RSSMo’ Child Left Behind
There’s something missing from America’s discussions on education. Yeah we talk test scores, and funding. We talk parent involvement and extracurricular activities. We talk special education and about the learning disabled. But the conversation never goes far enough for us to address “the teaching disabled.”
I’m talking about the teachers who don’t have enough sense to realize when their students are tuning out. I’m talking about the teachers who can only follow the book because they are too afraid or lack the ability to adapt the curriculum in order to make it interesting and relevant.
I’m talking about the professors at “top notch” universities, who can write ten books on a particular subject but can’t translate the material, making it interesting to 18 and 19-year-olds.
Real question. If there a such thing as special education for students, should there be special education for teachers? As teacher earn their credentials, we need to need to not only examine teacher’s ability to retain material, we need to also asses their ability to make others interested enough to remember it. Teachers need compelling personalities, empathy and a style kids respect. These are the qualities that your student favorites entertainers have. Just think how many rap lyrics and lines from movies kids remember.
I’ve paid my dues as a student and can lend some relevant advice to teacher, especially the ones that don’t get it. These are thoughts on things I would’ve told my teachers if they would’ve been open to listen.
• If you work in an inner-city school but don’t know what “superman dat ho” means, learn. It’s not about being hip or being “down,” it’s about speaking “Spanish in Spain.” Its about speaking the language or at lest having the ability to understand the important cultural reference that drive your students.
• Contrary to popular belief, kids do read. They just don’t read school books. Kids today read from their phones more than they do from their textbooks, which mean teachers have to be creative in the ways they deliver their lessons. There’ s numerous ways to incorporate things like text messaging and IM into the lesson plan.
• Teachers need to understand that if a kid comes to school everyday but does no work, he’s still interested. The curriculum may not feed his tastes, but something is getting him there every day. Find out what keeps him coming and relate those interest to your lessons.
• If students aren’t doing the assigned homework, stop assigning homework. For real. Some teacher say, “Without homework students can’t get through all the curriculum. Maybe I’m mistaken, but I thought the idea was to get the curriculum through to the students. What good is getting through the lesson plan if it doesn’t stick with your students? My philosophy is teach less, learn more. Give knowledge that students want to remember when they leave class.
• If a student is out of line and his parents are the type to take his side no matter what, don’t be afraid to stand up to them. There are a lot of teachers who back down when parents dispute their account things. Be fair, be cordial, but do your job—teach. Teach the kids that they can’t just run over you and teach the parents that you’re here to help their kid by any means.
People feel free to jump in…Our kids need us.
3 Comments, Comment or Ping
"a mom"
Oh yes! Good Post
That last paragraph really said something. No only should teacher stand up to students and parents but they should stand up to the people who set the curriculum. I found that the good teachers are the one who say the hell with what they tell me I should teach. They know how to step outside the box and give students an opportunity to give them what they need as well as giving to themselves. Real experiences. Going by the book is not always the best way.
[Reply]
The Heart of the City
The No Child Left Behind Act is a bunch a bullshit… It’s a program that is suppose to ensure a better education to everyone. The teachers are suppose to more qualified and given thorough background checks, be certified and meet all licensing requirements. This program was considered to be the most sweeping reform of federal education policy in a generation, but in my opinion it’s felonious. I was involved in a NCLB program that was administered through LAUSD. It was a tutorial/mentor program that was given to inner city and a majority of the public schools in the Los Angeles County. The program called themselves helping the children, but didn’t really do anything…. Each student that qualified for 35 hours of tutoring semester, and could only be in 2hour increments per week. Now tell me how the hell that will help anyone who is struggling in the classroom. By the time you get the kids to pay attention the session is over. Then by the time you get the child to understand you are already on your 30th hour. Because the children were so use to being left behind. The children are not use to being attended to and worked with. Some of their academics are at a level that is way unimaginable. I think the No Child Left Behind Act concept was is on the right train, but not on the right track. It’s a start but we need a lot more to help the children…
[Reply]
Diana
NCLB stands for everything other than its main purpose and aim. What a good idea, we all thought a few years back when it was passed; The system is actually going to foster to all of its students and do what they can do help them get through. Little did we know that this great new idea was going to transform schools into factories and the students were simply there to get through. I walked into a tenth grade class and a student was reading at 3rd grade level. That is not OK. We are failing our kids. How can we have the same expectation from all kids. It’s this sense of “one size fits all” attitude that doesn’t work when working with such a diverse population of children.
As for our educators and teachers you are absolutely right. A lot of them don’t think outside the box and are so concerned with meeting and staying up with objectives. However, most of the time they are tyring to meet expectations to keep their jobs. We shoudn’t make it the sole responsibility of teachers to change the classrooms. The system has to change as a whole and in turn I believe teachers will be more comfortable taking a more progressive approach. It’s really a tough situation and one that has been in the making for years and years. Looking back to people like Dewey and Jackson who strongly criticized our schools and challenged the education system to stray away from treating our students like prisoners and our schools like prisons. I think the system now is practical and quite frankly people are just too lazy to do anything about it..
[Reply]
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