Looking At The Other Side of ABC's 20/20 "Stupid In America" Blindside
How Do You Feel About The Quality Of Education At Your Local School
"...I'd also remind those who use negative news about our public schools to argue for "choice" that real choice will be possible only when parents have a choice of quality public and private schools, and when private schools are held to the same standard of objective statistical accountability that allows us to celebrate the progress made in the Charleston County School District. We can then go beyond negatives and celebrate 'the rest of the story.'"
Read more: Charleston Post Courier
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17 comments:
You are not a very thinking crowd if you truely think that our High school is tops. The kids that get good grades do so,. not because of any teaching that goes on but because that's just how they are. Look at your own families. Do you not a one child who gets straight A's, or school is easy for them and maybe another who struggles just to get a B average? We have teachers in this system who merely read from books in class, post notes on boards and give tests according to those notes. Teachers prepare kids for these tests by giving them the answers to study! I have had 7 kids go through this system and I will tell you , it needs help!
What are you expectations of your child's education from the K-12? What do you expect you children to be prepared for when they get their diploma? Manaul labor, attend technical college, junior college ready, able to get into a state university with ease, able to get into Harvard with ease?
Ok heres a note that I found in my sons jeans from a young lady who is a junior this year. "Hey, what's up? I'm just sitting here bored again. , we seriously don't do anything in here and there are like half freshman and all we talk about was how gross boys are, even the teacher was acting childish. I also watched3 movies today counting this class i'm in.BORING!!!..."
Quality education at it's finest eh?
I could type out dozens of notes similar to this one that I have found throughout the course of the year. And...it gets better."I fell asleep today in class and Mr.*** actually let me sleep and I didn't get in trouble!" "Oh my G__ another movie! Don't these teachers ever get tired of watching Disney! I could have stayed home and learned more!"
"I got in trouble today for telling agay kid it wasn't right to be gay" "Can you believe S****is pregnant and sh'e coming to school with that big belly! I guess we're supposed to learn that it's ok to get pregnant and still come to school?" "I was only 30 secons late today and Mrs*** made me sit in the library during the entire class" no learning gong on here! "Can you believe **** all he does is read that stupid book and he expects us to memorize it" "I'm taking a test right now and I'm the first one done, so I thought I would write you. This was the easiest test, She gave us all the answers yesterday. awesome!" " I can't wait to get out of sh-- hole of a school, I'm so bored all the time"
Need more?
I would think not. These are juniors with an A/B average. Great kids with great future plans in the real world.
Are you sure those aren't the notes I was writing in Hudson High School 30+ years ago? What was it like when you were in high school? It was pretty boring for me.
How were your grades in high school?
Have you approached the school or the teachers about these letters? If you are not satisfied with the quality of the education your child is recieving, contact the teacher, principle, superintendent. Their your kids and you are a taxpayer. If you are not happy with the quality of education, you should take it up with those mentioned above.
Are you afraid to ask the school district for your monies worth? What actions have you taken to address your issues with the quality of education?
Those are the most full of shIt notes I have ever seen. Written by someone who thinks they know kids. Since this is your kid anonymous why haven't you done something about it. Like home school the kids if she thinks she can learn more at home. What high school teacher would show disney movies (nice try).
"The kids that get good grades do so,. not because of any teaching that goes on but because that's just how they are." Exactly, so quit bithcin' about the educational system and be concerned with your lack of parenting and lack of motivating your child to do better and improve.
Anti Bill Danielson.... Let's not jump to conclusions. What if this is the real pespective of an actual student. What would you think? Sure some of it's just being a teenage high school student, to them, everything is boring.
But maybe, just maybe, there's a little too much movie watching and not enough
teacher student interaction going on in the schools. From the borderliners point of view, that's enough to scrap the whole system so they can spend what they pay in property taxes on more blogger lagers.
But,from a realistic perspective, if the student's note is real, shouldn't issues like this be addressed by the school administration?
It definitely should, however, I for one don't believe this is going in the high school or any of the schools in Hudson. There is as much movie watching going on at the local private schools as their is in the public schools.
The borderliners don't like one thing about the School District of Hudson so I don't buy the note that was supposedly written.
Dear anti bill danielson.
I'm pretty much on your team when it comes to dispising the borderliners. But
I'm also a parent, & some of these things are going on in the highschool saddly. There needs to be some adjustments in these areas, but I will never support the borderliners who would
use any shortcomming of the schools as an excuse to tear down the whole "Giverment Monopoly" That who crowd is whack. And I will fight they nit wit thinking as long as I can.
THees notes are real and there is a real problem at the high school. I for one have contacted the administration and I get the same old run around. No real answers but excuses. I would love to be able to homeschool my kids but guess what. I have to work full time in order to make ends meet, we both do.
What are the excuses you get from the school administration?
At the top of this post I asked this question:
What are you expectations of your child's education from the K-12? What do you expect you children to be prepared for when they get their diploma? Manaul labor, attend technical college, junior college ready, able to get into a state university with ease, able to get into Harvard with ease?
You didn't answer it or give me any indication of your expectations. I went to Hudson High School and graduated in the early 70s. I thought school sucked. I graduated with a 1.9 GPA and got out of high school exactly what I wanted -- a diploma. Since then I went on the graduate from undergraduate and graduate college. My grades improved along the way, as I understood the importance of getting an education.
School can be very boring to students for many reasons. For some it's not that challenging and others it ain't where they want to be and nothing can make them like it.
What kind of trouble did you kid get into for telling another kid it isn't right to be gay? I didn't know it isn't right to be gay. Gays that I know didn't choose to be gay. It's not like being a Viking or Packer fan.
I'm sure Hudson's isn't the best school system in the US and I'm sure it's not the worst. I suspect it's a little above average.
Your thoghts and comments are very important to this discussion. Please keep up the dialogue.
First off, being gay is a choice. One is not born Gay. There is absolutely no solid evidence, no scientific evidence of this. God made us to procreate and as I am sure you are aware, men can not have babies with men nor can woman have babies with woman. If God had planned it that way we would all have two sets of organs.
Next, what I expect out of a high school. I EXPECT KIDS TO LEARN SOMETHING. Is that too much to ask?
If what you say about high school was true for you, than in my estimation, we are paying our teachers way too much. What is High School? A babysitting service? A place where we send our kids and know where they are? What the admin told me was basically that they want utopia.They want a perfect school with well behaved kids, no problems...
I want them to care about the students, not just some of them. Spend less time policing them and more time interacting with them. I remember a few teachers from high school that really changed my life, we need more of those kinds.Teachers should not be there for the $$ as some are, or the benefits, as some are. I know it would be hard to make that determination, or maybe not, if they didn;'t have this union standing behind them and they actually had to work at being a good teacher in order to get raises...and not have the $$ coem automatically. What makes teacher A work harder and be better than teacher B in this world? Nothing. They know the $$ is coming no matter what. I'm sure at the begining, when they firststarted teaching, it was quite different, but in time they see students come and go and nothing they do makes a difference. Unions started out to be a good thing. As time evolved and people got smart unions became a crutch so to speak. Teachers don't have a drive anymore.
Look at the middle school art teacher, I forget his name, he lives in the house with the crutches on Vine St. We had such problems with him. In fact just about a month ago I was told by a parent that her daughter was making football in art class and he took her project and threw it across the room and started cussing at her and said I will have nothing in this class that has to do with football... well, many parents have had the same type of verbal abuse from this teachers.and guess what? he's still there!!!!!
Call the middle school principal if you want , I don't knwo if they can telll you anything but that union protects them to the ends of the world!
Way too general anonymous. Not all teachers in Hudson are like the example you provide, are there some, definitely but not near all of them. If the administrator knows this is going on then something is wrong, a problem like this should be dealt with and that starts with the PARENT. If this happened to my child I would be up there demanding a conference between administrator, teacher, me and my kid to find out what happened. Blasting all teachers, administrators and the district is ludicrous.
By the way, there is scientific research that says being gay is not always a choice. Check out a scientific journal, not a religious right wing fanatical group sponsored by Chris Kilber.
I ask you this anonymous, it seems procreating is the only reason god put us on this earth so does that mean Catholic Priests are sinners too since they cannot procreate?
Anonomous. I sense a real hostility from you toward the public schools. I have to wonder why. If it was your child that was involved in the incident you describe it could be understandable. But this was someone else's child based on 2nd hand information.
I have a child in the high school. They are doing very well. I talk to other parents who feel their children are doing well at the high school. These are kids that get A's and B's and are involved in Sports and other activities the school sponsors.
I don't know that you are one of the people who wants to get rid of public schools all together. You sound like you might be. Did you ever think of the ramifications are of what you are advocating? Hill Murry's tuition is $8500/year per child. I think you said you have 7 children. How in the world could you afford that even if you paid absolutely no property tax? Even if you could afford it the vast majority of parents could not. Where are they suppose to be educated? Wal-Mart? Sylvan learning centers @$45/hr. at home with 2 working parents like you said you were? If you are one of those privitize everything advocates you really better think how this would effect you and the vast majority of the middle class, a class that is rapidly disappearing because of the policies of the Bush administration.
It makes me angry everytime I think of what that man and his party is doing to this country. I want to keep this dialogue going so I will not direct that anger at you. Thank you for commenting.
Anon:
1. Gays: How many do you know personally? How many of those people tell you that woke up one morning and decided to be gay?
2. When it comes to learning and education it's more than a two-way street. Teachers don't just dump in 12 ounces of knowledge into a student's head and send them home 12 ounces smarter than when they got up in the morning. Learning requires input from the teachers and the students. Away from school, the education process involves the student and the parent. On average, how many hours a day would you say you spend overseeing your children's education away from school?
3. Counting K-12, undergraduate and graduate school, I might be able to count 10 teachers who were exceptional, influencial people in my life -- some of those gave me C's, D's and F's. Most were middle of the road and another handful were totally worthless. I've had teachers who some say where great that I thought were lousy and visa versa.
4. Concerning the pay, I know high school dropouts living in the St. Croix Valley who work in factories and make more annually than the highest paid teachers in any district around here. It wasn't too many years ago that teachers in New Richmond high school were being asked by students why they should study hard and graduate from high school when they could go make windows and get paid more than the teacher.
5. Your arguments seem to echo the song of the ontheborderline.net blog site: teachers are overpaid, unions are bad and public education stinks. Have you ever visited that site? What is your opion of their philosophical leanings concerning education?
Gays) 2, it is a choice, it's a preference
How many hours) at least 1 a day. If sylvan learning centers can teach our kids to read than why can't a teacher? (sophmore in high school, getting B average, can't read very well, hasn't read a book since 4th grade. Teachers never caught on?????
Personal opinon of teachers) great, good for you.
Pay) What i do for a living I do because its what i want to do, if it was only about the money than I would be a blood sucking lawyer.
echoes a song) Thanks for leading me to that site! I happen to agree to some degree! I guess I don't need this one anymore! Actually I don't have a computer, I use my friends or the library ones but thanks anyway.
How many books have you read since high school? How many do you read in a month, on average?
Anon: You don't seem to open for debate, if you are going to run to the OTBL site. On the other hand, you might find a home over there. They don't actually debate or discuss the issues. They slap each others back and attack anyone who dares question them.
Just remember, you are always welcome here. As you can see we are very open and honest in our debates, discussion and comments. One thing you will never see on this site are cheap shots and low rent attempts to make fun of another blog site. No, you will not see us stooping to the level of those frog-nosed, lip-lizard barnacles that are attached to the underside of the borderline.
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