Cutting Teachers Off At The Knees

The DISD, herein known as That District in Dallas, has once again hit a new personal low. In their dubious wisdom, the board has decided that homework won't be given if it will lower a student's grade, no grade lower than a 50% will be given and if a student retakes a test, the higher score will be used.
Story here

*slow simmer*

This is ridiculous. And it's also probably the result of a teacher publicly outing a coach for placing pressure to pass a student/athlete. Ironically, while this played out in the press, the adminstrators and coaches all seem to be pretty much in place. The teacher who reported the actions was non-renewed-educationspeak for "fired". How is this going to work? Kids can do nothing and get a 50%. They are free to sleep, to be disruptive, to generally cause havoc. And they don't really have to stretch to learn ANYTHING. The problem is that they will still have to pass state mandated tests-TAKS this year, end of course testing next year. How is that going to play out? How are kids who have partied their way to a 50 going to pass a state test? And when they don't, who will be blamed?

Answer: The teachers. The teachers will be blamed for all miscues, failures and mistakes. They will lose their jobs. And frankly, at this point, working at Walmart might be a relief.

The Dallas Independent School District has decided they won't teach anything to a student that doesn't want to learn. And they will blame teachers when these same students fail.

Yeah, that's fair. *sarcasm*

I understand that not all students learn at the same speed. My district even has reteach/retest policies in place. But we do expect students to turn in work. We do expect them to learn. And frankly, for students that do nothing in my class, I have given scores lower-much lower-than a 50%. To give a student that much for just showing up is tantamount to paying a clerk for showing up at the door, but still doing nothing. This is just another great example of nanny state mentality and the acceptance of mediocrity as the norm. And this is why we are playing economic catch up with the rest of the world.

And We're Supposed To Teach Their Kids

This story deals with a robbery. The 41 year old robber goes in to rob the Pizza Patron. He slaps a 17 year old, who was bigger than him. The kids goes nuts, knocks the guy out and starts wailing on him, when the other clerk says "Stop, that' s my dad." Yes, here's a girl who is working to earn money and deal old Dad and Mom are casing the joint for robbery. What is it that these people don't get? And now do you see why teaching is becoming so difficult, when we have parents who have no standards or ethics or morals and yet we are supposed to drag these kids to literacy in spite of their parents. Sheesh!

Crazy Much?

This guy obviously has some beef with his employment, but if this wasn't just a staged stunt, I wonder how close we were to seeing yet another in a series of workplace assaults. Frankly, I am surprised that it doesn't happen more often, especially in school settings. Strange days indeed.


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