Good natured write up

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/arc...ca/279724/

(09-24-2013 10:32 AM)DrTorch Wrote:  Good natured write up

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/arc...ca/279724/

Honestly, if you look at where they were teaching, it's no wonder. In places like the rough parts of Atlanta public (any urban poor area or rural Appalachia for that matter) - the hurdles to overcome before actually teaching them anything are daunting. Those schools are filled with kids that haven't been taught anything at home, parents that don't care if the kids learn or not as the parents often suck at taking care of themselves, often don't get fed, cleaned, are often abused, and on and on.........

Not to mention, for some reason those in government have chosen to ignore the "Elephant in the room" which is genetics (and I'm not talking color). If you take 2 individuals that are in the 70 IQ range, and they breed, more often than not their offspring are one step above being retarded as well. Why our government thinks that teachers can take this pig's ear and turn it into a silk purse I'll never know.


If they ever want to begin to get education right - they will have to start tracking kids into various levels and teach what they can learn with the full knowledge that many will end up ditch diggers at best. Particularly, when the childs own parent refuses to take any active part in the child's learning.

.........but you knew this already.

(09-24-2013 01:30 PM)Crebman Wrote:  If they ever want to begin to get education right - they will have to start tracking kids into various levels and teach what they can learn with the full knowledge that many will end up ditch diggers at best. Particularly, when the childs own parent refuses to take any active part in the child's learning.

If leftists actually respected people and the dignity of legitimate work, this would never have been a problem.

It occurs to me that leftists are all about exploiting people, people they hold in disdain. Thus their rabid ferocity about getting people "educated" so they can be more readily exploited.

(09-24-2013 01:40 PM)DrTorch Wrote:  

(09-24-2013 01:30 PM)Crebman Wrote:  If they ever want to begin to get education right - they will have to start tracking kids into various levels and teach what they can learn with the full knowledge that many will end up ditch diggers at best. Particularly, when the childs own parent refuses to take any active part in the child's learning.

If leftists actually respected people and the dignity of legitimate work, this would never have been a problem.

It occurs to me that leftists are all about exploiting people, people they hold in disdain. Thus their rabid ferocity about getting people "educated" so they can be more readily exploited.

Agree. Also, it fits in nicely with their "buddies" and union cronies in academia and allows for the continuing funneling of monies to perpetuate the whole education establishment. If they continue to push the vast majority into the "college prep" track - none of their cronies money will be spent on those dirty tradesman jobs.

A very good friend of mine was in Teach for America in a very ghetto district in DC. He very much enjoyed teaching, but said dealing with the unruly kids was a nightmare and dealing with the bureaucracy was even worse. 2 years later he's in his 2nd year at NYU Law School.

Conversely, another very good friend entered the peace corps as a teacher in Kazakhstan (his was the last peace corps group in Kazakhstan). Even though the village he taught in was as poor as can be, he found the students hungry to learn and excited to be taught by a competent American teacher.

The GOP General Assembly in NC cut off funding to the highly successful Teaching Fellows program when they took over two years ago. They put all their eggs in the Teach for America basket. They are big supporters of TFA.

(09-24-2013 07:50 PM)dawgitall Wrote:  The GOP General Assembly in NC cut off funding to the highly successful Teaching Fellows program when they took over two years ago. They put all their eggs in the Teach for America basket. They are big supporters of TFA.

That's true, but they did increase funding for K-12. Good thing the bulk of the money is going towards 'studies'.

So, by reading that person's account of TFA, I know now that they don't feel prepared, feel unsupported and feel that TFA blows their own horn a bit too much and too loudly, perhaps without substantiation.

Imagine that. Send a bunch of (smart) rookies into a tough school with minimal training and no experience and it doesn't turn out well. I could have saved them lots of money and told them that from the start.

Being a first year teacher is tough and getting tougher each year. I know veteran teachers that still can't control their classrooms after all these years. No amount of training can substitute for experience in classroom management. Yet even some WITH years of experience still don't have a handle on classroom management.

New hires bail out at alarming rates in education. But it does matter in which school district they land in. I feel for the writer for having been put into Atlanta's schools.