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Saturday, March 16, 2013 | 2:02 a.m.
Another view?
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Principals and teachers should not be berated because of the failure of our own system, which is not because of their teaching.
Years ago, children could not attend school unless they spoke English — my mother was one of those children.
We tend to forget why people come to our great country.
They come here to become citizens, but some are ignorant of the fact that they must learn and teach their young children English.
I blame our country and the pandering it does to non-English speaking people. It keeps them down by printing things in their native language.
How will these people get jobs? How will their children graduate?
The principals and teachers know this, but I don’t understand why they accept being berated, having their schools taken over because of low grades and graduations. It’s not their fault, and yet it is because they are afraid to speak up for fear of being labeled as prejudiced.
Something needs to be done or we will find that we are now the foreigners in our own country; don’t look now, but we already are. And I’m not prejudiced. How do I know all this? Because I worked for the Clark County School District for more than 10 years.
Instead of moving forward, we are moving backward.
This blog is in English
Author makes an excellent point on the language barrier and academic achievement. I know many teachers in CCSD who say the same exact thing. Kudos to Governor Brian Sandoval for saying in his state of the State address that a primary goal of Nevada's education is to ensure all children can read and write English by the third grade.
Carmine D
PART 1 of 2
Thank you Mamie, for speaking up and sharing your own personal, life experience as well. Your example sheds some light on the massive issue our country and education in our country faces, with precious few people willing to tackle the issue.
You stated,"The principals and teachers know this, but I don't understand why they accept being berated, having their schools taken over because of low grades and graduations. It's not their fault, and yet it is because they are afraid to speak up for fear of being labeled as prejudiced."
After living in Nevada for over ten years, and having a child finish his education here in Nevada, and being an educator myself, I have experienced this dilema a bit differently. Those who realize a wrong and speak out, automatically become objects of others' focus, and oft times, ridicule, making that courageous individual a target of misplaced hatred. It is safe to say that most educators now working in the system, are extremely frustrated with the way things are going, daily experience the sense of helplessness, and even have a sense of themselves being victims of the public backlash to a deteriorating public school system that lacks adequate funding year after year.
If one speaks up, they become a target: of being talked about, which includes gossip, distorted repetitions of positions, and some will even shun that speaker. It gets personal at times, and one has to develop a thick skin towards those who differ.
Then it becomes the BLAME GAME, of which you have to ask the chicken and the egg question of which came FIRST. Kids aren't learning and who is to blame?
PARENTS are a child's first and lifelong teacher. Many children are coming to school without both parents, or even having one birth parent. If these parents lack skills, it absolutely affects their children.
Yet when you bring up the parent's role, or the role of the home on a child's academic and/or social performance, educators, counselors, and psychologists throw their hands up in the air and say nothing can be done about THAT.
THAT is a big part of the problem! Who is to blame?
Blessings and Peace,
Star
Stop blaming teachers for low test scores in a system that pushes students forward when they are non-proficient, even if their teachers would like them held back. Stop blaming teachers for low test scores of lazy students. Stop blaming teachers for low test scores of students who are frequently absent. Stop blaming teachers for low test scores of students who don't do homework. Stop blaming teachers for low test scores of students who simply do not care if they get an education.
But there are those who still will. It's not an issue of rationality; it's an issue of vitriol.
It's also an issue of money and politics: Call the teachers bad and the schools failing, buy the politicians, allow people to use public money for private schooling, allow the government to give big grants to slick education salespeople, open a for-profit education business, and listen to the ignorant and nasty continue to blame teachers. Then laugh heartily.
I would like to add another perspective to Star's. Why don't teachers speak up more? It's not just the reaction Star mentioned, which is true, but it's also this one: All of a sudden you have administrators in your room frequently and for long periods, writing down all sorts of negative things on your observation forms, and then giving you poor evaluations. Teacher bullying is rampant.
Contrary to popular belief, yes, teachers certainly can lose their jobs. It just takes administrators putting in the time. An administrator who likes you will write down positive things; an administrator who doesn't writes down negative things. Any teacher can be dinged for all sorts of things, because the job is literally impossible. Observations/evaluations are very, very subjective.
And it is being made easier, through legislation, to get rid of teachers. You will soon see more of a revolving door.
But they don't even have to go so far as to make you lose your job. They can give you all sorts of directives to follow that add hours and hours to a job that already requires long hours. (Long hours is another aspect of the job that the nasty and ignorant will not acknowledge.)
I have prayed to get out of this, but my prayers have not been answered yet. Yes, it's better than unemployment, but it's reaching the point where it won't be. Slavish work for pay that never increases; a system being put in place to make it pretty easy to get rid of you - which you can bet will happen once you get to a certain salary level; the previously-mentioned subjective evaluations; being whipped to do the impossible and being bad-mouthed by society when you can't; subjected to being harassed, abused, and disrespected if you speak your mind, no matter if you are generally good and respected teacher; being told you have to work more, more, more for no more pay to help students, while students themselves can be lazy, absent, unconcerned, disruptive and/or massively undisciplined; having to put up with abuse and harassment by parents; being made to teach with scripted programs, but having low student test scores blamed on you, not the scripted programs or the students...: these do not make for much of a life.
PART 2 of 2
Who is to blame for THAT problem?
Lawmakers REFUSE to deal with THAT problem, for decades now. And we all know the results from not dealing with THAT integral factor in a child's life. Also, Lawmakers refuse to adequately fund Nevada's infrastructure, and education, is a part of the Nevada infrastructure.
Today's Lawmakers are consumed with worrying about campaign election or reelection funding resources (think lobbyists who are backed by special interested industries), pleasing ALEC promoters, and keeping their own political party happy. Lawmakers have their priorities, and the little guy American Citizen barely makes a noise.
Aside from those receiving Special Education services, the children who come into our classrooms rarely come prepared. These children don't read at home, nor practice skills learned in school at home, and as many will testify, fewer yet, ever complete homework assignments. It is damn sad to have to do homework in the classroom at school, because there is no priority in the home to do it at home. This is the new America, welcome to it.
Educators are faced with having to teach all children in their classroom, regardless of their situation or circumstances, spreading their energies and resources thin, when what should happen, is to focus on teaching those children who truly are there ready to learn. Private schools have that ability while public schools do not. Taxpayers are wasting millions of dollars on trying to reach and serve everyone, when only a few are truly prepared to receive instructional services. This needs to change. Parents refuse to accept responsibility for anything other than giving birth to these children (so they can get their tax deduction or welfare checks).
Solution: Place those who are not ready to learn in designated classrooms that can focus their time, energies, and funding on getting them up to speed, ready to function at grade level. Until we, the educators (with the support of Lawmakers), do this, we will continue to have the miserable results we have been getting for years.
It's not prejudice, it's good, old fashioned commonsense and prudence. Thank you.
Blessings and Peace,
Star
"Solution: Place those who are not ready to learn in designated classrooms that can focus their time, energies, and funding on getting them up to speed, ready to function at grade level."
Amen, Star.
Stop the social promotion. Stop blaming teachers for the failure of kids who have counter-productive behaviors and habits. And make the school environment a more positive one all around, for everyone.
Commenter Teacher stated at 8:35 a.m. the following truths, "Stop blaming teachers for low test scores in a system that pushes students forward when they are non-proficient, even if their teachers would like them held back. Stop blaming teachers for low test scores of lazy students. Stop blaming teachers for low test scores of students who are frequently absent. Stop blaming teachers for low test scores of students who don't do homework. Stop blaming teachers for low test scores of students who simply do not care if they get an education.
But there are those who still will. It's not an issue of rationality; it's an issue of vitriol.
It's also an issue of money and politics: Call the teachers bad and the schools failing, buy the politicians, allow people to use public money for private schooling, allow the government to give big grants to slick education salespeople, open a for-profit education business, and listen to the ignorant and nasty continue to blame teachers. Then laugh heartily."
Follow the money trail.....
Education is a BILLION dollar business, and as long as education is viewed as needing fixing, those in the educational industries, as publishing, testing, consulting, etc., will continue to receive RECORD PROFITS, while our children are used as their pawns, and teachers must constantly bend to every wind of program that prevails in the educational air. WHO funds these educational businesses? The LAWMAKERS with taxpayer dollars, of course! There should be some real screaming going on, where is it?
Those in the educational trenches in our public classrooms, get the most scrutiny and blame, while educational upper management administration or administrators, get to be the punishers of teachers (who are only following THEIR marching orders) on behalf of the Lawmakers. The blame has to follow the money trail, every time.
Isn't it time for the taxpaying public to demand a positive return on taxpayer investment dollars? You must start accountability on those MOST responsible and to blame: the Lawmakers and the parents.
Blessings and Peace,
Star
I've posted this same thing more than once. A child should not be thrust into the school district until he or she understands the English language. If held back just one year I do believe that we would see progress.
What would Caesar do?
Let the little brown kids teach Espanol to little white kids in those 'designated classrooms' where Star and Teacher have placed the 'not-ready for regular prime time class' kids. And ditto Engles back to Juan.
And they will both become learners, sharers, linguists and friends. They will see their mutual strengths and they will benefit from the barter. Life-long learners are made from little experiments in seeing how things are.
These are opportunities dressed up in suits of despairing odds, but with needs and talents we know we can manage for mutual benefits. Recognizing diversity develops convergent and divergent thinking patterns many times, but self-esteem every time.
For me, it is important to bring forward out of the "untrusted" comments (most post this way to maintain their private identity), Commenter Teacher's perspective, as well as those as Tanker1975. It is difficult to speak out without suffering some form of reprisal from those who must disagree (due to their own positions in the organization), or those who have differing opinions and operate on a good guy/bad guy basis, or ulterior motives.
Commenter Teacher, continues at 8:57 a.m., to provide much needed enlightenment into the plight of very dedicated public servants in education. Below is Teacher's post contiued:
"I would like to add another perspective to Star's. Why don't teachers speak up more? It's not just the reaction Star mentioned, which is true, but it's also this one: All of a sudden you have administrators in your room frequently and for long periods, writing down all sorts of negative things on your observation forms, and then giving you poor evaluations. Teacher bullying is rampant.
Contrary to popular belief, yes, teachers certainly can lose their jobs. It just takes administrators putting in the time. An administrator who likes you will write down positive things; an administrator who doesn't writes down negative things. Any teacher can be dinged for all sorts of things, because the job is literally impossible. Observations/evaluations are very, very subjective.
And it is being made easier, through legislation, to get rid of teachers. You will soon see more of a revolving door.
But they don't even have to go so far as to make you lose your job. They can give you all sorts of directives to follow that add hours and hours to a job that already requires long hours. (Long hours is another aspect of the job that the nasty and ignorant will not acknowledge.)
...Slavish work for pay that never increases; a system being put in place to make it pretty easy to get rid of you - which you can bet will happen once you get to a certain salary level; the previously-mentioned subjective evaluations; being whipped to do the impossible and being bad-mouthed by society when you can't; subjected to being harassed, abused, and disrespected if you speak your mind, no matter if you are generally good and respected teacher; being told you have to work more, more, more for no more pay to help students, while students themselves can be lazy, absent, unconcerned, disruptive and/or massively undisciplined; having to put up with abuse and harassment by parents; being made to teach with scripted programs, but having low student test scores blamed on you, not the scripted programs or the students..."
To my fellow educators, thank you for taking courage, coming forward, and speaking out. May others be inspired to believe that what they have to say is equally important and MUST be said!
Blessings and Peace,
Star
The problem with our schooling is the unions; government employees unions are by definition criminal conspiracies against the people. Teacher unions have produced 3 generations of illiterate nincompoops who vote their "feelings". They have no knowledge of history, geography, literature, philosophy, logic, chemistry, physics, mathematics...And all that at twice the cost of private schooling.
My heart goes out to those teachers who give a hoot, who have given their time and energy and have had the less than satisfying experiences with an obstinate bureaucracy and the bullies that it creates.
Having a few other life experiences as a back-drop has helped me gain some comfort in the decision to walk away from the classroom.
My advancing age and failing health add perspective and some gravity to the decisions I made to re-invigorate my 60s with another layer of career change/modification.
Even though its rigors leave me exhausted, the satisfaction from my non-teacher role is immense. I am flush with gratitude for the courage to link my teaching career to another life-long love and to re-create my role using skills honed in classrooms and other life-work.
Working with an adult audience after years of juveniles is revealing of how little people change!
http://www.examiner.com/article/why-form...
I actually make better money than teachers, enjoy quite a bit of autonomy and get to see progress in people's lives by educating folks in stuff they love - saving money and improving the livability of their homes.
http://www.examiner.com/article/energy-a...
Sure it can dirty and physical, but only enough to see what's around the corner. We got cool gizmos and gadgets to see through walls and measure things unimaginable. Science in action in the Information Age.
http://www.examiner.com/article/energy-c...
For what your time is worth, satisfaction is a premium, teachers. Look around before it's too late. I am glad I taught, and oddly enough, I am glad I walked away and lived another life too.
How long before English is the 2nd language here in Vegas? I'm so glad I don't have kids.
To MarcJeric32: Are the "unions" sending children to school without command of the English language,hungry, preoccupied with technological gadgets/video gaming, not doing homework, emotionally neglected, not practicing skills with things as math fact flash cards, or reading for pleasure and comprehension?
Your argument is weak, MarcJeric32. This is more about individual responsibility, it is not as simplistic as you propose. Unions are far from perfect, but they have served a purpose on this planet to thwart exploitation of greedy employers on labor. We have child labor laws to end the abuse of using children in dangerous and abusive workplaces. I assume you rather reinstitute such practices. Thank you.
Blessings and Peace,
Star
Amen, Star!
Very astute observations.
If I may add...
Decades ago, society decided that 'school district' meant something entirely different than it used to.
'School districts' became parents, food services, medical practitioners, care-givers and a veritable laundry list of Social Services.
Additionally, 'ADMIN' became BLOATED like a giant, voracious SOW.
Parents became 'too busy' to raise their own children and demanded more and more AND MORE out of the local schools.
The amount of resources now allocated from the general fund to NON-TRADITIONAL endeavors has sucked the 'classroom' and it's teachers BONE DRY.
We need a re-boot, but not in the sense that we hear about these days from 'reformers'.
We constantly strive to 'identify problems in the system that affect student achievement'...
we test like there's no tomorrow; we blame teachers for parent's failures; we hire consultants and specialists and appoint untold numbers of (former) classroom teachers to non-classroom related duties and then 'pretend' they're helpful and impactful and part of a solution; we point accusing fingers in every direction but the genuinely obvious ones...
Why?
Because we're beholden to the squeaky wheels...AND
so that adults can look good in the eyes of other adults.
"See! We're improving!"
Smoke & mirrors.
Here are some thoughts from former educators...
"We want one class of persons to have a liberal education, and we want another class of persons, a very much larger class of necessity in every society, to forgo the privilege of a liberal education and fit themselves to perform specific difficult manual tasks." -- Woodrow Wilson, The Education President
"When schoolchildren start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of school children." -- Albert Shanker, longtime president of the American Federation of Teachers
Does Barack Obama send his kids to public schools? Taxpayer funded schools certainly are "good enough" to send our kids there. But not his. If anything, it would be a symbolic gesture on his part to send his kids to the worst public school in Washington DC. They could be kept safe. And also get the education that Barry O says we all deserve and have earned...
Hypocrisy. "Good for thee, but not for me..."
obviously, the truth detector EARNED his!
Ms. Glorioso states that years ago children had to know English before they could attend school. That is simply not true.
My own grandmother and her siblings, born and raised in Kansas to French speaking American born and raised parents, did not learn English until she went to school. Her parents eventually learned English because all of their kids learned English.
Tendency of education is feeling its worst for years and years. Budget negotiations are not helping, state leaders are twisting their hands, people are opinionated with their opinions who is found guilty, school atmosphere is chilled with uncertainty. Need to start speaking a good school period ahead and finding good results. Any questions ?
Who's to say that these students don't already speak English? Certainly some do not, but I would suggest that many do and don't let on.
I know, hearsay argument. I have seen at my job (both of them), at the grocery store, any number of places, young children translating for their parents.
When my younger son was in 3rd grade his teacher called me in. It seems he would finish his work first then get bored and start clowning around. Ms. M suggested that we could try having him tutor the non -English speaking students in English. After the first week my son was fluent in Spanish cursing.
After the second week, I went back to Ms. M and told her to have him read instead. He was not to tutor anyone. The reason : the night before he asked me why the Spanish kids couldn't speak English in the classroom but spoke it just fine on the playground.
Just sayin'.
I grew up with many, many LEGAL immigrants who did NOT speak English until they learned their a b c 's. That's when their parents learned English too. There were no special programs and they were NOT bared from attending. Class size was 33-35 per teacher. After attendance was taken, if you didn't want to stay in class (high school) you could leave. Very few left because the kids wanted to learn. OK, we were not enamored with the details of world history, and some didn't like the finer points of calculus. There were few discipline problems because students could leave anytime they wanted to.
Further, Ms. Glorioso does not explain how she "knows" that it's not the teachers or principals. Perhaps educators are too concerned with themselves to bother focusing on reading, writing, rithmetic.
@TruthDetector. You may want to read these.
This is from the Washington Post when Romney used the "quote"
A footnote on the Wikipedia page attributes the quote to an article in the monthly magazine the Atlantic, but that piece was written by Joel Klein, a former New York City schools chancellor who later became executive vice president of News Corp. Klein inevitably would have butted heads with teachers unions while heading the Big Apple's school system, since he had to negotiate employee contracts and implement higher student-achievement standards.
The Wikipedia entry also explains that the Albert Shanker Institute tried to pin down the source of the quote supposedly made by its namesake. The group discovered what appears to be a first reference to the alleged quote in an unbylined 1985 article in the Meridian Star newspaper of Meridian, Miss. Here's how the passage read:
"American Federation of Teachers President Albert Shanker may have hit the key difference between his organization and both the public and the legislature a couple of years ago when he said, 'When school children start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of school children.'"
The Meridian Star article was titled, "Teacher unions made their bed, must sleep in it." This suggests that the quote came from an opinion piece or that the editor didn't know how to write an unbiased headline.
We found the article on microfiche at the Library of Congress. Sure enough, it was an editorial from the newspaper staff.
The Shanker Institute traced the alleged remark back to three other sources: a 1993 article in the Washington Times by libertarian economist Walter Williams, a 1995 book by the same author (page 83), and a 1997 study from a conservative think tank (page 176). All attributed the comments either directly or indirectly to the Congressional Record from August 1985.
The institute determined that the quote doesn't appear in any Congressional Record entry from August 1985 but that it does show up by way of Reps. Dick Armey (R-Tex.) and Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), who mentioned it in 1994 and 2001, respectively.
We went to the Library of Congress to search for the alleged quote in the Congressional Record since the free online database only goes back to 1989. Shanker is not on record as making the statement any time between 1979 and 1986. If the union boss uttered those words in 1985, or even a few years before then, as the Meridian Star suggested, it didn't happen at a congressional hearing.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact...
The article, called "Teacher unions made their bed, must sleep in it", has no byline. Here is the relevant passage:
American Federation of Teachers President Albert Shanker may have hit the key difference between his organization and both the public and the legislature a couple of years ago when he said, "When school children start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of school children.
So, unless you consider "a couple of years ago" to be journalistically-rigorous sourcing, this is not a source.
The second possible origin is the Congressional Record, also from August 1985. For example, a 1995 book, Do the Right Thing: The People's Economist Speaks, by George Mason University economist Walter E. Williams, attributes the quote (page 83) to a statement made by Shanker that was supposed to have been included in the August 1985 Congressional Record. A 1997 paper by David W. Kirkpatrick, published by the conservative Reason Public Policy Institute, also uses the quote, citing (via footnote on page 10) a Washington Times article called "Rip-Offs in the Schools?" (9/5/92). This article also attributes the quote to the 1985 Congressional Record.
So we searched the Congressional Record. The quote does not appear in August 1985. In fact, there are only two instances in which that quote has ever been entered into the Congressional Record. The first was on March 23, 1994, when former Rep. Dick Armey (R-TX) used the quote secondhand. The second was on May 23, 2001, when the quote was put forth (again secondhand, with no source) by Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO). It's plausible that the Meridian Star article was entered into the record.
It is very difficult -- sometimes impossible -- to prove a negative, especially when it is something like a verbal quotation. And we are not professional archivists or historians. So, we cannot demonstrate conclusively that Albert Shanker never made this particular statement. He was a forthright guy who was known for saying all manner of interesting and provocative things, both on and off the record.
But we believe the quote is fiction, and instead have an alternative explanation.
A couple of former Shanker staff members recall an incident that may be the source. The words weren't spoken in 1985, or "a couple of years" before that. The incident in question occurred during a speech Shanker delivered at Oberlin College, while he was still president of New York City's United Federation of Teachers (probably during the early- to mid-1970s).
Although nobody recalls the exact wording, it went something like this:
I don't represent children. I represent teachers" But, generally, what's in the interest of teachers is also in the interest of students.