Failing Teachers

New York Times ^ | October 24, 2003 | BOB HERBERT

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Education," said John Dewey, "is the fundamental method of social progress and reform."

I've been talking recently with a handful of dedicated teachers about the classroom conditions that have festered over the past several years at some of New York City's least successful high schools. These are places where fear and loathing take up the space that could have been occupied by progress and reform.

You'll find these noisy, chaotic classrooms in almost any of America's big cities, not just New York. They are ruthlessly destructive, and scary to students and teachers alike. They are places where childhood dreams all too frequently expire.

"Sisyphus, that's me," said one teacher. "But I won't give up because I can't bear to walk away from these kids."

The teachers would not go on the record. They were afraid of being punished by school officials for speaking out. And some worried about reprisals from their own union because of comments critical of teachers.

"What goes on in these classrooms, that's the story of urban education," said a teacher from Brooklyn. "You've got kids playing dice in the back of the classroom. You've got kids listening to their Walkman, or writing rap rhymes. And rapping to girls. And also practicing gang signs. Now that's a classroom that's run by a teacher who doesn't care."

There were frequent references to "the back of the classroom." When I asked why, one teacher said: "There's a certain protocol to the room. If they sit in the back, the kids have specifically opted out of dealing with the classroom. They feel as though they can do whatever they want back there."

"They just slam their desks to the back of the room," said another teacher. "There might be 15 or 20 kids back there, with a space between their desks and the ones in the front of the room. The teacher just teaches the ones in the front."

"Remember," said a teacher from Manhattan, "these are just children. Teenagers. There is no reason to ever let them get out of control like that. But I would say that many of the teachers I've met don't care about their students."

A male teacher who runs very disciplined classes in Brooklyn spoke of the fear that plagues teachers and students in some schools. "You have violence in some of our schools, and people react to violence in different ways," he said. "You have teachers who have categorized all of the students as a problem. So they walk into the room afraid of the students without ever knowing them. To them, the students are one-dimensional. Everybody's a thug. Everybody's a problem. So they don't require anything of any of them.

"Meanwhile, the students themselves are scared. The class becomes undisciplined, and therefore dangerous. So the good students cut out because they don't want to be in that environment. That's one way you lose the good kids. You have a lot of students who are not thugs, but who left school because they couldn't learn - they couldn't even hear - in that noisy, disruptive atmosphere."

The teachers I talked to spread the blame widely among students, parents, teachers and administrators. But they were hardest on teachers.

"You have teachers who are very diligent," said a middle-aged teacher from the Bronx. "They work very hard, and even come up with money out of their own pockets to pay for supplies, or even to help these children when they are in trouble. But there are many, many others who are not remotely interested in these kids. They tell the kids to their faces: `I don't care what you do. I'm still going to get paid.'

"They mean it. They don't care. The kids pass classes they don't even attend, and attend classes they aren't even assigned to."

Said a teacher from Brooklyn: "Kids would literally go to their friends' classes. Just to hang out. One teacher laughed and said, `I should give you credit for this class, you've been here so many times.' "

The worst of the problems - the true extent of school violence, the utter chaos in some of the classrooms, the fraudulent grading and promotion practices, the widespread contempt heaped upon the students, and the scandalous lack of parental involvement - have not yet been fully and honestly revealed.

Real progress and real reform won't happen without an understanding of the real truth.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

A cry in the black education wilderness

[Cincinatus' Wife]

No excuses***"Excellent schools deliver a clear message to their students: No Excuses. No excuses for failing to do your homework, failing to work hard in general; no excuses for fighting with other students, running in the hallways, dressing inappropriately and so forth."

That's part of the prescription for ending educational mediocrity discussed in Abigail and Stephen Thernstrom's new book, No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning (Simon & Schuster, 2003).

It's no secret that, as the Thernstroms point out, the education achieved by white students is nothing to write home about. In civics, math, reading, writing and geography, nearly a quarter of all students leave high school with academic skills that are "Below Basic." In science, 47 percent leave high school with skills Below Basic, and in American history it's 57 percent. Below Basic is the category the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) uses for students unable to display even partial mastery of knowledge and skills fundamental for proficient work at their grade level.

As dismal as these figures are, for black students it is magnitudes worse. According to NAEP findings, only in writing are less than 40 percent of black high school students Below Basic. In math, it's 70 percent, and science 75 percent. Blacks completing high school perform a little worse than white eighth-graders in both reading and U.S. history, and a lot worse in math and geography.

The Thernstroms report, "In math and geography, indeed, they know no more than whites in the seventh grade." From these facts, the Thernstroms conclude, "The employer hiring the typical black high school graduate (or the college that admits the average black student) is, in effect choosing a youngster who has made it only through the eighth grade."***

[goldstategop]

But its liberals like Bob Herbert who oppose school choice for our poorest children. Without accountability, their future is being short-changed. Makes you wonder why Democrats are mortgaging their constituents' future just to stay on the good side of the teachers' unions.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

But its liberals like Bob Herbert who oppose school choice for our poorest children.

Hard to understand, isn't it? The only way schools will improve is when parents get their money back and have choices.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

NEA challenged on political outlays - Teacher's union fields "army of campaign workers"

[Pete]

Education," said John Dewey, "is the fundamental method of social progress and reform."

That is a problem right there. The Left decided to use the schools to forward their agenda instead of teach.

The worst of the problems - the true extent of school violence, the utter chaos in some of the classrooms, the fraudulent grading and promotion practices, the widespread contempt heaped upon the students, and the scandalous lack of parental involvement - have not yet been fully and honestly revealed.

Real progress and real reform won't happen without an understanding of the real truth.

These are symptoms. The real problem is discipline and respect for authority. These have been eroded as relativism has taken over. This is a worldview issue. The Left have spent the last 100 years or so propogating a secular worldview and then sit back in dismay at what they have wrought. It has taken a long time to get to where we are and will take a long time to get back. That is, if we are willing to turn.

[patj]

I want to add my 2-cents to this and yet, what can I say? We all know these problems, the source of these problems and still the people who are suffering the most help perpetuate them. As long as they graduate, feel good about themselves, everything is coming up roses. It depresses me. I want to grab teachers, parents,administrators, politicians by the throat, shake them and say "WAKE UP".

[Renegade]

Do that, and the assult charge will cause you to lose your fire-arm rights under the Lautencadever law !!!!

[Leisler]

In most things the government is the high cost, low quality provider. However it does do high cost, low quality well, and can do it on a large scale.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I want to grab teachers, parents,administrators, politicians by the throat, shake them and say "WAKE UP".

Yes, I want to scream! It's just the cruelist insanity.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

It has taken a long time to get to where we are and will take a long time to get back. That is, if we are willing to turn.

US college students' political views

[umgud]

There are some kids who will never be educated regardless the amount of money we throw at education. The problem starts with their parents. All else follows, including failed teachers.

[Ed_in_NJ]

Well put ("Let's throw another $50 billion at it, and see what happens.").

[Jim Noble]

The only way schools will improve is when parents get their money back and have choices

And when compulsory attendance laws after eighth grade are repealed.

[netmilsmom]

And yet people are amazed that black parents are choosing to homeschool!

[tiamat]

LOVE your tag-line!

;-)

Tia

[xzins]

Modern American Secondary Education has made the "High School" into the social life of the teenage class. Kids who have no interest in education will keep coming back to school just because they get a place to hang out with others, a stage for their cuteness, and all kinds of supporting entertainment.

One thing I noticed in Germany was that kids were in and out of school very quickly. They'd be on their way about 7:30 and they'd be coming home about 1 PM. In that time they'd pack in all the classes. There was no lunchroom, no buses, no sports teams. It was an educational institution. Those other things were provided by their communities, in the context of the community.

There's wisdom in going to a straight education model. For one thing, it forces parents to deal with their own kids' free time. It forces them to get involved in those lives.

Let's make the educational institution strictly for education. Get rid of all the trappings to include the lunchroom. You get about a 30-40 minute information dump, you go to the next class, etc., and then you go home and let your parents deal with your hormones and your social entertainment needs.

[yoswif]

As long as most parents refuse to take direct responsibility for the education of their children, little will change. Teachers need to be able to look a parent in the eye and say "I refuse to take your money to educate your child because you refuse to teach this child to behave like someone who wants to learn".

If a parent/guardian paid $500/month per child, regardless of source, for a local board certified teacher and either party had the right to end the arrangement at the end of the month, parents might figure out they're going to have to teach their kids some discipline or they're going to be stuck with the kid 24/7. Teacher license fees could pay for a board certified teacher evaluation service to test teachers, do background checks, and provide some sort of quality control verification. The licensing and quality control scheme is similar to that used by the electrical industry, which has done very well at improving electrical service and safety without direct federal or state control. I think the free market principles which have been so effective for improving electrical service and safety would also be very effective in improving education.

Unless and until good teachers and responsible parents insist on applying free market principles to solve big government problems, big government problems will just keep getting worse.

[yoswif]

As long as most parents refuse to take direct responsibility for the education of their children, little will change. Teachers need to be able to look a parent in the eye and say "I refuse to take your money to educate your child because you refuse to teach this child to behave like someone who wants to learn".

If a parent/guardian paid $500/month per child, regardless of source, for a local board certified teacher and either party had the right to end the arrangement at the end of the month, parents might figure out they're going to have to teach their kids some discipline or they're going to be stuck with the kid 24/7. Teacher license fees could pay for a board certified teacher evaluation service to test teachers, do background checks, and provide some sort of quality control verification. The licensing and quality control scheme is similar to that used by the electrical industry, which has done very well at improving electrical service and safety without direct federal or state control. I think the free market principles which have been so effective for improving electrical service and safety would also be very effective in improving education.

Unless and until good teachers and responsible parents insist on applying free market principles to solve big government problems, big government problems will just keep getting worse.

[AD from SpringBay]

If a kid doesn't want to, "...deal with the classroom." then that kid should have to leave and spend a court-ordered month at mom or dad's side (work, the house, wherever). The little darlings are losing their own future but they should not be allowed to steal the futures of the kids that want to learn. Or lower the drop-out age to 14 and then drop them out.