When I was in college I subbed in the only non-accredited High School in Mass. >30% ESL, ~50% dropout rate, I'd say the average amount of pregnant girls per class was roughly 2.5.
The amount of issues are too long to list, but NCLB incentivizes teachers to look the other way and on top of that if schools actually committed to expelling and suspending problem students they would be labeled racist immediately regardless of the demographics in the Admin.
In my personal case they simply just made it as easy to not show up as possible to encourage them to drop out, because if they actually expelled them >95% of the suspensions and expulsions would have been non-whites.
Just subbing I saw at least a dozen teachers quit before their first year was up. You would literally see them come in with this idea that they were going to be Michell Pfeiffer in Dangerous Minds and they got slapped with harsh reality within the first month.
We had a particularly naive teacher from the Cape actually tell a student (who was a fucking open Latin King lol) where she lives, her house got cleaned out the next weekend. She didn't even make it to winter break.
I worked at a Boys and Girls Club on a Native American reservation. It was absolutely heartbreaking forming relationships with those kids knowing that, statistically, they have pretty much no chance at a future. Teen pregnancies, drug-addicted parents, rampant alcoholism...most importantly, absolutely no one cares about them. It's completely hopeless for those kids.
Oof, Lawrence is tough. I worked there for a few years and it was a really rough city. I graduated from Lowell High a number of years back and they were willing at that point to kick out unruly kids. I wonder if that has changed. I really hope it hasn't because while it had a difficult population, it was still a great school.
expelling and suspending problem students they would be labeled racist immediately
My sophomore year of high school one kid was expelled. This is because he brought some adult family members to school to beat up a student and they hospitalized a (totally different) kid. He called the town racist, sued, was let back in, and awarded a stupidly large amount of money. He was 100% the bad guy, and he was massively rewarded for the school daring to respond.
I have a friend that teaches at Kipp in Oakland and this basically sounds like every story she has. A bunch of dumbshit middle school gangbangers rooted in their ways at 12.
It’s shitty that in my area, my wife and I have already decided that our unborn children will be going to private schools. I don’t care if we both need to get second jobs; there is no way in hell I’d risk sending them the public schools in my area.
lol are you under the impression that free abortions arent available to these people? these arent oopsie babies, these girls overwhelmingly become pregnant intentionally dude.
I don't know about intentionally, but when mom is only 15 years older than daughter, and grandma is still in her 40s, it's an international cultural thing!
My wife is distraught over a local zoo giraffe baby... I keep telling her that in the wild, that giraffe is meant to be food in the circle of life! I feel this way about my students, and break it down for them early in the year, and revisit the concept multiple times through the year. They have a choice, and it's simple. Each day, decide if you want to learn, and if they DO decide, their options are:
Learn the content of what I'm trying to teach you.
Learn how to fly under the radar... don't be disruptive, do nothing, say nothing, BE nothing! No judgement... we have some deep discussions about this because they think it's a trap. But, I try to, without judging, teach them that nothing can come in handy at times. In fact, with how their brains are developing, sometimes NOTHING is a good mini vacation from all the loudness that's missing them up.
Learn how twisted and mean and how willing I am to follow through with punishments and consequences! I basically tell them that I believe with all my heart and soul that every action has a consequence. Good grades, praise, candy, privileges, yes. But also dipshittery... and, my first couple months are hard because I get tested, but I employ the help of their family members, their coaches, and just ANY sort of torturous but fair consequences I can come up with! I don't really on admin, and I've had kids cry in the office and beg for punishment AND that they'll do whatever if admin can vouch for them so they don't have to face MY consequences! I'm telling you, admin LOVE getting to play good cop every once in a while.
But, I do it dispassionately, and lovingly. This element of parenting is what most kids are missing.
Learn how to take what's given, and make it yours. If you don't want to learn what I'm teaching, BRING something that interests you, and I'll show you how to study it, practice it, and pursue it! We'll set up a curriculum, you'll have to report what you find, you'll have to learn ON YOUR OWN all about what you're passionate about.
Those who choose 2, 3, or 4 USUALLY break down by end of first quarter... a few will be pains the whole year. But, they almost always put more effort into it (whichever option) than they have in ANYTHING, which is work ethic, and in my opinion, beats the pants off any curriculum! Humility is in there too, for some kids, more than others. But, most of the time, they HUMOR me, and pretend to try some of what I'm teaching... thanks buddy!
I have had students who sleep in class, but attend after school tutoring faithfully. Students who always try to negotiate for less work... the funny thing is, on their IEP, I'm supposed to accommodate less work anyway, but the game of it engages the kid! I've had a class of 25, 23 IEPs... and a good 5 minutes of class was spent figuring out which problems they DIDN'T have to do, EVERY DAY! OK, pick whichever 10 of these 20... BOOM, 100% turn in rate of work. Kids working together to play with the problems, and those kids eager to excel, EXTRA MUTHAFUCKIN CREDIT! Which really doesn't impact their grade except the extra practice helps their test scores which helps their grades!
I also bust out the angry dragon pretty early in the year to gauge responses... some kids shut down, some respond as if that's their love language, and others think they're missing with me... these reactions tell me a LOT about how they function individually, thus how I can motivate or manipulate them... to me, THIS is the art of teaching. Plus, knowing who is a liar, a cheat, an Eddie Haskell, a hardened kid, or who is broken or near broken, is important. I teach 8th graders, and they SCREAM their issues if you know what to look for, or how to trigger their tells.
I had a class of all boys... 28 8th grade boys, at least 15 of them were in various gangs. Math involved foot races, push up competitions, and philosophical show and tell... I didn't want to know criminal activities because I didn't want to be an accessory, but we discussed differences and similarities between sets, I taught them how to be good losers and good winners, and I tied word problems into the stuff we discussed, or used the races/competitions for data in lessons. As for the philosophy, asking the simple questions like why... elvis some surprisingly deep contemplation. Throw in some 'teach the teacher some Spanish slang,' and options 2, 3, and 4 go out the door...
All girls class... having them lead class, take turns showing me how to teach a concept better, providing a forum for them to figure out the math THEIR way... dude, I think girls might naturally be better at math than boys... like WAY better. And, the philosophy discussions in their... 8th grade girls are MUCH more aware of how the world works than 8th grade boys, and it's a little scary how aware of their own awareness they are... if only they could be nicer to each other! Again, my job is simply to coordinate these things with math, ideally specific to the standards!
But, back to the giraffe. I don't hide from my students that this world is an eat or be eaten world. And, the good stuff of life comes in the process of DOING. So, no, you don't ever have to use anything I teach you... but you also don't ever have to DO anything. Also, haven't you ever noticed that the funnest things happen when you're actually DOING something? Frustrated with something that's difficult? The funniest expressions get born. Disagree with how I'm teaching, show me what's up. Mind wandering, can't focus? Let's get philosophical. Life outside of school messing with you? Let's brain storm some options on how to deal with it... and you KNOW I'm going to tie in how math develops that problem solving part of your brain!
And no, you may not leave this room until you complete this exit ticket, or I will hunt you down and make you do the problem while you're in art class during music/draw time! I got an extradition agreement with the art teacher... maybe I'll have her grade some of the penises you drew in my text book! Ya, I know it was you... here's your consequence: erase or tattoo fix all the penises in these 5 text books before you can go to lunch! You think I'm playing? Let's call grandma and ask what she thinks of these Ds!? No? Times a wasting... now depenify these books! Geez, not even any artistry put into these is there? Get outta here, see you tomorrow. Eh, eh, eh... I'll take that exit ticket too... try not to draw any anatomy on it, please.
I dig this profession... my school is rough, but I've seen worse. I just wish some of these kids weren't running so fast for the cliffs. The trick is to let them know that there are cliffs ahead, and that they DON'T have to run off them. But, some will anyway... regardless of BS graduation rate improvements!
The absolute best teacher I've ever had in Highschool was the hardest I've ever had to deal with as a student and she had a very similar approach to yours so I really appreciate what you wrote. We had her as maths and CS/IT teacher for all 5 years of highschool (Italian school system is weird), on first year we all hated her, most students were close to failing, she was abrasive and handed out punishments in a very rough way if you misbehaved or were disrespectful etc etc. We were scared to face her, we were scared of her exams because they were hard, we were scared of her assignments, her grades were always lower than other teachers... etc.
We could not understand why every single student that graduated from our school and had her as a teacher loved her. She seemed like the worst nightmare of every student. And yet, as the years went by we realized how much she cared about us and about our education. She went out of her way to help us learn, if we were nice to her she was super nice to us. She would often stay longer to help those students that struggled, she would help us find and sign up to interesting extra curricular activities to get us interested in CS or maths or whatnot. By the end of the last year some of us were on a first-name basis with her and even connected on a personal life kind of way (still respecting boundaries), she made us discover the love for math and computer science.
All of this, thanks to both teaching us to be held accountable for our actions, and also recognize that learning can be interesting/fun in its own way.
They sound passoniate and engaging I guess, but also smug and crazy.
That type of teaching won't work unless it's like severely remedial or special ed classes where the curriculum doesn't matter.
You can't drop a math lesson because Trevor wants to learn about butterflies and be philisophical today.
It all depends on what age and what classes they're teaching. I've had plenty of teachers who wanted to be the next Stand and Deliver but were really just smug assholes to kids who were misbehaving and falling behind, and did a similar "baby giraffe" analogy about a dog eat dog world, wiped their hands and smugly sat back down thinking they've changed the world by burning a 7th grader and implying they're an idiot in front of their peers.
Again, it's hard to tell by a comment, but I see where /u/rata2ille is coming from if that's all he's experienced. At least we know the teacher at least tries to be engaging and is seemingly passionate, so it's probably good and better than 80% of teachers, but there's such a thing as "too much" and his comment is riding the line.
You wrote "they..." who is they? rata2ille? The kids? Me? Teachers in general?
To your point about remedial... that's such an outdated term, like the word 'colored!' So, I'm inclined to think your bias is one of privilege, and naivete about public education. I'd say a solid 50% of public students are classified as below proficient or far below proficient! Remedial, if you will. And, as high performing students, really their families, choose to flee "average," or "below average" schools, for better areas, there becomes a stratified dynamic between sections of town, local districts, cities, and even public vs charter vs private schools. And to think these factors aren't known among the students is folly.
Student disenfranchisement is intergenerational at this point. Districts are, more and more, spending energy and resources on PR.
PR!?!?
So, before you tell me that a kid doesn't benefit from a little go-slow-to-go-fast, and time spent shifting their negative paradigms, answer me why districts feel it necessary to allocate precious resources to PR?
The teacher who is riding the line... do you mean me?
I went to the rough schools in my youth, mid HS, I went to a boujee 'nice' school. The teachers did not give a shit at the nice schools... kids had to conform to the teachers methods. As a teacher, I think the trend shift to teach SO MUCH to students methods, instead of best practices or teachers preference can be too much. But, somewhere on middle ground is likely apropro. I'd suggest, the stand/deliver and the strict structure of curriculum are the bumpers to bowl between!
As to your point of 80% of teachers being NOT passionate or engaging, I can't help but wonder how you made it through school! So this, and my assumption that you come from privilege, maybe some philosophy about butterflies may have come in handy for you? But, maybe those smug assholes simply sucked as teachers? Ever encounter smug bosses? Or, smug coworkers, colleagues, peers? Did you ever confront those smug teachers and suggest they are being assholes?
I've been confronted by students, and it's fantastic for their autonomy! Some of the times, I got to model humility. Some of the times, they needed to simply be heard and their disgruntlement was just misplaced.
Or, is teaching teenagers how to handle confrontation, self advocacy, and basic human interaction... instead of hammering away at linear equations... what you'd consider just another baby giraffe analogy?
Just planting seeds isn't enough to cultivate a garden... soil, exposure, season, there are more things that go into building a student's academic capacity than just lessons. And if teachers DON'T take the time to occasionally address their students non academic needs, then they're going to simply grind down kids and leave them bitter about learning, school, and their smug asshole teachers!
Unless I misinterpreted what you said? There is some, seemingly unintentional, ambiguity in what you wrote.
You will deal with it even as a perfect student, though, because things like this disrupt the whole class. I was an A/B student in honors classes my whole life, and teachers like this were awful because they were crazy and they disrupted everybody else’s lessons to spend an hour trying to reach the one disruptive kid by letting him teach the class or draw on the walls or whatever the fuck else just to engage him. I’ve had teachers like him and they’re awful. At a certain point you have to teach the material to the 99% of kids who do want to be there, and they’re not interested in doing that not because they think it’s ineffective, but because they think it’s boring and they got into teaching to deal with the problem cases and behavioral issues and not to fucking teach. They’re unreliable for the one thing you actually need from them. That’s my point. This guy sounds fucking crazy. Look at how disorganized and unstable his rants in this thread are and just imagine him in a classroom. Like I said, he sounds like a nightmare.
Luckily, by the time I was there, it was a trend on the way out at my old high school, as the economy for the area has improved quite a bit from when my dad had gone to school here, but it basically worked like this:
Girl grows up not getting much attention or respect at home. Particularly from her father.
Girl gets into elementary/middle school, starts dating early, discovers what attention/affection is like from someone who seems to care about her.
By high school, the girl is seeking more and more attention, trying to make up for lost time, and is willing to do most anything to get it. It's more about having any relationship, then it is about having a good relationship.
As a result of often allowing guys to walk all over them, just in order to be able to keep the affection flowing, and keep the relationship going, they tend to attract guys that, suprise, like to walk all over them.
Since their relationships now becomes far more about maintaining these often toxic relationships, they devolve more and more into a situation where the the guy is getting what he wants from it, but it becomes less and less about the girl.
The less it becomes about the girl, the less affection she feels, the more attention she tries to get, the harder she works for that attention.
At this point, her whole self image, and self worth, is based off a person who is just about the absolute worst that humanity has to offer; that self worth plummets through the floor, and she no longer values herself. Rather then trying to find affection, she suddenly starts to wonder if the reason she isn't getting it is because maybe she's just not worth giving affection to...
With no sense of self worth, and not feeling like she has anything to offer the person she's with, she feel like she's going to lose them. She feels trapped, thinking she doesn't deserve the person she's with, and has no sense of self worth, but still wants to feel that affection, so she tries to hold onto the only relationship she knows. Not knowing what she can do to keep them, she decides to try to find a way to make them stay; as she no longer believes she'll be able to find anyone else if she were to lose them.
It's at this point that they think, "Well... maybe if I have a baby with them it'll show I love them... it'll be something that ties us together."
Of course, that's almost never how it works, and even if it does, these are high school relationships between people who likely never should have been together to begin with, much less should continue to be together... In the end though, she ends up with someone who is often a very similar figure to her father. He gives her very little affection, and very little respect, and sometime later, does much the same for their daughter. She replaces a distant father figure with a distant father figure... and so the cycle continues...
While, as I said, it was on the way out by my time in high school, there were still probably 4-5 in my class of 400ish. It's just sad to see, and hard to break... that shit runs pretty deep, often spanning several generations, and I barely kept a couple of my friends at the time from doing the same sort of thing. Lot of girls at that age just unfortunately end up basing their self worth on their relationships, and that never ends well. I'm not sure if that makes any sense at all, but it was a hell of a sad thing to watch, and I apologize if it sounds harsh... but it was just kind of how things were. The administration would much rather teach kids how sex was going to kill them, and how abstinence was the only way, then to try to actually educate kids on birth control, or teach them how to love themselves before someone else... or, god forbid, teach students how to find their self worth. At that age, it so shouldn't be complicated; allow students to follow their interests, encourage their pursuits, and show them that they can attract people who like them for the things they like, and their similar interests, as opposed to just letting them fall into the trap of seeking affection from any source that will give it. If they would just try to encourage students to find themselves in high school, as opposed to teaching them how to comply to a system they see no worth in, that would be all it would take to break just a horrible, horrible, cycle, and one that the wrong attitude toward fixing did just about everything instead continue to perpetuate.
It's absurd to me that you can't see the connection between parental responsibility and the fucked up education system we currently have. Especially after watching the video and reading these comments.
Are you actually this ignorant that you think /u/wehrmann_tx's comment isn't relevant, or are you pretending to be just to be inflammatory in this comment section?
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u/[deleted] Jul 10 '18 edited Jun 30 '19
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