math. Kids who want to take calculus, pre-calculus or discrete math as seniors are being deprived of the opportunity. Only a select group, the elite of the elite, will have classes funded and will be able to carry on.

In this day and age, where we are supposed to be moving everyone ahead, for every baby step we take forward, we are taking giant steps backward. Even expressions like "please" or "may I" are useless. There is no money for the education of New York City children. They are like Kenny, the poor, the ones that do not count for anything.

So, my message to Bloomberg and Klein:

YOU KILLED NEW YORK CITY EDUCATION, YOU BASTARDS!

4 comments:

lgm said...

mmmhhmmm. We're several years down that road here in upstate NY.

What comes next is an agreement with a S.U.N.Y. school to provide courses under dual enrollment. The student will pay the tuition fee or sit in study hall, b/c his remaining required courses (SS, English and P.E.) will not be scheduled together so that he can go out on work release.


Oh, undersubscribed courses can only be taken at the provider's campus. Student must provide own transportation.

In the meantime, high school teachers are either laid off or will staff the additional sections of double period required classes.

Administrators will still get their 4.5% increases.

mathematicamama said...

I wondered why we kept getting emails asking if we were interested in teaching dual-enrollment courses! It must be heading our way too.

Kim Hughey said...

We're on the other end of the spectrum. Kids who should never be forced into taking a 4th year of math because of their weak skills are being forced into precal to get their 4th year of math credit. The precal teachers are pulling their hair out this year.

But I guess I 'd rather be in my situation than yours. At least ours are being pushed to higher heights instead of being held back by the state due to budget constraints.

Anonymous said...

The same thing is going on in the elementary schools as well....EXCEPT they are pushing and making the requirements developmentally inappropriate for students to learn. Pushing and cramming too much info on little 6 year olds when they are not developmentally ready to take it all in. Literacy lessons are the worst when teachers need to do observation lessons. Kindergarten and Pre-Kindergarten teachers would rather be observed in mathematics or science because they are afraid of receiving U's on their lesson.
The school system disgusts me.