Why now after a decade is the federal government rewriting No Child Left Behind? Why is Florida now asking for a waiver? Well friends it’s because the draconian measures built into the bill are about to hit suburbia. Plus the bill has already done its job of forcing free market solutions on inner city communities. Is NCLB going to reverse the last five years, close all the charter schools and send the kids shipped out of their neighborhoods home? Of course not, the damage there has been done and now just before it can hit the white schools in the suburbs it’s going to be stopped.
For a decade now we have crammed our inner city kids into a one size fits all curriculum regardless of ability, desire and aptitude and then passed them through without the abilities (discipline, a work ethic and academics) they need to succeed.
Then we wondered why they did so poorly when they hit high school and there was no place left to pass them to. Here is the rub, because they have done poorly,, or more accurateky the ystem has doen a poor job preparing them, NCLB gives the district the option to ship them out of their neighborhoods or put them into charter schools.
Then because of all the requirements heaped on teachers at intervene schools it assures there is a constant revolving door of teachers for those few kids that remained at their home schools. Right now there are literally thousands of kids that could be attending the north and westside intervene schools but aren’t.
Then in Jacksonville when you couple above with KIPP and Teach for America a generation of inner city kids is being handcuffed just as they are starting out. Kids in poverty already have so many obstacles to overcome and now the DCSB wants to saddle them with ineffective schools and novice teachers too. Wow!
Where is the outcry, the protest, can somebody at least say, um maybe that’s not what we should be doing? Does the black community not care? Do they not understand what has been done and is continuing to be done to them?
We are doing these children many of who have so little, a disservice.
It is a shame.
"Does the black community not care?"
ReplyDeleteBingo. And that is why so many black kids continue to struggle. Their parents do not care, their community doesn't care, and the kids themselves do not care. Look at the what they're given to emulate! They want to be Drake or Jeezy! That is why they flunk.
"Where is the outcry, the protest, can somebody at least say, um maybe that’s not what we should be doing?"
Someday, when our country has completely broken down, we will realize that we held ourselves back because we could never accept responsibility for our own actions. While we were looking for someone else to blame, the rest of the world passed us by.
Chris, you are right... the black community does not care. The NAACP sold out a long time ago and the black leaders (past and present) have also sold out. We have groups that "come and go" or they fail to realize the important things... they tend to focus on "technical" things that are just plain stupid to even focus on. Do you believe that some of these black people are just going along to get along?
ReplyDeleteWhat I have seen is some of the black "concerned" people will go to the school board meetings and talk about what they agree/disagree with, etc. but what they fail to realize is the students are not at the School Board meeting; the parents aren't either. You have to corral these people together and educate them. A large number of black, white, red, and orange parents have not been taught they are their child's first teacher or advocate. Sadly no one in the community has made an attempt to correct this. One group even went before the board and said "I'm sorry Mr. Superintendent and Madam Deputy Superintendent." What? These are the people who continue to miseducate black and poor children. You shouldn't be apologizing to them... they should be apologizing to you. I don't get the black community sometimes. They won't stand up in large numbers and fight for their children. I guess they believe a "small few" can get things done but as long as they stick to that principle, Burney and company will continue to hold down their seats on the School Board, city council, state legislature, congress, etc. because you have a majority of them confused, uneducated, and misguided. The black community is the reason black schools are failing because they have not stood up to fight for their schools. I am not a racist, I am just calling it like I see it.
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