Idiocracy - Working at a Title I School

[Bonaventure]

This is not my own, but having worked at public, charter, and private schools, including a Title I school, it's true!

I am in charge of the English-as-a-second-language Department at a large southern California high school which is designated a Title-1 school, meaning that its students average in the lower socio-economic and income levels. Most of the schools you are hearing about are South Gate High, Bell Gardens, Huntington Park, etc., where their students are protesting – these are also Title-1 schools.

Title-1 schools are on the free-breakfast and free-lunch program. When I say free breakfast, I'm not talking about a glass of milk and a roll ... But a full breakfast and cereal bar with fruits and juices that would make the Marriott proud. The waste of this food is monumental, with trays and trays of it being dumped in the trash uneaten. (Our tax dollars at work!)

I estimate that well over 50% of these students are obese or at least moderately overweight. About 75% or more have cell phones.
The school also provides day care centers for the unwed teenage pregnant girls (some as young as 13) so they can attend class without the inconvenience of having to arrange for babysitters or having family watch their kids. (More of our tax dollars at work!)

I was ordered to spend $700,000 on my department, or risk losing funding for the upcoming year even though there was little need for anything. My budget was already substantial, but I ended up buying new computers for the Computer Learning Center, half of which, one month later, were carved with graffiti by the appreciative students who obviously feel humbled and grateful to have a free education in America. (More and more of our tax dollars at work!)

I have had to intervene several times for young substitute teachers whose classes consist of many illegal immigrant students here in the country less than 3 months, who raised so much hell with the female teachers, calling them put as (whores) and throwing things, that the teachers were in tears.

[SamVanHouten]

The poor usurping resources that could go to people that actually deserve it are a waste of time. If you are so poor that you qualify for free lunch, then you do not need a Galaxy or iPhone.

It is a good and humble thing to fast and not eat every meal of the day. St. John Vianney - a holy man of whom we could never come close to even on our best days, only had a boiled potato each day.

Children should not be giving birth to children - a woman who cannot bear children naturally would love to adopt your son.

Maybe we should privatize all public schools and force parents to foot the bill. They'll stop calling their teachers whores and defacing their computers when they have to pay for education.

[Greg]

Get out and get a proper job.

If you're not part of the solution then there is good money to be made prolonging the problem and then solving it.

[Gardener]

This will not be fixed until people stop seeing education as a right and see it properly as a privilege.

This will not be fixed until schools stop acting as dumping grounds for miscreants

This will not be fixed until we stop bolstering the jungle culture out of misplaced fear of riotous youth, and erroneous (((manufactured))) white guilt.

This will not be fixed until the youth of today stop crapping all over the fruition of the dream that a man can have equality of opportunity, having forsaken that for the idiotic trope of equality of outcome.

This will not be fixed until we are decimated as a country, and God-willing rise from the ashes smaller, stronger in moral conviction, and restrictive in .gov interference in enacting NWO agendas.

In short, teaching is a waste of time unless you control your own market share and are not at the mercy of social engineering experiments besting classical methods.

[Bonaventure]

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-B_kmAebbQ[/yt]

This is the reality we face.

I work at a religious, even trad school. The behavior is not this bad, but the academic ineptitude, the apathy of the parents, the flaccid effectiveness of the teachers and administrators, it's all the same.

[Gardener]

[snip]

This is the reality we face.

I work at a religious, even trad school. The behavior is not this bad, but the academic ineptitude, the apathy of the parents, the flaccid effectiveness of the teachers and administrators, it's all the same.

This is because education is seen as a right more than a privilege. That's the only explanation I can come up with that actually makes sense.

Any ideas why? I'm open to the suggestions for the cause of the problem from someone actually in the chalk dust trenches.

[Kirin]

The Romans called this bread and circuses.

Same stuff, different day.

As for changes from a teacher? Not really something that can be addressed on the child's level. The impact from school is minimal, the parents influence on their motivation and moral character is vastly more powerful. If the parent doesn't care, the child won't care.

The parent needs to be made to care by penalties for their child's behavior. They'll soon get it together when Daddy's neck is on the line and little Timmy smashing up school property can't be something to just snigger over a spliff.

I also would suggest a total rejection of the positive reinforcement control system. I like to watch my older pupils sweat, I want them to fear tests and penalties for failing to meet standardized expectations. I would suggest some sort of culling system, where those who fail to meet grades suffer some sort of penalty, such as mandatory remedial lessons outside normal school hours or at weekends, again with penalties for parents if the child fails to turn up. They quickly improve when they realize failure or opting out is not an option and life will just becoming increasingly painful until they submit. Don't want to work? That's fine, enjoy solitary exclusions alone in a featureless room for eight hours. We do this here already for other things, expand it and just keep upping the ante.

We do this already here for children who fail to attend school without just cause, the parents will be fined and in some cases have been imprisoned. I suggest expanding this model to other areas such as academic performance. None of them are expected to be the next Shakespeare, merely literate and if some have to put in more hours than others to obtain it then so it should be.

[Quaremerepulisti]

This will not be fixed until people stop seeing education as a right and see it properly as a privilege.

This will not be fixed until schools stop acting as dumping grounds for miscreants

This will not be fixed until we stop bolstering the jungle culture out of misplaced fear of riotous youth, and erroneous (((manufactured))) white guilt.

This will not be fixed until the youth of today stop crapping all over the fruition of the dream that a man can have equality of opportunity, having forsaken that for the idiotic trope of equality of outcome.

This will not be fixed until we are decimated as a country, and God-willing rise from the ashes smaller, stronger in moral conviction, and restrictive in .gov interference in enacting NWO agendas.

we build the wall, deport all illegal immigrants with a mandatory 5-year prison sentence if caught re-entering the country illegally, fine businesses to the point of bankruptcy if they hire any, and declare war on urban gangs.

FIFY.

[Kirin]

we build the wall, deport all illegal immigrants with a mandatory 5-year prison sentence if caught re-entering the country illegally, fine businesses to the point of bankruptcy if they hire any, and declare war on urban gangs.

Haven't Mexican's been building tunnels under your border and to escape from prisons for quite some time now?

The idea of a physical wall amuses me, though the sentiment I understand.

[Kaesekopf]

The parent needs to be made to care by penalties for their child's behavior. They'll soon get it together when Daddy's neck is on the line and little Timmy smashing up school property can't be something to just snigger over a spliff.

Implying half the parents know who little Timmy is.

[Kirin]

Implying half the parents know who little Timmy is.

You'd be surprised how quickly half the parents remember who the father is when they realize just what portion of their income, even if it is only benefits, they can claim in child support.

Not that the mother doesn't make an equally valid candidate for said penalties if she is the primary carer.

[Quaremerepulisti]

As for changes from a teacher? Not really something that can be addressed on the child's level. The impact from school is minimal, the parents influence on their motivation and moral character is vastly more powerful. If the parent doesn't care, the child won't care.

Yep.

The parent needs to be made to care by penalties for their child's behavior. They'll soon get it together when Daddy's neck is on the line and little Timmy smashing up school property can't be something to just snigger over a spliff.

Nope.  They won't.  Let's be real.  Daddy probably already has 5 warrants out for his arrest already.  And he's judgment proof with no fixed address.  Cops have already too much to worry about with these people shooting and stabbing each other, DUI, drugs, and prostitution, they don't have time for arrests like this.  And neither does our already overburdened legal system - if they do arrest him, he just pleads out to something for a minimal amount of time in county jail.

And we're certainly not going to ever put Mommy's neck on the line - all single Moms are heroic, doncha know.

Unless we're willing to support a MASSIVE increase in our law enforcement budget (to the tune of, 25X more cops) coupled with a massive increase in budget for courts, jails, and prisons.  I will come out and say I am willing to support it.  But I'm not naive about the costs.  Without the willingness to put one's money where one's mouth is, this is all just talk.

But, then, just WHY are these dysfunctional people in our country again anyway when they have no right to be??

I also would suggest a total rejection of the positive reinforcement control system. I like to watch my older pupils sweat, I want them to fear tests and penalties for failing to meet standardized expectations. I would suggest some sort of culling system, where those who fail to meet grades suffer some sort of penalty, such as mandatory remedial lessons outside normal school hours or at weekends, again with penalties for parents if the child fails to turn up. They quickly improve when they realize failure or opting out is not an option and life will just becoming increasingly painful until they submit. Don't want to work? That's fine, enjoy solitary exclusions alone in a featureless room for eight hours. We do this here already for other things, expand it and just keep upping the ante.

Well, that supports a reintroduction of the negative reinforcement control system, it doesn't necessarily argue against any and all positive reinforcement ones.  A TOTAL rejection would mean rejection of titles such as valedictorian, salutatorian, and honors, and I think that's going too far.

[Chestertonian]

The Romans called this bread and circuses.

Same stuff, different day.

As for changes from a teacher? Not really something that can be addressed on the child's level. The impact from school is minimal, the parents influence on their motivation and moral character is vastly more powerful. If the parent doesn't care, the child won't care.

The parent needs to be made to care by penalties for their child's behavior. They'll soon get it together when Daddy's neck is on the line and little Timmy smashing up school property can't be something to just snigger over a spliff.

I also would suggest a total rejection of the positive reinforcement control system. I like to watch my older pupils sweat, I want them to fear tests and penalties for failing to meet standardized expectations. I would suggest some sort of culling system, where those who fail to meet grades suffer some sort of penalty, such as mandatory remedial lessons outside normal school hours or at weekends, again with penalties for parents if the child fails to turn up. They quickly improve when they realize failure or opting out is not an option and life will just becoming increasingly painful until they submit. Don't want to work? That's fine, enjoy solitary exclusions alone in a featureless room for eight hours. We do this here already for other things, expand it and just keep upping the ante.

We do this already here for children who fail to attend school without just cause, the parents will be fined and in some cases have been imprisoned. I suggest expanding this model to other areas such as academic performance. None of them are expected to be the next Shakespeare, merely literate and if some have to put in more hours than others to obtain it then so it should be.

Sounds.... disturbing

[Chestertonian]

I taught in Baltimore City public schools and miss it every day.  It's not for everyone but it was for me. 

[Heinrich]

I teach middle and upper middle class kids.