rastafarian education?

I was writing while you two were posting. Gah. Ok.

I find it offensive and racist that we have Black History Month once a year but that same information isn't simply included in the history books we're studying along with all the other history. Is the rest "white history?" That doesn't make sense. I don't udnerstand how that same information isn't simply inserted there in the proper timeline. I can be. But it's not.

Empowerment of the self and your own future.... that's about all the hope we all have anymore, no matter what color your skin.

To put it bluntly. Yes. We don't actually study history in history class. We study European history. And the reason for that is that the largest buyers and producers of text books in Texas. And because they buy the most, and don't want certain things put in them, like African American history and a good explanation for evolution, it's left out.

Sucks, doesn't it.

Even in Black History Month, you'll notice that only certain things are taught. Peaceful figures. Can't have any Black Panther Party knowledge being taught, can we? Lol. But yeah, I dunno where you live, but where I live we were taught about 1920s America, which included racism, but that was it, literally nothing else. One Black History Month of selective topics/people isn't going to help anyone, really.

You are right though, it's the corporations, the government, the media, etc. that is the real enemy, so to speak. Not individuals who've been taken in by generalisations and negativity. But that's the point, really. Said people aren't a majority.

Yep, I knew that about the textbook printers. Good old racist Bible Belt. Yes, it does suck. The Puritan stench is pretty awful. My children's education has to be supplemented for more than ten hours a week because of that bullshit.

Public education is the bare minimum and they treat it like it's all there is. It makes kids hate school because they aren't taught that they CAN go after more on their own time if they are so inclined.

Where I grew up, we learned a little about the Panthers, but more about that they existed, not about their ideologies. And yeah, most of it is about King and Rosa Parks. White people even tend to stay away from X. He's one of my hero's, but because I know about his life, not just about his affiliation withElijahMohammad.

I didn't even know much about slavery until I took an African American History class in college. I knew that Lincoln didn't want to free the slaves, but you don't learn that in grade school. It was something I picked up on my own. Through high school, I still was being taught that Lincoln freed the slaves and that was that. We learned about slavery times through the 50's. So we at least learned about Jim Crow.

School didn't use to be that way. It really started when theyimplementedstandardized tests. Not that public education was great to begin with, but once they started with the tests, schools felt like they had to teach to the test. My girlfriend's a teacher. Instead of being able to spend the whole year teaching kids how to read and what good books there are out there, she has to get in when her curriculum says, and then for the rest of the year, teach about how to take a test. It's a load of bull. And it's unfair because kids in the burbs will do better on it because they have the money pumped into their schools by the government and by rich alma maters. while kids in the inner city and boonies will always do worse because they don't. It's not that they can't. My girlfriend is going to be the next Jamie Escalante. Her kids last year averaged 17% proficient or advanced. This year it's going to be around 70%. They'll get accused of cheating and she'll have to defend herself, but it'll prove that Even though those kids are city kids, it doesn't mean they're dumb, it just means that they aren't being given an equal chance

I think it was in Georgia. Am not positive. But anyway, I read a few months ago about a school which had a dropout rate of around 70% and they were awarded a few million dollars by criminy... was it .. Jobs? Gates? My memory is shot to shit today, sorry. Anyway, so the gist of it all was that this school got millions of additional dollars and what happened to their test scores? Stayed the same.They accounted for where they money went and not a darn thing changed. Change takes time and money within the school budget is only a small factor.

The other main factors are: teacher burn out, administrative asshattery, parents not having the energy/willpower to get interesting in what their children are learning, and just plain not having good influences in their lives.

Because of the teacher burn out, teaching jobs are about to be really competitive as districts are turned over to charters. Competition isn't necessarily a bad thing amongst teachers when you think about it!! If you've got the goods then parents want you and will really fight for you! Our local (free. public school)cyber charter has a roster of only the best, handpicked teachers from the county. Man are they awesome! It's a program which took three years to put together and took a lot of knucklebending on part of parents with administrators because they were sick of the offerings locally. Admin heard and responded. We now have a spectacular school for homeschooling kids.

Change takes time. And yelling.

Teaching-to-the-test is frustrating for the students, teachers, and parents so what are the alternatives? Streamlining the teaching process, for starters. There is so much wasted time in class settings it's ridiculous. With this charter school my child can do two years worth of work in one, barely break a sweat, and be done by 3pm most days. He ended up doing three this year. That proves just how the curriculum spirals, creating frustration and boredom on part of the student. Even my ADHD 5th grader will probably end up doing two years in most of his classes next year with the same charter school. There is no point in reviewing something so many times until you're ready to take a machete to the book or your computer.

I don't think there are any right answers but talking(bitching) about what is wrong will only lead to some productive ideas, hopefully.

"Jamie Escalante" Now there's a name I haven't heard in a while! I LOVE the movie, own it, and plan on showing it to my smarty pants twelve year old soon because he's hitting algebra next year. He's a math guy at heart but gets frustrated. Thankfully his teachers 'get' him. Amazing teachers and mentors are so important for survival today. I really try to hammer that idea home to him every chance I get. "Those teachers you think are awesome- TALK to them! Engage them! They want to teach you so much more than what is in your textbook."

We need more positive mentors in our children's lives and alternative education solutions. The Thomas Jefferson method is intense. Combined with the Singapore method... wow. We'd be on top again instead of being laughed at by the rest of the world. We're getting fewer and fewer international students because our education system has fallen behind so much.

Ok, I'm just going to say one more thing, and then let this discussion go back to what it was meant to be for.

You're right, the problems aren't ONLY about money. But you're taking one situation and generalizing it for all schools. Charter schools are not usually a good thing. In fact more than half of charter schools are doing worse than public schools. Only a handful are actually doing better. And charter schools don't hand pick their teachers as a general rule. You apply to them like any other teaching job. You either get hired or you don't.

My girlfriend use to work for a public school, but Philadelphia laid off thousands of teachers last year, and she got a job at a school that was flipped. this is their first year as a charter. Hopefully it will be a good school.

But money does play an important part. If you go to Bucks County, Pa you'll find schools that spent $100 million on their high school, while the schools in the inner city have holes in the walls that never get fixed, water fountains that have signs that tell kids not to drink the water, and lead paint on the walls from the 70's that have never been repainted since then. If kids can not take pride in their school, or education, they will do bad because they don't care. If you spend money on them and give them smart boards, classroom laptops, new books, desks, chairs, and whatever else you can think of, they will be more inclined to care about their school, and about their education. They try harder if you show them you care. That's not the teachers part of the job, that that's the administrations job. And the admins don't think that stuff matters.

As far as streamlining teaching. That's the worst idea ever thought up for education. That what they do now in order to teach to the test. If you go into any inner city school, you re supposed to be able to walk into any classroom at random and they will be on the same page in the text book. How does that help kids? There's no personal touch that the teachers can give to their class that will enable them to answer questions or get into more detail about the topic they are teaching.

What about suburb schools that have the money to spend on tests that will determine if a kid has a learning disorder or is slow? Those kids get pulled out of the regular class and put into a slower class. In the City, those kids are overlooked and left in with everyone else. My girlfriend has kids in one class that are on 12th grade reading levels and some that are one 3rd grade levels. If she had to streamline her teaching, the higher level kids would get bored and not listen and fail, and the lower level kids would get confused, lost in the material, and fail. What they do is called differentiation. It's what little they can do to help kids of all levels. But it's not enough. City schools need more money to be able to hire teachers to teach special ed classes.

In the future, teaching will not be a competitive job. It will be a job that you do for 5 years, and get fired and have to find another job, not because you are a bad teacher, but because they are paying you too much for what they believe teachers should make. Teachers get paid the bare miminum and work an average of 60 hour weeks. There's no summers off, either. The majority of teachers have to work summer jobs just to pay the bills.

Ok, I digress

As far as teachers burning out. Teachers don't just burn out over time because they do. They burn out because of the stress they are put under to stick to a curriculum that doesn't work well. And they all know it. Teachers get tired because their hands are tied by the administration. If they could actually teach your kids, they would, and they would for 50 years. But since the tests have become so important to our government, teachers get fed up and retire after 30 years. 1 in 2 teachers don't make it 3 years.

It is few and far between teachers who are bad teachers. The overwhelming majority of them really do want to help and are good teachers. The problem is not the teachers, it is the administration, and what they allow teachers to do in their own classroom. Administrators who left the classroom because they hate dealing with kids, are the ones calling the shots on how to deal with kids.

If you wanted to make a stink and yell and get something changed, start with that. Start with getting schools to listen to their teachers and do what they say. Because as of now, the teachers are the scapegoats.