We cripple kids with lowered expectations.
Above comes from my friend Ricochet's latest post. Those words say it all. The only lesson many kids have learned is they don't need to do anything to get a diploma. A program in a school I know well put kids who did nothing into a special late afternoon program and rewarded them with food, trips and smoking breaks. They got credit for doing online assignments during a class they were getting credit for. They disrespected everyone and got away with almost everything. Kids plotted as early as ninth grade ways to get into this plush place where a diploma would just be the icing on the cake.
Sadly, this crap is going on everywhere. I got an e-mail from a teacher in Portugal who is experiencing similar things. Kids graduate prepared for nothing. Many enter into college expecting the same treatment. It is time to stop worrying about graduation rates and start concentrating on graduates.
5 comments:
So true Pissed Off - so true. Yet what do we do with the literally thousands and thousands each year that if we truly do not pass students who do not meet the appropriate standard onto the next grade? This is the dirty little secret that all of us know - politicians, the mayor, deformers as well as the teachers. If standards were truly looked at and reaching those standards is what actually allowed a student to pass on to the next grade - well, we would basically have hundreds of thousands of students in this city who never made it into junior high or graduated high school over lets say a ten year period. That's the truth and you and I both know it. This problem will never be fixed. It's not the teachers. I mean were WW II vets any braver than Vietnam vets? The same goes for the teacher who taught in NYC system in the 40's and 50's when NYC's system was the envy of the country. You're telling me that the teacher who taught in the 40's could magically cure the problems seen in today's classroom. It's such a mess.
Do you remember in the 1990s when people were suing the school systems because they graduated but were functionally illiterate? That is going to happen again.
So very true. They tell us, "Have high expectations!", but when some students absolutely refuse to even try to meet those expectations, they tell us, "Your expectations are just too high." Well, what is it?!? So frustrating.
So very true.... here, the kids act out enough to get placed in Alternative School... then they act out more, but Alternative school doesnt do anything to moderate the behavior and still they get "Credit" to pass... socially. When i was growing up, if we acted out like these kids, we got suspended and our parents disciplined us!
I work at an inner city school. We have held regents tutoring for the last 20 years. When I first started this Saturday and after school program my classroom was FILLED! Now I have maybe 12 students, each of them coming sporadically on alternate saturdays. One of my own students that I questioned told me she wasn't worried since all of her other regents the teacher in the room helped and she knows it will be the same this time around!
Imagine what life will be like with the new teacher evaluation system? Teachers might as well take the regents for their classes.
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