Urban Schools Need Better Teachers, Not Excuses, to Close the Education Gap
The truth is that America will never fix poverty until it fixes its urban schools
Today, it is past time to heed that advice. To close the nation's insidious achievement gap, we must replace the culture of excuse in our schools with a culture of accountability that works relentlessly to provide high-needs students with effective teachers.
Reader Comments
Response to Joel Klein
Urban Schools Need Better Teachers, Not Excuses, to Close the Education Gap
The truth is that America will never fix poverty until it fixes its urban schools
By Joel I. Klein
Posted May 4, 2009
I had a disagreement in a statement made by Joel Klein in his article. His insight was very interesting and good points were addressed. He starts to say that singer mother and grandmothers on food stamps no longer qualifies as a educational handicap. However, the statement on which he says that "..and more the now that we have an African American president who was raised by his single mother and grandparents and whos family was forced to go on food stamps on several occasions. Neither resources nor demography is destiny in the classroom.." Granted, blacks and other minorities ARE evolving and have greater opportunity than ever before. But I think it is unfair to use Barack Obama as the posterchild of eliminating minority poverty and educational gaps. He doesnt once even take into account that Barack Obama's mother was a white woman in addition to his grandparents. Sorry, Mr Klein..but race and generations of unemployment, abuse, discrimination, broken families, etc. will not be FULLY solved by just having an example such as Barack. If you dont incorporate race/culture in addition to disparities/inequities of this to the slightest degree in your Urban school planning...you have a problem that wont be solved.
Sabrina Kinsella
Arizona State Univerity
Grad Student
school and home
I speak as a former teacher and a parent. As a teacher, I saw exactly what everyone is talking about: a home culture that believes education is a waste of time and that belittles the child who wishes to pursue it. Many of the middle schoolers I taught had plans to be drug dealers, etc., as soon as the law released them from mandatory education. I have to say that, for these students, algebra and Shakespeare held no relevance. I also suspect that, given the chance to attend a charter school (which do not exist in this area), I don't believe these families would accept the priviledge for their child, because it would have no value for them. So there is perhaps some truth to the belief that the students in a charter school have a different background than many in public school. I could take a serious detour about the negative effects of mandatory education with no relevance to the lives of students, but will desist.
I should like to add, though, that I am a single parent with two children that I have raised entirely on my own since my younger child's birth eleven years ago. I returned to work when he was 3 weeks old. We have never lived above the poverty level for a family of three. My children are half hispanic, half white, so they are technically in the minority. We live in possibly the poorest state in the nation, where the only way the schools achieve the results demanded by the politicians is to teach the test year round, with no material not on the test. Despite this, my kids are intelligent, well-spoken, educated people with exceptionally large vocabularies and a knowledge base that continually surprises their teachers and other adults. Parents can overcome poor teachers, even while coping with more responsibilities than one person can handle, even while living in poverty. My children have had plenty of poor teachers, adults who can't speak correctly, who don't know basic facts, who are racist and closed-minded and simply self-centered and immature. That will never be an excuse for them not to excell.
Which just goes to show that it isn't all of one or the other - there are no simple, generalized fixes to education. Our nation continues to try to takea "one size fits all" approach to coping with highly individualized human beings. We want a political answer that leaves everyone with the money to spend on sports and entertainment. We think we should pay the people we expect to control and educate our children less than we'd pay a mechanic to repair our car. And we want to shrug off our own responsibilities for our children onto someone else. There will never be a political solution to awakening the intellect and spirit of our kids.
Finnish Model
If tax payers are ready to pay for it. Teachers are ready to proceed withe the Finnish Model.
Two teachers per classroom and smaller class sizes.
No more excuses.
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