Education

A parent is claiming that a new law (trying to be sneaky and make it seem new) is preventing her from teaching students about holidays by preventing her from talking about Hanukkah because supposedly a new law says that teachers can’t talk about Hanukkah, Christmas, or even that made up stupid one, Kwanzaa*.

No, this isn’t a new rule. You can’t espouse religion in school, but nothing prevents you from explaining that different people celebrate different holidays. The problem here is that a parent wanted to come in and talk about her religion. It’s always been a delicate balance, and I can understand a school not wanting parents on the warpath because someone is engaged in what is a political minefield.

*Kwanzaa was made up in 1966 by a black American asshole after the Watts riots as a black people’s holiday. It is also celebrated in Great Britain, Jamaica, France, Canada, and Brazil. Note that not one African country celebrates it. Why not? Because it isn’t a real fucking holiday. The stated goal was to give black people an alternative to Christmas (which the inventor of Kwanzaa called a “religion for white people”) so they could celebrate black culture, rather than simply assimilate into American culture. Anytime a black man is successful, he is called names like “Oreo” and made fun of for “acting white,” which is why so few blacks do well. As an aside, the asshole who invented it was a convicted felon. He held women against their will as his slaves and tortured them.

Reading this, now you know why I didn’t like being a teacher. It’s all bullshit.

Osceola County, Florida is outsourcing their teachers. Next up: outsourcing cops

I support people who want to homeschool. I don’t agree that parents can’t get others to instruct their children. As parents, we should all want our children to be at least as successful as we were, perhaps even more so. That frequently means letting or hiring others to teach our children things that we cannot.
There are simply some subjects that I don’t feel qualified enough to teach others. So I subcontract it out.
The problem with today’s education is that parents have abdicated much of their parental duties to teachers. School has become more of a babysitting service than it has a place of learning. Parents need to be involved in their children’s education. They aren’t. Even most of the ones who think that they are involved aren’t involved in their education, they only care about their child’s GRADES, and that is not the same thing.

• What are your kids learning in school this week?
• Do you know the names of their teachers?
• Is your child behaving? Who are his friends? Does he hang out with one of “those kids?” Is your child one of “those kids?”
• Have you seen his text books? If you are in Florida, schools involve parents in the selection of textbooks. Did you know that? If you did, have you participated in that process?
• Did you know that most teachers maintain a web page that lets you know what your child is studying? Do you check it frequently?
• Most schools have online gradebooks. What grade did your child receive on his last 5 assignments in each of his classes? If you don’t know, do you at least know where to find out?

Or do you just wait for report cards to come out, and make sure his grades look good?

Look, after the seven years I spent as a teacher, I can tell you that there are many problems with our kids’ education. Yes, there are poor teachers. Yes, there are poor schools, and poor school boards. The way that we got there was through parents not being truly involved in the lives and education of their children. This didn’t happen overnight.

I had parents who were surprised at the end of the year to learn that their child was failing my class. Every week, I would call the parents of students who were failing my class, so we could work together to salvage their grades. I couldn’t get ahold of most of them. Some even deliberately gave the school the incorrect phone number so they wouldn’t be bothered by “all of those phone calls from the school.”

You are the single best advocate for your children. No one cares more for them than you do. So act like it. If your school involves parents in the selection of textbooks, get involved. If your teacher has a website explaining what is going on in the classroom this week, read it. Learn the names of your kids’ teachers. Go to open house. If you can’t be bothered to spend two hours a week being involved with your child’s education while he is in school, you sure aren’t going to be any better at homeschooling.

People say that teachers and schools aren’t teaching real life skills. Here is one school distract that is- a middle school class that teaches students how to hunt, kill, dress, and butcher a moose.

Hat tip to Mark.

By now, we have all heard about the disgusting and ridiculous situation with the porn that passes for learning materials in schools. My opinion on this is clear: this isn’t for children.

With that being said, there has been a growing trend in schools for more than a decade: dual enrollment or college level coursework being taught in high school. When you begin the course, the parents are told that the student is taking a college course that will result in the student receiving both high school and college credit.

Since the college (or other accredited entity that isn’t the high school) sponsors the course, it is the one that sets the standards. The standards for the course are the same ones as students taking the course on the college campus must follow. The high school has no say whatsoever in the curriculum or course content of dual enrollment classes. In fact, a dual enrollment teacher is not even permitted to discuss grades or student performance with parents, unless the student specifically gives permission in writing. Parents and students are made aware of this.

By signing up for this course, students are receiving an adult level education. For two of the seven years that I was a teacher, I was teaching a college level physics course. That is, the students could take an exam at the end of the year, and if they passed, they would get college credit for the course. Parents and students alike complained that my course was too difficult. They still expected that my course would be more of the same inane, easy courses taught at public schools, and simply having your name on the roster would be enough to pass the course. Hey, it even looks good on a college application!

That is why I support the teacher in this case. It was a college level course that was covering college (adult) level material. If you, as a parent, don’t feel that your child is sufficiently advanced and adult enough to handle adult level material (an R rated movie), then you shouldn’t sign them up for a college class.