I spent the first 10 years of my career working in that system. I helped to develop two pilot programs right out of college to help just that situation. Kids would stay in the program 12 to 18 months with intensive family and individual therapy and behavioral programming to all an adolescent to work through the program. And for the first two years, we had a 79% success rate…measured as the adolescent stayed out of the system for more than a year.
This was in 1988 to 1991 or so. Then the juvenile system go so overwhelmed with kids getting arrested and thrown in Juvie detention that they started flooding these programs with gang bangers and thugs. We saw our success fall from almost 8 in 10 being successful to less than 4 in 10. And it was all because in order to provide, these kids, led by their fathers and older brothers cousins, etc followed the lure of big money into the drug trade. It was the best and easiest way to take care of their families.
And I learned all to quickly, you couldn’t therapeuticalize your way to successful treatment when you are fighting the money game/drug game.
But I would agree it has very little to do with teachers unions on the State or Local level. It is the NEA that really creates all the problems and other national unions…the state and locals are more about their own groupings of teachers…Not about policy and steering legislation.
Would you define those Democrats as conservatives or liberals?
Why would teachers’ unions want money to be taken from the schools teach at and given to schools they don’t? Of the schools are failing, why would you give up, take a way funding, instead of trying to fix them… and at the expense of those students who can’t get into a charter school?
yeah…Sneaky that has a lot to do with it. There is no school board regulation and oversight. It is corporations running charter schools and they don’t care about educating per se’. They care about making money…and will do so no matter what.
Here is an example of institutionalized racism in a public school. Not sure if this teacher was or was not a union member, but it didn’t help if she was.
As for charter schools, I’m going to remain neutral on that issue. Don’t know enough to comment one way or the other.
“Parents who take no interest in their child’s education or development.”
This wasn’t an issue at the elementary level. I got feedback and communication from teachers, except for one.
Fast forward to middle school, and attempting involvement in my daughter’s education—unless I contacted the Principal directly—was penalized. Various teachers and one administrator contacted my daughter to let her know I’d called, as if I’d done something wrong.
I’m sorry, what? Is she working odd hours to pay their salaries? Is she owed an explanation as to why I’d called (it wasn’t to talk about the weather or ask anyone out on a date, but to discuss her progress).
So the year ended awhile back, and we were issued the contents of her locker, curbside pickup. Those contents included a lock THEY issued, which they want back by Friday.
I go to return it and the bell & intercom have been totally dismantled. Exactly how is it access is supposed to take place now?
There are parents who try for conferences and feedback related to their children’s behavior and progress, and don’t get it. Then the school staff are whining there is no parent involvement.
As for “fixing” children’s home lives, some of them aren’t broken. Some schools really are run better than others.
I don’t disagree. Not all homes are broken. Not all schools are perfect. I would argue a strong home can overcome a weak school. I’d also argue no matter how strong the school, it will never overcome a weak home.
That’s not what I took out of the article. It seems to be saying the opposite.
At birth, babies are endowed with compassion, with empathy, with the beginnings of a sense of fairness.
But I think the strongest evidence that morality has a genetic component has little to do with human differences, and everything to do with human universals. Every normal person has a sense of right and wrong, some appreciation of justice and fairness, some gut feelings that are triggered by kindness and cruelty.
There are two discoveries that I discuss in Just Babies that influence how I think about adult moral reasoning. The first is that there are hard-wired moral universals.
I don’t see an argument that babies are inherently different today than they were 20 or 50 years ago.
My daughter taught at one for two years and couldn’t take anymore. Behavioral issues through the roof and it was not a safe environment. It was her first teaching job out of college, so she was green but still. It was a hellhole
Have to disagree. Pretty much raised myself and a not very good public school taught me enough to find the information I needed to escape generational poverty.
I’m glad to hear that. I’m not about to say a broken home and a bad school system is a good combination, however. Your story is the exception, as there are nearly always exceptions.
Imagine a school in which all the students come from broken homes and/or lousy parents. Ain’t nothing fixing that. As a former educator and who has know many other educators from various other districts I will state emphatically that good students make good schools and most importantly good parents make good students.
Being in the education profession I’ve heard my share of similar accounts as well. Part of the problem is trying force feed these students the traditional academic methods of education on them. They don’t want any part of learning ■■■■ they will never use.
