I decided to repost this in education section because I feel very strongly about it.


Two of the largest problems with public education are parents and administrators. Not all parents and not all administrators, but enough that it hamstrings the teachers and sets a terrible precedent for the kids.

My girlfriend taught high school mathematics for over 10 years. She worked in a school district with a large percentage of ethnic minorities, but ironically was one of the few ethnic minority staff members. She dealt with administration that often times did nothing more than create make-work to justify the administration positions.

Starting class sizes were always greater than 30 in her math basics, algebra and algebra II classes. Administrators would then transfer into her algebra and algebra II classes an additional 3 to 4 students who had been kicked out of the metro district. The majority of these transfers were placed into classes beyond their abilities by the administrators.

She would then have to spend a couple of weeks getting these kids placed correctly because of resistance from parents and scheduling conflicts. Meanwhile the class progress is slowed because she still has to try to teach to these children who are in way over their heads.

On top of working over 60 hours a week (because the job doesn't stop when the final bell rings, folks), she would send home progress reports for kids not performing well. She would send written reports home. She would e-mail the parents directly. She would telephone the home, and even the work and cell phones at the parents' request.

The message was very simple, "Johnny/Sally is not performing well. If they do not improve, they will fail this class. Here are my recommendations for how they can improve. Here are the times after class I am available to help them. Here is a list of other resources that are available to the student."

If my girlfriend was lucky, a parent would respond once in the first semester and once in the second semester to her repeated attempts to address the student's impending failure to pass.

So the end of the year comes around. Little Johnny/Sally has already failed the first semester, and they've pretty much blown the second semester. Final grades are posted and they didn't pass math.

The parents' response? Shock and awe. Their solution? Denial and accusation. They would call my girlfriend and claim they had no idea of the situation. Why hadn't she contacted them? Johnny/Sally needs a passing grade to get into college!!!

When she would pull out documentation of the letters, e-mails, and a list of times she called the parents would then often times claim racial discrimination. Which is fucking hilarious because my girlfriend is of mixed ethnicity and at the time she was married to an African-American man...

The parents would then try to negotiate with her, forgetting that the teacher doesn't just award the grade. Johnny/Sally earned this grade. When that failed they would then challenge the grade with the administration. With greater and greater frequency the administration would override the grade earned by the student.

Meanwhile, what does the student learn? Working hard isn't the way to achieve. Whining, bitching, complaining, and cajoling is the way to succeed.

Further, our society then blames teachers for failing to teach... How about the parents who are failing to teach their children to work hard? How about the administrators who tie up the system with ridiculous bureaucracy?


~ A.I.