City Journal: Nobody Gets Married Any More, Mister

[mardi gras skin]

http://www.city-journal.org/2011/21_1_teen-pregnancy.html

My students often become curious about my personal life. The question most frequently asked is, “Do you have kids?”

“Two,” I say.

The next question is always heartbreaking.

“Do they live with you?”

Every fall, new education theories arrive, born like orchids in the hothouses of big-time university education departments. Urban teachers are always first in line for each new bloom. We’ve been retrofitted as teachers a dozen times over. This year’s innovation is the Data Wall, a strategy in which teachers must test endlessly in order to produce data about students’ progress. The Obama administration has spent lavishly to ensure that professional consultants monitor its implementation.

Every year, the national statistics summon a fresh chorus of outrage at the failure of urban public schools. Next year, I fear, will be little different.

The first year I taught high school, I didn't understand that ability to teach was so dependent on the student's ability to be children. I quit teaching because I came to the conclusion that the education system is at odds with what the rest of society expects of and projects onto children.

[LD0506]

Somehow I doubt that this will get the attention and discussion that other threads do, but it is a good read. As much as people like to bash schools and teachers, there is no way they can deal with or change the underlying circumstances that the author writes about. "The safety net has become a hammock." A basic truth right right there, you cannot subsidize negative and toxic behavior and not have it become a cottage industry all its own.

[Popeman38]

That is one of the better written pieces I have read on the subject. There is no mention of politics, one would have to guess at what side of the aisle the author identifies with. It highlights the issues, and notes that what CT does is both good and bad.

Very complex issue....

[DCsportsfan53]

He's 100% right. You can legislate anything you want, you can track, score, evaluate, test, ect anything you want. A teacher in school can't overcome all the things missing from a bad home. The focus is in entirely the wrong area.

[TheLongshot]

He's 100% right. You can legislate anything you want, you can track, score, evaluate, test, ect anything you want. A teacher in school can't overcome all the things missing from a bad home. The focus is in entirely the wrong area.

Problem is, I'm not sure there is much government can do about that problem. It is a culture problem and there is little to do but to treat the symptoms.

This is something that I have some first hand experience with. When I moved to Frederick, I was amazed not only with the amount of pregnancies that happened at my high school, but also with how little stigma was attached to it. There was a girl who gave birth right before graduation and there was a lot of cooing at the baby during senior pictures. I had a classmate who was 20, who came back to finish up HS after having a kid herself. Even my girlfriend at the time got pregnant. (Not by me, thank god. She was seeing her previous boyfriend behind my back.) She definitely fit into the demographic above: her father died young, had serious daddy issues and felt very competitive against her mother.

BTW, I think the title of the article does little to describe the content. I thought this was going to be about marriage rather than education.

[SkinsHokieFan]

Fantastic article. Very interesting perspective from the POV of the teacher.

[endzone_dave]

One thing the article points out is that the kids have more than enough resources to succeed. But politicians preach and preach that more money needs to be spent on education. They are too afraid to point out the obvious that parenting is the main culprit in poor performing kids, not lack of resources or quality of teachers. I wish politicians would stop wasting our tax dollars.

[Rudechain]

It's a seriously complex issue and there is no "one" solution.

Everything starts in the home and stability at home goes a long way in the development of a child.

Sadly cases like stated in the article have become more and more commonplace.

[FanboyOf91]

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

One of the biggest shows on MTV is about teen moms. It's supposed to show their struggles but what it's really doing--for the gullible, immature teen mind anyway--is turning teen moms into celebrities. I've read stories about teens trying to get pregnant in an effort to get on the show.

[TD_washingtonredskins]

One of the biggest shows on MTV is about teen moms. It's supposed to show their struggles but what it's really doing--for the gullible, immature teen mind anyway--is turning teen moms into celebrities. I've read stories about teens trying to get pregnant in an effort to get on the show.

That's horrifying, but believable.

[Pwyl]

Children are all different but the education system tries to treat them all the same. I think more effort should be spend on individualizing each student's education path. We have the information technology available now to be able to tailor lessons in each subject to a student's best learning method, and allow them to proceed at their own best pace. Instead we get age and time based standards and act like our kids should be little robots.

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

Children are all different but the education system tries to treat them all the same. I think more effort should be spend on individualizing each student's education path. We have the information technology available now to be able to tailor lessons in each subject to a student's best learning method, and allow them to proceed at their own best pace. Instead we get age and time based standards and act like our kids should be little robots.

I agree with this.

---------- Post added January-31st-2011 at 12:27 PM ----------

That's horrifying, but believable.

I'm about to head to class but when I get a chance I'll try to pull up a story about it.

[TD_washingtonredskins]

Children are all different but the education system tries to treat them all the same. I think more effort should be spend on individualizing each student's education path. We have the information technology available now to be able to tailor lessons in each subject to a student's best learning method, and allow them to proceed at their own best pace. Instead we get age and time based standards and act like our kids should be little robots.

I'd like to hear more about this. What type of new information/technology is out there which might allow 20 different learning methods/paces per classroom? Believe me, this is not sarcasm or anything...I would truly love to hear about this since I have two kids who will be in public school in the next couple years.

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

I'd like to hear more about this. What type of new information/technology is out there which might allow 20 different learning methods/paces per classroom? Believe me, this is not sarcasm or anything...I would truly love to hear about this since I have two kids who will be in public school in the next couple years.

I think the idea is to organize the classes by specific learning method. Visual learners in one room, auditory learners in another and so on.

[mardi gras skin]

Children are all different but the education system tries to treat them all the same. I think more effort should be spend on individualizing each student's education path. We have the information technology available now to be able to tailor lessons in each subject to a student's best learning method, and allow them to proceed at their own best pace. Instead we get age and time based standards and act like our kids should be little robots.

I'm sure there are things the school can do to improve delivery of information but this is really frosting on the cake. When I taught, we managed to get information across to students regardless of their learning styles and needs. By far the greatest hinderance to learning was not the system of delivery but the receptivity of the student (strongly determined by the involvement of the parent).

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

How about taking what students are naturally proficient at (math, language, science, IT, whatever) and structuring their education around that? A specialization at an early age.

[DCsportsfan53]

Problem is, I'm not sure there is much government can do about that problem. It is a culture problem and there is little to do but to treat the symptoms.

.

Exactly but therein lies the problem. As a society we continue to spend more and more money treating the symptoms, ignoring the source problem and expecting that treatment to be the gov'ts responsibility. That leads me to this.

One thing the article points out is that the kids have more than enough resources to succeed. But politicians preach and preach that more money needs to be spent on education. They are too afraid to point out the obvious that parenting is the main culprit in poor performing kids, not lack of resources or quality of teachers. I wish politicians would stop wasting our tax dollars.

At what point do we say this isn't the governments responsiblity and back off on their expected role. Of course, we know this will never happen because that would mean less government and people accepting responisbility for their own situations. No, I expect we'll make it more and more standardized, more and more subsidized to the end detriment of the people they are attemtping to help and society as a whole. How many administrations are we going to go through this with? It's almost like the drug war, we always insist on fighting the symptom, we never treat the origninal problem

[TD_washingtonredskins]

I think the idea is to organize the classes by specific learning method. Visual learners in one room, auditory learners in another and so on.

But how do you work with pacing then? You can split them into sub-groups, for sure, but what if there would need to be 4-5 different groups within a class?

[DRSmith]

Problem is, I'm not sure there is much government can do about that problem. It is a culture problem and there is little to do but to treat the symptoms.

This is something that I have some first hand experience with. When I moved to Frederick, I was amazed not only with the amount of pregnancies that happened at my high school, but also with how little stigma was attached to it. There was a girl who gave birth right before graduation and there was a lot of cooing at the baby during senior pictures. I had a classmate who was 20, who came back to finish up HS after having a kid herself. Even my girlfriend at the time got pregnant. (Not by me, thank god. She was seeing her previous boyfriend behind my back.) She definitely fit into the demographic above: her father died young, had serious daddy issues and felt very competitive against her mother.

BTW, I think the title of the article does little to describe the content. I thought this was going to be about marriage rather than education.

Why can't you use the carrot and stick method, I have said it is a good idea to have contracts signed at the beginning of the year by the parents teachers and students on goals and behaviours for those parents and kids who refuse to hold up their end you can place them in schools that are near the bottom with those teachers who do not care and are there to collect a check.

Those people who want their children to get a good education will keep on top of things and they will get the reward with their kids getting the best possible education.

[renaissance]

Why can't you use the carrot and stick method, I have said it is a good idea to have contracts signed at the beginning of the year by the parents teachers and students on goals and behaviours for those parents and kids who refuse to hold up their end you can place them in schools that are near the bottom with those teachers who do not care and are there to collect a check.

Those people who want their children to get a good education will keep on top of things and they will get the reward with their kids getting the best possible education.

This sounds like an excellent idea. So the kids with ****e parents continue to get screwed over in every aspect of their lives.

[Bang]

Lots of points to touch, so I won't bother quoting everyone who perked a thought.

I've thought about this alot, and the problem is very much coming from home. A lot of parents simply view school as a babysitter.

Unfortunately there's two sides to this, and a lot of people point fingers and blame lazy parents.. but the fact is a whole hell of a lot of parents work their asses off to keep the bills paid and groceries on the table in an ever more expensive world.

When both parents have to work to support the family, that doesn't leave a lot of time to do the parenting, and while it's easy to sit back and say all the usual scoffs, people are only human, and after a 10 hour day and an hour+ commute, some folks don't have it in them to be Ward and June Cleaver.

That's not an excuse... it's a part of reality. The days of Dad being able to go to work and mom stay at home are gone for most of us.

My wife and I both work from home, and it is still a grind to make the time to do what's necessary for school. My son is succeeding, and in large part it's because we make the time. It's not easy. to make up the time spent on being a parent in the way I feel I should be, I pretty much work 7 days a week til about 10 or later. Just to give you some personal insight into it, you all know I make those cartoons, and you may have noticed that i hardly make any anymore. I simply don't have the time, and my available time has decreased steadily as my son has gotten older and school became more involved. Now there's marching band, sports, and frankly, a lot of learning on my part. He's a freshman, and his curriculum for math and engineering is beyond me.

I can't imagine what it must be like for parents who work long hours, commute and then have to do this.

My mom was a single parent of me and my sister. She worked long hours, and didn't have the time for both of us, so when i showed signs of falling thru the cracks, she pretty much couldn't do anything about it.

My high school experience was the typical stoner. It's hard to blame her given everything, and the fact is the school I remember is a complete 180 from what I am seeing now that my own son is in high school. (more on that below)

I do not like that our system is set up so that everyone in class must work to the level of the lowest contributor.

I like the idea of separating students into classes based on their aptitude and grades, but I think the education should be well rounded.. that's to say don't separate them into where they appear naturally proficient until about 8th or 9th grade. for example, my son always had trouble with his math grades in elementary school, but now he's a freshman in high school, and he's straight ACING his intro to engineering course. 100%

They've set it up now in MD so that when you enter HS, you can choose a pathway, and then your courses will be geared toward that career path. I love it. When I was in HS, I remember when i was a junior my guidance counselor asking me for the first time if I had considered what i wanted to do after high school.

Now they offer class groups and courses specifically designed to begin the education necessary for that particular career. By his junior year my son will be taking college level engineering courses.

If they'd have separated kids based on the aptitudes they showed at younger ages, my son would likely not be able to take this engineering course, much less ace it. His math and science grades are both up as well.

I say give them a well rounded education for the first 7 years, and steadily weed them into classes that fit their learning level and then in high school really focus them in.

I'll also say that Calvert county schools get a big thumbs up from me. The teachers I've dealt with have been top notch, the administrators (save one) have been great. They use teacher teams to keep up on the kids. Groups of teachers monitor certain groups of kids and if their grades slip or behavior problems show up, they handle it as a team. The teachers now for the most part seem genuinely involved as opposed to being at work like i remember. My kid likes school. This is an alien concept to me.

~Bang

[GhostofSparta]

How about taking what students are naturally proficient at (math, language, science, IT, whatever) and structuring their education around that? A specialization at an early age.

Are you talking about using things like computers for IT proficient students to help them in each subject, or are you saying if a kid proves to be better at math than english at age 7 then that kid gets tracked to be in a career that's math-related and that's what all his classes center around? Because there's a huge difference between IEPs to help kids learn to the maximum potential and career-tracking from kindergarten on ala the old Soviet/communist model of producing efficient (but not well-rounded or well educated) citizens.

[endzone_dave]

From the article: "Nicole’s unmarried mother, it turned out, worked nights, so Nicole would slip out with friends every evening, sometimes staying out until 3 am, and then show up in class exhausted, surly, and hungry."

There is no way a kid like this is going to learn anything. No teacher, no process, no amount of money is going to make a difference here. At what point do you get this kind of kid out of the classroom so that the other kids who do want to learn can.

[Major Harris]

Children are all different but the education system tries to treat them all the same. I think more effort should be spend on individualizing each student's education path. We have the information technology available now to be able to tailor lessons in each subject to a student's best learning method, and allow them to proceed at their own best pace. Instead we get age and time based standards and act like our kids should be little robots.

I'm really curious as to how much time you've spent in schools to make that statement. Sure, some teachers are better than others, and some stink....but the movement now is DEFINITELY towards tailoring instruction to hit on all the different learning types. It is individualized now more than ever and continues to move in that direction.