Comments on: Oprah, Aspire and Waiting for Superman

By: Chauncey

Chauncey — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 12:46:11 +0000

Forget taking education reporters or others perspective about schools- the questions to ask are: do you have children? Where do your kids go to school? There have been many people who have lived in ghettos as some kind of mission. They paint thier home, or create urban gardens- then a kid is born and guess what? They move.Why?

Some of us cannot move and are restricted to schools in the most terrible places. So the bottom libe is if there is a small, safe and effectice school nearby in the hodd- regardless of what the classification may be- my kids will go.

So far OUSD has not dealt that yet.

By: Cara

Cara — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 03:28:28 +0000

I was not familiar with the “Waiting for Superman,” until I watched Oprah several days ago. Wow, I am so excited to hear these discussions. I am a former elementary teacher, now stay-at-home mom. I have more teacher supplies than I know what to do with sitting in my basement, and I am not sure if I want to go back to teaching because of how the profession is changing. I will definitely keep up with this topic and hope some real solutions will come from these discussions. It is time for real change!

By: D. Frederick

D. Frederick — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 06:12:00 +0000

I find it truly amazing that so many comments were exchanged and NOBODY mentioned John Taylor Gatto. He has done more to expose the ROOT of this imported and not serving our needs “Educationing System” than all the comments combined. Google him; you will be amazed and informed.

By: Gordon Danning

Gordon Danning — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 03:41:49 +0000

Re: post #45: Cranky asserts that there are two public school systems: One which includes tracks at “Tech, OHigh and Skyline . . . with veteran teachers of high quality teaching college-bound students” and another “for POOR and lower-middle class children, usually from single-parent homes.”

I don’t question Cranky’s general premise, but I’d like to note that, to the extent there is a “high quality track” at OHigh, it serves poor, largely immigrant, kids. Unlike Tech and Skyline, there are no white kids and virtually no upper middle class kids at OHigh.

By: J.R.

J.R. — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 00:12:14 +0000

Cranky,
I agree with you, firemen and police are royally (over)paid, but their job is very dangerous. Education still takes up about half of the budget, fire and police are not even close to taking up that much of the budget. Just so you know one of the big reasons I abhor bad teachers is that paying taxes toward salaries for anyone who doesn’t give their best is like “paying alimony to someone you are not and never would have married”. This is one one my favorite quotes and comes from a debate where this individual was asked if he thought is was fair to pay teachers union dues even when you elect not to be in the union. You pay $1000 per year if you elect to be in a union, if you elect not to be in a union you would be reimbursed $300 dollars. That’s right, you don’t get your money back, only part of it. The union can also get you fired for not paying union dues(they don’t care if you are doing a good job or not schoolkids dont pay union dues so they dont matter, but if you are not paying union dues that is a very serious matter, indeed). It is indeed all about priorities, and this debates puts to rest all of union contrived explanations for the current and longstanding mess. If you really want to learn from both sides watch this debate, and see who loses it

http://intelligencesquaredus.org/index.php/past-debates/dont-blame-teachers-unions-for-our-failing-schools/

By: Katy Murphy

Katy Murphy — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 18:00:00 +0000

If you haven’t read enough reaction pieces to Waiting for Superman yet, here’s an education writer’s take, by Beth Fertig:

http://culture.wnyc.org/articles/features/2010/sep/23/waiting-superman-if-only/

By: Cranky Teacher

Cranky Teacher — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 23:02:48 +0000

On the Fence,

Sorry if I seemed to be implying it’s all the teachers. I write these in 10-minute bursts…

In fact, I should have put “failure factories” in quotes, because that’s a cliche I did not create.

Of course all those other things matter enormously (home life, etc.). That being said, even challenging kids deserve caring, trained teachers. The question we are arguing about is how do we get there. J.R. and many others think tenured “burnouts” are the CAUSE of the problem; I believe they are simply a SYMPTOM of systemic failure to prioritize education for “other people’s children.”

By: Cranky Teacher

Cranky Teacher — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 22:56:32 +0000

Sara, I don’t want to seem harsh but here is the reality: Social studies jobs are always by far the hardest to find. Only teaching art is a more difficult get. Did you not research this before? English is in higher demand than SS, multiple-subject (elem) is in higher demand, special ed is in higher demand. As for finding a job now, you are going to have to knock on some doors — did you visit middle schools in Oakland the first week of school? Introduce yourself? At our school, they RIF’d five and then, as every year, found they’d underestimated and had to hire 6 new ones the week before school. An old story. Efficient? No.

J.R., you say “When it comes time for pay raise teachers are right at the head of the line, but when responsibility comes knocking they want to hide, why?” yet when I wrote on here that I’d be glad to trade job security protections for higher pay, did you endorse that? We haven’t had a pay raise in a decade, are working without a contract and you want to tell me we are the “head of the line”??? What planet are you talking about where teacher salaries are ahead of the line?

You want seniority abolished BY LAW, but you aren’t proposing that it be abolished by negotiation as far as I can see. Has OUSD put anything on the table about abolishing seniority, in exchange for raising salary? Of course not, because it doesn’t have the cash.

But I know, it’s all about the kids, so teachers shouldn’t even be asking for negotiations — arguments nobody ever makes about our royally paid cops, firemen, etc.

By: J.R.

J.R. — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 21:02:17 +0000

That is “one way or the other”, and I don’t!

By: J.R.

J.R. — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 20:55:41 +0000

Mrs.J
I don’t need to know you, the parents at your school should be taking care of that. Fairly soon you will have to stand on your own merit or leave, and I don’t care one way of the other.