Uneducated
Do you send your children to school every day expecting
that they are going to learn something? I’m sure the majority of parents do.
Our children attend school daily barely learning to write their names let alone
in cursive. We always want to base the fact that our children aren’t learning
as they should because of the neighborhoods we live in. I remember as a child I
didn’t live in the best neighborhood in Duval County, but my second grade
teacher was amazing. I now live in a decent neighborhood in Duval County that I
have observed a second grade teacher that really doesn’t seem to care. The
truth is we can have some of the best teachers in the worst neighborhoods.
“Unfortunately,
Duval County is not one of the higher-performing school districts in Florida;
in fact Schooldigger.com ranks Duval County 56th out of 67 Florida counties.
Nevertheless, there are many bright spots. For example, Jacksonville is home to
four of the nation's top 100 high
schools, and is also home to
a number of high-quality elementary schools” (About.com). I live across the
street from Greenland Pines Elementary school, a school that has been rated an
A school. But the teacher that my 8 year old cousin has in the second grade is
a perfect example of a bad teacher in a good neighborhood. My Aunt will normally
take my cousin to school and when doing so has naturally come across several
parents with kids in the same class. She has made it a point to ask them if
their children were having issues with their grades in this teacher’s class,
just to make sure it wasn’t just my cousin cutting up in class and not paying
attention. Four of the other parents that she has spoken with have said that
their child too was struggling, and two out of four of those parents had put
their children in tutoring. If this isn’t a good example then I don’t know what
is.
When I was younger I lived off of 103rd
street, and attended Jacksonville Heights Elementary school. Granted 103rd
street is not considered to be the worst neighborhood in Jacksonville and
clearly not the best. In 2nd grade I attended Jacksonville Heights and I never
once came home with a bad grade. I remember Mrs. Daily as if it was yesterday,
and I remember her because she was one of the best teachers I’ve ever had. She always
spent so much time with her students. If my mother ever needed to be in contact
with my teacher, it was always a simple process to do so. There was never a
question on what homework was due, or what my grades were like, or if I was struggling
and possibly going to fail.
Now a days to get in touch with a teacher, is like
waiting on the president to give you a call back. A really good friend of mine
has a child in 5th grade, and any time she needs to get in contact
with the teacher, it’s never easy. The teacher lets her get bad grade after bad
grade, and waits close to the end of the school year to let her know that her
child is close to failing. If she had only known this earlier in the school
year she could have addressed this issue. Now due to the lack of communication
with the teacher, her child is at risk of failing. This teacher has an address,
home phone, cell phone, work phone, email, and a student to send information
home with but still shows no concern in this student’s education.
Why is this? Why do our children have to take a chance in
whether or not they have a good teacher? There was a quote from the film
Waiting for Superman that really struck me the wrong way. “I get paid whether
you learn or not”. (Waiting for Superman) I couldn’t agree with that statement
more, this is exactly what those bad teachers stand by. And because of the
policy tenure that has been put in place for teachers, teachers are allowed to
feel this way and are basically allowed to put in less effort in teaching our children
and encouraging them to stride for a better future and education. Because at the
end of the day when those bad teachers go home they still have a job.” I
have worked in a state that did not have tenure and one that does. In
both of those states, most of the teachers were hard working and dedicated to
the children. There were no more "poor" teachers in one state
than the other”. (www.education.com)
Works
Cited
"About.com
Education." About.com
Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2013.
"Duval
County Public Schools: Teaching. Learning. Achieving." Duval County Public Schools:
Teaching. Learning. Achieving. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2013.
"Should
Teachers Have Tenure?" Education.com. N.p., n.d. Web.
23 Apr. 2013.
"Waiting for
'Superman'(2010)." Yahoo! Movies. N.p., n.d. Web.
23 Apr. 2013
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