Jan
08
Education Built On A “Prussian” Model
Insights from the original domestic goddess...
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All the ways you can avoid a “bad” teacher… options and choice:
1. If your school or district doesn’t have a parent and student survey system for feedback go to the principal or super and demand that it does.
2. Obtain the “school report card” which most districts have available on line this provides a lot of information regarding the school including testing performance, teacher salary (always an interest) and student to teacher ratio just to name a few
3. If you have a child with special needs reach out to the specialized services office, every school and district must have a person who oversees the running of all special education services
4. Contact an organization that will send (often free of charge) an advocate to work with you through the IEP process. (I have worked with ACORN in this pursuit)
5. Become familiar with the laws on the books IDEA is the largest law governing special educational services including students not only identified as learning disabled but social and emotional as well
6. Know the teacher: you can access his or her credentials, testing history, years on the job even their individual rating at the school
7. Speak to fellow parents, nothing tells more about what I do then the words of a parent whose child I have taught
8. If you feel as though a problem exists that can’t be worked out by talking to the teacher call and arrange a meeting with the building administrator… you can go up from there
9. Ask about curriculum choices in the school… what are they using? has it been researched? etc.
10. Ask about class size!
11. Visit the classroom, arrange for an observation inside the classroom, I usually invite parents if I am struggling with a student, words are okay but seeing it and then conferring about it is the best option when it can be arranged
12. Ask about contact with the teacher, my colleagues and I give out our cell numbers. This has never been abused by students or parents…
The most success a teacher can have is when they work closely with the parents or guardians of the child.
Although you won’t be returning, it is never my intention to throw down. I neither called you a name or questioned your character or writing… “hoiti toiti”. The power of women in predicated on our ability to speak our truth and this is mine. And truth is achieved by honesty and confronting what we don’t agree with or support. My opinion is mine if this was offensive to you for that I will apologize but not for my thoughts or feelings on a system that is in peril and needs the attention of all stake-holders to make necessary change. This is a subject that is close to my heart and my passion, you can’t fault a person for being passionate. I will make an argument and defend it. May I just add that the reference of a physician being bad is correct, teachers are bad, hell the girl taking your food order at the fast food place can suck at her job. The thread and video looks at the system of education. And, the AMA is responsible as is that individual doctor for allowing a person to practice that can’t do his or her job effectively… come on they are one of the largest lobbying groups. Unlike a physician upon which you have great choice, a child has only that classroom teacher, very limited choice. I think it is the responsibility of the school and the district to review and manage its teachers. But to do this inside of a quality review they will answer this with merit pay… the system if flawed.
im not going to come back here to this blog (others i will though lol) because i dont want to hear some defensive “teacher” tell me in a very smart hoiti toiti way lol this n that. i dont know why people defend people they dont know. lol. If i was a doctor, and some people say they dealt with a bad doctor, im not going to write in a fancy way “doctors arent the enemy, the system is”. no, there ARE some bad doctors lol. funny.
i never labeled a group. i dont think even Ms.T did either. just some teachers are bad. simple. i blame the teachers I HAD, from the 3rd grade-8th grade at my old school for doing nothing. nothing, no correcting of the other students,nothing. i blame the prinipal of my old school for not doing something so that my teachers cant somehow defend or protect me, and teaching students that if they mistreat, even torture some other students they will be corrected. i dont blame the 11th grade teacher i had when i dropped out lol. they did nothing bad to me lol. i blame the system for passing me, even though i didnt know the stuff i needed to pass to the next grade. but when some mother or student has a bad time with the system or teacher, you shouldnt come to teachers defense and say dont blame teachers. you didnt know them (the teachers). what was your last sentence in your first entry? Teachers are not the enemy. were not saying that. were ARE blaming the ones we had though. and the sytem. and you also mentioned there’s some responsiblity of a teacher to stop bullying, yet today your more of a “records keeper”. your a teacher. you have to teach children how to act, learn, what to learn, when those kids parents aren’t there. to be a record keeper, is somewhat lazy, no? no offense, im sure youll try to correct me this n that, but i only read what you wrote. and you took what me and ms. t the wrong way. you sounded defensive because we dealt with bad teachers. i dont know why.
thnx, never have done it for the recognition… that would have had me crumble after the first few years, I was just trying to impart the presence and knowledge acquired not only as a student or a parent, but an employee trying to navigate a system that is broken… and just when I think that it can’t be broken any further, I am always surprised that it can fall further into ruin… the pit appears bottomless… There is good news on my front, parents and community members are working with teachers to give voice! this is a new movement afoot and is welcomed by me to question the decisions at the top, those in real power. My school board is appointed,not elected and on it sits bankers and even a billionaire! They are making the decisions on some of the poorest of children within our community… I couldn’t make this shit up!
We are fortunate to have gems like you, urbanteach, in our public schools!! For every BAD teacher I had, I had a teacher like YOU!!
I was kicked out of public school classes taught by evangelicals for my adolescent ‘existentialist’ writing, but was fortunate to have a few critical thinkers who embraced and encouraged me.
The system – the PATRIARCHY, sustains itself on punishing critical thinking and rewarding ‘controlled’ behavior. We, the ‘rebels’ turned out OK, but we remain a small minority – the ‘conspiracy’ theorists. I believe this small minority WILL change the institution.
HENRY!!! YES! PINEAL GLAND & calcification caused by fluoride is ON POINT!!!
The genius of Alan Watts: “LIFE IS A HOAX”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66iq40acSGM&feature=youtube_gdata_player
while it is not appropriate for me to speak on behalf of the entire teaching community it too is inappropriate to label a group…
the thread here is about the failure of the American School System, I speak with knowledge as to the de-evolution of a system not individual teachers in the profession…
my comments suggest that a failing system owes itself to more then what an individual classroom teacher or even a school district achieves or doesn’t
May I suggest the book “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” as evidence of much larger force at play. I speak specifically with knowledge of a system designed to fail our most disenfranchised communities.
If you were raised poor, brown or black then you to must have knowledge of the failure of the system, we in our own personal memories can associate it with a specific teacher but in your decision to drop out in the 11th grade the system failed you, not just an individual.
oh p.s. i told my mother about the horrible experience you and your son had, and she was so outraged she wanted to cry. we’re so sorry for you and your son to go through that. best wishes to you and your whole family to have a great life. take care.
im soooooo glad your son got a greatttt job! good for him! how dare that bully say that. i felt like crying when i read that! i, too, dropped out in the 11th grade, before going back and getting my diploma at 19. good for him, im so happy for him, to overcome his awful school experience, awful words towards him, and to have you be so supporting and strong for him too, it sounds so good the life he has now.
im so sorry your son had to go through that. i feel so bad for him and you to go through that. i so wish best wishes to you and your family. and that “fancy” school in silicon valley sounded funny lol. it was the norm back in the day just to have a great education. oh well for now. take care.
thats great your a teacher, sorry you have so many kids in your class and you struggle, you may be a great teacher, but you shouldnt speak for all teachers. some teachers are bad. mine did absolutely nothing for my safety. nothing. not one bad word to the bullies i had. they even blamed me for missing school, but the severe bullying was right in front of them. they never punished, or even corrected the other kids. i went to a catholic school, and we had always 30 kids for every class. those teachers surely could have said something, anything. my mother would always tell the teachers and the main office she was concerned for my well being against the bullies. they would just tell her to “calm down”. thats all. those teachers and principal of my old school were bad. maybe your a great teacher. but definetely not all of them are good.
Arkansas…10yrs ago when my youngest son was in 3rd grade they were still giving out “permission forms” for parents to sign regarding paddling. My oldest son was greatly impacted by his 1st grade experience and hated school forever since then. He remained very disrespectful to teachers he perceived as bullies and finally dropped out after 11th grade much to my dismay as he had struggled so much and missed out on so much. Their solution to his impulsive behavior was to send him home. By the time he was in 10th grade I had him in a high school that did not support that philosophy but it was too late. He had missed so much in the learning process and had been labeled a “loser”. He told me later that he had teachers tell other teachers he was a “problem in the classroom” and had no opportunity to change their mind. I later believed this had happened cause we ran into one of the Bullies at the grocery store and she told my son in front of me that she was suprised he was a chef at an elite restaurant in town because she thought he “would never amount to anything”. Bitch..He now has a job with the Railroad and is his own boss. So, to the science teacher from Little Rock Arkansas-he makes more than you do at age 28 and HE HAS ALWAYS BEEN SOMETHING WONDERFUL!!
Here are my acts to dominate others:
1. Paid for my undergraduate education sans any support of government
2. Was paid in total my first two years of teaching less money then I owed on them there student loans
3. Paid for my graduate studies
4. Have fought tirelessly against the corporate mindset of education
5. Chose to teach in one of the most underserved populations in my fair city
6. Paid to study and become nationally board certified after 16 years on the job to provide further learning and enhancement on the job I do
7. Child advocate (working close with those other dominating individuals… social workers… to ensure safe and secure environments for my children to go home to)
To call the system a failure is correct, but I humbly disagree at who is the cause of the failure.
Ms. T, what fucked up school system in what fucked up state are you referring… CORPORAL PUNISHMENT i.e. “switching with a T.V. Antenna” is AGAINST THE LAW… I would have CALLED THE POLICE!!!!!I am sure that after your legal help you learned of the IDEA and Public Law regarding students with special needs, I am not quite sure how you do not own the city/town if what you are referencing is true… now granted 30 years ago I was physically punished by nuns but my parents paid for that discipline. I hope that your son has managed to heal from the scars and is no longer a victim of such abuse both physically or mentally.
Signed,
A Bully (in Silverbear’s opinion), that is why I took the job, to have dominion over 13 year old children.
A few weeks ago was watching CNN while getting dinner ready. Heard out of the corner of my ear that they were going to be doing a profile on a revolutionary new concept school in Silicon Valley that people were fighting to get their children in. Curious, I decided to stop what I was doing to tune in and watch. They began the program by citing the high numbers of people who were on a waiting list for this “progressive private school” located in The Valley. Tuition was thousands and thousands of dollars but the “elite” of the industries in the area were willing to pay and maintain their names on a waiting list for the possibility their child could attend this wonderful new school. Then they began talking about the school itself-No electronic devices allowed, no computers/laptops/tablets used for instruction, The teachers were using blackboards and instructing students in reading, writing and math utilizing books. Why, they even had a garden that offered the students an introduction to the world of “living and learning a sustainable lifestyle” OMG fuck me running. This “progressive” way of teaching was the free education I got as a child. I sure was some lucky kid to have received such a quality education and IT WAS FREE back in the day!!! I thought-these people are laughing all the way to the bank that they are conning The Silicon Valley by having this private school and charging them for an education that is so damn progressive. Probably one of the most laughable things I’ve heard lately. Wish I’d thought of it first! LOL
Schools, higher education (colleges), law enforcement, medical field – nurse’s and doctor’s, social workers, mental health workers, judicial, and political fields are some of top professions people who want to dominate others (bully) tend to flock to.
Our school system in America is horrible.
Some teachers are the enemy and unfortunately reflect on others. My oldest son (now 28y/o) has ADHD. When he was in first grade his teacher used to take him to the bathroom and “switch” him with a car antenna wrapped with duct tape. He would come home with marks on his legs. I questioned him and found out what the teacher was doing. Called the school and received no assistance because my son had been labeled as a problem in the classroom because his ADHD was extreme and I was trying to manage him without medications. I called other parents whose children had also been taken to the bathroom like my son and none of them except one wanted to get involved (parent noninvolvement in their childs education is very detrimental). Went in front of the School Board to file a complaint against this teacher for her violent and abusive use of punishment. Spanking was still used as a form of punishment in southern schools and “permission forms” were not used like they were when my 17y/o was in lower grades. A barbaric institution used to punish children who do not behave and something I NEVER gave permission to be used on my child. Nothing was ever done to this teacher. The next year she was pulling out of the school and drove in front of a car. She was injured severely and was never able to teach again. Divine Intervention? Do not know but thank god no more children had to suffer. I eventually hired a lawyer to assist me in getting the school system to meet the needs of my ADHD son and to provide him with the education he deserved. He still struggled with teachers who did not understand the behaviors that accompany the disorder and they “bullied” my son and tried to do so with me. My son used to tell me that when he would be sitting in the office waiting to be “punished” for his inability to sit still or blurting out in class or tapping his pencil on his desk that the staff would hear my high heels coming down hallways and they would scatter. I would stop what I was doing at work and go to the school when there were problems and would not be passive. The schools wanted me to be “submissive” and allow them to bully my son. It was not my personality and being a single mom I felt if I didnt fight for my son, who would? It was most helpful that I was a child psych RN who was the manager of an acute and residential inpatient program so I knew what our rights were. Teachers and the education system can also be The Bully.
The video does do an honest portraying but something is afoot that is much more serious then straight lines and bells ringing and least of all the hall pass. Classroom size has been a negotiated argument by labor unions for the entirety of my tenure and the reason is simple, common sense dictates that any type of “management” of students in the classroom including opportunity for bullying can best be managed with smaller numbers. But, labor is under attack. The voice of experienced professionals within the world of education is being further silenced and more then ever in its history (public education) has resulted to a corporate model, run by corporate leaders trying to produce a product that is measurable (state tests, student performance on an exam). Mentioning of the Waldorf model and others is great but most of these institutions are private, not public. And, even more importantly is that there are state and national movements afoot that create standards which results produce a more scripted, limited and test focused curricula… that is the real enemy folks…And last, bullying has been a topic here previously and it does not surprise me that as a more enlightened adult group we may collectively be more targeted as children, that said, those of us who were bullied do become teachers… a great deal of control lies within the power of the teacher to stop the behavior except that today I am more of a records keeper then that of a teacher producing “evidence” for everything I do and the children do it is all about cya time. Oh, and the hall pass? If a child leaves a classroom without record of permission given (hall pass) and happens to engage in inappropriate behavior (gang related) I am open to an array of legal trouble… s/he left without your permission? I am responsible for that child even in the hallway and the bathroom… and do this with 34 teens in your room… teachers are not the enemy.
i so know, hopefully not, but the next time i have to deal with something like that, i’ll make a beeline to that website. i grew up in a poor town where you had to be weirdly tough. i thought it was for no good reason lol, but you either had to be just like them,or like the same things, or you were considered weird. you couldnt be different.i remember the popular girls didnt like me, because in the 3rd or 4th grade, they wanted me to cuss. who does that lol. i said i think that’s stupid, and they said well your calling us stupid. from then on, it went on for 5 yrs.ive been cut from a small knife, thrown basketballs at in class, threatened to have my hair cut, not to mention every day being threatened to have my butt getting kicked and no, i mean no, friends. i even had my name carved on the black board saying they were going to kill me. And the ones in charge did nothing, i mean nothing. i was just quiet and sad and terrified. Now i hear poor kids are commiting suicide. I still worry if people will make fun of me or like me, even to this day. Schools should do ALOT more. Anyway, thanks alot though, for telling me that and sharing it was hard for you too. Many best wishes.
You are welcomed. I have also walked a pretty difficult path there are many of us out there and their voices are often not heard. The site gives good information and puts issues in context.
You are welcomed. I have also walked a pretty difficult path there are many of us out there and their voices are often not heard. The site gives good information and puts issues in context.
oops i totally forgot to click on the reply button. that last entry was for you lol.
thank you so much for that. i liked reading the other stories, and not feeling alone. i was also bullied at a job. I felt like i was the only one in my city to be bullied. Thanks so much for sharing!
School and higher education have a high level of bully type personalities.
This site is helpful and the information is terrific
http://www.bullyonline.org/
bullies tend to like to be in professions that involve trust and where people are dependent.
We cannot remember things which happened long before we were born. The eugenics programs were part of the upper crust American and English universities. Hitler took the thinking and put it into practice. Eugenics was and is elitism. To dominate one must have people who do not question. The dumbing down of American schools is simple a portion of the overall eugenics programs which began long before any of us were born.
*a couple hundred SIGNATURES in person. not ‘petitions’.
i wish this had a feature that allowed you to edit within a certain time-frame after the initial post!
very kind offer, thanks!
the petition i helped start was old-fashioned, and a couple of us collected a couple of hundred petitions in person and then hand-delivered it to the city council. should i think of anything else to do on a bigger scale and that’s also internet-based, i will let you know. again, thanks for the offer!
if you have not seen this, which you likely have, i can highly recommend this WELL put together documentary called ‘Fire Water’. it’s about the very recent MASS fluoridation of ALL of australia’s water supply. as you may know, many say that australia will be the home of the ‘new world order’, so they’re taking drastic measures to medicate the populace there while keeping others out (extremely strict immigration policies).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfiCP3HYxFg&feature=fvst
seriously good stuff.
oh also that was a “private school” i went to. so much for paying for a good education.
the school system sucks. i was severly bullied in school. i would miss lots of school cause i didnt want to be tortured everyday, and the school system would still pass me to the next grade. teachers did nothing for the bulling, and would blame me for missing so much school. but still passed me. i went to school with the same ppl every year, so i would miss soooo much school every year. parents just complained to school, thats all. the school would pass me every year, until i just dropped out. i went to home school, where i would just be given a book to read and answer questions on it, all the answers were in the book. i would get so many credits that way. i learned i needed a GED to get financial aid at college, so i went to my old high school. they told me i can get a GED and a high school diploma, because i only needed 2 more classes to graduate, thanks to the home schooling. i need to learn FRACTIONS to graduate, for the home school had given me no math. thats how messed up the school system, deals with bullying, and lack of education. also, my parents shouldve taken me to another school instead of keeping me there for years.
Time to brake the chains of repression. and move forward. and make the world we want.
Aloha
i understand about what your are saying about kids and the streets, but in a way i think the guy is saying that we go to school for “training” on how to “behave” and “think”
we “fight an enemy” at our foot ball games, and we stand to “salute” the flag and “ask” for permission to the most fundamental actions, like repeat repeat repeat repeat….oh, sorry, I got stuck there..
you see? If first years of “programming” are that the “pilgrims made nice with the Indians”, then as these young “programee’s” mature into older adults it’s hard to fathom that the history we learned in school was bogus and that a holocaust took place.
in a sense it’s about brainwashing and mind control-but Whoa, there i go again.
check out the Waldorf schools. their not gov schools. your child is a terrible thing to dumb down to be debt slave.
i think it is Henry, fluoridation is just one way the NWO tries to kill us off.
Dental mercury is another way, yet its “illegal for dentists to say it, or they loose there licenses.
Maybe we could figure out a way to twitter these online petitons to help get out the word.
email me @ goodkarma@goodkarmapr.com if you have any interest left.
i know the above post isn’t wholly on topic to the news link, but it’s fitting seeing how water fluoridation is part of the whole ‘dumbing down’ scheme.
sodium fluoride calcifies your pineal gland and makes you more docile and lowers IQ, and the nazis added this to the water supplies of occupied territories. america is the most fluoridated country on earth (followed by canada and australia). even if yr not drinking it, your skin absorbs it as you bathe and shower.
no wonder america, as a whole, is borderline retarded.
ORGANIZE with your neighbours and tell your local council you want it REMOVED.
fluoridealert.org (roseanne’s daughter @motherblogga turned me onto this link).
yes, i can bitch about this because i have organised a petition and written many a letter to the local water companies telling them of the dangers.
where do you find these, they are so right on! we are funding our on demise! i have to do some more research, BUT, as WE THE PEOPLE, where are we going wrong, why does the govt have so much control, when we are paying their bills for their crappy ass decisions?
WHAT ABOUT OUR NEEDS! Now we cant even speak up without fear of being arrested, pepper sprayed, or our ear drums blown out! All by equipment that was used to fight terrorism, WE PAID FOR THAT! We need a better system with better odds! ARGH!!!
I agree with this video though, I mean not with the whole thing because I think that children need to be in school because it keeps them off the streets. I guess in reality, it truly depends on where you go to school and what kind of people you’re exposed to. My school in Nebraska was filled with hick like goat-ropers that thought a good time was throwing chicken eggs at buffalo on a dirt road.
The United States being filled with idiots makes way for the government to continue the bullshit! But if the better part of the lot weren’t so susceptible or even welcoming of the dumbing down of America then our Economy may not be such a cock twisted negative balance.
I R NOT DUM.