Obama's Remarks on Education Get Mixed Reviews

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You hit the nail right on the head! Parents are the driving force in education. If a love of education is not instilled in a child, then they will not feel it is of any importance.

It is the quality, not the quantity of education that matters. Extending the school year and lenghtening the days is only extending the time students who do not value education get to disrupt the students who do.

J.Garrish of NC 3:12PM March 26, 2009

To the Director of Special Ed.

These are not myths but reality in our school system. How dare you state it does not occure! I know what I have to give the special ed students regardless of what they actually receive. And punishment - suspensions is only 10 days per year. These are not misnomers but reality in our school system

J. GArrish of NC 3:06PM March 26, 2009

“Politics has intervened, and if a child is identified as behavioraly disable they can only have a certain number of days suspended. Also students who have been identified can not receive below a 70 regardless of what their grade actually is.”

As a Director of Special Education, it never fails to amaze me by the commonness of misnomers that are popular among parents and general educators. By all means we can and frequently do suspend students who are identified with special needs, regardless of diagnoses. There are certain criteria that must be met including a manifestation hearing and discussion as to whether the child’s action was related to their identified disability or if there was a concern in the level of services being provided. In either case, if the child has demonstrated a pattern of significant behavior that places the safety or welfare of others or themselves at risk, the Safe Schools Act comes into play and other alternative shall be explored.

As for the second misnomer mentioned, that of the grading at “identified can not receive below a 70 regardless of what their grade actually is.” identified can not receive below a 70 regardless of what their grade actually is” (Garrish, Jean), this is a complete myth that I am unsure of the origin. Performance is performance and it is the role of the special educator to ensure that IEP goals and objectives are composed in such a fashion to address not only the identified needs of the learner, but also within the frameworks of their ability to learn within the least restrictive environment. If we are accepting even less than mediocre student performance, how can we assert we are adequately preparing them for post-secondary lives?

I accept that these are common misperceptions, but in the past 18 years I have worked with students, their families, advocates, special and general education teachers and administrators, and lawyers on these very issues. In one particular case a child was identified as having a Language Impairment. While Language can impede both Basic Reading and Written Language Skills, in this case, there was significant evidence to support this concern. After many notices that he was risking being retained for a second time in the fourth grade, the mother essential ‘bit her thumb’ at the teachers and administrators of the building and said that they couldn’t retain him because he has a disability and can’t be held accountable for his grades.

Of course the educational team had already conferred with me and provided all the data related to his potential retention and artifacts of his homework and grade performances. After analyzing the documents, it became clear that the child, while not a disruption, was opting out of any assignments sent home. His work while at school was complete and demonstrated maturity whereas those tasks sent home rarely returned and generally was unreadable. The issue seemed clear to me, after talking to the SLP that was working with my young fellow and

Jacqueline of MO 4:34PM March 21, 2009

President Obama:

Please read these comments here and read letters that teachers and administrators must be writing you. Don't listen to people who have not been in the trenches for 20-30 years about how to teach.

I am a NBCT, award winning teacher and I agree with most of the comments on this post. As a public school teacher, I think about putting my child in private schools also but not because they are better. No, instead it is because the students and their parents value education.

Paying teachers based on growth is ridiculous. Students do not take the state exams seriously. Many could care less about those tests. I teach in a white, rural school and many do not care about the tests. Are you hearing me? We even give them grade incentives for taking the tests. They do not care.

Okay...I am so frustrated that President Obama is listening to failures and scam artists like Michelle Rhee and Kevin Johnson who are not making huge differences in education. Kevin Johnson's school kicks out kids who don't care and he still can't get the test scores up. Michelle has lost the trust of her staff and she has pitted everyone against everyone. Way to go! What a great Professional Learning Community (PLC)!

Treat us like professionals. Most of us work 7 days a week on school-related stuff. I work my tail off and have been for 17 years. I will quit if Obama goes this direction. I can make better money elsewhere and not deal with ignorant people making policy decisions about education.

Suzanna Johnson of CA 8:59AM March 17, 2009

I will start with 2 facts.

- I am a product of the public school system,

- I am a teacher in the public school system 7-8Gr. Math.

Given these, you might be surprised to know that I send my daughter to private school. Not catholic school or some other religious institution, just plain ol' expensive public school. I am not rich. I am not living off some inheritance. I do not come from a background that promotes private or denounces public school. I have simply discovered one simple truth...

Parents are the number one, solitary driving force in education.

My wife and I collected information on 32 private school options in our city. My wife personally visited 5 of them. After a month of deliberation, we sent her to pre k. Our goal is to keep her in an environment that values education.

The public school system no longer provides that environment. Parents have shoved education by the wayside. The majority (scary) of my students treat school and education as a joke. Quality of work has no value and effort beyond the minimum is a foreign concept. Very few fear consequence for poor performance. All of this is coming from parents. When my daughters school has a math night to help parents understand how math is being taught at school, 95% of parents show up. When my school has a math night, 95% of parents do not.

Private schools provide an environment where education is valued.

Finally, if a private school no longer lives up to your expectations, you simply withdraw your child and take them elsewhere. Try doing that in the public system. Private schooling provides a choice that public schooling will never match.

VM of NM 1:03AM March 14, 2009

A longer school day would be nothing more than Government daycare for families with two working parents. Students are not going to stay focused after a certain point in the day anyway - is 7 hours not enough time to learn the material? Also, what happens to after school activities (e.g. sports, scouts, etc.)? Will we be taking kids to soccer practice at 8p.m.? What time is homework and dinner supposed to take place? How about a couple of minutes to just relax? Bottom line - BAD IDEA.

Marla Farag of VA 6:17PM March 12, 2009

The problem that I have with Merit pay is how do you decide who is doing a good job and who isn't. I teach Social Studies in the State of Ohio to eighth grade students. Our test score on the state test are 43% passing rate. Before you start to think I am a bad teacher you have to realize that the state average is 50% and I am one of the higher scores in my county. The test is over social studies for sixth, seventh, and eighth grade years yet am I going to be the one held accountable? First of all if the schools have failed in the last fifteen years ask yourself why? Then think what has changed? Then realize that all teachers do now is teach students how to take a test. Students in school today are pushed harder and will cover more material then their parents ever thought about learning, yet we are behind? Let me tell you what will happen if you go to a merit based system: more students will be dropping out of school because who wants to get paid low so they will be picked on until they give up, teachers will be unwilling to teach students with special needs because they score the lowest on tests, teachers will no longer care about weather a student has a bad home life, and administrators would only keep teachers that are in the "good old boy" system. If you don't think this will happen then you don't understand teaching and schools. Tell me where the school system has failed? I will tell you from an educators standpoint where it has failed, it has failed from the point that student-athletes are now athlete-students because of the importance of sports. Schools have failed because many parents have given their students everything in the world to keep them occupied instead of developing loving and learning environments at home. It has become easier for parents to complain about teachers and blame teachers then to accept responsibility for their child's actions. Administrators who have made bad decision after bad decision and teachers have to work through them. Here is one, how about allowing average uneducated school board members make the decisions about education and how the school will do things. Yes there are bad teachers, I work with some. Rest assured I work harder than many Americans everyday and others do nothing but give the kids worksheets and sit in their chairs and do nothing. There is literally no tenure in the state of Ohio, it might be more difficult to get rid of a teacher who has been there for many years, but if you make it easier to get rid of teachers, there will be no teacher in the state of Ohio left with a job who has at least 10+ years because new teachers cost less than teachers with experience.

MA in OH of OH 5:00PM March 12, 2009

I have taught for 31 years in private, public and charter schools, (California, Iowa, MIchigan and Washington). ALL of the successful programs and classrooms I have witnessed and participated in can be boiled down to a few essential ingredients. None of these ingredients are connected to merit pay or longer hours in the classroom. Nor are they connected to top-down, politically mandated, assessment driven fads. (Which usually change every 3-5 years). What, you ask then, are these magical ingredients? Believe it or not, love of learning tops the list. Enthusiastic teachers will go far beyond the contract to experience that special moment in the classroom where the lightbulbs go off and the students, (and teacher), are fully engaged in "breaking through" to a concept, imagination or culmination that fuels the hunger to do it all over again. Sound abstract? Nope, every little thing that stands in an instructor's way to make these experiences unlikely slays the enthusiasm and ultimately ends in resignation and status quo. Lower class size, professional visitation and exchange, study of best practices, cooperative collaboration and intentional diversity are all much more productive funding vessels than pitting teachers against each other for pay, standardizing and sterilizing the curriculum and believing that technology and lengthened school days will "beat" the foreign competition. One might add that we have lost sight of the true meaning of education, (Greek-to draw out), in a world already out of control and on the edge of self-destruction. Future leaders that just might be able to imagine solutions to this mess are unlikely to have their skills "drawn out" by an educational system ruthlessly engaged in the same style of competition that is the world as we know it.

Kent Ratekin of WA 4:39PM March 12, 2009

A longer school day as a solution to teach the students more is a joke. Students learn so much out of experience in the world. We need to hold parents and society acountable for that. You can't just take the job over 18 students from individual families and society and place it all on a teacher.

Mariana of IL 4:37PM March 12, 2009

I am a parent, a teacher, and a successful product of the public school system. During my years of schooling, 95% of my teachers were caring, passionate, and competent.The same holds true today. The majority of teachers are very good. Parents, on the other hand, have gone downhill. As a parent, I hold my children responsible for their studies just as my parents did. I provide them with a healthy home environment, including breakfast, and hold them accountable for their actions in school and out. My wife and I expect and require our children to be successful in school. My children are no smarter than the others around them. The difference is that they go to school knowing that the primary reason for school is to get an education. It is not primarily for socializing and to serve as child care. Many of my students, on the other hand, come to school without breakfast, they don't do homework or projects, they dress inappropriately, and they do not value education. These things are the parents' fault, not the school system's or the teachers' fault. I find it offensive that I should be held accountable for things that are out of my control. All I ask is that parents be held accountable in the same way as teachers. Parents need to face consequences for their failure in the education process too. If not, our country will pay the price in the long run.

Robert Thomas of PA 1:56PM March 12, 2009

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