On Mother's Day, I think we were all reminded how important education is in our community. We have lost one and another has been accused. Out of respect for the families, I will not offer too many details. Those of you in our Eastside community know who they are. We know the temptation many of our youth face.
We need to all stand up and attempt to teach our children education is the key, not drugs. Yet how do we do that when our schools aren't educating our youth? Continue to speak out. Don't settle for anything less. When your children come home and tell you they didn't do anything in school today, find out why they're saying that. Speak out.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
12 comments:
Is it our schools are not teaching our children or is it that our schools can not teach due to the fact that parents do not demand that the consistent trouble makers be excused from their child's room so that the rest can learn? It is not the teacher who keeps the disruptive student in the class. Parents refuse to believe that their child is the problem, blame the teacher. The administration (75 Calhoun St.)wants all to believe that the teacher must not be able to manage their class so blame the teacher. How can anyone teach when a student refuses to listen, but is allowed to show out day in and day out. Only the student is not held responsible for their actions; meanwhile, all the other students are having their education stolen because a couple of students in their classroom is allowed to disrupt the class.
I could understand a parent defending their student if they have problem with one teacher; but when the student is disruptive in every class or a majority of classes year in and year out. Who is the common denominator, the student or the teacher?
Yes we need to reach this disruptive student, but not at the expensive of a whole class. There is a pretty good idea by the end of first grade which students are going to be a disruptive force in the following years. Why do we not start and give these students the emotional and educational attention they need to control their behavior so that we can prevent the disruption in the classroom. Why do we allow this student to teach the other students that they can get away with defying the teacher so that by the middle school we have a handful of defiant students and no longer the one or two students. These students have become defiant because they have witnessed for years the attention the trouble maker gets so why not join in or they themselves have lost important teaching time and now when it becomes important to add to that next building block. They struggle due to the fact that the disruptive student has been able to rob them of important education time because we must document, continue to document, even more documentation, some more documentation, before someone might think of doing something about a disruptive student. These students have learned that no one really gets in trouble, except the teacher. And that the teacher eventually gives up on that school and moves to a school or system in which they can teach because the school supports their teachers and does not allow students to disrupt the class.
When parents demand that 75 Calhoun support the classroom teacher and come up with solutions that removes the disruption from the classroom. We will continue to have failing schools. We only have failing schools because disruptive students know they can get away with it. When we finally demand discipline in the failing schools and not lip service, we will see schools turn around. As long as we play this charade of blaming the teacher and not hold students accountable for their actions. We will continue to fail and the high school drop out rate will stay the same. There was a time when the students were held accountable for what they did.
You know parents of Charleston County and taxpayers, as long as you sit back and not doing anything. Your students education will be harmed. Places where students are not allowed to rob the education time. They do will. It is up to the parents to make a change and if the parents do not step up. It is up to the adults in the schools to create programs that take in the account of the fact that some parents do not care and teach those kids, despite their home life.
And they wonder why so many students have behavior problems or just drop out! For a majority, it would appear to be both. Imagine what it must feel like to not know how to read and still be in high school. CCSD administrators are aware of this. Still they do nothing but talk and make promises. This is worse than a crime. The principal of any high school who knows this and does nothing about it should resign. The trouble is that too many principals in Charleston County currently fit this description. Given that Dr. McGinley had a hand in appointing most of these principals, how much blame for this does she deserve?
"We only have failing schools because disruptive students know they can get away with it. When we finally demand discipline in the failing schools and not lip service, we will see schools turn around."
So are you blaming our failing schools on the disruptive students? This is a new one to me. Who's in charge of discipline? Shouldn't that be the teacher and then the principal? I agree with the second poster. Too many principals are fully aware of the lack of teaching taking place in our schools and they should be held accountable. When we hand a diploma to a child who can't read, we all suffer the consequences. Please don't pretend this doesn't happen. And we're not motivating the kids enough. We teach down to our kids and we applaud average...everday.
I tried to comprehend what you were saying, but we're clearly not visiting the same schools. While I agree disruptive students need to be removed, I'm frustrated with the fact that my child is coming home having learned nothing. Disruption has not been an issue in the class. It's the lack of proper preparation and teaching that is my concern. Isn't that what I send my child to school for?
You don't really understand what's taking place in our schools until you're IN OUR SCHOOLS.
If you happen to be a teacher, then you need to explain yourself better. Teachers should have a specific classroom management plan and follow that plan. When students misbehave, the principal should back them up. If that's not taking place, then we need to talk about it. I look forward to more discussions with you.
I guess you're implying that the students I make reference to in my post were students who misbehaved in school. While I'll admit, the student charged with the murder was attending Murray Hill, he was an "A" student.
Believe it or not, I have friends whose children are much happier at Murray Hill because of the structure. While we may have differing opinions on Murray Hill, do you understand how important teachers' classroom managment and teaching abilities are to ensuring we reach our children? And then, those teachers HAVE to be supported by an effective administrator.
That's the message I was trying to send. I apologize if I wasn't clear enough.
Sorry for not responding sooner. I wrote the first post. I do believe that the disruptive student or lack of true discipline in school is hurting the schools because parents and administrators are not supporting the classroom teacher. The two groups blame the teacher and the student has no accountability and the students know this.
Even if the teacher was not very creative and taught strictly from the book. Your child should be learning something, unless the teacher has to spend a lot of time pacifying the students who cause trouble.
Do you really think your child's teachers do not want to teach?
Are there bad teachers teaching, of course.
My question to you is why is there a huge teacher turnover rate in the schools that are failing. Teachers get tired of the game that is being played between parents and administrators. Teachers get frustrated because they are told, they are the problem. The student is never call upon to reflect upon their behavior, their conduct; but the teacher is constantly under the gun.
How many times does a teacher need to call home before the family does something about their child's behavior? One, two, three, four, five, ten, twenty, or every other day.
How many times a day does a teacher have to say: Sit down, keep your hands to your self, stop talking,? One, two, three, four, five, ten, twenty, or all day long before a parent will do something.
There are students who are in mainstream classrooms who should be getting special education help and a lot of it; but are not, because their parent does not want their child to have a label. Meanwhile, the student is forced to be in the mainstream with minimal help and when that happens. A teacher will spend a lot of time with just that student because they do not understand the work and are constantly asking and needing help. And when the student gets frustrated, then a lot of negative things will go down.
Have you every keep tabs with your child's former teachers who moved on that you thought were not teaching your child? Do they have a negative impact on their new students or do they stay at that school because they are doing their job and become apart of the school community for a while.
Any adult would get tired of a child not respecting them as an adult. Most teachers want to teach to their students. The teachers you claim are not teaching your child can go to a school where discipline is taken seriously and they will not have major classroom management problems and their students will be learning. If that is the case, where is the problem then, still the teacher or is it the student.
I have been in your schools. I was at Rivers Middle once. There I was verbally assaulted, I was cussed out, disrespected by students on a weekly bases and the disruptive students did their darnedest to stop me from teaching. Did anything happen to those students, not really? A one day suspension and they were back in my classroom doing the same thing again. They were slapped on the wrist and allow to create havoc in the classroom and it was not just me. Every teacher that had those students had the same problem. I would accept the idea that it was me who had the problem if the other teachers did not have a problem with that student. But that was never the case.
Classroom management skills. I taught kids before I ever heard the words classroom management and I never had any problems. It was not until I started working in public education. Did I have to learn those words.
On average most of those students came into Rivers a grade or two academically behind. Yet everyone (parents, students, 75 Calhoun) acted like the academic problems started at Rivers. Give me a break.
Those students could sing every rap song that came off a radio, but could not remember what a noun, verb, preposition, adverb or write a complete sentence. They don't know their multiplication table. They can not tell you the simple history of this state. Yet they memorized their favorite rap songs and it is not one or two songs it is a lot of songs. Every popular song that was out, they knew.
At what point, do you hold the students accountable for their actions.
I wonder if Murray Hill works for those students because they know that Murray Hill is not going to play with them and means what they say and say what they mean or has the light finally turned on and they know this is it and they need to get on the ball because time is running out and they realize.
Am I defending the schools system. No I am defending the classroom teacher who seems to have no allies accept each other in a failing schools. In schools that are successful, I guarantee the parents support the classroom teacher and they work with the teacher to solve their child's problems. And when you do have a bad teacher in that environment, they stick out like a sore thumb.
Here is something to think about. I once heard a student who said they wanted to be mentally retarded so they could get a government check and he was being serious.
You make some good points. I appreciate you taking the time to do so.
Unfortunately, I do believe we have bad teachers in our schools. It may not be that they don't want to teach, they just don't know HOW to teach.
And then again, I've unfortunately seen those that don't want to teach either. Maybe they gave up because of a system that didn't support them. But, there are those who are in it for the wrong reasons as well. You clearly are not one of them.
I agree with you. We have some serious problems with behavior in some of our classrooms. It's a different day with a different type of student.
Yet, shouldn't our Principals be skilled enough to handle these differences? Yes, let's hold the students accountable for their actions. The way to do that is to ensure teachers have the support they need. We're on the same page.
It really comes back to the Principals, doesn't it?
Your student you make reference to at the end reminds me of Coolio's song "Gangsta's Paradise." Many of our kids truly feel there's no out. Education is the key. It's too bad we gave up on many of them long before we gave them a chance, don't you think?
Underdog, I think the principals are force to do what they are doing and that is why I used the word administrators sometimes because I feel that the principals are following the directions of those above them. I believe it is the people who are at 75 Calhoun St. The is a reason that things do not get done in certain schools.
I believe that both political parties make political hay out of the current environment that exist in public education. They do so to advance their party agenda, but something tells me that those goals rarely involve the improvement of education system only the beating down of the system.
We have success stories of how schools in the most severe environments have turned it around. Why is it so hard to duplicate those experiences here in Charleston County? Remember that Burke Middle and Brentwood Middle were going to use a program that had been developed in New York City and used in other places successfully. Both schools are still failing because the proposal was a paper tiger. Has the communities of these two schools gone to the county school board in force and demand that the promises made to these schools need to be fulfilled and I am not talking a hand full of people. I am talking hundreds if not thousands going. So many attending the meetings that no one can sit down in the board room and the area facing Calhoun St. is crowded as well.
As I said in the last post, of course I believe there are teachers who either bad or ineffective, but who can tell until discipline is under control.
As long as the masses act like sheep and allow those who are in power, both black and white, to continue to pull the wool over their eyes. The failing schools will continue to fail unless by accident some incredible people start working in these failing schools and are able to work their magic. True leadership needs to rise to the top instead of the B.S we have now. Who knows if that day will ever come? As long as the majority fail to participate in the system, we will always have the few to rule us.
I agree. But if a Principal truly cares about these students, he/she wouldn't allow politics to get in the way.
It's sad to recognize we need hundreds of outraged community members to force the administrators and school board members to ensure our kids are being properly educated.
And it's too bad the NAACP isn't having a rally about that.
My question to you is why are kids being educated in Mount Pleasant or even a Buist. Parent involvement. They demand the best out of their students and if they have that. The teachers are also then held more accountable when things don't get done.
We are not educating an entire class of people. We can blame the lack of parental involvement, but we didn't educate the parents either.
Don't get me wrong, I agree that we need parental involvement, but we're not getting it. Today's students are tomorrow's parents. Get rid of the teachers and administrators that don't believe these children can learn and give the teachers who do believe in them the proper resources to teach them.
I agree with the poster above. You sound like you speak from experience. Any chance you're a teacher in a District 20 school?
Underdog you continue to prove my point on the parental end. You blame the teacher and you seem to ignore any other possible cause. I believe the reason that the curriculum is dumb down is this. As long as the students are happy, they do not act up; if they do not act out, the parents and administrators are happy, but I do not think the teacher is. This is why the teachers moves on because they become frustrated with a system that blames them and holds the students, parents, and administrators with no accountability. Because the moment the teacher begins to challenge students academically, they act out and disrupt the class. When a teacher calls home, the parent pays lip service and when the administrator gets a write up. They tell the teacher it is their fault. No one seems to hold the students accountable that is why I have had a problem with this dialog, underdog. You seem to not think that some of the students in a failing school are creating a lot of the problems. You continue to look at the teacher. How do you know if the teacher is not trying to teach?
You never answered the question of what if the teacher moves on to another school and their students are doing very well under the teaching leadership. Do you still think that the teacher was the problem or is it the system in which a failing school seems to run on, blame the classroom teacher and ignore any other factors that contribute to the failure.
We allow discipline, order back into the failing schools and we will start to see students learning at the same rate as their peers in schools that are doing well. As long as you insist that all the problems are with the teacher, we will go no where.
You said it was a shame for people to go en mass to a school board meeting. Look at what happen in Dorchester county this week. District 2 parents went to a county council meeting to demand more money to their schools. They did not get all they want, but they did get something. When we start seeing families from schools that are failing come to board meeting and demanding a change, we will see change occur; but as long as we see what is happening now. We will see the same in action from the school board and the administrators downtown.
Until we go ole school and hold the students accountable like they were in the past. We will still see students working below grade level in failing schools.
I think we agree more than you realize. As a parent, I know how important consistent discipline is to maintaining proper behavior.
Student misconduct should not be tolerated. If a teacher is following a proper plan and that plan does not work, the principal should support him/her. If that's not the case, the system has failed the teacher (and the students). No doubt.
I support masses coming to board meetings as well. To be perfectly honest, I actually wished the community would have boycotted the move of the Rivers' students to the Rhett building.
If you as a teacher are having behavior problems when you attempt to "challenge students academically," then we have a real problem. And who is telling you it's the teacher's fault? We as the adults should make sure the students are held accountable, right? If the teacher has done all he/she can, then the Principal should follow proper procedures under the code of conduct.
I have reread my postings and I'm not quite sure where we are disagreeing unless it's because I agreed with that other anonymous poster. I thought that person made a good point. I felt like they were speaking from experience.
Post a Comment