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DEL.ICIO.USWhat’s the biggest challenge facing schools?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Professional Association of Georgia Educators held its summer conference over the weekend. This year’s theme involved making sure all students succeed at a time when classrooms are becoming more diverse.
Some educators say that is the biggest challenge they face today. Others point to growing enrollments and shrinking budgets. We can add many other things to the list: hiring high-quality teachers; improving parent involvement; and making sure kids come to school ready to learn.
What do you think is the biggest challenge schools face? How should schools, parents, teachers and other go about meeting this challenge?
NOTE: Official CRCT results for all districts and public schools are here. The results differ little from the preliminary results we’ve had on ajc.com for about a week, but check out how othere schools in the state did.
Comments
By Dr. Rivers
June 23, 2008 9:03 AM | Link to this
The Biggest Challenge to Schools? Teaching black children how to read and speaking English well… and to not rob or kill others.
By Jeff
June 23, 2008 9:04 AM | Link to this
I mentioned last week that I am currently reading Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.
I finished the other books I had been reading at the office (Dale Brown’s Strike Force and Robert Whitlow’s Deeper Water), and I’ve been putting more time into 451.
And I came across an AMAZING passage about halfway into it this morning that PERFECTLY describes what we are seeing in this country.
One of the relevant short quotes - found on page 58 of my copy - in leiu of posting the entire monologue (yes, for those curious, if I was at home right now I would post the entire monologue):
We must all be alike. Not everyone born equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone MADE equal. Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against.
You must understand that our civilization is so vast that we can’t have our minorities upset and stirred. (From page 59)
It continues, but I don’t have the time here to post all of the relevant quotes - and I’m only on page 63 in my own reading, just shy of halfway through the book!
No wonder not even I was made to read this book in school….
(And btw: My post here directly answers the first question posed and indirectly answers the second… think about it…)
By RandolphCountyStudent
June 23, 2008 9:10 AM | Link to this
“You must understand that our civilization is so vast that we can’t have our minorities upset and stirred.”
Is that your excuse as to why you couldn’t hack it at a predominately black school?
By jim d
June 23, 2008 9:10 AM | Link to this
Indeed, the biggest challenge facing education in this nation is IGNORANCE.
Not that of the uneducatable but the ignorance of those that believe all can be made equal in understanding and application.
By Me too
June 23, 2008 9:21 AM | Link to this
This year my seniors read Fahrenheit 451 and 1984. We had some amazing discussions over the themes that are present in both books. The quote that you referenced was one of my favorites because it highlights what is going on in public education today and our society in general as you stated.
My students enjoyed both books immensely because they were able to relate to them.
Lack of original thought, removing TRUE critical thinking from the classroom, basically creating non-thinking individuals are the biggest problems facing education today. Scary. Bradbury and Orwell were visionaries.
By decaturparent
June 23, 2008 9:59 AM | Link to this
“We must all be alike. Not everyone born equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone MADE equal. Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against.
You must understand that our civilization is so vast that we can’t have our minorities upset and stirred.”
When I think about the direction that our public schools are going in … this quote really scares me.
NCLB is 1984.
NCLB is also the biggest challenge facing education.
By luvs2teach
June 23, 2008 10:05 AM | Link to this
Jeff and me, too - I would add Kurt Vonnegut, and his short story Harrison Bergeron to list of literary visionaries…for those not familiar with the story, Vonnegut envisions a society in the not-too-distant future where everyone is made equal. Dancers are hampered with weights, so people don’t feel bad about their talent. Broadcasters have to change their normally mellifluous voices to squekay ones. Intelligent people have transmitters put in their heads to disrupt their thoughts. Scary, eh?
Like jim d, I was going to say ignorance - not exactly for the same reasons, though. The more news I watch, the more blogs I read, the more ignorant the world appears. I swear everytime a serious news channel does another story or Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan, Tom Cruise, or whatever other celebutante-gone-wrong is big, the collective IQ of this nation drops a few points. Add Jerry Springer and the latest lame D-list celeb’s reality show…ugh.
I read this blog and others on the AJC and repeatedly see comments about “the teachers’ union” and “tenure” being the reason “Georgia is 50th in the nation.” All those comments do is make the writer look ignorant of the real problems in today’s education - yet those folks are probably the same ones who voted for those who promised “more accountability from teachers.” It’s your school system - inform yourself and don’t be ignorant.
I read comments about how we should “throw the immigrant kids out of our schools” bcause they are the problem. The writers of those comments clearly have no idea that the education of immigrant children -legal or illegal - is mandated by Federal Law, and that schools cannot ask about the legal status of students or their parents. It’s your community - inform yourself and don’t be ignorant!
Several of the blogs in the past couple weeks that have to do with the dismal CRCT results have really brought out ignorance - “my child failed but my child was an A/B student…” Really? Ever heard of grade inflation? What determined your child’s grade? Ever see your child open a book at home or did you think the grade was given out by the magic grade fairy? Did you even look at the results of other standardized tests given to your child? Did your child pass last year? If so, by how much? It’s your kid - inform yourself and don’t be ignorant.
Not to let teachers, administrators, and board members off the hook, I work with some who don’t know what’s going on in our own system. Not only do I read two local papers to keep up with the goings on, I read everything sent home by the system (to me as a parent as well as to my students’ parents), county press releases, and the county PR e-mails (it’s as easy as signing up for the list). I’ve been sitting in meetings where I know more about what’s going on than my board members - it’s your employer - stop being ignorant!
It’s your tax dollars - it’s your kids’ education - it’s your community. Stop being ignorant!!
Rant over, lol - HAGD, y’all!
By luvs2teach
June 23, 2008 10:08 AM | Link to this
I forgot to add - No Child Left Behind does not mean No Child Held Back…
The recent story about how people didn’t know or understand what the bill meant, or what it entailed - that was scary!
By happy2teach
June 23, 2008 10:09 AM | Link to this
We need a shift in our collective culture. Education has to once again be a national priority, instead of a sound bite in a campaign speech. Parents need to realize that education is the best way to achieve your dreams. We need the PRESS to start portraying our schools in a positive light. We need to understand that a LOT of GREAT things are happening in our schools. Many teachers care and most of our students are headed to a bright future. Where is the good news?
As a teacher I am taking responsibility to be a role model to the parents, students and teachers in my community and holding my students to the highest possible standard, no matter their circumstance. But above all, I care deeply about my profession.
By Gwinnett Educator
June 23, 2008 10:16 AM | Link to this
Ignorance was the same thing that came to my mind also, although my thoughts were more aligned with luvs2teach.
Luvs, you made a lot of great points and all I can say is that I totally agree!
By Carolyn
June 23, 2008 10:28 AM | Link to this
The biggest challenge facing schools is the time competition created by video games and television. If parents had the backbone to cut off the TV and disconnect the games, kids might read a book, complete their homework and, engage in occasional creative (and active) play.
By happy2teach
June 23, 2008 10:42 AM | Link to this
If you want to see some of the great things going on in education, visit the website:
[www.donorschoose.org]
You get to see great, hard-working teachers, donors that care about education AND do something about it, and students who are receiving the benefits!
Find a school/project near you and help out!
By catlady
June 23, 2008 10:42 AM | Link to this
The biggest challenge: abdication of reasonable responsibility onto school personnel. Ask any question, and the answer is: the local public school and its staff.
Examples are numerous: Who is responsible for every child being on grade level? Who is responsible for each child getting meals? Who is responsible for health care for children in school? Counseling? Behavior therapy? Who is responsible for the parents knowing how the child is doing? Who is responsible to see that children attend school? Who is responsible for seeing that students are taught manners, ethics, and morals? Who is responsible for student grades and test scores? Who is responsible for getting the children to and from school? Who provides remedial work? Who is charged with “giving” a child self-esteem?
By DB
June 23, 2008 10:46 AM | Link to this
Schools need parents who parent and discipline. Remember that the formal definition of discipline is “to teach”, and not to be afraid of it.
Schools need to be unafraid of failing a child who does not perform, regardless of parental outcry (see #1).
Schools need to be able to refuse to provide an education to those who have clearly shown that education is unimportant to them — i.e., skipping, flunking, fighting, etc. in school. Free up those resources for kids who will use them.
Demand excellence, instead of teaching to the lowest common denominator.
By catlady
June 23, 2008 10:53 AM | Link to this
Who sees that students graduate?
IMHO, society has this large garbage can with problems swirling around in it, and each problem has an answer: the schools.
Until the schools are charged solely with planning instruction, delivering instruction, and evaluating instruction they will fail more and more miserably.
By happy2teach
June 23, 2008 11:01 AM | Link to this
catlady,
Isn’t it amazing that we have all these problems that are basically caused by us not (collectively) knowing enough about ourselves, others, history and the world around us; yet we ignore our SCHOOLS?
By Citizen of the World
June 23, 2008 11:16 AM | Link to this
One of the biggest challenges educators face is a strong climate of anti-intellectualism in this country. There are too many parents out there who would say to their kids — You think you’re smart, don’t you? Like that’s a bad thing. We have too many people who distrust intellect and accomplishment and vote for the good old boy instead. We have TV shows that portray the smart kid as the socially inept nerd. We have the attitude that street smarts and book smarts are mutually exclusive. I even had someone say to me once, rather disdainfully, “I learned everything I know from people, you learned what you know from books.” (I said, who do you think wrote those books?!)
Too many of us are threatened by smart people, and even the increasingly rare child who comes to school ready to learn is afraid to shine too brightly. There are certainly many other problems — in homes and schools — but attitude and aptitude go hand in hand. Until attitudes change, we’re doomed.
By Jeff
June 23, 2008 11:25 AM | Link to this
Citizen:
In 451, just before the first quote I gave, it indicates exactly what you pointed out: The smart ones (that dared show it) were the very ones picked on mercilessly. And this is CELEBRATED.
I’ll be going on my lunch break here within the next couple of hours folks, if I discover anything else that appears relevant to this discussion, I’ll let you know.
(Yes, I AM pretty busy here at the office today. RARE, but it happens occassionally.)
By lovelyliz
June 23, 2008 11:42 AM | Link to this
Politicians and taxpayers
By lovelyliz
June 23, 2008 11:49 AM | Link to this
Willful ignorance of the challenges that public schools face, the services they must provide that private schools that cherry pick their students don’t have to face, deal with or pay for.
By lovelyliz
June 23, 2008 11:52 AM | Link to this
Parents who never think it’s their child’s fault and teacher who need to do a better job policing their own.
By Janine
June 23, 2008 12:05 PM | Link to this
jimd,luvs,Jeff, catlady….Such great answers ! Add Failure to acknowledge the obvious!!! It requires a “leave your brains at the door” , a “Suspension of disbelief” policy to go along with the public education BlahBlah coming from those making the decisions in public education today.
By An Educator, Parent, Voter
June 23, 2008 12:07 PM | Link to this
I am employed in the fourth largest school district in GA and have been with the system for 10 years after military service. We are divided geographically, economically, etc., by the city of Atlanta and have just hired our 5th Superintendent since I’ve worked here. If I had to narrow down the challenges to the top 3, speaking from every aspect as an employee, a parent, and a registered voter, the number one challenge is lazy parents who believe we are here to babysit their kids, teach the test, put up with their discipline problems and only come to sports and talent events in support of the kids; 2nd-voters, you elect the school board members, you elected our State Superintendent, and you voted into office a government who cares about only the affluent, lastly, the challenge lies within the people who just don’t care because they have money and power to scheme and deceive and would like everyone to believe no child is going to be left behind. The greatest challenge in education is simple: it’s PEOPLE.
By catlady
June 23, 2008 12:09 PM | Link to this
Anyone notice that the candidate forum in Clayton drew 150 people? Lots of concerned folks there! Another example of abdication of responsibility: it is someone else’s job to straighten out this mess in ClayCo.
By shadow7071
June 23, 2008 12:27 PM | Link to this
The biggest challenge for us (as a nation) is to understand that our school system is an educational system and not a social engineering system.
Since President Lyndon B. Johnson initiated the “Great Society” in the 1960s the educational system in our country has been used as a tool to help social engineer out the ills in our country - poverty and racial injustice. Intellectually, we believed (like Bradbury, Orwell, Huxley and others) that through education we could engineer a more perfect society, a “Great Society”. Our mistake has been that we’ve focused more on eliminating social ills (including disparity in intellect and learning capabilities) and less on actually educating our young people in the fundamentals reading, writing, arithmetic, history, science, geography and etc.
Today, our society is less educated than it has been in many years. The facts speak for themselves - grade inflation, higher dropout rate, lower graduation rate, lower test scores and etc. The result is that we are facing more ills than we did in the 1960s - illiteracy, un-employment, under-employment, jobs going overseas, loss of economic competitiveness, and potentially, a threat to our national security. Ironically (if we don’t turn our thinking around) these ills will ultimately lead to poverty and racial injustice.
By Old School
June 23, 2008 12:34 PM | Link to this
With tongue firmly in cheek: the biggest challenge to our schools is the quandry of scheduling football games with schools close enough so the rising cost of fuel doesn’t cut into the number of coaches or their supplements.
We gotta have football…don’t all our athletes sign full scholarships and go on to play professionally?
By GS
June 23, 2008 12:37 PM | Link to this
Are we talking about Georgia here, or the nation as a whole? Despite video games, the Internet, English as a second language students, and No Child Left Behind, most schools in most states are doing fine.
Georgia does not have the tradition of making education a priority. That’s true under the Gold Dome and under many household roofs. The percentage of parents with highschool and college diplomas is fairly low in Georgia; many of these parents expect the same from their kids.
Many rural communities in Georgia deliberately downplay college-prep curriculums because they fear educated kids will leave small town for better opportunities.
From my experience, Georgia’s teachers aren’t as well trained as those in better-performing states. Not that it’s all the teachers’ fault; there aren’t as many quality teaching schools in Georgia as there are in the Midwest or up North.
Lastly, ignorance isn’t the problem, it’s a symptom of the greater problem with education in Georgia. Better educated students wouldn’t be so ingorant.
By Thinking
June 23, 2008 12:44 PM | Link to this
An Educator, Parent, Voter:
You need to find another line of work. Your negative perspective on your occupation is indicative of your personal laziness. You want to be spoon fed perfect pupils who come in ready to learn. Sorry, they don’t exist in abundance.
As a parent, educator, and voter, the biggest challenge is keeping up with the overall dynamic of being able to take a difficult teaching environment and helping students want to learn and become more.
Diversity is growing, complexity is increasing, the economic environment is becoming difficult, and children grow up in some of the most difficult situations. Take to the challenge and help those you can and make a real difference in the world.
By happy2teach
June 23, 2008 12:45 PM | Link to this
Shadow- It is a bit of a stratch to lay the problems you list at the doorstep of “social engineering” in our schools. I would posit that the economic problems we face are MOSTLY due to the natural progression of capitalism across the globe. Combined with over-population and a depletion of our natural resources, a competition-based economy has predictably led to the outcomes we now must face. Many of the educational “lowers” that you list are due to the increasingly diverse and inclusive educational systeem we have. I’ll take an educational system that has to educate EVERYONE and has lower test scores over a system that can exclude ANYONE with higher scores any time. Our educational system can use some work, don’t get me wrong, but it would be a mistake to be so alarmist.
By bwhite
June 23, 2008 12:50 PM | Link to this
TV - the one main obstacle to education. No more reading or family time.
By Blind Homer
June 23, 2008 12:55 PM | Link to this
Far too much government involvement. The Federal government shouldn’t have any impact on education. BTW, I think Huxley was more of a visionary than Bradbury and Orwell combined!
By JeremiahWright
June 23, 2008 1:02 PM | Link to this
Political correctness. It’s time for PC to die in this country.
By TJW
June 23, 2008 1:06 PM | Link to this
The greatest challenge facing our schools? I’d say our nation’s push toward mediocrity! No child left behind means that everyone moves at the speed of the lowest common demoninator, and guarentees that no child has the opportunity to excel.
Jeff’s quote hit the nail right on the head… We need to provide the same opportunities to all children, but that does not mean we can force them to succeed, yet our system is designed to do exactly that. Can’t pass the test, next year we make the test easier??? Got held back last year, don’t worry, we have to pass you next year???
We need to reevaluate our school systems. I don’t want to see our ‘rating’ against previous years, or even other states. The real question is how do we rank against other countries? Here’s a hint, they’re kicking our butts…
By shadow7071
June 23, 2008 1:19 PM | Link to this
happy2teach
Interesting comments from an educator.
First, my comments were not about either inclusion or exclusion but more on the focus of education - educating for social engineering or educating for academic knowledge and skills.
Second, the deep dark secret of outsourcing jobs overseas is that the people are better educated. This is one of the driving forces of our global economic disparity.
Third, listen to Bill Cosby talk about these issues. He’s the alarmist and rightly so.
Finally, are we on this blog to understand that you as a Georgia educator support “dumbing down” over educating someone to their fullest academic potential?
Shadow
By catlady
June 23, 2008 1:20 PM | Link to this
Shadow, I don’t know about “lower” graduation rates and “higher” dropout rates. I think we measure them slightly better than we used to, with room for improvement even now (see earlier blogs).
When I started to teach in 1973, in this area of rural north Georgia, virtually NONE of my children’s dads had gone beyond 8th grade. Many of them finished 6th, and a couple went as far as 3rd. They’d never even show up as dropping out now. My children’s moms averaged 9th grade, with only 4 finishing high school. Out of a class of 24, I had one who finished college. Now, at this time all but a couple of kids lived with both birth parents. (Interestingly enough, even though Viet Nam had been going on for quite a while only ONE of my daddies was a veteran. I have always puzzled about why the draft hit this area fairly gently).
I recall growing up in Alabama where some of my lower class white male and female classmates disappeared between 6th and 8th grade. I doubt they’d show up as dropouts, either.
Also, “compulsory” attendance was not very well enforced until fairly recently.
Not to mention, special ed classes were very limited. Many, many of the kids who are served by sp ed now would never have been in school back in the day. There was no place for them. They had no chance to drop out.
I am saying all this because when we talk about grad rates going down, we must remember that many folks who are in school now would NOT have been counted as dropouts back in the day. They were not in the system to the point that they would have counted at all.
Now, regarding your other points: I think some of them are well-founded. While we never had AP classes or calculus available to us, when you earned an A in English it meant mastery, rather than just showing up. Grade inflation is a very real problem when you have kids making As who score 900 on the SAT. Those two do not go together. Honor graduates should not be in remedial college level classes.
I think our problem has been less social engineering, as you call it, and more a culture of self-esteem, even if the esteem is based on false “achievement.” Also, we Americans suffer from the sense of giving everyone a chance, and another, and another…..At some point students have to step up to the plate and SHOW what they can do.
By happy2teach
June 23, 2008 1:39 PM | Link to this
Shadow- Hardly! I’m not even sure where you got that from my post…
I merely accept that lower test scores are a necessary evil when we move from a model of exclusive education to an inclusive model. Trust me, I’m more impatient than most in striving for acievement, but I know that Rome wasn’t built in a day. I just think that there are too many Chicken Little’s running around these blogs.
Thanks for the laugh though, I’ll share your question with my students who will inevitably claim that I expect them to do too much and push them too hard!
Also, there is no secret to globalization…companies move where they can make the most money. That would be places where people will work for less.
By kitty
June 23, 2008 1:52 PM | Link to this
Hey! You’d better get your child ready for school — way before s/he is 5 yrs. of age. Cognitive growth is the greatest from birth to four years; with age 4-8 being the second window of opportunity for the brain to develop. So, folks get on it! Read and TALK to your child — way before s/he enters the school!!! Public libraries are FREE! Adults get choices in what they do for themselves, it’s too bad it’s not the law that parents have to parent their children.
kitty
By T
June 23, 2008 1:58 PM | Link to this
Parent involvement is the key.
By just a teacher
June 23, 2008 2:03 PM | Link to this
After 20+ years of the systematic erasure of societal infrastructure, the public schools are the “last man standing” in the what’s-wrong-with-America blame game. And there are plenty who want us to go away as well. Hence, NCLB = Stealth Voucher Act.
That said, I think the biggest problem in public education is the perfect storm of poor teacher recruitment/retention coupled with the increased need for remediation/individuation, etc. It amounts to too few competent professionals being asked to do too much for too many.
By Trill
June 23, 2008 2:21 PM | Link to this
The idea that all students can be made the same is absurd. The only way to do this is to limit some kids potential so that they are not too far ahead of the slower children. Not to say the slower children should be ignored, but you cannot expect for the truly gifted to exit school equal to the products of incest and less intelligent parents.
By Jane
June 23, 2008 2:37 PM | Link to this
This blog and it’s comments reak of “The Fountainhead” - Those that can being penalized for those that can’t and having to be the same not strive for excellence. NCLB is a joke - My parents did not sit with us to do homework every evening - we KNEW it better be done as soon as we came in the door each day - it was the required routine prior to dinner and playing outside. Games were board games and for rainy days where we had to use our minds (Memory, Scrabble, monolopy etc.) each served a purpose even those were fun.
Expect your children to succeed - give them the tools to do so and back them up-it will happen. A good job son/daughter goes a long way.
Teachers do not teach any longer they are administrative paper pushers. WE need to go back to letting the teacher teach, having our kids know they do not want us called to the school for a behavior issue (that we will promptly take care of —without DFACS being called). The children now have the upper hand and they are running the aslyumn the only way they know how. As adults we need to take the control back and establish the groundrules- we are their parents NOT their friend. We make the hard decisions while they are learning how to rationalize and analyze situations.
By That guy, you know the one...
June 23, 2008 2:49 PM | Link to this
What’s the biggest challenge facing schools? One word: Bears
By JeremiahWright
June 23, 2008 2:51 PM | Link to this
Political correctness. That’s all. Get rid of it—and illegal aliens.
By BD
June 23, 2008 2:55 PM | Link to this
The biggest challenge facing schools is dealing with kids who care nothing about learning.
Visit almost any high school in Georgia, and you will be appalled at the demeanor, action, and attitude of the general student population. There is little drive or desire for excellence, and many students scoff at those who try to do well.
I have been teaching for over a decade, and working with schools for over 15 years. I have witnessed a gradual but consistant decline in the work ethic and drive in my students, oftentimes question if I am the problem with their motivation…until I walk down the hall and see the same ethic and drive in my student’s peers.
How do we fix this problem? Raise our expectations, reward those who succeed, and quit glorifying mediocrity.
By lovelyliz
June 23, 2008 2:56 PM | Link to this
By That guy, you know the one…
Stephen Colbert would agree with you
By BD
June 23, 2008 2:56 PM | Link to this
The biggest challenge facing schools is dealing with kids who care nothing about learning.
Visit almost any high school in Georgia, and you will be appalled at the demeanor, action, and attitude of the general student population. There is little drive or desire for excellence, and many students scoff at those who try to do well.
I have been teaching for over a decade, and working with schools for over 15 years. I have witnessed a gradual but consistant decline in the work ethic and drive in my students, oftentimes question if I am the problem with their motivation…until I walk down the hall and see the same ethic and drive in my student’s peers.
How do we fix this problem? Raise our expectations, reward those who succeed, and quit glorifying mediocrity.
By jon stewart
June 23, 2008 3:01 PM | Link to this
BEARS!!!
Noooooooooooooooooo!!!
By JJ
June 23, 2008 3:05 PM | Link to this
Parents! As in two, original, who are willing and able to discipline and set priorities.
By Thomas
June 23, 2008 3:06 PM | Link to this
Would it help our educational performance levels if the State of Georgia designated predominantly black schools as “Students with Special Needs Educational Centers?”
By Sick of ya'll
June 23, 2008 3:21 PM | Link to this
The biggest problem?
Racist, hate-mongering bloggers.
By Dan
June 23, 2008 3:25 PM | Link to this
You need to make school a privilege not a right (or a perceived right). This would eliminate the resource drain of trying to educate those who don’t want to be educated.
By Right On!
June 23, 2008 3:33 PM | Link to this
I completely agree with Sick of ya’ll. The uneducated blacks in this state have got to be some of the rudest, most selfish, hate-filled racists in the history of mankind.
The best way to defeat their hate and their rage is to educated them properly. Knowledge is the key to defeating their hatred of other races.
By Alecia
June 23, 2008 3:51 PM | Link to this
Critical thinking and communication skills need to be encouraged. So what if your kid scores an A in a class or masters a standardized exam. Without communication or critical think skills they will not move on to the next level. Also, more needs to be done in the early education years to seperate the slower kids in the class from the rest of the herd. By tossing all of the kids together (dull and sharp) we are wasting potential talent and possibly creating a new set of delinquents. Let’s face it, the sharp kids will create trouble when they are bored. Unfortunately the teachers have to cater to the weakest links while the sharper kids dull down.
By Sick of ya'll
June 23, 2008 3:53 PM | Link to this
Right on- Please, do not attach your sickness to me in any way.
I hope you enjoy having a black President as much as I will.
By T
June 23, 2008 3:55 PM | Link to this
A little corporal punishment might help.
By ALABAMA 4 OBAMA
June 23, 2008 3:59 PM | Link to this
I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE A FINE SISTER LIKE MICHELLE OBAMA AT THE INAUGURAL BALL BACKING THAT SWEET NUBIAN AZZ OF HERS UP TO ALL THE HATERZ!!!
By Latarian
June 23, 2008 4:09 PM | Link to this
Sick Of Ya’ll - - Why, may I ask, do you hate our people so much?
By Stat
June 23, 2008 4:11 PM | Link to this
sick of ya’ll, here is something to think about. The U.S. Census reports that the black population of the United States is about 12%. The hispanic population is about 14% and the white population is 74%.
By Gwinnett Educator
June 23, 2008 4:18 PM | Link to this
Right On made the racist comments and attached him/her seld to Sick of Yall
By Sick of ya'll
June 23, 2008 4:20 PM | Link to this
Im white…ya dummy. Open up a history book and figure out why a white guy could be disgusted with the legacy that hateful, racist white people have created in this world. Just try to add up the damage we’ve done/continue to do.
By North Fulton Educator
June 23, 2008 4:29 PM | Link to this
Sick of Yall = An ignorant, racist piece of garbage seriously in need of some professional help
By Sick of ya'll
June 23, 2008 4:38 PM | Link to this
NFE - Please tell me you don’t actually teach.
How can you deny the legacy white people have? Yeah, we’ve done a lot of great things, but you can’t deny the bad either.
It’s also disturbing that racism continues to play such a huge role in people’s view of eduacation and the way they approach policy. So often, the people that I’m against boil their argument down to: “get rid of blacks and/or latinos and all will be well”.
And I’m ignorant and racist? Check yourself.
By When the Student is Ready
June 23, 2008 4:44 PM | Link to this
Okay people judging by your comments,I know whats wrong with our schools!!
By Frank
June 23, 2008 4:47 PM | Link to this
Without reading through all of the tangential commentary, I offer this possible repeat theory: Public education’s biggest challenge today is the lack of values in the home, which translates into a lack of respect for educators and academics, both by the parents as well as their offspring. It’s not a ‘race’ thing, and it’s not a ‘poor’ thing, both of which present cultures to society that are different, but manageable in the classroom. What cannot be overcome by public education is character apathy in the home where children spend the vast majority of time. That variable is one the schools cannot control, and will ultimately lead us towards a “brave new world” of public boarding schools where children will be taken from their parents shortly after birth, and placed in dorm/prison-style housing, where breakfast, lunch, and dinner are served, and values education can be completed, and “students” will be assigned training for the “real world” based on perceived talents and abilities, without choice. This is where we are headed with the ‘facts and statistics’-based education under NCLB…
What separates a poor kid and a kid from a minority race from the rest of his kind is the presence of character values, respect, faith, resiliency, and a desire to do better for himself. Most kids don’t learn that at school; they learn it from the adults they spend the most time with in the early stages of life - their parents or guardians. Schools are mostly concerned about ‘academic progress’ and meeting or exceeding standards on state and national tests. Real learning takes place in the home, learning for life, that just does not come with 6 1/2 hours of time per day, 180 days of the year in a school building with a strange teacher every year.
People, such as the author of the initial editorial piece that began this blog, like to put the blame on public schools and teachers for the ills of society and ask questions like “what can public schools do about such and such problem?”. The real questions should be put upon the parents of children, and parents should be required to prove that time was spent at home with the child, much like parents have to do for their teenage wannabe drivers. Isn’t the whole child important enough to do that, if we are going to place emphasis on one phase like teenage driving? Let’s do it for the whole of the child’s life, making it mandantory to present documentation before the child ever goes to kindergarten, and continue that proof for every year that child enters public education through each grade.
By happy2teach
June 23, 2008 4:50 PM | Link to this
Biggest challenge?
21st Century Demands
20th Centurry Techniques
19th Century Attitudes
From what I’m seeing…
By Gwinnett Educator
June 23, 2008 4:55 PM | Link to this
nevermind my so-called correction above. I forgot that we also have trolls.
By shadow7071
June 23, 2008 5:04 PM | Link to this
I think these last six or seven comments support the point I made earlier today. Our school system has been turned into a social engineering system that focuses more on social ills than academic achievement.
This blog started out discussing what’s wrong with and how to improve our schools. A critical topic. Now, were swapping blows over racism. Racism (social ill) is paramount. Academic achievement is last. And, while we wallow in our quagmire of social ills the rest of the world is moving forward.
By A Teacher
June 23, 2008 5:07 PM | Link to this
Biggest problem: Students and parents see school as something that is done TO or FOR students instead of something that students DO. If students and parents would approach education proactively, they’d find the experience far more rewarding.
By happy2teach
June 23, 2008 5:13 PM | Link to this
Shadow- I mean this as a sicere, respectful question:
How do you separate the two? I teach middle school, and despite our constant, best efforts, we have great difficulty striving for achievement because the students bring so many societal ills with them.
I’d be very interested to hear how you think we could get the focus back on academics, while realistically dealing with the world we live in.
Thanks!
By Michael
June 23, 2008 6:04 PM | Link to this
Crappy parents. Private schools work b/c they can tell crappy parents to go away. This allows teachers time to actually teach.
By Truth
June 23, 2008 6:05 PM | Link to this
Biggest Challenges: Government, lack of discipline, political correctness, tv, lazy parents, and oh yeah, government.
By JR
June 23, 2008 6:07 PM | Link to this
You can’t separate the two. There are only 24 hours in the day. 8 hours of schooling, no matter how well intentioned, cannot overcome 16 hours of neglect. Let’s not even consider that the 8 hours is only going on for half the year. To focus on academics requires the parents actually, genuinely care. It happens in some families, and you can see the results in the students. Unfortunately, our schools now cater to the lowest common denominator, instead of reserving resources for those that will succeed. As a result, all fail.
Bottom line, not everybody is going to grow up to be an astronaut. Shuffle the non-achievers off into “standard education”, and don’t even count their attendance, scores, etc. It will effectively end such practices as grade inflation and leaving troublemakers in class because suspension counts against the school. Leave the achievers in classes resourced to help those achievers further excel, and do count their attendance, scores, etc.
By just a teacher
June 23, 2008 6:07 PM | Link to this
H2T: I think it really gets back to the idea that there are virtually no other public services to help families. By the time kids get to school, the school is perhaps the first intervening force in the family. We feed them, screen them for disease, help their families acclimate to the community if necessary. And I think all of those are worthwhile endeavors; I just think it’s a shame that schools have to do them.
Also, I’m not just thinking about government “hand-outs” or whatever neocons grouse about. Better public health, transportation, arts: I think these things would contribute to a better environment for all families and all children. In such an environment, schools could, perhaps, educate those children.
It’s a beautiful dream.
By shadow7071
June 23, 2008 6:09 PM | Link to this
happy2teach,
First, I sincerely appreciate your situation. I have a child in Cobb County middle school and I appreciate the challenges you deal with day-to-day. Second, I know as an educator you have many masters (administrators, regulations, programs and etc.) that direct what you do in the classroom and probably diminishes your potential.
So, how do we separate the two (social ills and academic achievement)? And, how do we move ahead with academic achievement?
There is not enough space here to fully discuss this but from my perspective schools have got to be laser beam focused on teaching the academics subjects - reading, writing, math, science, geography, history and etc. Not just teaching to some standardized test but teaching for complete understanding of these subjects. This should be the school’s measure of effectiveness.
Schools have to assess their potential - teachers, administrators, facilities, students and parents - and then develop a strategy that ensures that this potential is laser beam focused on delivering academic achievement.
Finally, schools have to honestly assess what is interfering with them from delivering academic achievement. In other words, what’s taking away from their potential. Then they have to be laser beam focused on eliminating (at least minimizing) these interferences.
From my earlier points, when the Government made the decision to use our school system to help address our nations social ills they inadvertently introduced a huge interference that has taken away from our schools potential and has almost destroyed our academic effectiveness.
By pamela
June 23, 2008 6:50 PM | Link to this
Ever notice how the most naive and ignorant suggestions of how to improve our educational standards and results seem to come from “educators”? (See responses from “just a teacher’, “by a teacher” and “happy to teach”)
Scary.
By happy2teach
June 23, 2008 7:46 PM | Link to this
Care to elaborate with something specific pamela? Or maybe you could offer a suggestion of your own?
By NICK
June 23, 2008 7:56 PM | Link to this
The biggest challenge?
How to get blacks and illegals to speak and read ENGLISH.
No wonder government skools are so “F” up. Look at the animals attending them.
By MBW
June 23, 2008 8:50 PM | Link to this
The biggest challenge schools face is the CULTURE OF LAZINESS:
1) Laziness from teachers who don’t teach (and don’t try to improve), administrators who refuse to take responsibility for their schools.
2) Laziness from parents who refuse to discipline their children and send them to school ready to learn
3) Laziness from polticians who don’t have the political courage to reform the system in a meaningful way.
4) Laziness from teacher training programs that spend all day talking about theory and educational psych rather than teaching teachers how to actually be effective teachers. (Theory and psych are important, but they are no substitute for knowing the nuts and bolts of real, effective teaching.)
By MBW
June 23, 2008 8:50 PM | Link to this
The biggest challenge schools face is the CULTURE OF LAZINESS:
1) Laziness from teachers who don’t teach (and don’t try to improve), administrators who refuse to take responsibility for their schools.
2) Laziness from parents who refuse to discipline their children and send them to school ready to learn
3) Laziness from politicians who don’t have the political courage to reform the system in a meaningful way.
4) Laziness from teacher training programs that spend all day talking about theory and educational psych rather than teaching teachers how to actually be effective teachers. (Theory and psych are important, but they are no substitute for knowing the nuts and bolts of real, effective teaching.)
By Lee
June 23, 2008 9:47 PM | Link to this
Public education began it’s death spiral at Brown vs. Board. That one ruling allowed the federal government to wrest control away from the locals and the rest, as they say, is history.
Who can forget the pictures of crying kids being forced to leave their schools and friends to go to an entirely new, hostile school just because some judge decreed that schools must produce equal outcomes.
The government didn’t care about the kids back then and they sure as Hell don’t care now.
Since then, even more onerous laws and regulations have been passed. The Individuals with Disabilities Act further forced the schools down the road to mediocrity by mandating “free and appropriate education” to all - even if it meant placing a severely retarded student next to the future valedictorian and expecting the teacher to bring them both to the same level of accomplishment.
NCLB was a response to schools graduating illiterates. A lot of unintended consequences (or maybe the conspiracy theorists are right and the NCLB is a stepping stone to vouchers) associated with that law.
The truth is schools have lost direction as to their true mission. They try to solve all of the social ills of the world, meld the students into good little socialists, and when it doesn’t work, blame everyone but the person looking in the mirror.
By dc
June 24, 2008 12:14 AM | Link to this
The biggest challenge??
There are lots, but the biggest is getting someone who is in charge to be accountable for their actions. Also, schools need to quit asking kids to get their parents to pay extras for things that already should be supplied by the schools thru taxes that are paid. Teachers make the students feel like the size of a pea, if their parents don’t pay for a teacher gift or buy things that are not necessary for learning. Parents need to wake up and say enough is enough instead of giving in because it’s the easiest thing to do to get the schools off their backs.
By thomas
June 24, 2008 1:15 AM | Link to this
After all of my professional experience, research, and observation, I think the biggest challenge facing education today is getting teachers, administrators, and school systems to truly become committed to providing excellent instruction to all students.
I have found that as a whole, we really do a poor job teaching our children. We are only “successfully” when we are given a group of “average” to above average white children from middle and upper middle class homes. When a school is composed primarily of these students, we call it a good school. Anything else, and we are unsuccessful and make excuses for our students inability to read, write, and do basic math. It’s ALWAYS somebody else’s fault and NEVER our own.
I came to these conclusions after watching some of the worst teachers imaginable in action. I came to these conclusions after watching some of the worst principals imaginable in action. I came to these conclusions after watching the Central Office do NOTHING to these principals and teachers. They are permitted to keep their jobs year after year. I worked in a school where teachers actually verbally and emotionally abused students and teachers assaulted ELEMENTARY students and nothing was done.
I could go on and on. I thought that I was going to have to go to the board (although it wouldn’t have done any good) and the PSC.
Our schools are sickening. There is no excuse for it. No excuse. Our county, state, and country has more resources than most nations on the face of the Earth. Yet our students are performing at such a low level. Also, Why can’t our teachers and schools motivate our students to want to learn and achieve?
By Dr. Craig Spinks
June 24, 2008 5:32 AM | Link to this
Convincing The Public that GEORGIA’S FUTURE depends upon our students’ being highly-educated and -motivated when compared to national- and international-cohorts is the biggest challenge facing public education in Georgia today.
By politicalcorrectgoneawry
June 24, 2008 8:04 AM | Link to this
The politically correct responses of school administrators have failed us.
The number one problem facing schools today is the minority of students who, for whatever reason, are determined to disrupt the learning process.
And, unfortunately, the administrators are not willing to address this issue with sufficient strategies to guarantee that those who want to learn will have that privilege.
By Marta Rails
June 24, 2008 8:08 AM | Link to this
The problem is school teachers who think you can brow beat and punish a student into learning. I’ve met these students, they are willing, no eager, to learn if they would be led professionally and treated like scholars, not criminals. If they were correctly inspired, then they would gladly wade through War and Peace, and all the classics, and all of the math and sciences too. If just one of you teachers would realize this, then you could take over the whole British Navy and conquer the world!!!
“Is that all the truant has to say? (yes, your honor). Then, it is the duty of this probabation hearing to sentence you to wear a dunce cap in the corner for three hours every tuesday during art class. That is all.”
Walking out of the kangaroo court, a teacher approached the truant. “That was a nice speech. Here’s your dunce cap.”
By just a teacher
June 24, 2008 9:05 AM | Link to this
Hi, Pamela. Just another ignorant teacher here. I wanted to point out that the AJC has an editorial corroborating my “naive and ignorant” ideas. At least I’m not alone in being so pathetic.
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/stories/2008/06/24/kidscounted_0624.html
By jim d
June 24, 2008 9:54 AM | Link to this
Just a teach,
great article, but as usual Ms. downey has omitted a very critical bit of data that helps explain a great deal.
Georgia has the 8th highest teen birth rate in the nation. (2)
Over 22,500 teen pregnancies occur each year in our state. (3) That’s 62 new teen pregnancies each day – or over 2 teen pregnancies an hour.
According to the State Division of Public Health, the teen pregnancy rate in Georgia is over 67 pregnancies per 1,000 girls ages 15 to 19.
While the teen birth rate has declined by 30% in Georgia over the past decade, there was a 3 percent increase in Georgia’s teen birth rate in 2006.
The pregnancy rate for African-American girls has declined the most over the past decade, but the current pregnancy rate for African-American girls is still almost twice the rate of Caucasians in our state.
Over the past decade in our state, the pregnancy rate for Latina girls actually increased, while rates for other groups decreased.
Nearly 28% of teen pregnancies in Georgia occur among girls who have already been pregnant at least once before.
Georgia ranks 2nd highest among the states in the rate of repeat births to teens. (4) Teen parents and their children face educational and economic challenges that are compounded by repeat births.
Source
By pamela
June 24, 2008 10:54 AM | Link to this
To By just a teacher:
And yet you prove my point AGAIN by actually revering the opinion of an AJC editorial writer who, no doubt, is the result of a public school education.
As usual, you’ve only presented yet another editorial that states the obvious - pathetic results from our educational system which we’re already painfully well aware of, but with a new twist: that the reason we have so many illiterates in this state is because of low birth weight babies!
Yet, like so many other politically correct “journalists”, “editorial writers”, politicians and others who love to lament about the social ills of this country (mostly caused, according to them, by the evil white man - along with a lack of funds, of course), NONE of these enablers actually have the courage to state the CAUSES of such social ills as child poverty, low birth rates, child apathy and disruptive behavior in the classrom, a severe lack of self discipline and work ethic, lack of respect for teachers and authority, and ultimately, child failure in both the classroom and in society at large.
It’s ridiculous how no one in the public sphere has the courage to point out the obvious - that these failures of society are a DIRECT result of the failures of the culture they spring from, and are surrounded by. A culture that we not only tolerate but CELEBRATE!
How ELSE do you think children turn out who are borne by, and into, a life led by uneducated, teenage “chip on their shoulder”, with an ATTITUDE ghetto mothers who live a life consisting of little more than btng about their minimum wage or gov’t jobs, sc*ing around all night with various gangsta-type home boys, getting their hair and nails done, talking on their cell phones with their “gurlfreends”, while turning out more babies at the drop of a hat?
Do you REALLY think these mothers who have no regard for their own health, get proper prenatal care for their babies? No, becuase they don’t care. RESULT? Low weight babies taking up space in the neonatal ICU’s …whose health care costs by the way, are funded by you and me as, of course, the mother doesn’t think enough of her baby to actually get health insurance. She can’t afford it, you say??? Well, maybe she should of thought of THAT before she got pregnant!
Do you REALLY think these uneducated, born-out-of-wedlock girls, are gonna marry the “baby daddy” of their child, in order to give it a stable home led by loving, responsible parents who actually care about their children? No, because neither she nor the father (if she knows who it is) DO care about their children. Results? Well, have you EVER seen these mothers walking around with their kids? The kids are virtually ignored, constantly running to keep up with their moms; they ride standing up in the front seat of cars with no sign of a seat belt, much less a protective car seat; they’re being dragged around WalMart at midnight instead of being home snuggling in their beds; they’re brought to violent, sexually-explicit R-rated movies with their mother’s having absolutely NO regard to what their kids are viewing; they have to see and hear unending sexual escapades between their mom and her latest man, along with the inevitable, subsequent verbal and physical abuse between the two of them; they see (and learn) how their moms react to adversity and disappointment by the cussing and screaming and “attitude” spewed towards anyone who has their act together, or cuts in front of them in line, or takes too long to wait on them, or simply just looks at them askew..the list goes on and on.
Basically, these type of “mothers” who churn out the most kids, don’t give a d**m about them - you can see it in their eyes when they look at their children with resentment, irritation and boredom. It breaks my heart when I hear how these “women” talk to their children, and how these children will only continue the cycle by the time they’re 15 or 16 themselves.
Do you REALLY think these single teenage and 20-something year old ho’s who don’t gave a d**m about their children, make sure their kids are well-behaved, polite and disciplined?
Do you REALLY think these women who put little to no effort into their jobs, their living conditions, their LIFE, teach their children the importance of self-discipline?
Do you REALLY think they teach their kids to listen to and respect authority, such as teachers and the police?
Do you REALLY think these high school dropouts teach their kids the importance of an education, the importance of challenging themselves, the value of work before play?
Of course not. And we SEE and experience the results of these children, who are unmotivated, undisciplined, uninspired, being raised in a culture imploding in on itself from a mentality of: entitlement, laziness, blame, ignorance, anger, unbridled sexual promiscuity, irresponsibility, unaccountability, disruptive behavior, demanding, disrespect.
But we can’t bring it up, can we? Because that means it is THAT CULTURE’s FAULT. Full Stop. And NOONE can criticize that CULTURE, because then you are seen as RACIST.
By shadow7071
June 24, 2008 11:58 AM | Link to this
Pamela,
A superb commentary!
You have clearly and eloquently said what many want to say.
By Erin
June 24, 2008 12:11 PM | Link to this
Wow, Pam … tell us how you really feel!
OK, that was NOT meant to be sarcastic at all. You made some really good points.
Of course, there are also some people living in poverty who actually ARE trying … truly trying … to break that cycle and do right, too.
Admittedly, that’s not the case in entirely too many cases, but there are people who really are trying.
By rd
June 24, 2008 12:43 PM | Link to this
Pamela: Just to clarify, it’s not just ONE culture that has this “phenomenon” going on. It’s ALL cultures in some way, shape, or form in this country, including the MAJORITY one. Take a drive outside Metro Atlanta and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Just want to make sure you don’t blame this “phenomenon” on just ONE CULTURE. It actually probably has more to do with CLASS than CULTURE.
By happy2teach
June 24, 2008 12:45 PM | Link to this
Pamela makes many strong points and we all deal with it every day.
But, and maybe this is where her frustration with teachers come from, we still have to teach these kids. We are still responsible for doing the best we can with them. I’ve had enough success stories to tell you it’s worth the effort and ultimately, trying to educate these kids is the only long term fix.
Frustrating? Sure it is, but I am in no position to let my students fail because of mistakes their parents have/are making.
So, the frustration of pamela and those that agree with her is real and valid, but taking it out on teachers is misguided, to say the least. We have to try to solve the problems in our class,we have NO CHOICE.