the joke that is public school education today

[The Real Rick Springfield]

as many of you know, my wife teaches high school english in arlington. this gives me at times frightening insight into what goes on both in the classroom and in the administration of public education. my hope is that the attitude, philosophy and policies of my wife's administration are the exception rather than the norm of what is going on out there. here is the latest example...

a meeting was called friday afternoon to share with the english teachers the administration's plan for allowing students to make up missed assignments. actually, "missed" is a misnomer here. the correct term would be "blown off, in-class" assignment. these are the students who don't care. the ones that don't do their assignments just because...well, because they don't care. i can't state it any other way.

so here's the solution.

the students are going to be allowed to come in after school to work on the missed assignments. no big deal you say? WITH PIZZA SERVED! that's right. the message their sending to students is, "blow off your assignments, and you get a pizza party."

a couple of the teachers brought up the stupidity behind this, and the response was, "well, this will only be a one-time thing to get them caught up." yeah right. if it works and everyone does their make up work, it is guaranteed that they will continue the program. and how long do you think it will take for word of THAT to get around the school. "they gave us pizza!" "seriously?" "hell yeah. so blow off a couple of assignments during the semester, and then at the end, you'll get to come, too."

also, they are going to bring in substitutes to work one full day in each teacher's class. for that day, the teachers will spend the day with the students that have "missed" assignments allowing them to make up the work.

so a student who didn't care enough to work on an assignment in class the first time is going to be taken out of that same class (missing more work) to do the assignments they didn't care enough about in the first place. brilliant.

oh and if there isn't enough money in the budget to hire all those subs, the teachers will have to spend their conference periods working as the subs.

after hearing about this, i had my wife list out for me how many different ways a kid can make up missed work and thus a failing 6 weeks or semester grade. i was floored. there are 7 ways. 7!

LATE WORK
1. turn it in late
- my wife will accept late work up until friday.
2. beg & plead
- if a student comes in the following week with a halfway decent sob story, the teacher can agree to accept the work late.
3. go to the Asst. Principal
- again with a good sob story, they can get their AP to force the teacher to accept the work late.
3. parental involvement
- if a parent raises a big enough stink, the asst. principal can again force the teacher to accept late work. one AP has gone so far as to change a grade after it was submitted.
FAILED 6 WEEKS
5. Credit Correction
- they have a computer lab set up for students to come in and get credit for a failed 6 weeks. it is painful to hear about how easy this computer work is, and yet some can't get it finished in the 6 weeks they are allowed.
FAILED SEMESTER
6. Credit Recovery
- same thing as #4. you go to the lab and make up your failed semester grade on the computer.
7. Retake the class
- you can retake a class as many times as you want throughout your entire high school career. this includes the major subjects (like english) as well as sequencial subjects (like spanish) that build from year to year. beth has had students taking english 2, 3 & 4 at the same time as well as spanish 1 & 2 at the same time.

when i was in school, you had 2 options.
1. beg and plead to turn it in late
2. retake the course in summer school

after that, you repeated the grade. period. unless it was a subject that could be taken at any grade level - like math, science or an elective. if it was english though, you repeated the grade.

there was an author on the daily show about a year ago that had the ultimate quote on what is wrong with public education today. she said, "in an effort to preserve the self-esteem of the students, we have taken away the stigma of failure."

i can't think of a better example of this quote than a pizza party for failures.

john

[Dionysos]

I bet those dropouts don't need 3 tries to post to a message board though.


/ducks

[kalamu]

there are all kinds of problems with education and this is just one of them John

there are other ways to not destroy self-esteem without babying the students with pizza and other shit like that. this is a really complex problem, here are a couple of my gripes:

1. teachers are underpaid and thus they get jaded, not just because of the money but because of other factors as well, but if you paid teachers what they deserve then it would help things out

2. educating young minds is an extremely time-consuming thing to do and you cannot be lazy about it. you can't be lazy with dedication, commitment or the money it takes to properly equip schools.

3. our society doesn't really value education, it says you need education but yet it doesn't really instill the kind of practices it takes to achieve it

[The Real Rick Springfield]

Originally Posted by Dionysos

I bet those dropouts don't need 3 tries to post to a message board though.


/ducks

that's especially funny because as i was typing i hit the alt+S keys and did in fact put this thread up twice before finishing it and posting it on the THIRD try.

now where's MY pizza party, dammit!?

john

[Dionysos]

Originally Posted by john_vella

that's especially funny because as i was typing i hit the alt+S keys and did in fact put this thread up twice before finishing it and posting it on the THIRD try.

Yea I know, I can see the other 2 aborted threads.

Can you have your wife teach you about proper capitalization too? This thread is full of grammatical lols.

[The Real Rick Springfield]

Originally Posted by Dionysos

Can you have your wife teach you about proper capitalization too? This thread is full of grammatical lols.

i don't capitalize when i type. it slows me down.

i did consider going back and making sure that everything was grammatically correct given the subject matter to keep the lol factor down. i'm too busy. i'll just keep on spreading the smiles across the intarweb.

john

[Supermick]

Originally Posted by john_vella

so here's the solution.

the students are going to be allowed to come in after school to work on the missed assignments. no big deal you say? WITH PIZZA SERVED! that's right. the message their sending to students is, "blow off your assignments, and you get a pizza party."

When I was in school, a missed assignment got you a "beat your ass with a paddle party."

[The Real Rick Springfield]

Originally Posted by Supermick

When I was in school, a missed assignment got you a "beat your ass with a paddle party."

from your parents, teachers or both?

oh and speaking of the parents, they are just as much to blame for "working the system" as the students. they will show up and demand to know why one month before graduation their child is not going to be allowed to turn in a missed assignment from their sophmore year.

john

[Dionysos]

Originally Posted by john_vella

from your parents, teachers or both?

oh and speaking of the parents, they are just as much to blame for "working the system" as the students. they will show up and demand to know why one month before graduation their child is not going to be allowed to turn in a missed assignment from their sophmore year.

john

How the hell did the system let them make it to their senior year in the first place?

[Supermick]

Originally Posted by john_vella

from your parents, teachers or both?

oh and speaking of the parents, they are just as much to blame for "working the system" as the students. they will show up and demand to know why one month before graduation their child is not going to be allowed to turn in a missed assignment from their sophmore year.

john

We have a saying in the IT Department where I work: "Our job would be a hell of alot easier if it weren't for those pesky users." Same thing for your wife I imagine: if the parents and school system would let them teach and treat their students like, well, students, then her job would be a hell of alot easier.

[The Real Rick Springfield]

Originally Posted by Dionysos

How the hell did the system let them make it to their senior year in the first place?

see the subject line for this thread.

that's what i'm saying, dude. it's a joke. you can fail a class and keep taking it and taking it and taking it right up to senior year or you can blow it off completely and then cry for credit at the last minute. and they'll give it to them! then pat them on the back of the head saying, "congratulations. you've 'graduated' from high school. now you can go on to college and be somebody."

that's the truly sad part. instead of trying to direct these kids to a vocational program or something, they fill them with the notion that all they have to do is graduate from high school, and they will go on to achieve greatness in college when they write in text-speak. you know. as in, "If U went 2 the store 4 some milk..."

john

[jeffspock]

no child left behind John.

[Nyteshade]

We should be placing more emphasis on trade schools. There's a ton of blue collar jobs that will pay pretty decent money if people will roll up their sleeves.

[Funkenstein]

Originally Posted by jeffspock

no child left behind John.

As long as we keep promoting stupidity, the only people getting left behind are the taxpayers. Our monies SHOULD go towards education, not promotion of stupidity and laziness.

[The Real Rick Springfield]

Originally Posted by jeffspock

no child left behind John.

jeff, i like you which is why i'm going to give you this life-saving tip. don't ever...ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever mention that program in front of beth. i can't be responsible for her reaction.

srsly. that program is the biggest joke to any teacher.
all mandate...no funding/tools.

john