INFINTE TOLERANCE
Diane Ravitch is not impressed with NYC’s student discipline manual:
Anyone who wants to understand why discipline in the schools has spun out of control should read this 53-page exercise in pedagogical gobbledygook.
* Take a look at the “values auction,” where high school students are supposed to “bid” on which of 20 values matter most to them (such as good manners or punctuality or honesty or safety).
* Examine the student activities, such as listening to an advertising jingle and figuring out why it sells the product.
* Review the pedagogical strategies such as “think-pair-share,” or “carousel brainstorming,” which may be useful teaching techniques but have nothing to do with the moral basis of student discipline.
The Department of Education’s discipline code and instructional guide imply that dangerous and violent behavior can be deterred by talking and should be treated with understanding. It is a sweet philosophy, but in the meantime students and teachers need safe classrooms and orderly hallways. The department just doesn’t get it.
Somewhere there is a happy medium on the tolerance scale. I’m not betting that the educrats will find it.
___________________________________________________________
The University of Phoenix now is hosting free software on its site that can be used to translate english to spanish free of cost. Even DeVry University is offering the same, in order to contribute to online education.
2 Responses to “INFINTE TOLERANCE”
 Comment by Ed Hurst December 21st, 2003 at 8:20 pm |
“The Department of Education’s discipline code and instructional guide imply that dangerous and violent behavior can be deterred by talking and should be treated with understanding.” Well, it worked for me! … Oh, wait; I weigh 240lbs and look like a professional wrestler. Think that had anything to do with it? Seriously, this was the worst part about having worked in g-schools. They never seemed to grasp that education should be a privilege, not a right. Rights of that sort are forced on students, parents, teachers — and leads to the inmates running the asylum. |
 Comment by AnneCB December 21st, 2003 at 8:42 pm |
As a homeschooling mom (and the daughter and sister of public school teachers) I am always frustrated when I read about discipline in the PS system. It seems as if parents don’t want the schools to have discipline (since it’s not backed up at home) but they also don’t want to do the work themselves! The FIRST job of the teacher is to teach. And they are given no authority or real tools to maintain order in their classroom. I couldn’t teach my own kids if they didn’t know I was in charge, let alone 30 of someone elses! |