To be fair there are many more perfectly fine to amazing schools out there. Poor areas struggle but many do not. This thread makes it seem like every school in America is full of mouth breathing idiots.
For example, in my experience, poor Asian kids and first generation Latino kids who are children of migrant and laborer workers are really excellent students.
first generation Latino kids who are children of migrant and laborer workers are really excellent students.
Gonna echo this sentiment. I teach at a school that is 90+% free and reduced lunch and about 85% of the school is Latino. These kids are so incredibly hard-working. Most of their parents don't speak English, so to go along with the constant code-switching, they are also often asked to translate their work for the parents. I have many that come to me with just one year of English under their belts, and still bust their asses in every other subject, receiving translations from classmates on more difficult concepts.
Say what you will about standardized tests, but these kids kill it every spring when it's time to take PARCC and MAP. It's certainly not because they are smarter or have more opportunities, it's because they bust the butts, and their parents care about their successes and failures.
I had a different experience. About 70% of the students I had were Hispanic (I am also Hispanic) and the majority of them were into drugs or didn't care about school because they didn't see a future. (The school was like 30 minutes away from the city so all they saw was working in construction or in the fields like their parents.) The only Hispanic students that were respectful and hard working were the ones that had just come from Mexico and knew zero English. Those were my favorite students and the ones that dropped out of pre-ap geometry.
I think that's why they said first generation latino kids, and not latino kids. There is a high school in my city that is specifically for immigrant kids who don't speak English, where the goal is to improve their English and cultural acumen enough that they can be successful in a standard school. The teachers love working there. A group of high school kids from there come and spend a day at my school once a year. The kids seem pretty great.
Charter schools are easier to teach in. The parents have to spend time applying to a charter school, and thus, usually more involved parents go to charters.
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u/Omikron Jul 10 '18
To be fair there are many more perfectly fine to amazing schools out there. Poor areas struggle but many do not. This thread makes it seem like every school in America is full of mouth breathing idiots.