As a professional educator, I am a participant in a e-mail list serv that has the purpose of addressing national issues in teaching our beloved subjects. This particular e-mail caught my eye (among the several thousand I read each year).
C**** & B*****,
Reading your emails was like listening in on my team meetings and dept meetings. I myself have been shocked that students cannot figure out how to do simple math such as mass divided by volume. When I taught adult education for the Navy one of the main concepts I had to review was basic math since they needed for their training in measurement to build latrines and roads etc.
The frustration for special education must be nationwide. The idea that it is a phasing out is becoming a joke. There is no resource science in our district because some genius determine that science is hands-on & therefore tactile and FUN and students would be missing out by not being included. Science is the hardest class for most SPED students at my school because of the reading level of the questions on the standardized assessments and because the math involved is at grade level and they are not. I think they could learn more science if it were at a level they could understand and math especially holds them back. I have eighth graders who cannot divide.
Our school motto or rather district is Failure is not an Option, a book by some guy that I have avoided reading since success is not an option either. What the option appears to be is to provide endless chances to turn in work and re-test, only there is no real learning occurring. I don’t understand (and I have iterated this before on the list serv) why schools do not address parents directly. Is it politically incorrect to tell them that they have these responsibilities (XYZ) at home and they need to be assisting their children with this stuff and then provide them with the necessary assistance?
I think parents are left out of the picture too often and then it becomes assumed that their child’s education is not their responsibility. It should be made very clear each year and at each level what the parental expectation is and if it is not working on their end, to call them in (hire a parent liaison for this job) and discussion what needs to be happening at home. Teachers are already overwhelmed calling parents. It would be nice if we could refer a student to this person and have them discuss it first on the phone or in person before we need a parent conference with all core teachers.
Another conundrum in the field of science education we are hashing out.
S***
It's letters like these that only promote disillusionment among teachers who are held responsible not only for everything students learn, but everything else that students haven't, don't, can't, or won't learn (get real).
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