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Originally Posted by
firstandten
The educators should have known that mixing Gen Ed and Spec Ed in large classrooms were going to create tough challenges for even the best teachers.
This was not the decision of educators, but happened because of legislation. The U.S. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act requires that we place all students in what is known as the least restrictive environment. To do otherwise is illegal. The parents and guardians of these students advocated for their kids to be placed into the regular classroom, and we live in a democracy. Of the people -- by the people -- for the people.
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The educators should have known that just kicking a kid out of one school and putting the kid in another without accountablity from the kid or the parent is not solving the problem.
Every district has policies on expulsion, which is the ultimate source of accountability. Beyond that, what consequences do you propose educators enforce on bad parents? We are constantly reminded that it is the parents who are taxpayers and voters.
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The educators should be responsible for enforcing and sticking to there own policies on homework, dress code, cell phones/ipods , attendance , and show the kids [[and their parents) there are consequences for not following the rules.
I agree with this. What do you do when there are students who absolutely will not follow these policies for any reason whatsoever? For whom neither reward nor punishment can induce compliance?
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It has been my contention that great teachers don't necessarily make great administrators. Just like the superstar basketball player doesn't necessarily make a good coach.
Au contraire. The best building administrators have been competent teachers. Perhaps not the most inspired practitioners, perhaps not master teachers, but they do know their way around a classroom.
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The education world needs to realize that there are some different skill sets involved in being a great teacher and a great administrator.
Agreed. Sometimes these skill sets do not overlap, but sometimes, they do.
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There is or should be room in the education world for a bottom-line guy like Mr. Bobb, or a hard nosed manager from the corporate world who has come into the education environment.
There should be room for the Bobbs of the education world to deal with school funding, for teachers to teach, and for those with administrative skills to make decisions about curriculum and instruction.
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Another example, have you considered that teachers always bringing pencils and paper for the kids is an enabling behavior that is not in the kids long term best interest. Another example of an erosion of standards. Plus its costs the teachers a bunch of money over the course of a school year.
If DT refuses to purchase supplies, and her students do not have them through parental or district negligence, should DT and colleagues demand that students come back with them? Is it enforcing standards to allow them to complete no written work because they have neither pen nor paper? What if the student doesn't care if they fail or not?
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When nothing is require of the student other than just show up for school, the value of the free education is de-valued even more, and as kids they aren't mature enough to understand the long-term problems it is going to cause them.
If you require too much of today's students, they can and will sue. For instance, it is illegal to require high school English students in the state of Michigan to purchase their novels for class. I was informed upon reaching a local suburban district that everyone considers excellent that I could not require *any* supplies, only suggest them, and by no means was I allowed to enforce penalties if students did not bring them. Then I was told of a successful lawsuit years ago by a student in the state of Michigan who was required to do exactly that.
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Thats why in previous posts I stated why not give non-educators a shot, its a fresh set of eyes, and unfortunately many educators are so close to the issue, that there standards have slipped over time without them realizing it.
I will admit that education and educators have failed in many ways. So has our permissive culture. Both educators and non-educators are drawn from this culture. School reform will remain elusive until the culture is changed. Currently, there is very little incentive to change the culture.
In order to thrive, schools need to be filled with teachers who enjoy learning for learning's sake, and who teach students how to learn. The thing that master teachers all have in common is a deep caring for students AND both mastery of and passion for the subject they are teaching. My love for the English language and the best words strung together in English since the Dark Ages is nearly obsessive [[hence the handle). I am absolutely obsessed with getting my students to believe what I believe about the world -- that literacy is liberation.
Our culture doesn't value learning for learning's sake, which is why teachers and teaching are so devalued. The reason we don't have more teachers like DT in Detroit is because our culture doesn't value effective teachers. Poor teachers enforce the status quo, and master teachers threaten it. If master teachers ran the education system, in a generation, you wouldn't recognize the country.