We end up getting pretty frustrated with the way the
administration handles the kids down here in the ol' E-E
school district. One of the whole reasons that TFA is here is
because the students here perform way below the average.
Many of her students are on a 1st or 2nd grade level instead of 6th.
One of the reasons for this is they seem to try to find any
excuse to let the kids out of class. Earlier this week, they
discovered that one of the school clubs forgot to fund-raise for
T-shirts, so they decided to have a dance to raise the money. That
dance is today, DURING school. They are charging each of the students
$2 if they want to get out of class for two periods and dance (in 6th
grade lingo, "dance" means stand around in the gym). Keep in mind that
the average family in this area, most of which have at least 7 or 8
people in them, makes about $9,000 a year.
Tomorrow is "Movie Day," where all the kids who passed their
state math exams get to be out of class all day; they are going to see
the movie Ghost Rider, and then going to Planet Pizza. The kids who
didn't pass aren't so lucky -- they have to stay at school and watch
movies. All day. Three movies in a row. Eight hours of movies.
We're not anti-fun or anything, but stuff like this happens
almost every week or so. It's really hard to help the kids improve
their skills when either they or the teacher are gone 50% of the time.
2 comments:
That's utter BS. Seriously.
Part of the reason that there's the great economic divide between whites and people of color is because of the lack of quality education that most people of color recieve. And one of the big reasons for the poor education is because the educators simply do.not.care. I don't know if it's burn-out or lack of resources or what, but I've seen it over and over again in the inner-city schools here. In fact, I just did a huge research project on the banking vs. liberal arts forms of education on inner-city youth (i.e. youth of color).
...The whole thing drives me freakin' nuts. They're in school to LEARN. Not have pizza parties. Not... Ya. You get it.
I saw this article and thought of you:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070224/ap_on_re_us/longer_school_days;_ylt=Aq9mIJcvzTatLT17wOkGV5PMWM0F
Well, that's why I'm here in the Valley with TFA. And I think some educators DO care. I care. A lot of teachers in my school care. In this case, the administration is pretty much clueless--they say "this is how it's always been" and cannot understand how less school=less learning. You are right. It's weird.
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