Very Scary show on HBO - Hard Times at Douglas High

[MD-1118]

Yes and no, Ferno. They tell you only what you ask them. The rumors about the 'special employee meetings in the back' are completely true, however. I hated those things. x_x

[woodchip]

For those schools where graduation rates are 20%, I seriously propose bringing back corporal punishment.
Too bad the stupid parents who birth welfare check offspring don't know the value of education as they themselves are high school dropouts. Want to cure the problem? Require a high school diploma to vote.

If a high school degree was bandy'd about as a voting rights credential, guess who would yell loudest against it.

[CUDA]

For those schools where graduation rates are 20%, I seriously propose bringing back corporal punishment.
Too bad the stupid parents who birth welfare check offspring don't know the value of education as they themselves are high school dropouts. Want to cure the problem? Require a high school diploma to vote.

If a high school degree was bandy'd about as a voting rights credential, guess who would yell loudest against it.

That would be the Democrats and the ACLU. they would be screaming disenfranchised Voters. IMHO if your not smart enough to get a High-school education then your not smart enough to make an informed choice for office or any ballot measure. of course by mandating an education to Vote you would probably rule out half of the people that Vote Democrat.

[Foil]

Nice. Even a thread about the difficulties facing our educational system turn into partisan party-bashing.

Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans are going to be able to legislate anything to significantly help our public schools - the people that are going to make the biggest difference are parents.

[Ferno]

Nice. Even a thread about the difficulties facing our educational system turn into partisan party-bashing.

what do you expect? some people here have got it so ingrained into their heads that it's the other guys' fault that they've developed tunnel vision.

[CUDA]

Relax Foil its all in good fun, true! but all in fun none the less

[woodchip]

the people that are going to make the biggest difference are parents.

Really. Even when the parents aren't educated enough to understand the value of a high school diploma? Where the parents aren't even bright enough to understand the value of how charter schools work and thus vote the NEA cant and thus vote against the chance for their children to get a better education.
what makes you think the parents of low performing school districts even want or are capable of making a difference?

[Foil]

...what makes you think the parents of low performing school districts even want or are capable of making a difference?

Read my earlier post:

...I know firsthand about some of the issues.

I spent a year as a 9th-grade teacher at Douglass High (different school, but some definite similarities) in Oklahoma City. It's an urban school, 99% minority, in probably the poorest ghetto-ish area of the city.

...In one case, I had an emotionally-troubled student who claimed to be the son of a pimp, being raised in the 'family business'. I thought it was typical teen braggadocio... until I met his dad. This kid was screwed-up; he was smart, handled my classwork fine, a talented artist (I saw his art book), but he was already messed-up.

Another case was the smartest kid in my class (yep, the one who was bored by the normal material, and was always asking for harder stuff). He was being raised by an elderly grandmother, and ended up joining a gang and virtually disappearing at the end of the year. By the time May rolled around, I hardly ever saw him.

There were a bunch of others...

The one thing that seemed to be a common denominator was parents. In the majority of cases, the kids that had a decent parent (or even just a good coach, or mentor) were the ones who had a good chance of making it out. In the rare cases where a kid had both parents, those kids generally did fine.
...

In my experience, nothing made a greater difference than parenting.

In almost every case, my students who had active parents (and there were some really good ones, like the Mom who took a day off just to sit in class and make sure her son got his work done) were the ones who succeeded. And the ones who didn't have good parents were the ones who desperately needed help.

[Edit: Woodchip, you seem to have the impression that virtually all the parents in these low-performing/low-income/ghetto schools are uneducated and unable to help in their kids' education. That can be true in some cases, but I'd invite you to check it out for yourself. Spend a few days at one of those schools if you can. Volunteer as a tutor, maybe. I believe you'll find that there are more good and educated parents than you think.]

[woodchip]

Foil, for the 20% that do graduate I would submit they have parents that do care. The 80% who don't...most of their parents are epic fail.

My first wife taught both elementary and then jr. high so I have a small idea of what teaching is all about. Back then tracking was a taboo item and until later on, admins finally started to realize putting slow learners/trouble makers in the same class as motivated students only dragged the motivated students down. I don't know if tracking is now allowed or not, I hope it is.
Problem students invariably had parents who didn't care and got irate at teachers if little johnny had to be disciplined.