Well, yes. They are some bad kids. And there are also good kids. Thing is the bad ones are allowed to roam the halls and cause too many problems. Also the kids in between see the bad kids as leaders and follow them
They are old enough to know they are supposed to go to school to LEARN and not just cause trouble, roam the halls, fight teachers, start fires, destroy property, open supposedly secured doors and allow others inside the building, and cause general mayhem.
I agree, that was too far but that was the 3rd world. Glad to see order was restored.
Those are issues for society in general. I have seen perfectly fine schools even in the worse neighborhoods.
I agree we do not put enough resources into fixing the worse schools. IMO we should pay the teachers extra, pay for more of them so smaller classroom sizes, hire more security, have strict discipline policies in place including kicking out the worse ones, and working with groups in the community to reach out to address social needs. HERE is an article about changes made to the middle school mentioned above. Thing is it shouldnt take a dramatic seen of an award winning teacher resigning in such a public way to force a school district to make changes and improve a school.
I think most teachers are good people and would be satisfied if just the above measures were taken.
Right. Not only can the military be as bureaucratic and red-tapey as any civilian entity when it comes to the administrative side, but the part at which they excel and for which they are so respected is a function of their mission focus. The military’s function and skillset is and has to remain being an effective fighting and deterrent force. Turning it into a generic Department of Making People Follow Orders to get any public function done by command when it fails to get done through normal channels (and you KNOW people would not stop at schools) would badly degrade its core mission.
Yeah, that’s the other part – think what woudl be the general reaction if instead of the military the proposal were the US Department of Education taking over all the schools.
URN, these kids don’t need more discipline. They need adequate food, a safe living environment, a sense of security about their future, a standard of living that includes some luxuries, protection from adult predators, a default attitude of respect from authorities. acknowledgement that they have been through real traumas that need to be addressed, teachers who believe they are perfectly capable and can learn, a clean and comfortable learning environment and real reason to believe that their actions will make a meaningful difference in the future.
“Unsuited” is a subjective term open to interpretation. I am saying that they are basically uneducated, without specialized skills of any kind, and often very undisciplined in terms of being team players and working towards specific goals.
To the point that they would not be much different had they been unschooled? Because there may be 20% of the population that aren’t rocket scientists, but I think they are a lot more capable and socialized because they had some schooling. I think society would be really different if 20% of our population were literally unschooled.
The 14% called “illiterate” includes people for whom English is not a first language and who might not even have gone to school in the United States. It is also a standard that usually sets the bar at around eighth grade reading levels, not total illiteracy.
That’s what they “deserve”, right, because they are not good students. It’s not really about helping them, it’s about shutting them up, out of sight out of mind.
These 20% are not the ones that need our contempt and the back of our hand, these 20% are the ones that need compassion and a hand up.
No, I think that of the 14% illiterate are part and parcel of those already not graduating high school. Now, if we allow the others to ‘not go’ or kick them out because they don’t want to be there, we garner another 6%
The 20% is actually far more likelier to need a home presence. Parents whom care. Monetary considerations not aside, some parents whom may care don’t have the time to care.
Right, and that goes far beyond what can be considered to be school related policies. But, as a I said, they need compassion and care. I have some ideas on how to try to reach out to them and assist them to be integrated members of society, but most of them would require resources and community involvement, so they are pretty much non-starters.