I have been told by my principal that he is not going to retain (keep in the same grade for failing grades/test scores) a single student this year. This in a school with over 1,000 students. I have students who have failed every class in the fifth grade, every class in the sixth grade, and every class this year in the seventh and have never been retained. At least two of these students (who I tried to have retained) have not turned in a single assignment in my class all year. What do you think the chances are that they are going to do any work in the 8th grade next year? What are their work habits in high school going to be like? We tell these kids every year that their grades and test scores matter, and every year they see kids like these two go on to the next grade anyway. What message are we sending? At least we need to stop lying to these kids about retaining them. No wonder they get to the 12th grade without passing the exit exam...they don't believe us when we tell them they won't get a diploma. We have been lying to them for 12 years after all.
Until I get a principal who publically commits to retention, I will never again mention retention to a student or parent. I don't understand why my district's parents tolerate this type of behavior.
Please, for the sake of our children, support school choice and vouchers whenever you can......public education is broken and will never fix itself until forced to do so by competition. (and remember I say this as a beleagured public school teacher)
3 comments:
Until we stop being lead by the extreme Left and Right this wont change. Because of them we spend to much time on liberal programs to make sure the dumbest kid doesn't have his feelings hurt. How does the right counter this? Let's not teach evolution and get prayer back in public school. I don't know what I will do when my son will have to go to school. We agree on one thing, the public school system is broken.
As long as government run schools are run by politicians, bureaucrats and the teacher's unions, they're a lost cause.
Be sure to add your name to the Separation of School and State Alliance's proclamation at
http://www.sepschool.org/
Way to keep on fighting the good fight, though, Gary. I'm taking a job as director of a small preschool in the fall - joining most of the rest of my family in the field of education - and, with the previous director, I consider it part of my responsibilities to "train" parents in how to deal with school. One thing they should never take lying down is a school's willful failure.
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