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Author Topic: I Think Something Is Wrong With Our Schools Gracia L. Babbidge Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 709 From: Bowdoin, Maine Registered: Aug 2000 posted 09-21-2003 03:04 AM                        I've encountered people that attended / graduated from one of the private, Catholic high schools in the area, who could either qualify as 'number than a box of rocks' or just plain ignorant. I'm highly tempted to go on a rant here with my own observations and speculations, but I doubt that my trash-talking organized religions would go over well.  |  IP: Logged Paul G. Thompson The Weenie Man Posts: 4718 From: Mount Vernon WA USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 09-21-2003 03:23 AM                     Some time ago, some parents who were very concerned about the quality (or lack of) the academic education in an area high school. Holy smokes!!!!! The protest of the teacher's union, the teachers and administrators was almost impossible to comprehend. I wonder what they have to hide?  |  IP: Logged Thomas Procyk Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1842 From: Royal Palm Beach, FL, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 09-21-2003 09:05 AM                     If marijuana wasn't illegal, then the girls wouldn't have to call strangers for it and this whole mess could have been avoided. When I was in high school, they started some sort of silly program called "Professional Development Days" where they would let us out of school as early as 11:30AM so that the teachers have the rest of the day to "plan their curriculum for the coming month". One of these would happen roughly every 5 weeks. To compensate for the time lost in class because of this, they had the brilliant idea to add 7 minutes to the end of each school day. YAY! That REALLY gives us FOUR HOURS of instruction time back over the course of the month. Everyone hated these. Parents, teachers, administrators, and even some students... because what is there to do at 11:30 in the morning? Why the hell did I even wake up and go to school? I don't know if they're still doing this, but last I heard, they were. Except everyone calls them Half Days and not "PDD". They even had an idea that was shot down (thankfully!) where school would take place year-round, but with much shorter days like 3 or 4 hours, and start in the afternoon. I wonder who actually gathered up the courage to suggest that one! =TMP=  |  IP: Logged Geoffrey Weiss Film Handler Posts: 68 From: Lexington, KY, USA Registered: May 2001 posted 09-21-2003 11:57 AM                     Hi: I taught high school for a while in a rural public high school in Kentucky. The classes were overcrowded (thirty students in some cases), many of the kids didn't want to be there and the administration (and teachers) had no power to FORCE kids to do anything because of the fear of lawsuits. I actually had a kid refer to a successful lawsuit (from dubious injuries sustained during a field trip) as a "pay day." You can't track the kids and have classes full of motivated kids because of various legislative acts (including No Child Left Behind (bullshit))--again for fear of lawsuits. Yet the teachers I worked with were some of the most professional people I've ever worked with in thirteen years of teaching--mostly at the college level. Sure the unions protect their members in sometimes ridiculous ways because teachers are convenient targets for parents, legislators and the media who refuse to examine their own roles in the breakdown of public education. I finally quit because they didn't need someone with a PhD in content. They needed someone with a grasp of the psychological manipulation strategies educators have had to come up with to manipulate students into learning when the parents don't send kids with a desire to learn and society doesn't value education. It's a complex situation with no easy answers, unfortunately.  |  IP: Logged Paul G. Thompson The Weenie Man Posts: 4718 From: Mount Vernon WA USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 09-21-2003 02:12 PM                     I forgot to add a sentence in my last post. The sentence I accidentally left out was supposed to say that when the parents wanted to attend a class to see what the hell is going on in a classroom, that's when the school board really flipped their cork. Garcia pointed out one private school that did a miserable job in producing good educated kids. I would like to say it just proves that it is how the school is run.... Geoffrey pointed out a class size of 30 students. Those classes are much too large. When I was in school in the '50's, our class size was about 20. I still think the computer issue has something to do with it. 100% of the classrooms are equipped with those things. I sometimes wonder if the teachers let the computers baby-sit the kids. Please understand this... Just because a kid shows a poor academic performance does not mean he is a rotten' kid that comes from a rotten' set of parents. It could be just the other way around. The high school I came from had special education classes that were basically run like private schools. The teachers were dedicated to the point where they would spend all the time that was necessary to help that student succeed. In the high school I attended, a majority of teachers would give up their own personal time to help a student after school hours - on a one-to-one basis. Been there - more than once. Especially math! Math, English and American History were my worst subjects then. Today, the teachers beat the kids out the door when the final bell rings. Maybe it is out of frustration for putting up with the crap they have to put up with. That should encompass everything. We didn't have administrators that "padded" the student's grades so graduation was possible for them like the Seattle School board did. Those who do sleazy things like that should be booted out of the education system immediately without being placed on paid administrative leave. Just because a person has a master's degree does not mean he/she is qualified to be a teacher. Seen that, too - especially this day and age. Teachers and administrators bitch about their pay. Maybe it is justified, maybe not. They should be happy they have a job to begin with. As far as teacher's Strikes is concerned it can be devastating to the students who want to learn. In some parent’s eyes, it also damages the credibility of the schools and the teachers as well.  |  IP: Logged Paul G. Thompson The Weenie Man Posts: 4718 From: Mount Vernon WA USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 10-03-2003 12:39 PM                     I just read an aticle in the Seattle PI today. Seems as though grade tampering was more wide-spread in Seattle Public High Schools than orginally thought. This does not surprise me at all! Just look at what is graduationg and it wouldn't surprise you either. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/142393_franklin03.html OK....My eyebrow was raised about 3 or 4 years ago when I read an article about dumb kids that still graduated from Mount Vernon High School. The administrators considered "lowering the standards" so more kids would graduate. I wonder how the colleges fare on this? Ever listen to an interview of a football or basketball player on radio or TV? Many sound like a moron with an IQ of 80 or less.....  |  IP: Logged

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