Public schools - this is why we're doomed.
 

My mom just sent me this email from one of their neighbors, who's a public school teacher in NJ. It's a response to my dad's offer to clean up some of the neighbor's trees when he's working on the property line. I've met this guy a few times and was kind of shocked when my folks later told me he's a teacher. I don't know what he teaches, but I sure hope it's not English. My Chinese wife can write better than this. Read it and weep.


You are so good. Yes there needs to be a lot of cutting off of tress and limbs. If you have the time any thing to make the neighbor a top notch location I am for. I will start to come down in May or by May 15. I will need a saw to cut down some inside tree by the garage..If you have the time please feel free to cut away. ONE big help there are 2 window on porch near t he bay that have orneed duck tape to seal them from the out side... that is my most consern at the present time...
I wish my mother would have ok rebuilding the house 10 years agood by she was were dumb didnot want to take on the challenge of building a home and in case she need the money so now the house is a eye sore...my sister add to this problem . of such a poor looking slum...again if you get the time and feel active please help your self...

PUBIC schools SO suck

Wow - what a train wreck.

lol
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/wat5.gif

Dumbest woman I've ever met is a teacher in Douglasville. High school.

Is the person an ESL person? It doesn't really excuse them from being an effective speaker, but it would explain some stuff.

Some public schools can be really bad, and some can be pretty darn good. It depends upon where you are. The school that I went to in NoVA usually had a couple of perfect scores on the SATs every time they were given. Some very smart kids and a college prep level course of study.

I'd rather watch a video on menstruation than have to read that again.

ouch! honestly, if i did a search, i could pull some abominations that i typed up and put forth on this very forum. i just get lazy.

public schools + lazy parents = crappy students. i dont put it all on the school system.

And just think, she has a degree !!!

I learned to read and write in an inner city public school. It is not the schools that are at fault, it is individual laziness and apathy that are the real culprits.

That's my opinion.

You think that is bad? How about this local story here in MA:

The superintendent of a Massachusetts school district has failed a required English literacy three times, even though he has put two dozen teachers on unpaid leave for failing a similar exam.

Gov. Mitt Romney will give Wilfredo T. Laboy of the Lawrence schools one more chance to pass the test by December before taking action, via the state Board of Education, to remove him, reports the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune.

Laboy, a native Puerto Rican whose original language is Spanish, has flunked the Communications and Literacy Skills Test three times.

According to the paper, Laboy blames his failures on a deficiency in grammar and punctuation, and the schools chief now hopes to get tutoring help from district teachers. At least one school committee member, however, thinks he should pay for the tutoring out of his own pocket.

Calling his failure "frustrating" and "emotional," Laboy blamed it partly on lack of preparation and concentration, reported the Eagle-Tribune.

"If you're not an English teacher, you don't look at the rules on a regular basis," Laboy told the Lawrence paper. ''It bothers me because I'm trying to understand the congruence of what I do here every day and this stupid test. That's what, emotionally, I'm so upset about.''

The superintendent plans to skip a chance to take the test in September in favor of a November date.

"Just like we encourage kids not to walk away from the challenges, I will not walk away from this," Laboy told the paper. "I intend to stay on course and get done whatever I have to get done."

According to the Eagle-Tribune, Laboy is the highest-paid city employee, taking in $156,560 a year.

State Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll defended Laboy.

"The (literacy) test is not easy, particularly for someone whose first language is not English," Driscoll told the paper. "His extensive job responsibilities have made it difficult for him to properly prepare."

The test Laboy failed assesses fundamental reading and writing skills expected of all entry-level teachers, including vocabulary, punctuation, grammar, spelling and capitalization

But your TEACHERS were not as ignorant as the teacher in question. She should not be working as a teacher. Even if she is teaching PE, she can't grasp grammar.

That's some seriously small font Monza. Apparently i still have excellent eyesight, as i was able to read the story. :)

I do not disagree.

The teacher may be lazy to an extent, as legion pointed out, but come on...

What she wrote barely even resembles English.

No, this guy is not an ESL teacher. He's a Jersey boy, reminds me a little of one of the Sopranos characters without the toughness.

In fairness to NJ schools, when I moved there from TX in the 6th grade, I did find the schools a lot more challenging and I still don't think many of my teachers back then were less than excellent. But that someone like the guy who wrote that email is doing anything other than digging ditches is pretty scary.

edited for the over 40 crowd! (including myself)....

The guy just probably got an iphone ;)
Or was half drunk ...
I posted once here from my iphone and that will probably will be the last.

Interesting that the sup said, How can you expect anybody to take a test if you think it is stupid? I wonder how many of those 2 dozen think it's a stupid test and what their reaction to the states allow their boss get away with it?

hmmm, I guess $156,560 a year isn't enough since This guy seems smarter than the rest of the states since so why this, , a problem?


* * same person above gets paid "$156,560 a year"
* puts teachers on leave who can't pass the test
* and still requires students to study ....
priceless

There 2 dozen teachers working in a district that can't read, write and understand English!
Now imagine how many more districts have this problem.
Why doesn't somebody complain?
Or is that everybody is too involved watching news on TV that focuses more on the 1 in million possibility because it's more interesting that your kids being taught by teachers that need to pass their qualifications still.

sad, sad, sad

Well they might have a degree, but we can be assured it is not in Nuclear Physics. Let's all feel lucky about that ok?

Teachers get a bad wrap, not all of them are dumb. Just some are not so bright and chose the easy road to a degree which just happened to be in education. Others wanted to be teachers and are doing a magnificent job teaching kids.

Don't worry, I've read much worse coming out of incredibly fancy and high end private and boarding schools (globally, not just US). Again, the future is bright for those that make it bright for themselves.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1271700187.jpg


My wife has been a teacher for over 30 years. For her, the biggest problem (aside from the lack of interest many parents have in their child's education), is the Department of Education and the School board attempting to re-invent the wheel on a five year cycle by spending a half-million on a new math or language arts program. I marvel at the ability of our generation to count without using our fingers (or other appendages) and to communicate with a degree of competence. How did we manage without having our programs updated with the 'latest and best'? The kids don't need an overpaid consultant to recommend a new program. They need more classroom help. Having 25 children around 7 years of age, with varying degrees of ability and a range of behavioral problems jammed into one classroom, with one teacher to try to meet all their needs is a cruel farce.

The current fashion is to put the schools on a 'business model'. I'm sorry, children are not widgets which can be mass-produced. They are individuals whose needs are usually recognized by the classroom teacher. Under the current system, the classroom teacher has little input into the decision to provide support for any children whose needs are not being met. She has to wait months for a supervisor or adviser to observe the child in her classroom. By the time that happens, the child has fallen further behind.

There are indeed people who have little to offer children and should not be given teaching licenses. There is also a lot of lip service paid by education administrators who have centralized the decision making on just about everything to the board level. The people who make decisions on which child gets help should be those who work with the children.

I suspect most education would be enhanced if school boards dropped 50% of the administrative positions and used the budget to reduce class sizes.

Rant over.

Les

I went to one such school and it was unthinkable you'd graduate after writing something like that. Might as well paint a swastika on the headmaster's car. You'd not be graduating.

In fact, the only bad teacher I even knew of at my prep school was a math teacher, whom they only kept on because her husband was the school's physician and was very popular with everyone. School was afraid he'd leave if they canned her. Luckily, my mom worked for the director of studies and made sure I never got her as a teacher.

the problem is that it is an Education degree

every faculty member at every university knows that is the easiest major in the world, and so do most students

we had a decent but not great biology major take some ed. course and came back quickly - he said it was so damn boring, slow & stupid he thought he was in elementary school -- he really wanted an ed. degree but couldn't stand the boredom; so he cam back and suffered thru the difficult biology curriculum

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nothing against teachers -- the good ones struggle with parents who think their lazy idiot should get an "A" and complain to the school admin. & school board

the good teachers burn out and/or leave or cave in to the pressure - that's why Johnny can't read

I DO think that high school teachers should have a college degree in what they teach (with ed. courses added). For lower grades, I expect it is more about being able to articulate with children than about subject matter knowledge.

Bottom line - I have seen the output from high schools and it is not pretty (overall). I am in FULL agreement with the Republican effort to crack the whip over school admin.s and teachers.

I doubt that.

In some communities, teacher is one of the worst jobs on earth. I could not even imagine being a teacher in one of these big inner city combat zones we call high schools.

I know of 4 students I went to high school with who are now high school teachers in public schools.
2 were very good at sports. They'd get A's in sports but they were lucky to get a B in anything else.
The other two were boxes of rocks and I doubt they managed to carry a C average. It was a wonder that they graduated.

Now they are teaching kids things they couldn't figure out for themselves.

But ...... they only have to work 6 hours a day, 31 weeks a year!

Not to worry, that thread has been pulled off of the forum. Guess it makes PPOT a safer place....

I think you're right. "Much worse" was an overstatement, but I've seen some nasty writing out of some amazing colleges as well as graduate programs.

Oddly, some of the most intelligent and successful people I have encountered aren't the best writers. I am not saying my writing is worth two *****s but I've seen worse than mine out of far more educated folk.

My brother once married a Detroit public school teacher. The most small minded and selfish person I have ever met....................

Edited for chicklets.

Kachi, this is not PARF.

my mother works in the school shes not smart but she just substitutes for the aids. She always has crazy stories and is always saying its no wonder the kids are so dumb

No doubt the biggest problem are the parents. I dated a few teachers back in my single days. I saw papers from 3rd graders at a private school that were better than from high school students at a public school. It was mostly the parents involvement that made the difference. If little junior's education is costing thousands per year mom & dad want the results and they get involved.

I suffered through the era of "new math" as a kid. That had to be the dumbest of all new teaching ideas.

No not all teachers are dumb or bad educators but there are many who are.

Parents are a major problem.
Schools are a major problem.
Teachers just add to the above problem.

90% of kids go to school with the attitude school is fun and interesting after 12 years of compulsory BS only 10% still feel the same way.

Kindergartens have a better setup and can actually teach more than schools after that.

Kids do not like desks and how they are forced into a form.

The business model idea is more geared towards how schools operate rather than production units.

After have bashed schools with the above, I also do want to say that many teachers out there are really trying their best. It's just a shame that theory rather than practice was studied when they were in school. Imagine your doctor basing his decisions off of only research and textbooks rather than having gone through a pretty intensive internship.

Mitt ROMNEY?!?! LOL!

Romney hasn't been governor of MA since 2007 - 2006 for practical purposes. I notice the date of that article has been conveniently left off.

Anyone else see the irony in someone posting a patently obsolete/misleading article in order to promote an opinion regarding education?

Too funny!

Incidentally, a quick Google search turns up some more interesting, recent information about "Doctor"* Laboy - that he's been indicted on "financial improprieties".

Lawrence School Superintendent Laboy, three others indicted (Latina Lista~Merrimack Valley)

I'm not a particularly big fan of the public education system (especially the union) but it's important to get the facts correct and the complete story here.








* = Wilfredo T. Laboy received his doctorate from Nova University, which is known for having questionable credentials and essentially being a "buy an advanced degree here" clearinghouse for people not willing or able to go through a more conventional and credible educational system. This fact alone (IMHO) casts a certain amount of doubt on his qualifications to be an educator, much less a superintendent of schools...

See, that's his problem right there. He has trees growing indoors.

I agree, you have to want to learn.

I was educated in a very rural public school in NC as was my husband. My son (4th grade) was in a regular public school until this year. Now a public virtual school. We have had great teachers and mediocre teachers in those years. I think it would be sad to put all teachers in the incompetent category. I do think if a teacher can't communicated properly then they probably should find a new career. When I was in school I didn't appreciate those great teachers I had. As a parent, I realize how great some were and how much I learned in their classes.

agreed, but who is responsible to teach motivation and want?

The parents

All the bad teachers I had were when I attended college. One English teacher...part of it was the booze jockey thing, part was she hated men, bad divorce perhaps.

That may be so, but discipline and structure are important things to learn to live with.