Re: ESL demand

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I don't hate schools--I am simply a critic of the education system, and
for good reason. We spend more per student than many other countries,
and get worse results.

The only reason many teachers hate NCLB is that a Republican president
was the one who was behind it. If Obama had put it in place, you would
be celebrating it right now. The unions make sure that all the teachers
follow orders from the DNC.

On 4/25/10, sped wrote:
> On 4/25/10, Merrill wrote:
>> The number of children getting diagnosed with Autism, ODD, ADHD,
>> etc. has skyrocketed in the last 10 years. There are many reasons
>> for this, but I venture to guess that the problem isn't really with
>> the kids, but with the schools.
>
> Now, I know you hate schools because they didn't hire you. There can't
> be anything wrong with you, since you're the greatest teacher ever (who
> never got a job) so it must be the system, right?
>
> Schools don't really "diagnose" these conditions, Doctors do. Now,
> there are instances where IEP teams can issue an educational diagnosis
> of Autism or ADHD, but no one on that IEP team has the ability to
> prescribe drugs, and that educational diagnosis only done in a
> situation where parents unable or unwilling to obtain a proper
> diagnosis from a Doctor. Even still, if the parent is opposed, it's
> almost never done, unless you have a non-verbal student with autism
> curled up in a ball most days and the parents refuse any services.
> Then we might go to court over it. Even then, such educational
> diagnosis is only done so the student can have certain accommodations
> and supports.
>
> In fact, the three conditions you mentioned, if diagnosed, keeps a
> student in the classroom longer. Autism diagnoses have been on the
> rise because previously the Autistic student was labeled "retarded" and
> shuttled off to the MR room. Those on the higher-functioning end of
> the spectrum were considered exceptionally shy or introverted or even
> just plain odd.
>
> ODD... I suggested that ODD was an unfortunate acronym and should be
> changed to FCD: Future Convict Disorder... It did not go over well,
> regardless of how accurate it is. However, such a diagnosis keeps a
> kid in school longer. Prior to ED or ODD diagnoses, students who
> exhibited ODD behavior were called "bad kids" and expelled. They were
> also called inmates. Many of them still will be, but there is an
> effort to keep them in school.
>
> ADHD. These kids were called hyper, disinterested, or lazy. The ones
> that could got through school with a C/D average. The others were
> called dropouts.
>
> Now, I have seen medication do wonders for some. I have personally
> seen a 7th grader who couldn't read (pre-K reading score) go on meds
> and actually learn to read to the 3rd grade level in 4 months. You
> can't deny this student was helped by medication. BTW, his parents
> finally took their kid to the doctor to get on meds. Schools, if
> you're not aware, can't do that.
>
> Now, had this kid been on meds earlier, he might have been reading at
> grade level for years. Not the student's fault. I wonder, if the kid
> had diabetes and his parents refused him insulin because it would be
> admitting weakness, or he's just lethargic and lazy and doesn't need
> it, would you think the same thing? Oh, schools just don't know how to
> teach this kid, the teachers are bad or immoral, etc... who falls
> asleep because his blood sugar is too low to learn. The point is,
> there are kids with ADHD who are helped by medication, and somehow
> attacking schools because of it shows a lack of knowledge, yet again,
> of how schools and teacher actually work.
>
>> Our education system is not only broken, it is almost immoral.
>
> No it's not. It's underfunded, and it has a mandate that is impossible
> under NCLB: all students will read and do math at grade level by 2014.
> All. With no extra money. Severe LD and new, non-English speaking
> immigrants included. It was designed to be unattainable so what money
> we do get can be funneled to selective, private, RELIGIOUS schools.
> Then, rich, white, Christian kids could go to good schools with other
> rich, white, Christian kids, and all those disabled, dumb, poor, and
> brown people can muddle through in a public system which is the
> equivalent of a county hospital.
>
> When
>> John Taylor Gatto accepted the NY City teaching award, he used the
>> opportunity to declare that he no longer believed in what he was
>> doing.
>
> I don't know John. I usually don't trust people who spell out their
> middle name when they identify themselves. I don't know, I just don't
> like it. Still, he no longer believed in what he was doing, but he was
> still doing it, so I don't know what that says about what kind of
> person he is...
>
>>" The truth is that schools don’t really
>> teach anything except how to obey orders."
>
> Schools teach more than how to obey orders. I mean, people do come out
> of public school knowing how to read, write, and do math. I did, and
> remeber: I'm AWESOME.
>
> However, I won't argue that obeying orders is a big part of it. Any
> organization that is full of thousands of students and hundreds of
> staff members will need to have rules that are obeyed.
>
> I would argue that schools have ALWAYS been this way. There wasn't a
> "good ole days" but public schools have always been designed, in the
> modern era, to create a workforce for the nation's factories. We
> essentially have an industrial era educational system. They need to
> know how to read, but not too well. They need to know math, but not
> too well. We'll need management, so that's what high school is for
> (most people prior to WWII didn't attend high school and even fewer
> finished). Since everyone goes to high school now, I guess that's what
> college prep courses are for.
>
> The problem is, the industrial jobs are gone, but we still have the one
> size fits all system. What we need in this country is a massive
> reorganization, especially at the high school level. We probably
> shouldn't send everyone to traditional high school. Some should go to
> vocational training program. Sticking a 16 yo with a 6th grade reading
> level in a class reading Shakespeare and making him feel stupid because
> he doesn't understand it doesn't help anyone. It doesn't help him, and
> it distracts from the kids who do want to and can learn Shakespeare.
> Then we tell that kid, the school, and the teachers that they're
> failures because he fails his college entrance exam, which doubles as
> the state standardized test. This kid never realistically wanted to go
> to college and never wanted to sit in that English or math class. We
> never listened to what he wanted to do, which was probably to learn a
> skill or trade he could support himself with. The higher level kids
> aren't served either because they're going to pass their test, so they
> can be left alone and focus put on those that struggle.
>
> Trust me teachers are a VICTIM of this system and NCLB, not the
> progenitors of it. We see it not working, every day. We see kids put
> into Geometry classes who can't add, but the boss shrugs and says
> "we've got to try and get him ready for the test Junior year." We just
> don't read about it in journals or hear about it from some guy.
>
> What we have is a system that fails because it is now being tasked to
> do something that isn't designed to work, and it was created to
> generate workers for an industrial system that has gone away. However,
> such a massive reorganization will cost far more than we're willing to
> do, and to work nation wide, would require the elimination of local
> control of schools. America doesn't spend what it should on its kids.
> It spends much more than it should on tools of war to kill other
> nation's kids, but we spend only a small fraction of what we should to
> educate. We like the local control because then the President can
> shrug off responsibility as he Christens a new Guided Missile
> Destroyer.
>
> I'm not saying the system is great, far from it. We have a lot of
> things to change, though most of your suggestions aren't meant to be
> constructive. They're motivated by the bitterness created because you
> were rejected for employment. However, I imagine your criticism of
> public schools and teachers would end if I offered you a teaching
> contract. Suddenly, things wouldn't be so bad.
 

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