Wait, Why Don't Our Kids Read and Write?
So I'm kicking back and watching the news the day Hawaii public school teachers agreed to their new contract. Things I expected to hear, but didn't: Current statistics on Hawaii student aptitude and projections on how these numbers will be effected by 17 furlough days, which equals 10% less education. How much students can learn with 14 school days in October 2009. 15 school days in November. 11 school days in December. A justification for choosing Friday instead of Wednesday as the official furlough day (school ends at 12:45 on Wednesdays). Instead, I got a story on how the furlough will possibly effect OIA football.
Maybe our kids don't respect education because our adults seem not to either. The governor obviously does not. Nor does the DOE or HSTA leadership, which is ironic. Nor do the teachers who voted to ratify this contract, which is triple-dog-ironic with a twist.
Am I being too hard on the teachers? Maybe. Maybe we unreasonably expect teachers to value their craft as something that's much more than two paychecks a month. Most probably started off idealistic. Then they had to deal kids nannied by SpongeBob Squarepants with parents who behave like emotionally challenged prepubescents.
Growing up, I had relatives who eyed education with contempt. "Book smart" paled in comparison to common sense. I'd argue that local culture in general does not respect education. Otherwise, would the state be able to get away with what they're doing? Probably not. And they've gotten away with a lot for years. Campuses that look like trailer parks. Books so old and ratty that the pages can double as serviceable toilet paper. That's if there are books at all, which often, there are not. And here I am wondering how teachers can be cynical enough to agree to this contract.
What does all this have to do with a blog on books and writing? Pretty much everything. Congratulations, Hawaii. You have officially earned the much-coveted Captain Jean-Luc Picard facepalm.
September 25th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
I never know whether to laugh or cry when I read your posts. This is so sad, but the way you talk about it makes it funny. Somehow, it gives me hope that all is not lost yet.
September 25th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Made me smile/cringe too. Thanks for the post, especially Capt. Picard.
September 26th, 2009 at 3:20 am
The dwindling state of education in Hawaii is a great example of America's attitude toward education as a whole. There is no money in educating people, and even if there was, an educated populace is one of the biggest threats to the status quo. It's certainly a bigger and more common threat than the illusion of any sort of terrorist threat our last administration conjured up to keep us docile and scared. If the working class and the middle class were given access to knowledge and the teachers who could make that knowledge accessible to them were paid properly and given good incentives, we would be an open minded, spiritually nourished nation of people who could easily understand how we're being screwed over everyday by a small group of wealthy, powerful elite, and the system would quickly collapse.
I don't think there is any cure-all for this. The methods which have been used so far have been like applying band-aids over deep wounds. A step in the right direction in this state would be our local government acknowledging the problem with genuine concern rather than just a platform for politicians running their campaigns and getting their approval ratings up. Language is what binds us as a community and gives us the tools necessary to express our individual needs and struggles, so literacy should be treated with far more importance than it currently is. But again, there is no short-term gain and no money in it, so it gets swept under the rug alongside so many other issues.
September 26th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Some Muddled Thoughts.
Old saying: "Those who can, do. Those who can do more, teach".
I taught for 34 years . . . if they had cut 17 days each year I would have lost over three years of teaching time.
I heard the word idealistic mentioned earlier. I started off idealistic, until I starting finding out things such as that my 9th graders had an average reading level of 3rd grade. Then we had to padlock and chain the doors around the school so the bad guys couldn't get in. Then there was the day toward the end of the year when one of my middle-school 7th graders didn't come to class. No one wanted to talk about him. I finally found out he had raped a 3rd grade girl at the elementary school next door. So I copped out. I moved from teaching the inner city kids to teaching kids in the suburbs. Guess what? Still got problems there. Like the pudgy twin girls in fifth grade whose father was . . . Okay, 'nuf. Lots and lots of bright good kids in school. But they aren't going to learn if we keep cutting the school day, cutting the school budget, cutting the school year and letter the better teachers (like me I say without modesty) escape the classroom to earn more money as an administrator.
Big problem. Solutions are hard to come by.
Ciao.
September 27th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
What happened to the old days when school started at 8am ending at 2pm. We had no waiver days or half days on wednesdays. School seemed to better those days and teachers were more observant and strict with the students. I remember our school work had to be done before we went home or its staying after school with the teacher. Now days if the student is not done with their studies, the teacher sends them home with a note asking the parents to help them. I think the teachers today are thinking more of themselves and less for the students There's no quality time between teachers and students anymore. Maybe thats why the students have no respect for education. And the parents should not be blamed for our childrens failures in school. Then why are we sending them to school?
September 27th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
The great majority of public school teachers care and work extremely hard. Have you ever tried to do their job? Or watched them work for a period of time?
I believe the kids will learn what they need to even though they have some days off school.
Read the comment in the Advertiser Sunday 9/27/09 by Jessie Steiner, "Self-motivated students will strive to make best of furlough days".
Signed,
A public school counselor
October 25th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
No Read Not Right: People who use language well have all kinds of advantages; it enhances their relationships. People don't learn how to use language by watching television, they become adroit with language by reading books. I heard Robert Frost say not to trust him on what he randomly said, but to check up on the works he had read. Consciously or not we all learn from other writers.
(Out of characters, this character will complete the thought with one more posting.)
October 25th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
Not Read Not Right continued: The influence of William Wordsworth is predominant in Frost's writing as are his other favorite Brits: Think of Coleridge, Tennyson, Hopkins, and Yeats and you'll feel close to Frost. He links with Americans Dickinson, Crane, Markham, Thomas and T.E. Eliot.
...I like that linkage stuff.
Arthur Rath, local reader