Posted on 09/18/2016 10:15:07 PM PDT by kevcol
"It doesn’t even feel like school," said Hall, a senior at Osborn Evergreen Academy of Design and Alternative Energy. "It makes my stomach hurt just walking into the facility, knowing we're basically getting cheated – really, getting robbed – of education."
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The 133-page complaint says the state of Michigan has disinvested in education in Detroit so much that children lack fundamental access to literacy.
Hall, 16, said he has friends who can't read "but it's not because they aren't smart, it's because the state has failed them".
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
So they closed all the public libraries there?
Osborn is the high school I attended from 1974 to 1976. It is located on E. Seven Mile and Hoover on the northeast side of the city. We even had two swimming pools at the time I went there. Imagine the funding they had at the time to maintain two pools. I have to say I received a very good education at the time I was there.
I’m willing to be the house that the troubles for the Detroit schools didn’t just start a couple of decades ago.
Someone must go back and compare the educational results for the high schools (and others is possible) from say, 1950-2015 concerning the basics - English (speaking, reading and writing); math (I was lousy at math); Science (Biology, Chemistry); foreign languages; Civics/Government; and History.
I can understand that the black schools might have been disadvantaged even after desegregation for a while, but I would have expected a general rise in student proficiency showing up by 1970 or so.
Then look at who controlled the Mayorship and City Council of Detroit from about 1975 onward. Hint, hint. Communist Party member Coleman Young, mayor; Members of the City Council including chairmen, Maryanne Mahaffey (Marxist) and Erma Henderson (Marxist), Carl Levin (member and chairman, incompetent liberal), and others.
See how they deformed basic education by switching teaching programs and what they emphasized in place of the Basic course programs I listed above.
I’m willing to bet that if you use a graph chart to show educational progress or regress in each teaching group, you will see what happened and when (re overall achievement scores).
A subsidiary study would involve the role that the Marxist-led UAW (United Autoworkers Union) in destroying the economy with their never-ending wage raise demands/benefits, and how that drove jobs out of the area/state, and led to a severe decrease in taxes that could have been used to maintain a good educational system.
There is an old adage of “Suffer the children” and Detroit did that, made them suffer. Now we need to know why in order to correct it.
Science, math, geography, languages, Government studies programs are “color blind”. A chemical doesn’t discriminate on race or religion, etc. Nor does learning French since literally none of us are born speaking it. We had to learn it from scratch.
I believe the kids will “learn” when you teach the foundation blocks first, then make the upper wall bricks exciting, informative and challenging.
Maybe this lawsuit will have some teeth and do some good. Only time will tell but these children need help, and the sooner the better.
I’m not saying give them computers - there are computers in libraries. I’m just saying the means to learn to read are readily available for anyone who wants to put forth the effort - and libraries are already set up to teach people to read.
“Hall, 16, said he has friends who can’t read “but it’s not because they aren’t smart...”
How did he learn to read? Did they hold a lottery and he won the prize of being taught to read?
Seems to me his so smart friends had the same opportunities.
Say that again and again!!!! Literacy starts at home , not at school. Literacy starts at home , not at school. Literacy starts at home , not at school.
The mere fact that you owe it to yourself should be enough. But children who come from families with illiterate parents are at a tremendous disadvantage.
I can attest that the SRA program I went through at when I was 9 helped me a great deal.
My kids were educated in Michigan, and they both could read quite well. It isn't the state that failed, it is the city of Detroit, run for decades by corrupt Democrats. Pardon the redundant description.
Libraries are full of books. They exist to provide content to people who can already read. The ability to read is something that most people acquire somewhere between age 3 and 5. People who fail by that point are left to the public schools. Given the dumbed down state of the public schools, they are likely on a trajectory to failure in life by that point. Social promotion will move them along until the drop out.
Absolutely. Someone is responsible for explaining things to kids, and it isn't the school. It all starts with the guardians, whether it be parents, or other relatives.
My 4-year-old granddaughter can read and write, and she is not yet in public school. Her mom takes her to the library, they read books together. Grandma and Grandpa assist. She is having a little trouble writing lower case at the right size relative to upper case, but she can read. She has a leg up on those 17 & 18 year old Detroit kids. They can't learn in the 17 years they've been on Earth, then they are not smart, they are stupid (and I don't mean retarded).
You have to do that .
You need to make sure that once she starts she is in all AP classes otherwise she will learn nothing .
I even forced the school to send my daughter to the jr college to take the classes they did not offer in AP. She ended up with a bunch of credits .
You have to do it now or home school
Mine went to regular school because my husband did not want her home schooled but I basically home schooled her anyway.
The writing will improve , that is something they don’t have the dexterity to easily do at that age . Push the reading and the math . Mine could read , add , subtract and count her lunch money before she was in kindergarten .
She is grown now
The Constitution can’t force knowledge into someone’s head. How can there be a Constitutional right to knowledge and proficiency in reading, when it requires a willing student who will work at it? It’s not all the fault of the teachers and schools. Throwing money at an unwilling student is throwing money away.
You're a great parent. Not all parents push back at school admins, but they should because of how the school admins underperform their duties. Our 4-year-old here is in pre-school, and it's easy for her because she knows the basics. Our other grandchildren in another state are also in pre-school but with similar skills in reading and writing. We prepped our children while they were toddlers, and they excelled in school and college, succeeding in their jobs, and are now parents of small children.
It's a shame that those Detroit kids are failures, but what the heck were they doing in school those 12 years (or more)? No need to answer, we know why they frittered away opportunity. They were told to take from others, blame others, and depend on others.
The failing the kids is done intentionally to dumb down society and control them . That’s why I said now they kids have to be in AP classes to learn otherwise they are not really going to learn much (at least in the schools my daughter went to)
And now you have to fight even harder.
Sad thing is I was strict with , gave up a lot to make sure she was well taken care of education wise and she thinks I am a terrible parent (in rebellion right now )
Many kids rebel, go through a change when settling down and then appreciate what their parents did for them.
I've often thought schools should offer classes to condition kids to life in society (not the sex education or socialism indoctrination). Besides the obvious like balancing a checkbook and job hunting, they need to offer better classes in the psychology of what it means to be a parent and how to be a good child. Something that was taught by parents prior to this video entertainment society.
I rebelled against my father, then started coming around in my late teens. Unfortunately he passed away when I was 19. I became more like him within a few years and then missed having him around. As a young man, I became him, got married and raised my own family. But with my memories of the past, I think I dealt better with my children and did not have a rebellious period from them. My dad did not have that advantage, as his father died before he was born and he was raised by his brothers as they tried to survive in poverty.
Good luck with your daughter, give her love and hope she comes around to appreciate you. They usually do when they themselves become parents (karma happens).
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