Another victim of NCLB

[dl meckes]

I worship at the alter of the glowing box daily. It is a skill I began to pick up as a college junior. I have taught people how to use a computer who held a mouse in one hand and a blankie in the other.

While I agree that there are ways where learning on a computer is superior to a teacher, I personally find those things to be few and far in between.

Teachers provide us with many services. Packing 25 kids into a room with one teacher is unconscionable if you want to let a teacher teach and let kids learn.

And yes, of course there are bad teacher and bad students. The most memorable teachers of mine were both the best and the worst, but I'm grateful for the things that they imparted to me.

I've learned to do many wonderful things using a computer, but there have been people who have answered my questions or helped me, through every singe step. I call them gurus, now, but they are my teachers!

[Danielle Masters]

I think it's great that college courses are being taught on computers, I have even been tempted to sign up for a few because it would fit my schedule more than a traditional university. But I think there is a big difference between college students and elementary students. Yes social skills can be taught outside of school and often are, but there is a lot to be said about the work teachers do, they teach more than ABC's and algebra. As a parent and a pretty techie one at that I still believe that computers have their limits and good teachers are priceless. We're probably going to have to agree to disagree on this one.

[Justine Cooper]

Danielle,
I just finished my assignment due tonight in my online class!! Guess what my LEAST favorite classes are in graduate school? The Online ones!! This is my third and hopefully my last. I basically am teaching myself through text and assignments and discussions and I hate it for many reasons. I like the live teacher so I can ask questions, listen to others, learn from others, engage, etc. As far as your examples of teachers in Lakewood and experience your children get from them, it is real. And yes kids have too much time on computers and electronics in general now and many do lack social skills. And yes you do learn relevant skills in school, like how to wait your turn because you do share one teacher, how to do teamwork, debate, engage, enrich from diversity, hopefully get some critical thinking when a. teacher engages or challenges you.

I remember working one summer for a man who created a successful ice cream business frm nothing. He had a work ethic like I had not seen before. He told me once about how he never missed a day of school as a child except when his appendix burst. I asked him how he had that drive as a child and he replied "I wanted to be anywhere but home". I will never forget that. For many children in bad home lives, school is a safe place to learn, to learn to become more than what you think you are at home. For some it is the only nurturing they will ever get. For some the only hot meal. There are just some things that computers could never replace.

As for public schools failing us, I seem to see a lot of successful people, from top doctors and engineers and business owners and pharmacists who seem to have done quite well by the public school. And some pretty sharp stay at home moms who are wiser than most.

[Sean Wheeler]

I tried to stay out of this one, I really did.

As a Lakewood High School teacher and resident of Mars Avenue, I believe that living in this community is a vital component of my educational philosophy. Living here allows me to understand the context in which my students live, and more importantly, it shows my students that we are cut from the same cloth. I mow the lawn. I shop at Giant Eagle. I take walks down Detroit. Once students see me in the community, they tend to be much more willing to work with me at school. By living here, I help bridge the gap between school and community. This is a personal and voluntary choice. I like it that way. If the choice were taken away, and my residency was mandated, my current choice would be invalidated and the example I am trying to set would be diminished. It would be great if all teachers chose to live in the district in which they teach, but reality says that this is not possible for a myriad of reasons.

Someone mentioned earlier in the thread that the school district does not hire many Lakewood graduates. I find this hard to believe. While short on facts, I know that I work with a fairly high percentage of fellow Lakewood graduates and residents.

Of course this thread couldn't exist without the requisite public school teacher bashing. Let me just say that the best teachers have high standards, a desire to work with kids, and the ability to communicate the importance of an intrinsic motivation to learn. NCLB, and the subsequent Standards and benchmarks, have nothing to do with how we teach, but focus instead on what we teach. I challenge everyone to take a look at the Ohio Standards and Benchmarks. Any observer will find that the academic standards never address the issue of pedagogy and effective instruction. The task set before every educator in the current era is to find a way to effectively engage students towards learning the specific content required by the state (and common sense in many cases).

The internet, the ipod, and the cellphone are the new forms that must be incorporated into any vigorous curriculum. These incredible tools, and the hybrids they have spawned, need to become as commonplace in the classroom as pencils, chalk, and paper have always been. Before anyone gets carried away, I am not advocating a curriculum based on texting and rocking out to the newest tune. I am, however, saying we need to find a way to use these new technologies towards achieving our educational goals. Podcasting, wikis, and blogs are all tools that are already being used in Lakewood's classrooms.

I believe in our schools and am proud to be serving this community. There are hundreds more like me who show up everyday to do our part. Teaching is one of any society's most noble professions and a strong public education system is the hallmark of any great civilization, past or present.

[Danielle Masters]

Sean thank you for your input, and for being a teacher.

I do know teachers who graduated from the Lakewood school system and now teach in the Lakewood school system. I also know teachers who currently have children in the Lakewood schools. I also know teachers that live in other communities and have children in other private and public schools. The one thing that they all have in common is their love for teaching. When I hear people bash the public schools it frustrates me because strong public schools are essential for a strong community. I think one of the things that makes Lakewood so great is our wonderful school system and the wonderful people that teach in them. Over the last few years of this rebuilding process the schools have gained some really cool technology and it's been really great to see the teachers embrace the new technology and adapt their teaching techniques.

I know that for our children we have always felt that they are all receiving a top notch education in the Lakewood public schools and once again I thank Sean and all the other teachers that go above and beyond for their students.

[Will Brown]

I haven't seen anyone here bashing the public schools. But I see some people who are absolutely uncritical of the schools, and other who think the schools could (indeed, must) do better.

Education is necessary to compete in the modern world. It's inconceivable to me that anyone would be absolutely satisfied with a school system (nationwide) that produces graduates that rank so far below the graduates of other countries, and I'm referring to countries that provide universal education, not those that shunt their less talented students into the sweatshops.

In a more local context, I saw an article this morning (I can't recall where so I can't speak for its competency) that something like 47 percent of Ohio public school graduates have to take remedial courses when they start college; that means they have to go back and learn something they were supposed to have learned in high school. And lest we get smug about that 47 percent including students at community colleges, the figure excluding those schools was something like 25%. For those of you who think the schools are ideal I'll do the math: that is one of four graduates. And I suspect an accurate measure of how well our graduates are educated would be even lower, as kids who don't go to college are not included in the figure.

So I think it is fair to say that the public schools, as a whole, are not doing the job, and that even the schools who are doing well should do better. If that is bashing, so be it. I think it is valid criticism, and if we just sit around and bat our eyelashes and say the schools are doing wonderfully, they will have no incentive to improve, and we will get what we deserve.

[William Fraunfelder III]

We're right in arguing that this issue is one which confronts us nationally, but, at the end of the day, all we can hope to build upon is 1) a local school district we can be certain is both fiscally responsible and academically sound, and 2) a state-wide framework that balances state-mandated standards with equitable measurements of student proficiency. I hope upon all that is holy that there is never anything resembling a nationwide school system and I fear if I put any more energy into the logic-trapping void of NCLB and how the Congress should best leave curriculum alone, my head may explode. But it really all comes down to those comparative global test scores for some of us, doesn't it?

LCS have put forth the Graduate Guarantee to allay our secret fears of newly-minted graduates watering-down the good reputation of a Lakewood diploma; I, also, question the competency of these "remedial" figures. If the State of Ohio really showed an interest in high-school graduate competency, maybe they ought to add a few university faculty members to the committee vetting the questions on the Ohio Graduation Test. Why are we paying for a test that covers material most state-school faculty feel almost 50% of students need to re-visit as college freshmen? Maybe ensuring that material is adequately covered in the State-outlined curriculum might help? Or would that require an additional 2-3 hrs of course study per day, taking the place of extracurriculars, sports and service-group participation? Sounds like the perfect high school experience to me, just so a bunch of overachieving, middle-aged hacks can feel good about their kids accomplishments over coffee. As for those LCS graduates not going college, this is the first mention anyone's made of this sinister under-current. How long, dare you say, has this been going on!? We may as well kill the vocational programs and occupational work-study programs that best-suit a lot of Lakewood students, because they ruin someone's precious "curve."

I'm all for fighting the good fight, supporting and working to help the schools do whatever it is they need to do to improve the educational experience of Lakewood kids; I just tire of debating it with some who would just as soon penalize or give-up on those same schools that don't meet some arbitrary, yet subjective standard/test/benchmark/tally-book of what comprises a good education. I wonder what percentage of those reading this thread were won over with that "bat our eyelashes" remark. It's almost like putting lipstick on a pig, and no one can handle any more of that.

[Sean Wheeler]

The incentive to improve schools should come from a desire to help kids, not test scores.

And who better to have a critical eye on the schools than those on the front lines? If I want to know how well the police chief is doing I'll ask a patrolman, not the police blotter. If I want to know how the generals are doing I'll ask the men who serve under him, not the nightly news. I would bet that in any job, from janitors to senators, those who serve within the industry are the most knowledgeable about what needs to be done next. Numbers are numbers, but the job is the job.

It's not about batting eyelashes at the problem. I became a teacher because I, like many who have commented on this thread, am critical of the way we go about educating American children. But rather than complain, I signed up. American schools need improvement. No doubt about it. But we should start by pitching in, not bailing out.

[Shawn Juris]

So I can know where I stand in this discussion, am I on the side "bashing" the schools? It's been some time since I've batted my eyelashes.