Get Schooled

By meme

May 9, 2006 08:59 AM | Link to this

We have career day here at the first of our school year. We have a lot of participation from the community and most of the kids seem to like it.

By Ernest

May 9, 2006 09:55 AM | Link to this

Patti, thanks for accepting the invitation to participate in the Career Day at Stone Mill! Schedule permitting, I try to attend 2-3 Career Days per school year (I’ve got to do something with all those personal days I’ve accumulated). I ALWAYS find them personally rewarding with an appreciative audience. The one question I can always count on is “How much money do you make”.

By Beccaann

May 9, 2006 10:01 AM | Link to this

Some students have become so rude that we have speakers who won’t come back. If they don’t show respect for themselves and their teachers, they don’t show respect for strangers.

By Amber

May 9, 2006 11:11 AM | Link to this

I have to add on to what Beccaann said. We had a young adult author come speak at our school. The librarians were very excited about it, and took great lengths to make the event a success. We had every single 9th grader read one of the author’s novels during their English classes. Finally, the author was here. She was introduced to an auditorium of 9th graders, and she spoke for about 20 minutes or so. There was the usual boredom and patches of laughter at inappropriate times. It was time to allow the audience of students to ask questions. I and other English teachers had been asked to “plant” students in the audience who would ask good questions; basically, to encourage students with good academic and behavior reputations in our classes to raise their hands before other, less savory students could. Unfortunately, the author recognized some fool who stood and said, “Uh, yeah, uh, when we gonna talk about the book?” I wanted to crawl under my chair. Apparently this “student” was too ignorant to realize that the author, in talking about her life and writing, HAD been talking “about the book,” only in a less obvious, “This my book. See my book. I wrote my book. It is about people.” sort of way, which is the only thing I figure that girl would have recognized as talking “about the book.” This student, and many others, have no inference skills, no manners, and no sense! The students who would love the opportunity to have an author, or other speaker come to their school, and who would act appropriately, are the ones who suffer.

By SET

May 9, 2006 11:18 AM | Link to this

I’ve participaled in NAACP career days (for regional high school students) at the local Jr College several times now. Each time I go I swear to myself I’m never going to do this again. Then they call me again (it’s not done every year) and I end up going back again.

While I love the idea of career day and I’ve done them at public high schools also the results are always the same.

I’m confronted with how babied and unprepared most of the students are. I’m also confronted (and this is unpleasant) with how damaged the black students are and how overcome they are by their immigrant cometition. Not that I have a problem with immigrants individually - two sisters in laws are 3rd world immigrants. For some reason it bothers me to watch evolution in action.

There are essentially no white students in my urban school district and at the Jr. College event. By this I mean that there might be one in 30 at these events. There are whites here - they just segregate away from the minority public schools.

The black students are predominately in tribal dress. By that I mean they are distinctly garbed to let everybody know that they belong body and soul to their subculture with all of it’s values and pathology. Just in case you might have wanted to hire one or take a check or something. (Pants around their knees - some actually were carrying boom boxes - football headdresses when they aren’t even on a football team - I asked, etc.)

I have a problem with this. Especially on career day. The concept of dressing for the occasion or of 1st impressions counting is utterly lost on these kids.

The immigrant kids, especially the East Indians, Pakistanis, Southeast Asians, etc. are soaking up career advice like a sponge. They have an idea of what their “reach” occupations are and they are looking for tips to get there. They ask good questions and take everything seriously. The mexican (predominately mexican-indian) students are simply better behaved than the black kids but not academically able to match the other 3rd world kids. It seems the further away you’re from ethnically the brighter you are. If you can walk in you aren’t as bright.

The Mexican kids did not expect a lot from their lives. But they will work hard and behave and they are replacing the blacks in civil service jobs such as prison guards (at 60K+ a year).

Girls predominate in interest for technical and high paying jobs for some reason. Many of them will never be able to follow through because they will be held back by family and friends or will refuse to make the choices needed to break out of their origins. We always have discussions about that on career day. I tell them that if they want Med School or Law School (and I have younger relatives who’ve done both). They will have to cut loose everything and everyone that gets in the way of the degree. They will probably have to move out. They will have to change peers. They can’t get pregnant or put the needs of any lover ahead of career until the career is safe. While some have it all the odds of success get worse if you split your goals. I tell them they have not yet met their lifelong friends and partners, they usually will find them in professional school or at work later. Don’t try to take anybody else with you. I tell them to lose their loser friends.

Nobody had talked to these kids about these things before…

At least that’s my advice for those whose parents were not Drs and Lawyers who want in.

What I come away with on these career days is that the kids don’t know what they are capable of and have never been stress tested academically. The black kids are just plain spoiled - they have no adults on them academically who are pushing and pulling them. Everybody seems to want to leave them alone so they don’t get mad or unhappy. If you challenge them verbally they display physical agitation. So of course I did. But I did that to everyone. I found the 3rd world immigrants were itching to prove themselves. The home growns were not.

“What are you not willing to give up to do a 4 year degree?” “Do you have a problem moving out and going away to school?” “If you are offered a free ride to school in whitest Iowa will you take it?” Why??? “Your student loans will probably be X with a monthly payment of Y - how does that fit with your career plans?”

We also discussed affirmative action college placements possibly mismatching students to schools and to be careful to compare your IQ and test scores to a proposed placement and the drop rates to find a suitable match. If you are going in at the bottom 5% of a freshman class at least be aware what this means (risk of flunking). If you get an offer from another school where you place closer to the middle consider the pros and cons before turning that down. I also explained college grade curves and automatic expulsions processes - all of these kids had no experience with anyone being academically excluded which doesn’t seem to exist at High School.

I also discussed ethnic colleges such as Morehouse and Spellman, etc. My parents and all their friends went to HBCs as well as siblings. Those schools have the best feeder rate to professional schools for their constituients.

I think the students I talked to will remember me.

By Amazed (Independent Woman)

May 9, 2006 12:10 PM | Link to this

Career Day, is the best thing that could happen to a middle school child. I have participated, but my career is like Journalism. I fall into the Math & Science category and kids think those are tough subjects. I usually just tell them that I work with Computers. If I say Analyst, they have “no prior” knowledge of the word. I usually tell them about the company itself, because it generates lots of excited with the boys.

I also enjoy take your child to work day. My daughter thinks that our 17 story office building is a heavenly playground, when she was 5 - she asked if we could live there.

By Amber

May 9, 2006 12:12 PM | Link to this

SET, I hope they did remember you. I assume you are educated and speak well; did they make fun of the way you speak? I assume you dressed in a professional manner; did they make fun of the way you dress? Did they accuse you of “acting white,” or being “gay”? Many of my black students respond to educated, professional black men with these accusations. I just wonder if they listened, and if they did, how did you get them to listen? More importantly, how do I, a young, white female get them to listen? I am so frustrated when other educators encourage me to “bring their culture” into the classroom. When the celebrated elements of a “culture” encourage the degradation of women, promote a “all party, no responsibilities” sensibility, and inflame a “nobody’s gonna tell me what to do” attitude, I’m sorry, but I’m not going to allow that into my classroom. When your “culture,” your “music,” speech, and attitudes tear you down, I am not going to bring it into my classroom as a “technique.” I’m sorry that you can’t sit in your seat an entire hour without needing to break out into a “booty dance.” I’m sorry that you cannot or do not speak standard English. I’m sorry that the “education system” has ushered you into high school without the ability to do more than functional reading and writing. I’m sorry that the person you are right now wouldn’t succeed in a challenging university environment. What I’m NOT going to do is act like these behaviors are part of your learning style, or are otherwise something to be coddled. In most universities, even two-year colleges, you are expected to sit through a lecture and communicate in an essay format, at the very least. “Creating opportunities” for my students to fill up their classtime doing otherwise is dishonest and ineffectual, not to mention negligent.

By Amber

May 9, 2006 12:26 PM | Link to this

Just to clarify, the “your” music, “your” culture comments were directed at my students which participate in reciting offensive rap lyrics and spontaneously dancing in my room, not to SET.

By MMM

May 9, 2006 12:34 PM | Link to this

Career day sounds like a great idea. I’ll suggest it for next year. Today my daughter’s 3rd grade class is doing “camping day”

Those who had them brought tents and sleeping bags. Everyone brougt PJ’s or comfy sleeping clothes(school usually has uniforms) and they are “camping” out under the trees outside. Many of these kids have never pitched a tent.

By dan

May 9, 2006 12:56 PM | Link to this

Amber, it seems like you needed to say all that for a long time. What a well written understanding of your own situation.

By Amazed (Independent Woman)

May 9, 2006 01:14 PM | Link to this

Patti,

I was disappointed you didn’t get today’s HOT Topic about the Girl and the Shooting of a Teacher Song.

Hey SET – BETH ANNE doesn’t have a ghetto fabulous name or live in the projects. Not only that she takes German and her Mom doesn’t think she did anything to deserve suspension. LOL…we’re talking about a high school student.

By Patti Ghezzi

May 9, 2006 01:30 PM | Link to this

Amazed — You know I would have grabbed that story if another ajc blog hadn’t beaten me to it.

I’ll let you in on a secret. I was out of the office all morning, so I pre-programmed the career day post last night. If you see a post that comes up at exactly 8 a.m. that’s probably the situation.

The comments today are fascinating, please keep them coming!

By dan

May 9, 2006 01:31 PM | Link to this

I was ready to write about the singing girl today. Poor little girl. What do you mean you cannot sing a song in class that treatens your teacher’s life. I say give them a million dollars in punitive damages. If they do that it will clear a path for me to go in a tell off my boss. It will be ok to tell off my boss as long as I sing the words as I am telling him off. Makes sense to me??????????????

By Dekalb Educator

May 9, 2006 01:51 PM | Link to this

I must admit, I like having Career Day at school. However, too many times, I have been embarrassed by the students’ behavior. I remember 3 yrs ago, we had the Dekalb county police and sheriff officers here. To make the matters very EMBARRASSING…one of our 3rd grade boys ended up in the back seat of one of the cars..HANDCUFFED..for striking a male teacher and then threatening an officer. (he was restrained..then told the officer that he would shoot him if he were to let him go..the officer promptly slapped the handcuffs on him) Other students taunted the officers as they walked through the building.

The other visitors usually received a nonchalant attitude..UNLESS they brought something for the students. The only students that I have seen excited have been the kindergarten and maybe 1st grade students. The rest…well, to them, its just another day to sit and stare.

By Amber

May 9, 2006 02:37 PM | Link to this

tsk,tsk,tsk - context, context, context The teacher/school says that the student was passively-aggressively threatening the teacher within the context of a conflict between teacher and student, the student/parent contends that their child was innocently doing her best to help a peer recall a standard folk song. DOES IT MATTER which story is true? Not to me, it doesn’t. Just like it didn’t matter in what manner a student threw a chair at me several weeks ago. I didn’t care to discuss the velocity, anger, or commitment with which a male student threw said chair. I didn’t care to discuss whether or not the chair struck me. I didn’t care to discuss how close the chair came to me, or what I said previous to the student throwing the chair at me. Sometimes there are no excuses for your behavior. There may be reasons, but those are very different from excuses. Excuses are meant to result in less consequences for your actions, reasons are given to result in understanding. I recently saw a petition in a local bagel and coffee shop asking people to sign a document asking for leniancy for someone because they were such a good person. The petition failed to mention this good person’s crime. Good people make mistakes, and good people should expect consequences. This kind of “don’t arrest me, I’m good” mentality is what leads to corrupt power. What about ya’ll, do you care about context? And would somebody please tell me exactly when did I become a republican? :)

By SET

May 9, 2006 02:54 PM | Link to this

Hmmm. I never thought I’d need to take peace officers with me for career day for backup.

I would not go to a school that I thought was that out of control. I would not hesitate to walk out of a school or classroom I saw as being out of control. Things are not that bad here.

I speak standard english. I don’t change it and speak ebonics because I’m dealing with ghetto dwellers. I can explain things in simpler language. Our black judges don’t come down to their level either.

We did have a (our first) black judge who was Redd Foxx in a robe. He could communicate perfectly well in standard english also (although he did understand jive and could translate). He could scare the hell out of any of his prisoners/defendants (and everyone else). And he on occasion sent people to prison for 100 year terms. He’s gone now. No one was encouraged to annoy him.

No one 1970’s (since I started law school and dealt with the Black Students Association) has even tried to tell me I should be more “black”. I may have said something about “field hands” - they gave up trying to tell me (or the other 5 black non-conformists) anything. It would be very funny to see anybody white or black try it now. When you get old enough I suppose people give up trying to make you over. Same with the black judges. They have to be more scary than everybody else to get to where they are and to not have a nervous breakdown.

When I was younger and started out in the profession some people (of all colors) thought they could push me around so it was necessary to make an example of several people. Then they stopped trying. Those were the days.

The black women started in this profesison later then the black men. They are more scary than we men are. They have to be. Everybody seemed to think they could be taken advantage of and it was necesary to break people of that notion.

Think of the actress CCH Pounder on the TV Series “The Shield” when you think of a California Black Judge or lawyer. You wear better if you’re hard. After what we’ve dealt with going to integrated schools are we supposed to put up with attitude from ghetto dwellers?

I don’t have problems dealing with a kid in class, not as a sub and not as a guest speaker. It helps if they think you might be crazy and will do anything.

By Thank You

May 9, 2006 03:12 PM | Link to this

Amber, this is coming from an ex-teacher. You absolutely rock. I love your comments. You are right on the money! I remember the “stoop down to their culture” bullcrap. Why can’t the stupid kids RISE UP to the teacher’s expectations for once?

Its like casting pearl before swine. Thats why I quit.

By Amazed (Independent Woman)

May 9, 2006 03:23 PM | Link to this

Patti,

Are certain songs included in the Zero Tolerance policy at school? I know foul language is covered, but does this apply to songs, such as the one the young lady was singing in class?

I think this case will open up a can of worms, because as someone pointed out on the other blog - there are a lot of violent songs being recited by children.

Whenever, I see a unique “CASE” - I always try to point out to my daughter things that are not acceptable. Such as you can’t say “You’re the Bomb”, while in the airport.

By a high school mom

May 9, 2006 04:17 PM | Link to this

My husband participated in Career Day when our son was in elementary school. He enjoyed it immensely. I think he spoke to the entire school a few times, not just a single class. At the time, he was an Executive Chef, professionally trained. He was a big hit with the moms.

He went armed with paper chef hats. He knew that the hats would be a big hit, being a big child himself. I watched one of his presentations. He started with giving the teacher a hat to wear, then handed out the rest to the students. He captivated his audience with fun stories, then talked about how reading, math, science, communication skills all come into being necessary skills in this profession. Then they made a recipe together, and enjoyed their creation together.

He participated in Career Day at the middle school, too. That wasn’t as much fun. He skipped the hats and recipe exercise. The kids there wanted to know why he didn’t have his own TV show. The second most popular question was how much money he made. None of the middle schoolers asked any of the adults if they actually liked what they did for a living. It all came down to prestige and money.

By SET

May 9, 2006 04:56 PM | Link to this

Amber:

I’m re-reading your post. Maybe the difference with me and my collegues is that we make no pretense that we’re not on the kid’s level - socially, economically or whatever. We’re not their friends, we’re not their peers. We don’t identify with them (as far as they know) and we don’t need their love.

So if I don’t speak their dialect or conform to their values it’s not as it I’m a traitor to the tribe or something. Plus I’m old (Ha!). I think the teachers and guests who the kids see as peers would have a harder time working with them if they (the adults) pose a challenge or don’t conform to what the kids want.

The last thing any high school student needs is another “friend”.

The last time some high school brat called me “brother” I was a sub and he was walking into class - I made him get up in front of the class and re-enter the classroom and take his seat with his mouth shut after my telling the class we were not related. It didn’t happen again. I was 26.

By Taxpayer

May 9, 2006 05:00 PM | Link to this

SET, just in case no one said it to you, THANK YOU. Even if someone said it to you, you need to hear it over and over again. THANK YOU — YOU MADE AND CONTINUE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE! I have tremendous respect and appreciation for you and for all the teachers, parents, and community members who do try to lift children above their circumstances to let them get a glimpse of what they can be.

By jim d

May 11, 2006 12:42 PM | Link to this

Patti, Are you certain your young escort, Simone, wasn’t assigned to be by your side at all times to reduce the schools liability in the event you attempted to stick your finger through the wire cage of a pet rat, rather than making sure you got to the right place?

After all, the school admin. may read your blog too. :-)

By Patti Ghezzi

May 11, 2006 02:12 PM | Link to this

Jim, funny! I wouldn’t be surprised….