Posted on 12/29/2007 9:59:03 AM PST by wintertime
My dad was born in the US. His parents were immigrants. They spoke Ukrainian at home and when he went to school, he couldn’t speak English. He survived.
Not only did he learn English fluently, all the while speaking Ukrainian at home and in church, and in the little local community.
He graduated at the top of his class for all four years in high school, was perfectly fluent in both languages without a trace of accent in either.
It can be done and nobody needs to be coddled to do it.
Teaching kids in their native language here just robs them of the chance to become proficient in both languages. They never master English the way the need to.
Of course you are right. What I find even more exasperating is how socialistic the illegals are on our dime. We didn't create that. They came uninvited, across our borders like that. These idiots are genetic, can I have a bite of your burrito, socialists.
Regards & Happy New Year.
The surest way for a child to be left behind is to be enrolled in the public schools.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I wish Rush, Sean, and OReilly would plainly start saying this.
ping
Lots of other suggestions for improving schools in that article, from a number of different people. This one from Roy Romer was interesting, too:
So how do we get [great teachers in every classroom]? We need to recruit better. We need to retain the best. We need to make the career of teaching attractive financially, paying more to those with particular skills, those who take on tough school assignments and those who produce the best results. We need to involve teachers in every effort. Today, there are great teachers in some of our classrooms. If we focus on moving that from some to most, it would be the single most important change in our youngsters' school life.
Something that my MIL mentioned to me last week when we were discussing her granddaughters and their possible career paths. When she was growing up there were so few choices for women. Those that wanted to work were generally teachers or nurses. The really brave ones ventured out into the "manly men" areas. But for the most part, the best and the brightest went into teaching and nursing. There were no other easy choices. Those that weren't so bound to work were housewives, secretaries, and/or other tasks not requiring higher degrees
Now the best and the brightest women can go anywhere, especially if they are smart in math and sciences. You are a science teacher; could you not make significantly more money in private industry?
The best and the brightest go into areas with the money. This waters down the pool of those available for the schools. Maybe when teaching is as attractive as the private industry schools can genuinely compete for those that might go into non-educational fields
Yes, actually I majored in education for a while as an undergrad, but changed my major after working as an unskilled laborer one summer, making more than my mother was making after 20 years in education.
I switched back to education from industry after I had children, because the hours were more “Mom-friendly”, and because I’d always wanted to teach, but never could rationalize the pay cut until I had children.
This list is for articles relating to public education. SoftballMominVA and I have been asked to take over the list. If you want on or off this ping list, please FReepmail SoftballMominVA or Gabz.
I agree.
About a month into the school year when I started HS, 2 recent immigrants from Haiti were enrolled. Neither girl spoke English, only French. One was a freshman, in my class, her sister was a year older. By the end of the school year both were proficient in English, and all of us who were blessed with being in the same class with either of them had much help with our French.
The HS I attended mandated 3 years of French and 2 years of either Latin or Spanish for graduation. At the time (I was class of '78) I believe NYS only required 2 years of foreign language.
“I would dearly love for parents who actually give a damn about their kids education to SEE some of the papers I have graded. The work is elementary level, yet the spelling, grammar and sentence construction is appalling; there is not the slightest grasp of even the simplest concepts and no show of any interest at all.”
Ahhh. I think you’re operating from a faulty premise. The education is not the issue for many if not most of the parents; it’s the access to tax-subsidized daycare.
You seem to be an intelligent, concerned teacher. Have you ever considered doing something else, like tutoring?
“I wish Rush, Sean, and OReilly would plainly start saying this.”
Dream on, my FRiend. Most of their air time is spent flacking for the GOP or themselves. It’s a business, and they’re going to tell their audience exactly what they think they want to hear. As the vast bulk of “conservatives” enroll their children in government schools, they aren’t going to want to rock that boat.
Nobody, especially a “conservative” wants to be told that they’re a welfare mama. And that’s exactly what the underlying problem with the government schools is; they’re institutions for the provision of subsidized daycare, not education.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Conservative Welfare Mama!
Great way to put it! Short, sweet, and soooo right!
FWIW: While English should be the primary language of instruction in ALL U.S. schools, we are PATHETIC in that we don’t start teaching second languages in grade school. I would love for my children to start learning Spanish, Mandarin, or even Arabic from a young age (French, of course, is useless).
In my experience, it is YOU who are operating from the faulty premise.
Are there parents such as you describe? Of course. Are they the "many if not most of the parents?" Not in my current experience.
It is all going to depend upon the local district. I specifically moved from a district where your premise was much less faulty, to one where your premise is very much faulty. Parent/Teacher "conferences" have been known to be held in the frozen food aisle of the local supermarket or the checkout line of WalMart. Heck, I even had an impromtu one at a local town festival.
“It is all going to depend upon the local district.”
Of course, as well as the specific school and specific classes within that school.
There’s great variation in the quality levels of parents, and it’s somewhat locationally specific. We could debate all day whether it’s some, many, or most who are more interested in daycare or education. I can only discuss what I’m familiar with in my little corner of the planet.
I see the parents who can’t wait to turn their children over to the government schools so they can be rid of them for the day. I also regularly see the results of crummy educational attainment; the high school students whose math skills are such that they can’t make change, and who couldn’t write a paragraph to save their souls. Not to mention the juvenile delinquency, drug use, ad nauseum. Who is to blame? In my view, the responsibility of raising and educating children falls to the parents.
The government schools often don’t help, but as I regularly point out on these threads, every single state in the country has provisions for home education. Use of the governmment schools is voluntary in the sense that there are private and/or home education alternatives.
In fairness, I do see some parents who seem very concerned for their children’s education and who still use the government schools. In my own personal experience, those parents are relatively few and far between.
So while I’m never going to be accused of being an advocate for the government schools, I do recognize that the government schools have something of an impossible task to perform with children who often have little parental involvement or interest.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Spot on analysis!
I have often thought that Rush does not address school issues because he is not a parent, and doesn’t feel comfortable about discussing kid issues.
I have often wondered why, when Sean and OReilly spotlight government school abuses, they consistently miss pointing out the most rational solution: ( remove your kids and shut these schools down!).
All three consistently miss two other problems with government schools: Marxism and the incompatibility of compulsory government schooling and the First Amendment.
When it comes to the 3 Stooges ( Rush, Sean, and OReilly) sometimes I felt like yelling at the radio or TV screen, but your analysis clarifies everything. It is a business. When most conservatives use the government schools, the last thing they will do is offend their audience.
The 3 people with the most power to help kids escape these government kiddie prison sit there and do almost nothing useful. (barf!)
I’m just beginning this little foray into academia as a certified teacher. After 32 years in medicine, I thought teaching would be a logical “next step”since I did it so often in a hospital setting and loved it. I see the public schools as “entry level”. What I have seen in the past 5 years gives me nightmares- about our education system, our next generation of potential “leaders” and a MASSIVE headache!
Since I’ve spent so many years in the university setting, I suppose that is where I will end up. A nice little private school would be the most wonderful (sigh), but THOSE jobs are snatched up faster than fried chicken by the best teachers. It must be wonderful to be in a school where the parents actually have an incentive to control their kids...
Get 'em outside the box
Let's fling open the doors of high schools and move restless kids from passive to active learning.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.