RE: What would you change about the American public school system?
March 31, 2018 at 4:54 pm
(This post was last modified: March 31, 2018 at 4:55 pm by henryp.)
Schools need more autonomy. One problem in our county, is that all the schools operate under the same rules. But the individual schools are nothing alike. So you fix a problem at one school, and you create a problem at another, and vice versa.
As for the big riddle of fixing schools in poor neighborhoods, it's tough. My sister is getting her federal loans forgiven by teaching at a 'bad' school for 5 years. So that's worked in getting a good teacher for 5 years. But the lack of parental and administrative support is brutal.
It's not about pay or funding. It's that when a kid throws a chair in the class, or tips over a table, there's no resolution to be had. And this is 1st grade.
And the generally proposed solution is "What if instead of 8 table flippers in one school, we put one table flipper in every school!" Which just disrupts everybody. The sad reality may be that just cutting your losses and piling these kids in one lousy school is the best solution available. And that charter type schools, that help a few kids with parents invested enough in their kids to get out of there.
I think this is why the idea of charter schools may be popular to a degree in the black community. Because they aren't trying to escape old textbooks (most of the time). They are trying to escape a school filled with disruptive students with do-nothing parents.
As for the big riddle of fixing schools in poor neighborhoods, it's tough. My sister is getting her federal loans forgiven by teaching at a 'bad' school for 5 years. So that's worked in getting a good teacher for 5 years. But the lack of parental and administrative support is brutal.
It's not about pay or funding. It's that when a kid throws a chair in the class, or tips over a table, there's no resolution to be had. And this is 1st grade.
And the generally proposed solution is "What if instead of 8 table flippers in one school, we put one table flipper in every school!" Which just disrupts everybody. The sad reality may be that just cutting your losses and piling these kids in one lousy school is the best solution available. And that charter type schools, that help a few kids with parents invested enough in their kids to get out of there.
I think this is why the idea of charter schools may be popular to a degree in the black community. Because they aren't trying to escape old textbooks (most of the time). They are trying to escape a school filled with disruptive students with do-nothing parents.
