I see people going in and out of jail because they weren’t brought up as well as I believe they could have been. With a father in the home, for starters. That tends to shave off the self-centeredness of boys.

Gordon: You have your opinion, I have mine. You disapprove of my point of view in this public discourse – good for you. The fact remains that this Brave New World California has crested is marching a huge percentage of black children into prison, early graves and abject poverty because we no longer teach emotional control and occupational and life skills in the public school districts dominated by black students. I get to see the prison remands. And yes, other ethnics are in the cattle chute also but are nowhere near the high percentages we see for the blacks. So I complain endlessly about how I believe the schools let down the kids.

This thread started when the boy’s mother complained about the ghetto school’s failure to maintain standards when she sent her child into that facility for educational testing. She wants them to come up to the higher standards she enjoys at her white school. At least for the college testing. My response is that you’d better realize what street you’re walking on and not expect them to change to accommodate you.

Now you react because you think I’m beating up on some poor child.

I’m sure he will be fine – as long as he doesn’t think his high test score immunizes him if he goes slumming. I have seen people who never got that concept and got really hurt. It’s my point of view. You never sit in my chair – you are an educator I believe.

Brave New World.

And, for an adult to launch an ad hominem attack on a high school student is contemptible, so if you’re going to do it, at least get your facts right. To come across as both contemptible AND ignorant is just plain pathetic.

You *really* need to get some basic child-development and brain-development information – believing “it’s all about” oneself is *normal* in everyone until well into one’s 20′s.

This has been said before – I’ll say it again for the benefit of someone who maybe is new to my postings.

I don’t know the personalities who become discussion topics here. What I post is rhetorical not personal. For strangers to take comments here as personal slights is a reflection on their own insight and judgment.

It’s especially interesting to see young people speaking about others (maybe?) having vendettas against them – I do see that nowadays. It reflects on the training they have been given to date. It seems young people like to believe it’s all about them. I think that is part of their conditioning in school. Maybe the educators thought that would help them in life to think this way. I don’t believe that is so.

Back to the point I was making in the thread complained about. This Brave New World is getting dangerous. Walking through downtown Oakland, for example. There are very good reasons why the dangers are increasing and those reasons are connected to the US Public School system and the degradation those school have suffered as a direct result of the way the “Civil Rights” legislation and court cases post 1964 were implemented. Much of the problems we have with the US Cities (Detroit comes to mind) stem from this event.

People who thoughlessly believe that everybody is the same and go about thinking that walk about into dangerous or different places. Then when the environment is sour, they are “shocked”. My point is that people should – especially when their children or their well being is involved – be more careful where they walk. And stop expecting everybody else to play by your rules. Other people went to schools that never used the same readers as maybe you did. And they have no intention of changing now. They like the way they are.

If I were dictator – and I’m not applying. The schools would be run – black or white – with the same basic policies. If anything the black schools would be tougher in mantaining standards across the board. That’s not the way people seem to want things. The priority now is Pacification, allowing everyone to do their own thing and be happy. This is the result.

Brave New World.

Its not about teachers, or even McClymonds.

Most work has oversite to be sure that procedures are followed.
People seem to need a boss to do the right thing. imagine how we would carry on at work with no boss in sight. ever

After the test, I told my parents how much garbage it was (all the kids where from other areas who signed up late and the proctor was a joke), and my mom and I decided to complain. So here we are now. And to Nextset, a poster above me who said something along the lines of “your mom put you through crap just for a worse score,” you’re wrong. I did go through crap, but I had already had experience with the ACT that allowed me to gain an extra point above my existing score (30 to 31). Had I had five more minutes on the science section, I probably would’ve been able to finish those nine questions I guessed on and gotten a 32, but whatever.

And if you don’t believe I’m her son then I’m sorry because I really can’t prove it to you. The reason I’m not putting down my name is because I don’t want some loser in the ACT organization having a vendetta against me because of my complaints (probably won’t happen but I want to be safe).

I am not a teacher, not married to a teacher, and I am not an expert on school financing, but I am a taxpayer and I do have two children in OUSD public schools.

I read this blog regularly and therefore have read hundreds of your posts. I wanted to post today because I feel so differently than you do about our teachers and the problems that plague our schools. Sometimes you fervently proclaim your beliefs on behalf of taxpayers and parents, and I wanted to voice my very different opinion.

First, I just don’t buy the premise that there are all these horrible teachers out there driving down test scores and driving up costs! I have been really very satisfied with the teachers that my children have had. I have not found any notable difference between the teachers that they experienced in their private school (where there was not a union) or those in their public schools. For that matter, I have had both public unionized and private non unionized educators and cannot say that teachers were significantly different in either realm. I do not want to dismiss anyones bad experience with a public school teacher. But in my opinion, teachers tend to exhibit the same variability in work ethic and skill that a professional in any profession might.

In addition, I think that we may all disagree about who is a “good” teacher and who is a “bad” teacher. Some teachers who I felt were truly amazing and stellar educators for myself or my children, left another family demanding a change of classroom and vice versa. In fact, it really is a bit over simplified to think of teachers or anyone in such concrete, black and white terms as all “good” or all “bad”. Certainly, I hope that no one is suggesting that we use test scores (or even change in test scores) to determine if the teacher is doing their job. In that case, if I were a teacher I would likely hightail it out of any school that had any significant number of potential under-performers who could leave me unemployed if they did not come to school fully prepared and able to learn. Thankfully, as it is now the teaching profession tends to attract pretty service oriented folks who are willing to work in economically depressed areas with challenging populations for mediocre pay, like Oakland. Wow, I sure hope that we wouldn’t do anything to drive them away!

Finally, I don’t buy the whole idea that the business model churns out good hard workers with all the positive aspects that you claim, while unionized teachers pick their bellies and live off the largesse of their enviable paychecks. It’s just not what I see. Really, again it seems quite over simplified and does not take into account the variability that exists in every profession.

I know that senority is one of your biggest pet peeves, but I don’t have much to say against it. Senority is taken into account in many jobs and in my opinion protects workers who dedicate themselves for many years to their employer and merit some recognition of their years of service. It is a factor that is often taken into account for promotion, raises, and lay offs even in the private sector. I realize that it has been much more codified in the teachers contract, but you must realize that teachers contracts have to give some actual security and benefits otherwise why would smart, young, college educated people opt for a profession that does not come with a high earning potential.

J.R., thanks for listening to another opinion. I know that we see things differently and probably neither you nor I will change our views at the end of the day. However, I do urge you to keep your mind a bit more open to the voices that are out there. In particular, Steven seems to have some good questions and comments for you. Specifically, he said “the devil is always in the details”, and I hope that you will put out some details as this may actually help you to win some more support for your ideas.