Post by truthbtold on Jan 2, 2016 17:33:09 GMT -5
Chris Wendt concluded:
"Ultimately, the solutions will come from parents who will demand better for their children."
I wonder why Chris Wendt continues to view education as something that is done for children, like changing their diapers and tying their shoes.
You see, based on my classroom experience, I know that the solution, ultimately, will come when, and only when, parents stop trying to demand more FOR their children and start demanding more FROM their children... and when they support those who teach their children to do the same.
Nothing will change until that happens. How can it? I don't care how many Smart Boards, IPads, computers, and lab materials you pump into a school. I don't care how much professional development a district mandates for its teachers. I don't care how long you want to extend the instructional day, or year for that matter. I don't care what type of instructional model you want to employ.
None of it will matter unless kids genuinely value their education and desire to become the best students that they can be.
And once kids really do care about their ability to analyze, think critically, and create, you will be able to give each of them a pencil and a sheet of paper and they will figure out ways to unlock the mysteries of the universe. Let's keep in mind that AP scholars do rise from unlikely places, high schools like Hempstead and Roosevelt.
What inspires the few young men and women who achieve that level of academic distinction in such dysfunctional schools? It's the value that each of them places on the quality of their education and their desire to be the best that they can be. If you asked those kids, and bear in mind that I am in contact with these types of students every day, how they did it, I guarantee you that they WOULD NOT SAY, "Well, you see, I demand better FOR myself."
No.
They, like their counterparts in other schools, WOULD SAY, "I demand more FROM myself each and every day because I recognize the value of becoming as educated as possible."
And this is how teaching has become a catch 22. Communities understandably demand a high quality education for their children, but then many parents do everything in their power to undermine the system of accountability that is necessary to foster the desired results. Then the community blames the school when their children are not adequately prepared for life beyond high school.
In truth, again based on my classroom experience, over the last ten years, high expectations have become considered unfair and rigorous academic standards are now viewed as something that are inflicted upon children. I, fortunately, have forged enough of a reputation to be left alone by parents, for the most part. But when I hear about some of the abuse that my colleagues have endured, it's enough to drive me mad. Grades altered. Disciplinary records expunged. Academic criteria overridden in order to force admission into honor-track classes and the honor society. Positions on the executive board of clubs forced as well. Unbelievable.
And while we are at it, now that the state assessments are approaching, let's be honest about the real impetus behind the Opt-Out Movement. The new assessments revealed that a great many students are not as smart as we want them to be.
Should we raise the standards, and try to make them smarter?
Nah.
Today's parents have a better idea.
They refuse to allow their children to be assessed until the powers-that-be come up with an assessment that will cast their children in the light in which they want them to be seen.
It's a sham.
And a shame.
Now, these developments come as no surprise to some. They are aware that today's parents are of the generation whose academic growth was examined by the National Commission on Excellence in Education, under Ronald Reagan, in the 1983 report A Nation at Risk. The findings, which were based on data gathered from 1980 to 1983, were very revealing as well as disturbing. The commission concluded that US high school students were functioning, academically speaking, far below their peers in nearly every other industrialized nation.
Sound familiar?
The report was released when I was in college, and I remember my professor saying, "The report is basically telling us that America's teens are so dumb (his word) that if we rounded them all up and relocated them to another country, it could be viewed as an act of war." Too funny. And too sad.
Now, today, the kids who did little value their education in the 1970s and 1980s are the adults, the parents.
So let me ask you this: could there possibly be a correlation between the lack of value that a parent placed on his or her education when they were young and the lack of value that his or her children place on their education today?
We know from our studies of disadvantaged children that poverty is a learned behavior, like violence, racism, and addiction.
Can the same be said of the value one places on education?
What behaviors are suburban parents modeling for their children? Are they consistent with the expectations that they have of their children's teachers?
What do suburban parents encourage their children to do outside of school? Is their scheduling consistent with the standards that they want upheld in the children's schools?
I think that it would be a great study.
What do you say?
"Ultimately, the solutions will come from parents who will demand better for their children."
I wonder why Chris Wendt continues to view education as something that is done for children, like changing their diapers and tying their shoes.
You see, based on my classroom experience, I know that the solution, ultimately, will come when, and only when, parents stop trying to demand more FOR their children and start demanding more FROM their children... and when they support those who teach their children to do the same.
Nothing will change until that happens. How can it? I don't care how many Smart Boards, IPads, computers, and lab materials you pump into a school. I don't care how much professional development a district mandates for its teachers. I don't care how long you want to extend the instructional day, or year for that matter. I don't care what type of instructional model you want to employ.
None of it will matter unless kids genuinely value their education and desire to become the best students that they can be.
And once kids really do care about their ability to analyze, think critically, and create, you will be able to give each of them a pencil and a sheet of paper and they will figure out ways to unlock the mysteries of the universe. Let's keep in mind that AP scholars do rise from unlikely places, high schools like Hempstead and Roosevelt.
What inspires the few young men and women who achieve that level of academic distinction in such dysfunctional schools? It's the value that each of them places on the quality of their education and their desire to be the best that they can be. If you asked those kids, and bear in mind that I am in contact with these types of students every day, how they did it, I guarantee you that they WOULD NOT SAY, "Well, you see, I demand better FOR myself."
No.
They, like their counterparts in other schools, WOULD SAY, "I demand more FROM myself each and every day because I recognize the value of becoming as educated as possible."
And this is how teaching has become a catch 22. Communities understandably demand a high quality education for their children, but then many parents do everything in their power to undermine the system of accountability that is necessary to foster the desired results. Then the community blames the school when their children are not adequately prepared for life beyond high school.
In truth, again based on my classroom experience, over the last ten years, high expectations have become considered unfair and rigorous academic standards are now viewed as something that are inflicted upon children. I, fortunately, have forged enough of a reputation to be left alone by parents, for the most part. But when I hear about some of the abuse that my colleagues have endured, it's enough to drive me mad. Grades altered. Disciplinary records expunged. Academic criteria overridden in order to force admission into honor-track classes and the honor society. Positions on the executive board of clubs forced as well. Unbelievable.
And while we are at it, now that the state assessments are approaching, let's be honest about the real impetus behind the Opt-Out Movement. The new assessments revealed that a great many students are not as smart as we want them to be.
Should we raise the standards, and try to make them smarter?
Nah.
Today's parents have a better idea.
They refuse to allow their children to be assessed until the powers-that-be come up with an assessment that will cast their children in the light in which they want them to be seen.
It's a sham.
And a shame.
Now, these developments come as no surprise to some. They are aware that today's parents are of the generation whose academic growth was examined by the National Commission on Excellence in Education, under Ronald Reagan, in the 1983 report A Nation at Risk. The findings, which were based on data gathered from 1980 to 1983, were very revealing as well as disturbing. The commission concluded that US high school students were functioning, academically speaking, far below their peers in nearly every other industrialized nation.
Sound familiar?
The report was released when I was in college, and I remember my professor saying, "The report is basically telling us that America's teens are so dumb (his word) that if we rounded them all up and relocated them to another country, it could be viewed as an act of war." Too funny. And too sad.
Now, today, the kids who did little value their education in the 1970s and 1980s are the adults, the parents.
So let me ask you this: could there possibly be a correlation between the lack of value that a parent placed on his or her education when they were young and the lack of value that his or her children place on their education today?
We know from our studies of disadvantaged children that poverty is a learned behavior, like violence, racism, and addiction.
Can the same be said of the value one places on education?
What behaviors are suburban parents modeling for their children? Are they consistent with the expectations that they have of their children's teachers?
What do suburban parents encourage their children to do outside of school? Is their scheduling consistent with the standards that they want upheld in the children's schools?
I think that it would be a great study.
What do you say?
