Fox News host Tucker Carlson asserted over the weekend that American teachers were assigning less homework because they were lazy union members and wanted to hide the curriculum from parents.
During the Sunday edition of Fox & Friends, Carlson noted that many schools had argued that students should spend time in the evenings with their families.
“But is this really about the kids or could it be a move by teachers unions to get teachers to do less work for, of course, the same pay?” he asked Whitney Neal, a former teacher with the Koch brothers-funded Bill of Rights Institute.
“That’s a great suspicion,” Neal agreed. “As much as we don’t want to look at teachers that way as wanting to eliminate the amount of work they have to do, I almost think this is more of a ploy to keep parents out of the classroom, to limit the involvement parents have on what’s going on with teachers. Because if kids aren’t bringing home homework, the parents don’t really know what’s going on.”
“That is exactly right!” Carlson exclaimed. “It’s a window for me, I think for all parents into what our kids are learning in the classroom. You can see it… So this is a way — another way to disenfranchise parents, you think?”
Wait, what?
How poorly must you think of public education to believe that reducing the amount of homework is some subversive attempt to hide class work from parents?
Does Carlson not believe that the children will show their parents completed assignments? Or bring a textbook home to study for an upcoming test? Or just talk about what they learned that day in the classroom?
Personally I have long been an advocate of less homework, which in recent years has reached levels that are almost insurmountable for young children.
I have worked with more than one teenager who has so much homework that they quite literally have no time for extra curricular activities or to spend significant time with family members during the weekdays.
Of all of the terrible things that Fox News has introduced to this country, this vilification of teachers and undermining of our public education system may just about be the worst.
And it is dong incredible damage to the future of this nation.
My wife retired from teaching after thirty plus years on the job. Believe me, anyone that would suggest to her face that teachers don't work hard enough would risk serious injury. And my wife is not a violent person.
ReplyDeleteTucker Carlson is an idiot
ReplyDeleteAll of them are idiots! And obviously they want all the kids in 'merika to be idiots also!!
DeleteOT: Gryphen but the actress in Django Unchained was accused of being a prostitute for kissing her WHITE husband!! This cop shit is out of control!
http://bit.ly/1wlnTRs
'It seems as if racial prejudices won’t be fading away anytime soon.
Django Unchained actress Danielle Watts and her husband are speaking out about a wrongful arrest that occurred on September 11. Apparently, Watts was mistaken for a prostitute, although she was fully clothed. Watts was spotted engaging in PDA with her husband, who just so happens to be white."
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Ok so we have bristol palin beating the shit out of a man and warrior track also, too, todd and sarah and the cops do NOTHING...
But if your a African American woman with a white DH watch out?!!!
WTF! And you know I blame all the shit on the baggers they have brought America back to before MLK and Roe vs Wade and who is the Queen of them?
Palin.
This Brawl story needs to take her ass down and I hope everyone complains about the cop behavior on this poor actress. Its bullshit.
The entire NYS curriculum for ELA and math is online.
ReplyDeleteThe. Entire. Curriculum.
There is also an outline of the Social Studies curriculum and some instructional material, although I'm not sure how complete that is yet since it's all a work in progress. Anyone can access the curriculum from any computer, and parents are encouraged to do so.
We had two parent meetings in my school last year - one for ELA and the other for math - and we strongly encouraged the parents to go online and view what their children were learning. The NYS math curriculum (which everyone I know thinks is terrible, by the way) has so many new and different ways of doing basic computations that most parents are completely unable to help their children with homework using their own knowledge of traditional math operations. Going through some of the lessons helps them become familiar with the new terms and processes their children are learning in class.
As for parents being involved in the classroom, most teachers I work with WISH their students' parents would be more involved. I can't even count the number of Open Houses, Curriculum Nights, and Student Orientations I've been to that were sparsely attended by parents. I've even been to far too many CSE meetings where the parents didn't bother to show up to discuss their child's special ed placement and/or support services!
I currently work as support staff in a 6th grade class and I would LOVE for some of these conservative 'critics' to spend a day in our room and try to get through the day's lessons.
I teach music lessons after school. You know what interferes with their practice/lesson time more than homework? SPORTS. I have a talented 8th grader who decided to play football this fall...the coach wants them there from 3-6 EVERY day. Can you imagine if the band director (in a graded class) expected the kids to be there after school for three hours once a week for sectionals, extra practice, or whatever? Outrage! But since it's football, why, of course Johnny will be there, and Mrs. G, can we schedule his lesson at 6:15, interfering with everyone's dinner hour, and bringing the child when he's had a full day of school and another half day of football?
ReplyDeleteI know kids who are scheduled from 7 AM until 6 every single day. Now tell me, when do they get to eat, relax, read a book for pleasure, play a game with their siblings? They don't. It's dinner on the run, then homework, then bed. We have to stop over scheduling our kids. They are depressed, frustrated, and are not learning to manage their time or think.
Oh, and Tucker Carlson is an idiot, and that woman was never a teacher.
Sue I hear ya about the after school activities taking up too much of kids time...when my oldest daughter was in high school she was doing all kinds of after school stuff...she was up doing homework until after midnight! I finally put my foot down and told her to get off the team...it wasn't like she was a phenom...shit she barely played...she just liked the uniforms! LOL!!
DeleteAnyway I still have two daughters at home...one in 8th grade and the other in 11th grade...both are in college bound programs and thank heavens aren't interested in doing sports! They have so much homework and it's only the second week of school but they know that it takes a lot of work to get good grades so they put in the time.
I monitor their work and I also get emails from their schools constantly about what their doing.
I'm the parent that goes to ALL their parent teacher conferences and I also do the back to school nights too!
Matter of fact next Wednesday and Thursday I have to go to both of my girls schools for back to school night...the only crappy part about going to my 11th graders school is that most of her classes are on the 3rd floor and damn those stairs are killers! LOL!!!
Fake News HATE teachers and public school...we know why...they need non thinkers to believe the shit they say...public school teachers are teaching kids to THINK...that's blasphemy in Fake News world!
G -
ReplyDeleteCheck out Mediaite for interview between FOX and TMZ about paying for videos.
Pat Padrnos
Strongly doubt Levi wants to alter his mediation agreement. They seem content and content to them means he equally shares time. Anyway, he knows Bristol's a good mom and he also know Tripp would freak out without her. Boys do much better when they have great relationships with their moms. he knows that as he did not and had high school issues. He also knows Tripp has an amazing relationship with his mom.
ReplyDeleteSo instead of USING them, just let them LIVE. You don't know anything about them, gryph.
'Scuse me? This entry has NOTHING to do with the Palins. Get with the program, troll.
DeleteOh LOOKIE everybody - the "You don't know them" troll is back!
DeleteSo, which Palin are you?
1:32 So, you are going to leave your warnings online now?
DeleteYou are tripping.
I have 2 boys; eighth grade and HS junior. Every single one of their teachers has a website with assignments,notes, links to additional resources, a calendar of upcoming projects and tests, etc. I know FAR more about what my kids are doing than my parents knew about what I was doing in school and there is far more transparency and communication these days. These people don't know what the hell they are talking about.
ReplyDeleteYes, I bet their kids are in some private charter schools, and so they are not being taught anything by the non certified staffs, nor do the parents know diddly squat about what goes on there.
DeleteMy coworkers who have school age children also have access on line as you described.
DeleteThe man did not check his facts.
Anonymous1:33 PM
DeleteI have 2 boys; eighth grade and HS junior. Every single one of their teachers has a website with assignments,notes, links to additional resources, a calendar of upcoming projects and tests, etc.
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And you know the teachers prob don't get paid for doing that, they prob have to do it on their own time? I don't know, but I think its great.
I was a staples some years back and this lady was buying up the comp books were on sale for .25 each. I asked her and she said she was a teacher and was buying things for kids who couldn't afford them. She said the teachers get aprox $100. for this but lots of time she has to spend her own money also.
Now that is dedication.
Any insinuation by fox news, tucker carlson, etc. that teachers are doing less for the same pay is ridiculous. Teachers are already totally underpayed for the service they provide to students (and to this country). All teachers should get a 50% raise for all the work they do. And, I am not a teacher but I know how well qualified the majority of them are and how much work they do.
ReplyDeleteNot to mention they have to take second jobs b/c they are on vacay for what like three months out of the year?
DeleteThe rethugs want all the kids stupid so the vote for them and believe their spew. I just got in a argument with a friend who is a low info who signed impeachment papers on POTUS...she told me. I asked her so "who do you want to take over"?
"someone else" she says
Like who I ask. Same answer. This person did not know who Boehner is or anything. I told her before you talk about stuff and sign things educate yourself on the facts.
Fox news loves people like her. She spewed the vacay story also. I told her quit watching fox news!
I guess i won't have her as a friend anymore, lol.
This is what fox news loves uneducated idiots! That's why they are against public school and want homeskool so kids are not well socialized or learn.
This person went to public school but some were not that great at the time.
They have tightened up the curriculum now. My Son got a much better education than I did.
My school was conservative and more worried about how high your skirt was over your knees, than teaching! 70's shit.
Gotta keep those kids stupid. More votes for the right.
ReplyDeleteTucker must have been placed through the family frozen dinner process to receive his trust fund. It was obviously less successful than the alternate cryogenics process. Perhaps Mommy Magpie should arrange for his head to be chopped off, then repeat the Swanson process. Worth a try; he might grow a brain cell and return with a pair.
ReplyDeleteDubya had pretzel logic. The doofus that is Tucker is more akin to a dog chasing it's tail, but without the fun. Little Tuckie contradicts himself, pees on the floor, then expects a Scooby Snack. Seriously fear for his children with this delayed boy as their father.
Fear for our media, too. Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson, "qualified" to comment for no good reason.
Carlson is a putz.
DeletePutz:
(n) a stupid, ignorant person; someone who doesn't pay attention to anything going on; one who makes stupid remarks
That's the kindest thing I can say about this dunce. I can only hope his little boy-face look fades sooner than later and he'll no longer be desirable on network TV.
Here in MI, our nerd Governor, fully supported by the Kochs and ALEC, has given our teachers a $15,000 pay CUT over the past two years, with another 2% this year. That in addition to them now paying for their health care and retirements after accepting lower pay to begin with because they got healthcare and retirement benefits. Now, of course, he's also taxing pensions, and giving more tax breaks to his big biz buddies. The Kochs have decimated Detroit, leaving piles of oily sludge all along the Detroit River. And since we now have the Right To Work for Pennies, and Detroit has an Emergency Manager after we voted against that, Snyder is trying to sell off the treasures that belong to all of Michigan in the Detroit Institute of Art. Nice work, nerd. May you and your cronies rot in hell after we vote you out in November.
ReplyDeleteHere in MI, our nerd Governor, fully supported by the Kochs and ALEC, has given our teachers a $15,000 pay CUT
Delete*****
HOLY SHIT! Wow! Who would even WANT to be a teacher to have that happen? What did the union say?
Yes! VoteBlue in Nov!!!
C'mon Tucker, how are the kids supposed to have time to work factory jobs so they can learn personal responsibility if they're wastin' time doin' homework?
ReplyDeleteDidn't the rethugs make a law kids can start work at 13 or something?
DeleteIt was a month or two ago our esteemed do nothing congress?
I'm telling you they are taking is backwards just like POTUS says...
back, back...
There's no winning here.
ReplyDeleteThere are parents demanding teachers give more homework to ensure their kids get a rigorous and quality education.
Homework has nothing to do with that.
Then there are parents demanding less homework because their little darlings are spending all evening doing it, crying, no time with family, friends, 16 hour days, yadda yadda.
BTW there is no research proving that homework increases student achievement.
In fact, if homework is factored into grades it tends to lower them for all those students that don't do their homework (because parents are too lazy to check to see if they had any, that they did it and that they got it right) or got it all wrong because their parents aren't involved (maybe because they're working two and three jobs?)
Whatever.
No, this is not because teachers are lazy.
This is because Republicans are looking for another excuse to bash teachers, one of the last strong unions left.
I am so glad I have already signed my retirement papers. I'll be retiring June 30, 2015 after 36 years of teaching. I am sick and disgusted at the change in the way my profession has been treated by the media, certain members of the government and now the public.
"Those that can, teach. Those that can't pass laws about teaching."
My mother taught for 38 years she always said I would like to see these lawmakers spend a day teaching, bet they wouldn't last an hour.
DeleteHow is it that the same country these right wingnuts swear allegiance to is the same country that every arm of its government is suspect, and or subversive.
ReplyDeleteThey hate the government, except insofar as they are capable of using it to position themselves for high paying private sector jobs, ala Eric Cantor.
Why do Fox & Friends and Carlson care? Most of the viewers are homeskooled.
ReplyDelete