Philadelphia School District: How Liberals Run Schools...

[rtwngAvngr]

I honestly don't know the particulars of the Philadelphia School District, but many districts do not offer breakfast and many, especially poor rural districts, have underpaid teachers and thus have trouble recruiting the best possible new teachers.

No breakfast? No beamers? That ain't right.

As for corporal punishment, kids can't learn when they are scared.

They also can't learn when discipline is a joke.

 

[Nienna]

IAs for corporal punishment, kids can't learn when they are scared.

Corporal punishment doesn't necessarily cause fear. However, I would have some reservations about school officials using it on kids.

 

[Annie]

I honestly don't know the particulars of the Philadelphia School District, but many districts do not offer breakfast and many, especially poor rural districts, have underpaid teachers and thus have trouble recruiting the best possible new teachers.

As for corporal punishment, kids can't learn when they are scared.

If I'm recalling correctly, Philadelphia schools instituted uniforms recently...evidently this hasn't been the cure-all alot of conservatives seem to think it is.

My comments were about education in general and were a response to the idea of beating kids and taking away what is for some kids, the only way they eat. I support eliminating anti-drug laws, and support making it easier to remove problem students so long as there is some alternative to help them learn. Otherwise you end up with an uneducated, problem kid on the streets, Guess which path of life that kid is heading down?

acludem

Thanks for the opening. Truly, I don't think that schools/government should be providing breakfast/dinner for students, that is the parents responsibility. How they or the government decide to deal with it, shouldn't be the schools. I keep some packaged granola bars/peanut butter crackers, but when a kid needs them; boom, boom, boom, gone and on with the work. I'll throw in lunch for the indigent, though it's still not the school's baliwick.

What should schools be doing? Teaching. Each classroom should be a safe, secure, and organized place for children to be. Safe means that in a regular classroom one does not constantly encounter sociopaths. Now even sociopaths under 16 need to be somewhere. How about with 3 or 4 others; with a teacher, an aid, and a close by guard? Not 'mainstreamed' with kids that are teachable.

Same with significantly learning disabled. My heart goes out to them, but they should not be allowed to drag the other 20 or so kids down. So, give them the help they need, with those trained to give it. A regular classroom is not the place for a brain damaged child, that shrieks intermittenly or a child that is on a respirator and needs a nurse. Nor a child that is not able to control their bowels. Sorry, they just don't belong in a regular classroom. There is room for the mildly dyslexic; the deaf that knows how to read lips; the child who is a grade or two behind in reading or math.

Secure, they know what's expected; they are given a plan to gain the skills to master what they need to know; they are fairly judge through their performance on their level of mastery.

Organized, means that the child has what they need to accomplish their plan and knows where to find it. They know when it's time for whatever. School shouldn't be choatic, it should be a place where there is structure and order. the teacher helps them find a method of organization.

I doubt today there is much difference in many homes, regardless of socieconomic status. There is little order, structure, predictability. Parents and kids are overschedualed. School can be the one place that children feel 'safe' and 'secure'. Problem is, there is too much being asked of the schools.

A classroom for your average child is not the right milleu for teaching the latest cultural norms. They are not restaurants or jails. They are not mini-labs for whatever experiment society wishes to spring on the rest of us. The kids should be learning to read, write, compute, think, problem solve, get some physical fitness, etc.

There shouldn't be corporal punishment, but their should be detentions, suspensions, and expulsions.

 

[Avatar4321]

Trust me Kathi. This is teacher heaven in this state. You start at $40k at any public school you goto and most that have been there for 10+ years are making around $70-80k. The unions rule in PA. There is no accountability and thats why our property taxes are outrageous.

One school district near my parents house, Council Rock, the teachers average salary is $62,000. The taxes are ridiculous, but hey the teachers all drive beamers and benz' to work and live in their $900,000 house down the street. Beautiful area, but expensive as hell. It just happened to get progressively more expensive over the last 10 years or so. My parents bought their house for $230k 7 years ago and now its worth about $500k.

If you think the teachers salaries are outrageous, you would be amazed at what the Union reps and the other School administration people who do absolutely nothing get.