learnteach (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
learnteach) wrote2006-11-14 10:22 am
learnteach) wrote2006-11-14 10:22 am
Somedays, I get it.
Little lost lambs, straying...what could be stupider than a sheep? A willful High School student. I spend more time on basic discipline than on teaching here, and it's worn me down to where I understand why the Lord would destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, and why you can't find a good man there--"Good" is relative; in the land of the goof off, the one working is the one who gets their stuff stolen or pilfered or stuffed full of paper, and verbally ridiculed, and physically abused.
So, in short, I haven't defeated the prevailing culture of violence and stupidity completely enough. And if you are not part of the problem, you better duck and cover. And...wow.
School should use computers. No, really, we're in Silicon Valley; the students are all carrying machines (cell phones, music players, game systems) that can literally give them all the answers, but the State Requirements (derived from the Federal Requirements) is that they close the books, sit in a room, and pass a test--a form of test used no where else in life, and a set of skills they don't really need.
Education Reform Now! What do we want?
It's Amerika. We want more money.
I don't think modern schooling is serving us well, just as I don't think modern government is serving us well. But I don't really have an answer. Just some up close and personal observations.
The scary thing? According to the population figures, soon the majority of youth in California will be immigrants (more or less.) And they're not doing well in these schools.
Just one set of thoughts...
So, in short, I haven't defeated the prevailing culture of violence and stupidity completely enough. And if you are not part of the problem, you better duck and cover. And...wow.
School should use computers. No, really, we're in Silicon Valley; the students are all carrying machines (cell phones, music players, game systems) that can literally give them all the answers, but the State Requirements (derived from the Federal Requirements) is that they close the books, sit in a room, and pass a test--a form of test used no where else in life, and a set of skills they don't really need.
Education Reform Now! What do we want?
It's Amerika. We want more money.
I don't think modern schooling is serving us well, just as I don't think modern government is serving us well. But I don't really have an answer. Just some up close and personal observations.
The scary thing? According to the population figures, soon the majority of youth in California will be immigrants (more or less.) And they're not doing well in these schools.
Just one set of thoughts...
no subject
The class room was totally out of control. The kids chased out two of the teachers who resigned saying that they changed their minds about wanting to teach.
30+ six graders brought each of these adults to crisis through their behavior. Buggy was one of the "problem children", I'm sorry to say. At the end of the year, she 'passed" the sixth grade, but at least six others from her class did not.
I told her that, "you may have passed the grade, but you didn't learn what you needed to learn", and I made her repeat the grade. Her social life has taken a hit for it, of course, but she'll live. And she's finally learning to do homework and turn stuff in on time.
With the help of grandparents and what's left of my savings, I was able to pull her out of public school. In exchange for a heavy dose of hell fire & brimstone warnings (which may not be a bad thing right now), she has eleven kids in her class, an energetic teacher that she CAN'T push around and she's getting Bs & As.
Learnteach, you need less kids, you need more supplies, you need BACK UP from the school & the parents.
Most of all, you need to not let those kids learn through you that they have the power to chase away a teacher. I have now idea how; I'm not brave enought to take on what you have. But I saw that, once they had chased out the first teacher last year, the others didn't stand a chance - those kids together were brutal.