<p>Very sad. It just reinforces everything I already knew. As an ex-teacher, I feel that until we start following the examples of other countries in restricting teacher training to students at the top of their classes, and until we start to respect our teachers as the most important professionals in our society, nothing will change. Every student deserves a teacher of a high caliber.</p>
<p>It is not as simple as they make it out to be. The “smartest” students are not always the best teachers.</p>
<p>Here is an opening paragraph from todays Star Ledger in NJ-This season’s version of education reform has hit some speed bumps, what with the resignation of the Washington, D.C., schools chief and the report that students in the City of Oz version of school — the Harlem Children’s Zone — did not do as well as expected on state tests.</p>
<p>The Harlem Children’s Zone is Mr Canada’s school.</p>
<p>Yes- everyone deserves the best teacher we can give them but first they need parents that take part in their education.</p>
<p>I saw it. The only new thing I took away is how “good schools” are turning out mediocre students thanks to tracking. I mean, I knew that tracking occurred, but I hadn’t stopped to think how it affects those not on the fast track.</p>
<p>I did find it disingenuous to tout CHZ as a cure-all. I’m not opposed to charters, but I do think there needs to be some truth in advertising. Not only does CHZ get the public money to which it is entitled, but it receives a huge infusion of private dollars and has a self-selected student/parent body who by its very knowledge of CHZ puts them a step ahead of the masses. CHZ can require kids to have longer school days and Saturday classes, etc. If only every public school were so lucky.</p>
<p>Even if we have our best college students becoming teachers what makes it certain that they’ll be good teachers. What if they become disenchanted with the lack of work from their students or etc.?</p>
<p>Also, what makes everyone think that it’s the fault of the teachers for not being good teachers?</p>
<p>What about the students? What about not enough of them doing the work for school?</p>
<p>OK, I hear variations of this all the time: “everyone deserves the best teacher we can give them but first they need parents that take part in their education” (Tom1944) </p>
<p>Of course having concerned, involved parents is the ideal. But since many children in this country do not come from families where education has been a priority, how do we change this attitude?? Does anyone have a plan to reach the parents? I’ve never heard anyone talk about this. It seems that we need to work with what we have–and that’s the 6+ hours per day that American children are in school. This is our opportunity to break the cycle.</p>
<p>Educators do talk about needing more parental involvement. Many school systems track this in their districts; it just doesn’t make the news, for whatever reason. I found our district’s reports on their website(s.) Schools/teachers have tried to attract parents to back-to-school nights, teacher conferences, pto-style meetings. The use mailings, phone calls, reminders sent home, etc, offer transportation and babysitting- and make meetings short and efficient. And, that’s in my bottom of the barrel (nationally acknowledged) school district. Btw, it didn’t make much difference.
It’s a mistake to generalize that “less educated” parents aren’t involved. It’s just that the overall trend shows parents who value education are more active in more numbers. Here, we have small, achievement-based schools with very high entry standards for “underprivileged” (I hate the word, but it’s in use) kids. When the kids move on to hs, they are sought after by the privates, for good reason- they give the kids from academically advantaged families a run for their money- impressively so.</p>
<p>There are just so many issues at play here. The background of students is, of course, a huge issue. But I have also been in the position of handing over a bright, motivated child to a teacher who actually made him regress. </p>
<p>And of course not all of the best students in our schools would make good teachers. In other countries, there is an application process where the student teachers are selected from the bright, the motivated, and the able. The key work is “selected”. Here, anyone can get teaching credentials. That certainly doesn’t help the high turnover rate of teachers.</p>
<p>I am a college teacher in the trenches – a community college teacher. Until society really values knowledge and thoughtfulness I don’t think the best teachers in the world could make a difference.</p>
<p>It’s obvious to kids that a hip hop artist or basketball star are wildly more successful than educated professionals, even doctors. Where is the reward for really buckling down in school work?</p>
<p>Now of course, few of us have the talents or skills for superstardom, whereas many students can perform well in a profession. That is obviously the argument for education, but I thinks it’s a tough one to make to most students.</p>
<p>Reading? Writing? What are those and why should we bother? are the most common sentiments.</p>
<p>Yes, I teach English. I was up the top of my class (won best dissertation in the country, 1987 and am a gifted teacher, but without the real support of values that really reward intellectual work, there’s just so much I can do.</p>
<p>What is the policy for handling disruptive students? What consequences should those kids face?</p>
<p>Mythmom, I think you’re right. There seems to be a developing distrust of all things “intellectual” and “elitist” in America. That these terms became so negative when they were both positive to begin with is disturbing. When did being smart and well educated start to become negative traits for a president?</p>
<p>
Since at least the days of Andrew Jackson. Anti-intellectualism is nothing new in America.</p>
<p>The Harlem Children’s Zone is the best plan I know of for reaching parents. <a href=“http://www.hcz.org/[/url]”>http://www.hcz.org/</a></p>
<p>2004 NYT Magazine article about the project: <a href=“http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9507E7D91030F933A15755C0A9629C8B63&fta=y[/url]”>http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9507E7D91030F933A15755C0A9629C8B63&fta=y</a></p>
<p>It certainly has not proven to be essential to being a decent President. Nor prevent being a very bad one.</p>
<p>Question: does HCZ somehow address the issue of parental involvment? Is there some greater level of that? (I’m not finding this on their web-?) Or is that somewhat replaced by the individual student advocates?</p>
<p>My S was in a 3rd grade class where there were two classes and two teachers. Halfway the day on Wednesday the kids would pick up their bins and move from one teacher’s room to the other’s room. After the November parent/teacher conference where one teacher was very positive and the other very negative we were told what was going on. One teacher had issues at home, had lost all interest in teaching, but didn’t want to leave because of the health insurance. She hated being there. The principal set up the odd two-teacher approach so that there wouldn’t be any kids who had only her for their critical 3rd grade catch-up year. It was nuts.</p>
<p>I am a liberal and support organized labor, but this teacher should not have been teaching. I know that these kinds of teachers are not the only reason that there is a problem in our schools, but it needs to be acknowledged as an issue. I think that’s one thing that the movie is saying.</p>
<p>at #14Baby College addresses some of those issues of parent involvement. There’s also the Family Support Center: [Our</a> Results](<a href=“http://www.hcz.org/our-results]Our”>http://www.hcz.org/our-results)</p>
<p>Thanks. 15 years ago, I was involved in planning a jobs high school for at-risk kids who were motivated to graduate and become gainfully employed in mostly white-collar environments. It closed recently and I still haven’t got my own idea of what went wrong. Another school for bright at-riskers, formed by a renegade educator who was bumped from that jobs school, is thriving- producing top-notch kids via the highest standards. Our few small achievement lower schools are, as I said, performing miracles. All the successes are marked by parental committment- and pride at what their kids are striving for.</p>