RSS Feed MenuDriving up Eight Street into town on the first day of school in my Wisconsin home town, it would only be a matter of time before we saw the yellow school buses driving into the middle and high schools. My brothers and I knew the school year was beginning because our mother would start crying as soon as she saw them. Once we saw the tears, we knew it was official – summer was over.
Today, the start of another school year doesn’t bring me anywhere near nostalgic tears. It brings me rage and frustration. Knowing what is about to happen in Baltimore city schools and in Washington D.C. schools just down the interstate from where I live is infuriating. Another year in America’s big city schools is about to be lost to disruptions that go beyond any complex intellectual, philosophical or political discussion. The chaos of urban high schools, a product of poverty, violence, high incarceration rates, joblessness and more, joined with the incompetence and apathy of the teachers and administrators who know just what’s coming to them the first minute the bell rings to signal the new year, will be too much for anyone to overcome.
As long as no one dies or any major crimes happen throughout the merciless seven-hour school day in our worst city high schools, the staff of these schools will go out to their cars knowing that the day could have been much worse.
New teachers stepping into inner city high school chaos for the first time will be rudely awakened by kids who cuss at them, run in and out of class, pick up cell phones with loud ring-tones, throw books on the floor and refuse to do anything. The new teacher will be shocked at the behaviors witnessed and will attempt to discipline the student(s). The new teacher will fail and lose control of the classroom. Lesson plans will go out the window for the day, week, maybe forever – it all depends on if this new person is really committed to the chaos they’ve signed on for. The new teacher will soon learn that he or she has a choice: survive the school day and make it a personal struggle, or dig and claw and try hard to teach in the face of relentless rudeness, misbehavior and demeaning frustration.
Administrators will have been told by the likes of Michelle Rhee, the over-hyped crusading leader of the D.C. Public School System, that they aren’t allowed to suspend kids this year; suspensions, they will have been told, will only lead to more kids out on the streets, higher incarceration rates, children out of wedlock, and on and on.
So every school will have something like a “timeout room” for disruptive students. Kids who roam the halls for hours on end will run in and out of the timeout room as hall monitors try and chase them down, playing on walkie-talkies like it’s a more important game of hide and seek. Kids who cuss teachers out or threaten them will be sent to the timeout room – not home. The assumption here must be that the children have no real home to go to.
The news today is that SAT scores for American high schoolers dropped to new lows last year. Asian-American students and whites increased a growing achievement gap over lower performing minority students. Experts tell you it’s because No Child Left Behind has failed, but that’s not true. School systems have failed, and they have failed in the same places year after year for decades now. And they will continue to fail as long as schools are out of control, unsafe and without discipline. Every administrator has a beginning of the year speech to their staff; inevitably, the speech will be something along the lines of this being a “new day,” or “out with the old, in with the new.”
But it’s not a new day in our worst urban high schools. Last year’s colossal problems had three months off. As soon as the bell rings and the buses roll in, the embarrassing reality of “education” in inner city high schools will resume. The problems of last year will have snowballed; a new crop of students will be sadly left behind.
joedee1969 // Aug 31, 2009 at 6:14 am
And Ted wrote the No Child Left Behind:
http://americaspeaksink.com/2009/08/conservatism-gets-buried-with-kennedy/
Cforchange // Aug 31, 2009 at 10:11 am
Thomas – we’ve spoke before about the urban school. Again, in my hood, we’re 5+ years past neighborhood school closings. We’re well into reorganization and scores are improving in new schools were students have been moved. Sizable schlorships are available to those who consistently try not just the top tier but over time there will be grade requirements. Plus the scholorships are a great incentive to move into the city.
Certainly there has been an entire population left behind but they never really showed up in a condition to be taught. We’ve failed this segment because we’ve left them in homes that were unsuitable. That’s what you’ve really experienced in Baltimore, enabled child abuse. Mix significant numbers of damaged humans with regular folk and chaos develops in no time.
I have a problem with general public school cirriculum – mostly geared for those who will sit behind a desk and that’s just not practical. This too is somewhat addressed with Pittsburgh City Schools, there are a variety of teaching methods available throughout the district like Montessori. Check out the Pittsburgh Promise and Mark Roosevelt,yes the name is very connected.
Progress is underway and it just may save our city. Now ask are there Republican’s involved here? Absolutely no. We have set ourselves up for no seats at this table. When the urban leadership of Baltimore decides enough is enough – they too will confront the situation. Then you must ask – does anyone in the GOP reside there or have they fled to a Mcmansion in the sky? This senario will play out across America – look at Cory Booker.
There are solutions. The GOP will be excluded from the roster of heroes who save American cities that is if we do not change.
sinz54 // Aug 31, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Cforchange asks: “Now ask are there Republican’s involved here? ”
Republicans were pioneers in charter schools; and in vouchers to enable decent kids to escape an indecent public school environment and go to private school where excellence may be more appreciated.
Cforchange // Aug 31, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Sinz, key there is “Republicans were pioneers “. Long forgotten… Out of sight, out of mind…
oldgal // Aug 31, 2009 at 12:50 pm
“they aren’t allowed to suspend kids this year”
I have always been amused by suspension for bad behavior. This only works where parents make their own punishment worse than going to school. An increasing number of parents don’t do this. Sooooo….we are giving the kids a present of x number of days without school, now that’s incentive. It would make more sense to make these kids attend extra classes, say on the week-ends, and maybe throw in some physical labor like cleaning up the school yard. I am sure many ideas superior to suspension would surface if folks put their minds to it.
liv&win // Aug 31, 2009 at 1:02 pm
I believe a focus on the students and families impacted…scratch that, tortured by the public school system in urban america is the most promising way for the republicans to lead themselves out of the wilderness. I think, if you are conservative, and the current situation doesn’t sicken you to the point of tirelessly advocating for reforms, than your republican party deserves to walk in the wilderness for a decade or more. In my mind, there is no greater personal tragedy and no greater threat to the sucessful future of america than the state of our education system. It is a proxy for almost all our societal shortcomings. Politically, that is, from the standpoint of inspiring people to action, doing good for the children, our future, is something everyone can relate to and be inspired about.
Charter schools are a good idea. Are there others? Have charters been widely adopted? Why not? When is the last time you did anything to promote positive change in education? Did you consistently challenge the current system? As Cforchange said, it is not enough to pioneer something. Ideas need to be nurtured, perfected, overseen, re-evaluated, re-applied. But this has to be BOTH top down and bottom up. I have my hands full with the education of my two young children as does my wife. I need help knowing where to focus my efforts to have the greatest impact.
I see what urban kids have to deal with…it is sickening. I hope my fellow conservatives can get with the program.
DFL // Aug 31, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Schools can only be as good as the people who attend them. If the people are bad, the schools will be bad. Baltimore is a violent city with tens of thousands of dysfunctional families. This situation is unlikely to change. Baltimore will remain a dark hole for perhaps as long as history itself, notwithstanding that Jenna Bush Hager deludes herself by teaching in Charm City.
liv&win // Aug 31, 2009 at 2:11 pm
dfl, I wholeheartedly reject your view, defeatist and hopeless in the extreme. I guess slavery acceptable because the slaves just weren’t ‘good’ enough to fight back. Yes, there are serious problems in urbania. Those problems exisit every where, they just exisit in greater density in urban settings. I guess your conservative republican party will be in the wilderness for a long time. Your calousness is the most evident example of conservatives being out of touch with humanity.
barker13 // Aug 31, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Re: Oldgal // Aug 31, 2009 at 12:50 pm (#5) –
“…we are giving the kids a present of x number of days without school…”
Ahh… but you’re also giving the SCHOOL – and thus all the teachers and students – a number of days without the miscreant disrupting the educational process.
Com’on, Oldgal… let’s look at that glass as being half full! (*WINK*)
“It would make more sense to make these kids attend extra classes, say on the week-ends, and maybe throw in some physical labor like cleaning up the school yard.”
Extra classes at WHOSE expense…??? (*SHRUG*) (*GRIN*)
(Jeez… I can only imagine the teacher’s union negotiating position on THAT one…)
(*SMILE*)
As to the physical labor…
AGREED! And as soon as the Revolution installs me as Supreme Dictator I’ll put your plan in motion.
Till then… (*SIGH*)… I’m afraid the legal system might have some objection – as too would the civil justice system.
BILL
DFL // Aug 31, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Perfectability of the human race is a liberal tendency. It is impossible to achieve. The budget of the Baltimore school system could be tripled and not have much noticeable effect other than as a jobs program. If I could suggest reforms for Baltimore it would be these- 1) kick out all troublemakers, regardless of age; 2) segregate schools by sex; 3) return to genuine trade schools for the 80% non-scholars and 4) hire hundreds of black ex-military men with permission to use force in disciplining the students. But none of my reforms will ever happen. They’re not “progressive”.
liv&win // Aug 31, 2009 at 5:19 pm
dfl, whoever mentioned perfection? Why would you even bother with such an comment? Kick out the trouble makers? OK, please define. Schools do that now in what is called zero tolerance whereby kids get expelled for having aspirin. Segregate schools by sex? do you mean whether they have done it or not? Just kidding. Trade-schools are great, but at what age does that start? There is so much to learn just to be an average intelligent, non-scholarly person that it should take 12 years of education to achieve what needs to be achieved. So sure, trades are great but how, when why? Then you get into the black/white thing. Your ideas may have merit, but you do not explain why they should be implemented and what problems your suggestions address other than “those darn black kids” (my quotes, not yours).
I am afraid that there would be some serious unintended consequences to your ideas.
midcon // Aug 31, 2009 at 7:09 pm
It is all rather simple. Government can give a damn, citizens can give a damn, but if parents do not give a damn, then it does not matter. I am not riding a “family values” horse, but unless the equation is balanced by parents who provide some semblemence of structure in the home to reinforce what is taught at school, the results will be same, except for the few gifted individuals who can rise above their circumstances. Vouchers and charter schools are an example of where there must be (and is) interest from all segments (primarily government and parents). It is difficult to conclude whether charter schools seem to be successful because the school environment is different or the home environment complements the school environment or both. My guess it would be both.
To discuss solutions that do not encompass the home is a bandaid. While dfl’s ideas are pretty progressive (not in the liberal sense), they are less draconian than others I’ve seen here including mine. Still they miss the role of the parents and when the parents fail, the children are not far behind. What solutions are there for that piece? Well, barker and I had a thread awhile back that probably went too far but it was along the lines of – if the parents fail, get them remedial help, if they continue to fail, then consider whether they are acting in the best interests of the child, if not, then maybe they do not need to be responsible for and raise that child. Draconian? Sure and of course it’s not the entire answer, but if we don’t address that segment of the problem, we will continue to wax eloquently about the failings of the public school system; and teachers; and government; etc.
virginiamom // Aug 31, 2009 at 9:25 pm
I agree with your observations — I live in and have children enrolled in an urban school district that has these same problems — but what are your suggestions for a solution? The administrators, teachers, parents, and, most of all, students, share your frustrations and are desperate for a new path — if you are going to talk about the problem, follow up with some ideas about how to fix it.
EscapeVelocity // Aug 31, 2009 at 10:24 pm
School Choice, Vouchers Funded StateWide that Follow the Child, Local Administrative Autonomy for schools, and the Government as Regulator and Standards.
This isnt rocket science. There isnt a one size cookie cutter approach. Unleash the entrepaneurship and creativity of those who want to improve schools, cirricula, teaching methods….let the market drive variety and quality.
This has shown to be effective in Sweden, Edmonton, and San Francisco.
The NEA is a block to these successful reforms…..Unions usually are.
In the end, you have to realize that with freedom comes responsibility and that some kids and parents will make woeful choices. Without the right to make these poor choices, you have tyranny. Man is imperfectable.
The above program will lift all students without neglecting any who wish to progress, gifted as well as the less gifted…..all races colors and creeds.
Here is an interesting school….and very successful as well.
Spitting in the eye of mainstream education
LA Times….
Not many schools in California recruit teachers with language like this: “We are looking for hard working people who believe in free market capitalism. . . . Multicultural specialists, ultra liberal zealots and college-tainted oppression liberators need not apply.”
That, it turns out, is just the beginning of the ways in which American Indian Public Charter and its two sibling schools spit in the eye of mainstream education. These small, no-frills, independent public schools in the hardscrabble flats of Oakland sometimes seem like creations of television’s “Colbert Report.” They mock liberal orthodoxy with such zeal that it can seem like a parody.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-charter31-2009may31,0,7064053.story
I happen to think that High School Should be totally scrapped….some subject matter moved to the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades….and then trade and craft schools, technical schools, and college prepatory schools offered in High Schools place. Furthermore structured apprenticeships should be developed for trades and crafts, like plumbers and construction workers. Not only will the young people benefit, but businesses that employ them will, and so will the quality of these trades and crafts when you hire a plumber to work on your house, he and his helpers are more likely to be much higher skilled. As it is, anyone can buy some tools and call themselves a plumber.
But that is just one way to go.
DFL // Sep 1, 2009 at 8:59 am
I wanted to thank midcon for the outstanding post. In the end, families have the most effect on a student’s success. Sadly, as Daniel Patrick Moynihan noted in the mid-60s, the creation of dysfunctional families was on the rise and would amount to being one of the most severe problems of our times. Dr. Moynihan was correct despite being pilloried at the time. The cycle of dysfunctional families has been intensifying for about fifty years- three and four generations for some families, if we can still call them families in the historical sense. I see much doom as a result.
virginiamom asks for solutions. My wife and I sacrificed salary so that she could home school. But I realize that homeschooling is not the solution for most. The solution may be intractable by government means.
EscapeVelocity // Sep 1, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Pretty sad that this issue goes so lightly commented on, by the “New Majority” folks that claim that Republicans lack interest in this subject….then go on to show that they themselves cant be arsed to comment on it and think about it.
LOL!
midcon // Sep 1, 2009 at 4:42 pm
escapevelocity // Sep 1, 2009 at 2:23 pm Pretty sad that this issue goes so lightly commented on, by the “New Majority” folks that claim that Republicans lack interest in this subject….then go on to show that they themselves cant be arsed to comment on it and think about it.
Sad, but perhaps understandable. Propose something new to try and I will jump on board and try it. Everything else has been done to death. More money, more police, more of more. The urban school (code word for inner city minority majority) model is broken because it only infuences the students for 5-6 hours per day. Unless you are able to change that metric the status quo will continue except in rare instances. We ignore it out of futility.
EscapeVelocity // Sep 1, 2009 at 7:00 pm
Inner City San Francisco….Limited School Choice within the Public School system.
Check it out.
I favor a broader school choice which includes the private sector….however the San Fran model shows that movement in that direction is the key. Any movement in that direction.
Its funny that the heart of Far New Leftism in this country has school choice in there city, but vehemently opposes it at the state and national level for other peoples kids. But then again, that is how Leftwingers operate, isnt it.