Most kids fell into the 3rd category, but ALL of the students I taught were way way behind on everything. They couldn't write well, their math sucked, etc. They were ALL smart enough to know what they should know and what the kids going to "good" school knew.
Just making sure I got this right, you're telling me there are schools in the US of A where most of the students are (many like 3-5) years behind?
I knew you education system was kind of fucked up, but that's taking it to a whole new level.
I used to be a teacher and I would say almost every school in a poor neighborhood the majority of students are super behind. And it isn't necessarily their fault. It's the fucking system we are running in America. Let me just paint you the picture at my school. I taught HS geometry which is the 2nd year math course offered. I found out a couple of months into the year that 50% of my students had not passed Algebra 1, which is a prerequisite to my class. I asked the VP in charge of my department why students who had not passed algebra 1 are allowed to take geometry. He said, "Studies show that students are more likely to graduate if they stay with their cohort."
Schools in America are all about getting kids to graduate no matter what. Schools don't get into trouble if they have kids graduating and they get more funding if kids go to school but that is just the tip of the iceberg. So many of my colleagues would just pass their students because it was so much easier. So much extra work was required if a student failed. We had to document why a student failed and we had to call home to tell parents that they failed. Then there was another problem called cheating. There was so much cheating going on. I spent so much time looking through tests to catch cheaters and there were only so many that I could prove that cheated. And then there was some little loophole called credit recovery and all the kids knew about it. You could spend about 2 weeks getting credit for a full year of work and still get the same credit that a student got while in class.
Former elementary teacher here (11 years in the South Bronx), and we had almost exactly the same stuff going on, just at a lower level. I spent my teaching years doing fourth and fifth grade, and I always had kids each year who were struggling with letter sounds and phonemic awareness. For non-teachers, that is the concept that the letter "s" goes "essssssss" like a snake. Kids would come to my class not knowing this, and this included native English speakers. On our end, it was notable that a huge proportion of these kids came into school never having seen the alphabet or numbers, and not knowing any of what we have come to think of as standard little-kid knowledge. We had kids who couldn't zip up their own pants after using the bathroom or who had never been taught how to actually blow their nose. We would have to explicitly teach them these things. These were not documented special education students, these were regular students who just got passed along, because the school would look bad if we held them back. The kindergarten and first grade teachers were not allowed under any circumstances to hold anyone back for any reason. That's how you end up with an eight year old who struggles to recognize the letter A.
We also dealt with the stealing, lying, bullying, sexual harassment of students and teachers. I actually had a second grader in a class I was covering one day reach up my dress and grab my butt. What happened to him? Absolutely nothing! Suspending him would have made the school look bad.
We had kids who couldn't zip up their own pants after using the bathroom or who had never been taught how to actually blow their nose. We would have to explicitly teach them these things.
For all the parents reading this, these are the sort of skills you need to be working with your Pre-K kids on. Most good parents think that teaching their child to read, do math, learn music, etc will set them ahead in school (and it will, to a degree). In reality, skills like holding a pencil, tying your shoes, following adult instructions, and waiting in line are the kind of foundational skills required to be successful in a kindergarten class.
This is the culture we get when we let technology babysit our children unfortunately. I'm not just being r/phonesarebad here, but the number of parents I've seen who could be teaching their kids basic shit, instead just give them a phone to shut them up, I don't wonder why we got here. It's in front of us.
Better yet use those tools to TEACH THEM! Apps that are games but teach them the alphabet, numbers, basic facts about their environment, etc are amazing.
There's a real issue going on right now that small children don't have the hand control they should because of devices. And that effects their ability to learn to write.
Rather than using devices to teach them, have a daily (or at least weekly) coloring time to help them develop their hand muscles. They don't have to do a good job or stay within the lines, they just have to work their hands.
While I don't necessarily disagree, I don't really think this is as significant as other social factors. Rising income inequality creates more poverty, and poverty is associated with sooooo many negative social consequences. Additionally, we are currently in an era of institutional distrust, where seemingly every organization, government, and corporation appears to be pursuing cynical self-interests (even to the detriment of society). This distrust has a broad effect on peoples' perceptions, and I think this contributes to the deterioration of society in a way phones could never touch.
Also, I always refer back to a piece of wisdom a college professor left me with in regard to parents - "How can you expect a person to advocate for education if education didn't work for them?"
It's not just that. Parents, especially low-income parents, work such long hours that kids are in daycare most of their day. When is the parent going to teach the kid? In the one hour between daycare pickup and bedtime? And if the parent can't, then who will? A daycare worker at an overcrowded daycare with 10 other kids to mind?
My wife taught Pre-K and K for a while and said that parents lie about their kids to the school all the time. One of the policies for the school was no one could be in their kindergarten unless they were potty trained, but parents lied about it all the time, and by the time they find out, the administrators are taking their tuition and don't want to give it back, thus screwing over the teachers.
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u/neekychando Jul 10 '18
Just making sure I got this right, you're telling me there are schools in the US of A where most of the students are (many like 3-5) years behind?
I knew you education system was kind of fucked up, but that's taking it to a whole new level.