Anyway, the proof is in the pudding as they say. All we have to do is see whose products do better in the marketplace – those raised in the urban school liberal fashion and those who were not.

You’re getting pedagogical ideas from Heinlein? You’ve literally got me laughing out loud. Selfish, bullying, inhumane, spoiled, harmful, misguided… Sigh.

Giving money to kids for grades works for some kids, but for most it’s a novelty that wears off. It also causes harm in the long term as the intrinsic rewards of learning are cheapened.

A much better idea is giving money to parents for their child’s attendance, homework completion, and grades. A dollar a day for attendance, two more a day for homework completion by the child (not an older sibling), and bonuses for As and Bs. Make it only open to those who have a kid on free or reduced price lunches. Perhaps the dollar amount will need to be larger, but once parents are motivated, the kids will improve dramatically.

It also makes financial sense. One year of prison for one inmate costs way more than thirteen years of payments to a parent.

I am perplexed by the way some people jump to conclusions that respecting a person means you don’t have high standards for them. As I’ve said many, many times to one particular critic, come to my classroom and then judge me and my students.

So I disagree with what I think is your point that we have to be nice to the chillin’ and be their friend and keep them happy in class – if that is what you are arguing. I argue that the better teachers constantly challenge their students to perform better than the student planned to. And that does mean critism, some nagging, and judicious use of approval and dissaproval. And sometimes just scaring them, also. This is especially true when your students are lower class – or are heading into dangerous times when they leave your training. Those kids need to be stressed if they are to make it in this Brave New World.

Anybody here ever read “Rite of Passage” by Alexi Panshin or “Tunnel in the Sky” by Robert Heinlien? That’s the kind of teaching we need in our urban schools.

Handing out Cash at school is good training for welfare mothers to be – to be welfare mothers. I am not a fan of this.

Carrie: It’s difficult to follow your posts when you write in a continuous block. Try paragraph breaks. I don’t remember seeing your posts often – I’d love to hear your take on all this. However – stating that you find something offensive, deeply or otherwise, doesn’t get very far in my opinion. If something is unwise please tell us how it is unwise. We need all the input from working teachers to keep our dialog balanced.

I do think your comment about “just and equal society” is hogwash. You can tell the chillin’ that’s never going to happen and they’d better learn how to take care of Number 1 and their family and friends.

I see you trying to drive everyone who doesn’t agree with you off this blog with continuous streams of insults and sarcasm. When the only people left here are the ones who all agree with each other, it’ll be a nice echo chamber for you. And since you abandoned OUSD a while back, I’m sure it won’t bother you that the echo chamber won’t be an effective means of communicating about problems or finding possible solutions.

Spedteacher, it was nice hearing your belated bleats coming from beneath Sue’s pleats. I wasn’t aware that communicating in (broken) Ebonics was “outright racist” and (even worse) “offensive” and “mocking students and their culture,” as observed by you and your torch and rake toting supporters.

Sue is correct in her observation that I am “better-educated than” the Ebonics usage comments reflected in my commentary.

Tell you what, I’ll stop using this “uneducated” form of English and you’ll help and tell Oakland Students to do likewise. Although it could make you and yours quite unpopular, tellin the chillun to get educated and stop using this uneducated form of English. But then you’ve already proven yourselves as valiant crusaders, haven’t you? Just keep in mind that some members of the school board won’t like you either, given their once upon a time (nationally humiliating) effort to promote (legislate) Ebonics in the Oakland Schools.

OUSD Board Ebonics Resolution: http://www.jaedworks.com/shoebox/oakland-ebonics.html

I suppose telling an educated person to stop acting uneducated is a lot easier than telling uneducated people to get educated, especially when being uneducated is considered by so terribly terrible many to be a holy component of Oakland urban culture. But then, as Nextset observes, “…putting a premium on being nice to the chillun’ is the pat on the back that holds them back,” and you wouldn’t want to do that, or would you?

The black students of OUSD need to be fluent in standard english to move freely within US society. They need it to find and keep work that will support a family. They need it to be accepted where it counts. They also need it to pass testing and screening for military, industry and higher education.

Your putting a premium on being nice to the chillun’ is the pat on the back that holds them back. And it’s something I never saw in the old school black educators – and my family has 4 generations of them – whose products are the black professionals all over the country. Not for a minute did they fail to get our attention. And they weren’t in the business to be loved.