Classroom

This AM I watched Marc Morial, the head of the Urban league talk about the problems of inner city schools and he mentioned three areas of concern. He wanted higher standards, parental involvement and more financial help. He was strongly opposed to vouchers. This is pretty much what the liberal governments in the big cities have used in the past and most everyone is dissatisfied with the results. It is easier to get higher standards and more money than it is to get parental involvement and that is also what has happened in the past. Once again politics is covering up what is the most important problem and that is parental involvement. To compensate for this teachers have been asked to become parents and the 3 R’s have suffered. When students do not learn respect for authority in the home they cause disturbances in the classroom. When teachers call for help they often wait for ten minutes for someone to respond and then they are given the impression that they cannot control their classroom. When help does arrive the student is taken out of the room for a few minutes and then returned with no apparent change in behavior. The person who took them out of the room leaves quickly and does not come back to follow up. Sometimes instead of sending a disciplinarian like the assistant principal then send in a social worker who tries to reason with the person and this turns into further confrontations. As most teachers can tell you it only takes one student to disrupt the classroom.