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Katyusha
Kitten at Heart
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- Apr 30, 2006
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- 4,782
Having gone to a desegregated junior high school, where fully one-quarter of the students came from the poorest section of town and from an elementary school that didn't give a crap about whether or not they learned anything, I can tell you that class has nothing to do with how intelligent a student is.
Our teachers had been instructed to find out where these students' educations were lacking and work on those weaknesses, instead of just passing them along because "nothing much could really be expected of them." As a result, most of them went into high school at the same educational level that most of us did.
And then they were thrown right back to where they had been at the start of seventh grade when they entered high school.
One of the biggest symptoms of a serious problem with our education system is its increasing willingness to pass and graduate students who can barely read, let alone have a solid understanding of things like higher math and science. That's due, in part, to a lack of caring from teachers and principals for students in general and poor students in specific. We talk about falling further and further behind other industrialized nations in terms of education, and yet we increasingly allow this crap to continue.
No Child Left Behind was created with the intent to combat this problem but it doesn't work, and it will never work; we should have taken a lesson from Japan before instituting a program like this because they tried the same thing decades ago and it didn't work there. No...the two problems are our country's severe trivialization of education (whenever budget cuts must happen at any level, schools are always first on the chopping block), and our inability to hire quality teachers. Many states don't even require a bachelor's degree to teach except for the advanced classes.
So what can we expect of these kids? We SHOULD be able to expect the same as we expect of rich kids. Class and intelligence are two completely separate things. I think the principal in this case was wrong, and that instead of telling teachers that these kids can't be expected to achieve the same standards that middle-class and rich kids can, he needs to look at what the school is doing (or not doing) to help these kids along.
Our teachers had been instructed to find out where these students' educations were lacking and work on those weaknesses, instead of just passing them along because "nothing much could really be expected of them." As a result, most of them went into high school at the same educational level that most of us did.
And then they were thrown right back to where they had been at the start of seventh grade when they entered high school.
One of the biggest symptoms of a serious problem with our education system is its increasing willingness to pass and graduate students who can barely read, let alone have a solid understanding of things like higher math and science. That's due, in part, to a lack of caring from teachers and principals for students in general and poor students in specific. We talk about falling further and further behind other industrialized nations in terms of education, and yet we increasingly allow this crap to continue.
No Child Left Behind was created with the intent to combat this problem but it doesn't work, and it will never work; we should have taken a lesson from Japan before instituting a program like this because they tried the same thing decades ago and it didn't work there. No...the two problems are our country's severe trivialization of education (whenever budget cuts must happen at any level, schools are always first on the chopping block), and our inability to hire quality teachers. Many states don't even require a bachelor's degree to teach except for the advanced classes.
So what can we expect of these kids? We SHOULD be able to expect the same as we expect of rich kids. Class and intelligence are two completely separate things. I think the principal in this case was wrong, and that instead of telling teachers that these kids can't be expected to achieve the same standards that middle-class and rich kids can, he needs to look at what the school is doing (or not doing) to help these kids along.
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JAMESBJOHNSON
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R. Richard
Literotica Guru
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- 10,382
I attended, as infrequently as practical, a high school where about 100%of the students came from the poorest of the poor. The exceptions were the children of drug dealers or pimps.
I learned nothing there, because there was nothing to learn. Most of the crap forced upon the students was rote memorization of things that would have no relevance to the rest of the student's life, unless the student chose to become a high school teacher.
The students were basically intellectually beaten down to the point where they were convinced that they were stupid failures and would continue to be stupid failures for the rest of their miserable lives. The students lacked incentive to even try, because success meant a meaningless grade on a meaningless piece of paper that had nothing to do with anything.
The teachers were almost all stupid failures, who were assigned to an inner city high school because they lacked college grades and political skills. The most intelligent of the teachers dealt dope to the students. The average teacher just wanted out of the inner city schools and assignment to somewhere decent. The average teacher would do just about anything to escape.
I would steal books from the library late at night and learn what I could. After a while, the librarians learned that they couldn't stop the theft, but that I always returned the books in good condition. They began to leave reading lists for me.
The other students were deemed incapable of learning. They were not incapableof learning. I managed to instill in the very dumbest of the male students a very important rule of life: "Don't mess with Whi' Boy!" Unfortunately, my effective teaching methods were, perhaps, a trifle illegal.
I learned nothing there, because there was nothing to learn. Most of the crap forced upon the students was rote memorization of things that would have no relevance to the rest of the student's life, unless the student chose to become a high school teacher.
The students were basically intellectually beaten down to the point where they were convinced that they were stupid failures and would continue to be stupid failures for the rest of their miserable lives. The students lacked incentive to even try, because success meant a meaningless grade on a meaningless piece of paper that had nothing to do with anything.
The teachers were almost all stupid failures, who were assigned to an inner city high school because they lacked college grades and political skills. The most intelligent of the teachers dealt dope to the students. The average teacher just wanted out of the inner city schools and assignment to somewhere decent. The average teacher would do just about anything to escape.
I would steal books from the library late at night and learn what I could. After a while, the librarians learned that they couldn't stop the theft, but that I always returned the books in good condition. They began to leave reading lists for me.
The other students were deemed incapable of learning. They were not incapableof learning. I managed to instill in the very dumbest of the male students a very important rule of life: "Don't mess with Whi' Boy!" Unfortunately, my effective teaching methods were, perhaps, a trifle illegal.
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JAMESBJOHNSON
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Katyusha
Kitten at Heart
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What if you were repeatedly told by just about every adult in your life that you would never amount to anything? Would you even bother with anything? A lot of these kids are like that because that's what they're told, both flat-out and with the lack of effort adults are putting into them. These kids often have parents that don't care, teachers that don't care, school counselors that don't care...
When you're told by everyone you're supposed to respect and look up to that this is what you'll always be, you feel no reason to try and excel beyond that. Oftentimes the kids that do manage to excel beyond it did so because they found some adult somewhere that was willing to say, "I believe in you."
Unfortunately, the adults that are willing to believe in them, and let them know that poor does NOT equal stupid, are too few and far between, because too many see them the way you do: lazy, good-for-nothing scavengers who will ALWAYS BE EXACTLY THAT. When you spend your entire childhood being told one thing in many different ways, over and over, you grow into a teenager, then an adult, believing it and believing that you can't do anything about it.
I'm not a certified teacher but I have held instructional positions and I have dealt with kids who don't think they'll ever amount to anything. When I would try and push them they would push back, saying, "Why should I even try? I'm too stupid. I'll never get it," or something to that effect. And when I'd say, "Well, for what it's worth, *I* think you can do this," they might not agree with me verbally but their eyes would light up, if only because SOMEBODY finally said that they thought they were capable of doing something. And gradually they would start trying just a bit harder, so long as I kept believing in them and encouraging them.
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