Teachers, please tell me if you agree with this statement:

[SammyBlue]

At one of my in-services this summer, we were shouted at and yelled at by the Principal from the school that George Bush likes to use to show how that horrid NCLB Act is working. Here is a biography on him.

At the in service, we were told that we should stick to the standards and nothing more. Okay. . .I kept my mouth shut because I believe Arizona Public School Superintendent Tome Horne is a jerk and his standards are really dumbed down, but how many teachers agree that the state standards are a skeleton and the minimums?

I am a Mets fan. I have never once heard Willie Randolph say "Fred Wilpon (team owner) wants a winning season, so let's win 82 games."

If a doctor told you that s/he would do the minimum to keep you alive instead of doing everything s/he could to succeed, would you accept that doctor?

Why are we racing to the bottom??? Why are these Principals and these idiot Superintendents telling us to stick to the standards? That's the minimum! I don't want my students to excel at the minimum.

Then, he insults all scientists and historian, all political scientists and soft science experts by saying that "all history and science are is reading comprehension. If they state doesn't assess it, don't teach it." Finally, he claims that a "trained monkey" could teach in the suburbs, since suburban kids don't have the same problems poorer children have.

Yes, there is no drug use, child abuse, neglect, emotional/mental problems, poverty or people living in Maslow's 1st or 2nd level on the hierarchy of needs. The suburbs are cake teaching. Who here agrees this guy "hurts children" with his attitudes, something he claims teachers do when they don't sign on to his ideology hook, line and sinker?

EDIT: fixed a typo.

[spindrifter]

1. Your comment about not accepting the doctor

who does the minimum just about says it all. Your Superintendent would have you train doctors who are only capable of the minimum. Strive for the minimum--accept the lowest possible. Use as little effort as you can. Those are loser sentiments that will assure that this country sinks to the bottom within the next generation.

And who the hell thinks suburban kids are a cake walk? I invite him to visit a few of our suburbs. The POOR people live there because housing is cheaper than in our unaffordable city. And the kids in the wealthy suburbs--a lot of them have the same problems as any other kids. They are not all smart and perfect children.

That guy needs a different job--not as an educator.

[SammyBlue]

3. My Super rocks. This guy wasn't my super

he ran the in service.

[spindrifter]

6. Oh--a consultant?

A guy who is pimping for the NCLB crap?

[Mikimouse]

2. I am in agreement with you...

To your principal, I would say only this: Go ahead and ignore all of the research literature that clearly demonstrates that teaching only those things that are necessary for the NCLB testin. You do so at the risk of future generations who will have no clue about competing with others who actually have a real education and can think their way out of a wet paper bag.
I teach at the university level and am damned grateful that I have the freedom to teach as I wish. I cannot imagine how I would cope with the stress that teaching at the junior high or high school level would bring.

[femmocrat]

4. They are telling you to teach to the standards because...

they are under tremendous pressure to produce scores in the proficient range. Look up the ramifications of not meeting the NCLB benchmarks sometime... the state can come in and take over your school district! That action would be far more injurious to the children, IMO, as they could replace you with a charter school using uncertified teachers. At least, our administrators keep telling us that or have threatened with this for the past few years.

As far as not teaching history and science... well, those subjects also have standards and will be tested in the future. If you think those two subjects get no respect, try teaching in the humanities! HA! They are trying to eliminate those subjects entirely! And we are supposed to be "core curriculum" under NCLB.... but no test = no need, I guess.

I hope you didn't really mean that the suburbs are cake teaching. Suburbs have the many of the same problems as the inner-city schools. (I have taught in both!)

Oh.... BTW, I helped to write the state standards in my subject area and they far exceed what I am actually able to teach with the schedule, class size, and resources I am given.

[SammyBlue]

5. No, I agree. . .the burbs are just as hard, but to this guy

The burbs are a cake walk!!!

I don't think it's easy. Teaching ANYWHERE is hard!

[Bucky]

9. A friend of mine who teaches in the suburbs says parents are her bane

Apparently with some affluent schools the parents can be a real headache--always wanting their kids catered to, arguing over essay grades, pushing for deadline extensions, sometimes even writing their kids' papers. That's one thing I never have to worry about at my school.

[longship]

7. This is why I'm no longer teaching.

They state BOE in California has the whole school system state-wide totally fucked up. Between NCLB and the idiotic HS exit exam, it's amazing that any real teaching is happening. Well, actually, it isn't.

[Bucky]

8. Please fix. It should read "how many teacherS agree", not "teacher"

Sorry, but I'm a teacher first and a DUer in my free time only.

Frankly, this is an unwinnable argument. While you're right that you don't want to just barely cover the standards, too many kids are not even meeting the standards. The problem is, as you say, that if you teach kids just to the minimum bar that the state sets, you'll leave a lot of above average kids behind--they'll get bored and never get turned onto any "favorite" subject.

He almost has a point with his views on suburban kids. There actually is a lot of substance abuse in the burbs, too, but it tends to be better concealed. There are also more parents involved in their kids' learning in middle class and upper middle class schools; and parent involvement will always be the #1 variable in ohw well kids perform. At some point, a community school will reach critical mass and you start to cultivate are real peer pressure environment among the kids at a given school to compete and excel.

But I taught for three years at a poor minority high school where a similar peer pressure evolved and the kids all excelled. We had a 0-1% drop out rate each year I was there, but it was a very small school.

The principal sounds like an ass, frankly. But that doesn't mean he doesn't get results. The problem is not that any fool could teach at a suburban or affluent school. The problem is that most of the best teachers want to teach at those schools so that they don't have to deal with the discipline problems that go with many poorer schools. I'm teaching now at a school with atrocious discipline problems and it's incredibly disheartening. It makes me really not care some days.

But the solution isn't in trash talking the 'burbs. The solution lies in increasing funding, increasing investment where we're hurting, and getting more parents involved in their kids' schooling.

[Bill McBlueState]

10. science as "reading comprehension"

Anyone who is trained to view science as "reading comprehension" will never be a scientist. If your speaker thinks the science of the 21st century should all take place in China, Korea, and Germany, I guess he's entitled to look at science that way. But in pushing that view, he's condemning U.S. kids to a lifetime of adapting to other people's ideas instead of coming up with their own.

[Vidar]

11. While I was teaching, my motto was "the only good administrator

is a dead administrator." Only met three exceptions, one being my Dad.