| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Diane Ravitch | ||||
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This is a wonderful and very informative interview.
I love seeing two intelligent people discussing the education system in this country. Especially when they point out how completely wrong and full of crap the GOP is on this subject.
By the way I bought Ravitch's book "The Death and Life of the Great American School System" for my Nook right after I saw this interview.
An excellent interview. Thanks for posting it Gryphen. I sent it to my son in law who is a high school English teacher. He and several other teachers are now regretting that they didn't vote. Now, we're such with that Fucktard Kasich who wants to destroy public education. It is hard not to tell him "I told you so".
ReplyDeleteOhiovoter
"Socialist" Finland has managed the world's best educational system- with unionized teachers.
ReplyDeleteThey don't have a 20% poverty rate among their students and they don't have a reactionary right-wing government at war with the poor and the middle class.
No warmongering neocons.
No racist hillbillies.
No bible-thumping gun owners.
No Koch Bros. corruption of their Government.
If the Finns were only as exceptional as us!
Just ordered the book on Amazon, thanks!
ReplyDeleteThis subject makes my blood boil. As someone who has taught in public and private schools, one of the most important factors in a child's success is the parental involvement. If parents don't care, if they don't teach respect for teachers along with a strong work ethic, there is precious little the best teachers in the world can do.
ReplyDeleteBut it's so much easier to blame teachers. And if you want to have a long summer vacation, you can. You just have to be a teacher for nine months. Try it, you'll see how easy we have it.
The U.S. won't come out and admit the glaring problem confronting education......... which is poverty, drugs, and alcohol.
ReplyDeleteChildren not only need their bodies fed with nourishing food they need their minds fed and nourished by parents who have their childrens' best interests at heart.
Parents who see that their kids get 8+ hrs. of sleep every night. Parents who "listen" to their kids, and read with them and sit with them when they do their homework!
The teachers can not help the kids when they aren't in school...... if children come to school hungry and tired and emotionally distraught, they certainly are not going to learn as much as those that have had their needs met at home.
Yet, teachers are the easy scapegoat.... it is "somebody's" fault........ and we blame the teachers because no parent wants to admit they aren't doing what they should.
We had a staff meeting in my school this week where we looked at statistics for office referrals for behavior issues. More than half of the total referrals were given to just four children, all of whom have significant emotional problems. Years ago, those four children would have been placed in smaller classes with greater supervision and teachers trained to work with the most challenging students. Now they are kept in general education classes while the support systems designed to help them at least survive, if not succeed, are being systematically decimated by budget cuts.
ReplyDeleteOne of those four children regularly acts up and disrupts his class until his teachers are forced to remove him for the safety of the other children. His biggest problem? He stays up most of the night and is exhausted and irritable during the day when he should be learning. Instead of being in class and receiving instruction, he regularly falls asleep...in the in-school suspension room, counselor's office or principal's office. I don't know much about his home life (except that it's awful) but clearly no one is making sure that he's getting to bed at an appropriate time. Not only is he losing out on critical instruction, he is also disrupting the education of everyone in his class and causing overwhelming stress on a daily basis for his teachers.
I've worked with several other children who arrive at school every day filthy, hungry and tired. When they get sick they continue to attend school, receiving no medical attention and spreading illness to their classmates and teachers.
People who have no experience with the system often blame the school for not properly notifying the authorities. What they don't realize is that CPS workers are so understaffed and overwhelmed that only the most serious cases (usually involving physical or sexual abuse) are resolved quickly. Most children who are 'merely neglected' will continue to accumulate reports in their files for months, if not years, before any action is taken. Sadly, there is such a shortage of foster homes that some of the foster placements are not much better than where they came from.
No matter how experienced, skilled and dedicated a teacher may be, there are many factors that are simply beyond our control. We try to make up for the deficits where we can, but we can't parent every child in our school when their own parents are unable or unwilling to do so.
I have an autographed copy and a photo of me standing next to her.
ReplyDeleteShe came to speak locally.
No media bothered to show up.
Well, it was in a high school auditorium.
the whole show was great last night. ravitch seems like a caring, very intelligent woman. i certainly hope the obama administration takes her ideas and observations into account. i love that jon is whole-heartedly supporting teachers.
ReplyDeletei remember in president obama's state of the union speech this year that he said if you want to serve your country and be a leader, become a teacher. that statement got what seemed like unanimous applause from democrats and gop alike. but only one month later here is a united gop-led campaign to strip rights of teachers and for no good reason other than to keep fingers pointed away from the people who should be paying more in taxes since they are squandering more in resources and energy. it is sickening to the core and if you told me one month ago the gop would be calling teachers fat cats, i would have laughed and said, say what? i should know better by now.
keep up the great work jon and diane, as well as jon's mama.