Ask Any Teacher!
Dorsey High School is touted by many, with a certain amount of pride, as one of the larger African American campuses in the unwieldy Los Angeles Unified School District. “Dorsey Pride” is the mantra yelled out at all the football games, and the Dorsey “Dons” are regularly visited by college football scouts for the depth of its football program.
For those of us teachers that remained outside of this sportsman’s Valhalla (99% of us), our lot was one of damage control and toeing the line when it came to grading, testing, and dealing with irate coaches whose superheroes dipped below that fatal 2.0 grade point average.
A star halfback was a student in my Spanish class. He needed a passing grade to remain above that sacred mark of 2.0. His problem? Essentially, he was unfortunate enough to be one of my students. In my naivete, I simply gave grades out according to PERFORMANCE. Sounds logical, right? I knew I had a tiger by the tail when I started getting visits by the football coaches (all 5 of them) during my lunch break.
“Isn’t there any make up work or extra credit he can do?” was the standard query. And they no doubt had in mind the standard results of such pressure.
“Well,” I replied, “he hasn’t been coming to class which is critical for a language class. Hardly turns in any homework, and doesn’t participate during our class discussions. I’ve asked him to seek tutoring, and even volunteered to help, but my requests have been ignored. With all that we are working on, the last thing he needs to do is EXTRA WORK.”
The situation festered, worsened, and the pressure was ratcheted up each passing week. The coaches begged him to get help, seek tutoring, accept the offers from the teacher for mentoring–nothing doing. This was a student that put more faith in his cozy relationship with his girlfriend than in sucking up and getting down to work.
A letter writing campaign ensued, with community “activists” coming out of the woodwork, with hysterical claims that I didn’t understand the “culture” of the African American students, and was “insensitive” to their “humanity.” One malevolent letter sought to shift the blame on moi, pointing out the failure of the student being caused by my teaching him “Hebrew” instead of Spanish! Protocols of the Elders of Zion, LA in-the-hood style!
What ensued next was for me a radical departure from teaching practice and ethics, yet I willingly let this student review the final exam, at home, BEFORE THE FINAL WAS TO BE GIVEN. I made it clear to the coaches, activists, principal, press, and “multiculturalists” at Dorsey and without, that since the final was cumulative, a passing grade would be considered a passing grade (“D” grade) in the final class grade. No way, no how, unbelievably, the student failed the exam. He lost his scholarship to USC, and all hell broke out.
I know this gentleman. He spoke in St. Louis and I sat beside him during a couple meals. He is quite a character but…he is mostly right about the schools and classrooms. Some teachers (fewer every retirement year) can maintain control AND provide worthwhile instruction at the same time. Control of the halls has been a losing battle for many years.
Problem is…too many kids have children for parents, and so the parents also are tatooed, punctured, and completely rude.~ Linda Schrock-Taylor
If you’re wondering about Obamacare, if you’re scratching your head about the hell-bent march toward Marxism that this country is on, look no further than our schools and the pathetic excuse for what passes for “education.”
WE ARE FRIGGIN BABYSITTERS! There is nobody to tell the students that they need to turn off their i-tunes, CD’s, stop smoking pot or doing drugs, stop gang-banging, stop throwing things at the teacher and fellow students, stop bullying, hitting, intimidating, swearing…in short, we have lost control of our classrooms and schools.
Now, the educrats and the unions don’t want to let you know what’s going on in the classroom. But the reality is that we’re setting up our millions of students for a Marxist take-over of our land. THERE IS SIMPLY NO INITIATIVE, DRIVING IMPULSE TO EXCEL. We’ve defaulted to a “group” mentality, where every student is treated equally. Nobody can fail, it’s “I’m OK, you’re OK”, and then you graduate.
In all areas of our curricula, it is the patriotic American, the achiever, the doer, the one who is superior and stands out–he is the problem. The dumbing down of intellectual endeavor and effort is so pathetic as to nearly guarantee that any babbling demagogue running for office will be acceptable. And if the person is one of color, the assumption is that that candidate is the better one. Our students have lost that sensitive consciousness about the value of national freedom and individual liberties. In short, national survival has been ripped out of their active vocabulary.
“If we had 10 more teachers like Rabbi Shifren, we could turn around America tomorrow.” – Rev Jesse Lee Petersen
Race mongers have infiltrated our schools, seeking to divide us through “multiculturalism”, instead of focusing on building up the INDIVIDUAL, equipping him with the skills needed to be independent. As a result of the myriad attacks against rugged individualism and hard work based on MERIT, the low level of expectations has produced a generation relishing the “hope and change” of a an ideologue who hates America and is striving to destroy it.
As this new reality settles in and becomes more entrenched, our youth will grow to accept that they can do nothing without the help of government. This has been, from day one, the goal of Obama. To cut entrepreneurship and individual performance off at the knees, supplanting it with socialism.
The challenge for America is now twice as difficult as at any time of our history. We have degraded our schools to such a point that any brute displays of rugged individualism and independent thinking is taken as either racist, culturally “insensitive”, or not pursuant to the needs of the “group” (sheep).
A football coach buddy of mine was out sick, and it was decided that I would cover his 4th period soccer class. Out of 60 students, 5 came out of the gym suited and ready to play. I was incredulous and asked what was up with the rest.
“I don’t like sweating”, one kid whimpered.
“It’s too hot,” cried another.
“We just want to chill.” was the pathetic wining of the BIGGEST KID IN THE CLASS.
You want to know where the acceptance of the first openly Marxist president in America’s history has its deep -rooted support?
ASK ANY TEACHER!
The author, Rabbi Nachum Shifren is a Lecturer and Author.
Publisher’s NOTE: The above posting was originally published by The Federal Observer blog March 22, 2010.
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