This situation is the fault of both parents and government.

I’m sure that most people would love to give their children’s teachers credit when it is due. Parents aren’t always blaming teachers; I have heard parents many times refer to certain teachers with admiration. Many parents are very supportive of good teachers.

Yes, there are parents who don’t care; yes, parents should be way more involved; yes, parents should make sure they have the whole story before jumping to conclusions. Bad parents make a teacher’s job very hard indeed.

However, many kids do poorly because no one has ever expected more than that of them. They’re from poor neighborhoods or families, or the families don’t care how they do in school as long as they’re out of their hair for eight hours. The school figures that since the kids have an “I don’t care” attitude and have it rough at home, that they can’t expect anything from them, so they don’t even try to motivate or challenge the kids. The parents don’t care, the kids don’t care, the administration is busy with faculty politics, and the teachers are left to figure out how to handle it.

Some adopt the same “I don’t care” attitude, and pass the kids at the end of the year just to get them out of there.

Some try to get the basics across, to get the kids to learn at least enough to pass the test. They usually do truly care, they just don’t expect much from the kids because of their situations. They expect mediocrity because that is what they are given, and they get mediocrity.

Some figure out how to turn the kids on and challenge them to rise above the lack of concern for their welfare. If the teachers don’t waver, and don’t forget that they aren’t the kids’ buddies, their students just might realize that they aren’t slaves to their situations, and that they can strive for the same education and opportunities that are available to others. These are the teachers that students look back on as adults with praise, because this teacher or that teacher was the one who challenged me, wouldn’t let me be lazy, and really turned me on to math, or science, or poetry, or art.

The teachers in the first category are the ones who need to go. These are the “bad teachers” everyone is so angry about. These are the ones who are responsible for parents’ frustration with teachers in general.

The teachers in the second need to be encouraged to set the bar high for their kids, expect them to reach it, and blow off the complaints as they work with the students to attain it. If they figure out how to turn their students on, they become the teachers in the third category.

The teachers in the third category should be able to reap some reward for their persistent, stubborn expectations of their students that has paid off. These are the teachers that cause parents to try anything to finagle their kids into their classes. These teachers may not always be particularly sweet, but their demand for excellence tends to shake the “poor me” funk off the kids.

Parents aren’t trying to punish all teachers. They’re frustrated with the bad ones who shouldn’t be there. They’d like to see the good teachers get paid what they deserve. They’re also frustrated that every time some idea for weeding out bad teachers comes along, it’s opposed.

Teachers are overworked. Not only do they end up buying supplies that their students should have brought, they have to do way too much paperwork. And when a test like the FCAT is involved, the teachers have so much on their plates trying to teach all the information that is on the test, they don’t get in the other things they really wanted to teach.

The FCAT has not made anything better. My husband, who was a maintenance man, watched a kid’s love of school die. One year, he loved school. The next year, at some point in the school year, my husband asked him how school was going, and he replied, “All they do now is teach the test.” This is not fair to the teachers or the students.

If we got the government out of schools and went back to local control, the communities would be competing to try to attract the best teachers. Teacher pay would likely be higher in most places, parent and community involvement would increase, paperwork would be drastically reduced. I’m not saying it would be all sunshine and roses, but government control of education has done nothing to help it, and has done nothing to help teachers.

You are absolutely right. Somehow, we managed to produce some brilliant men and women before we had government education. The Founding Fathers, for instance…

Around the time of the Revolution, it is estimated that 90% of adults were literate. Today, that number is between 65 and 85%, depending on what definition of literacy you use. The Census Bureau reports 99%, but their method is seriously flawed, and I think we all know that 99% is false anyway. Many kids were allowed to graduate from the high school I attended who probably couldn’t read their own diplomas. Even if they could, they probably couldn’t read a manual and get the information they needed, or a bus schedule. I have met many people since then that can read at a basic level, but cannot comprehend what they read well enough to glean needed info. I can’t possibly be living in the one area where all the 1 in 100 people who aren’t literate live.

The ones that are considered literate often are clueless about history and current events.

It’s just really sad, and getting government out of education and getting back to local education would help mightily. It would be easier to weed out the bad teachers, and the parents and community would likely have a much greater interest in their schools, and in making sure their students got a good education.

He did not base his expectations of his students on their background, home environment, previous educational failure, or anything else like that.

He based his expectations of them on the fact that if you take those who believe even that they are trapped in a cycle of failure from which there is no escape, expect excellence from them, and then prove that you care about them as you work to help them to accomplish excellence, you break the cycle of failure and open up a whole new world of possibility.

His students rose to his expectations, and passed the AP Calculus exam. College-level calculus being learned by the students at a school in which the kids were so disadvantaged, they couldn’t be expected to learn basic algebra. At least, that’s what the school administration told him.

School politics finally became too much for Escalante, and he and others who were involved with his program moved on. The school has since drifted back into mediocrity.

“If he wants to teach us that bad, we can learn.”

A slap in the face is what they need. The union has destroyed what was a quality education system 45+ years ago, before the takeover of education by the left. Maybe now they can bring back discipline and focus on results instead of self-esteem issues. Maybe now they can focus on teaching kids the basics and move away from the left wing ideology focus.

Hurray for our side!!!

Last night on channel 3 news, Dawn said “Do not address what a child bubbles in on a FCAT test, one day out of the entire year. Don’t base my pay on that”
http://www.weartv.com/newsroom/top_stories/videos/wear_vid_7759.shtml

Why should a student’s graduation be based on one test score (FCAT) one day out of the entire year, to determine if they get a diploma or a certificate? Basing their salary, in part, on student performance will ensure that they are doing something other than just showing up for a check and a retirement.

Most Americans are average with a test score of a “C”. A student with an average GPA of a “C” will graduate high school and go on with whatever their life brings. The FCAT is pass or fail, PERIOD. A student that does average all year making C’s and don’t pass the FCAT, (maybe from stress of taking a test that allows them to graduate with a diploma or a certificate, or are not a good test taker or even not feeling good that ONE day out of the year) ends up with a stupid certificate for basically 12-13 years of school.

I know that Dawn didn’t come up with this FCAT test, but I see it as the same argument! Why is it good for the students but not for the teachers! When I was in public school here in Escambia Co, Florida I had teachers that would show up pass out handouts and goof off the rest of the day! Ask for help and they said just sit down and stay quiet, I’ll pass you with a D if you are good. I had some that sleep during class, I had one tell me that I would never amount to anything. I am now a Retired Military Officer with a Masters Degree!!!!!!!!!