Teacher Finally Apologizes: “Achievement Gap My Fault”

[proud2BlibKansan]

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For nine years I have held the sacred trust of the Great State of Indiana, the good people of Marion County, and the below-average children and parents of the Andrew J. Brown Academy Middle School. I have let you all down. And I am sorry.

As you may know, scores fell at our school last year. I believe this is a direct result of my ineffectiveness as an educator. I am a bad teacher and a bad man. What sort of person would teach for nine years and see test scores drop on his watch in this way? We are all connected. What happens here affects everyone, everywhere.

Some people would have you believe that the achievement gap is the result of shitty parenting, poverty, and toxic neighborhoods. I am here to tell you that these people are pussies and they don’t believe in children. I have allowed them to corrupt me. The intergalactic achievement gap is my fault and mine alone.

As evidence of my treachery I submit the following:

I don’t call parents that much. Forgive me…but they are not all that helpful.
I have been late turning in weekly lesson plans.
Sometimes I think of the warm-up activity just as the students are coming into class, or slightly after.
I have not provided kinesthetic learners with enough opportunities to demonstrate mastery of content through clapping and jumping.
I have not fully differentiated for every possible learning style and ability level.
My expectations have not been high enough.
Don’t even get me started on my lack of rigor.
I have not given more difficult work to my students who can’t do the easy shit.
I have not taken the proper time and care to ensure that there exists some parallel universe in which whatever this one psycho girl writes meets the standards of the assignment and she graduates.

more . . . http://teachbad.com/2010/10/07/teacher-finally-apologizes-achievement-gap-my-fault/

[FBaggins]

1. Good to see someone finally stepping up and taking responsibility.

Tar and feather?

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Well first he must be fired

Then perhaps a little recreational tar and feathering.

[damntexdem]

6. Yeah, now that we finally know who's responsible, T & F is too good for him or her.

First of all, remove this teacher from the classroom so that education nationwide will be wonderful.

Then figure out how this one teacher in Indiana was able to subvert education nationwide.

Finally, since we will have fixed the problem, we can safely cut education budgets everywhere, because so much was being spent to overcome the deleterious effects of this one bad teacher.

;-)

[elleng]

3. May be sarcastic, but these are real, and not funny:

the below-average children and parents

not provided kinesthetic learners with enough opportunities to demonstrate mastery;
have not fully differentiated for every possible learning style and ability level;
expectations have not been high enough.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. All impossible goals

It would be prohibitively expensive to test all of the students to find out who is truly kinesthetic. The best we can do is guess and hope we're right. Plus if we provide instruction for the minority of kinesthetic learners, the visual learners will be deprived of what works best for them.

Same for differentiated instruction. A lofty goal but impossible for one teacher in one class to differentiate for every possible learning style and ability level.

Expectations begin at home. Teachers can't fix that.

[FBaggins]

7. Not just impossible, but counter-productive.

The pre-college years (or certainly the pre-HS years) are not just so that students learn particular content areas... but so that they learn how to learn. Now more than ever before, a high percentage of careers involve the need for ongoing learning.

The simple fact of the matter is that the "real world" does not always provide each learning style an equal opportunity to acquire new knowledge. The hypothetical "kinesthetic learner" also needs to learn how to get along in a world where that learning style is not catered to.

Having said all that, much of what was formerly assumed about learning styles is overstated. We all learn best when information is presented to us in a variety of ways. It is useful for the 1st grade math student to see problems worked out on the board and have manipulatives and talk through the problem verbally, etc.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. Very true

and stated better than I did.

[elleng]

10. Young 'kinesthetic' learners will learn that they CAN learn

if their early teachers encourage them to do so in their individual manners, from which they will move on to the real world.

NOTHING AT ALL counter-productive about this; in fact, FAILING to do so is counter productive and devastating to society as a whole, for it leaves MILLIONS out, never having felt success.

[FBaggins]

11. Sorry... you may have misunderstood.

(or perhaps I was less than clear).

The notion that there are some people who just "learn best" in a particular style was always oversimplified (at best). It really wasn't quite true (as with our exaggerated differentiation between "peda" and "andra").

The supposed "kinesthetic" learner will still learn better when presented with tactile stimulation AND visual AND auditory... and so will the supposed "visual" learner. Our goals as curriculum designers should always have been to incorporate multiple modes, not because some people learn better one way and others learn better in a different way... but because we all learn better with a blended approach.

[elleng]

12. Thanks. VERY IMPORTANT to recognize all,

and asssure teachers have the necessary facilities to do so, LARGELY including time and space.

[elleng]

9. Of course, difficult, but 'testing' not necessary, small enough classes are,

so teachers can observe and tailor approach to each student.

No need to 'deprive' re: visual and kinesthetic. W enough time/small enough classes, teachers can do what's appropriate for each learning stye in same class.

HUGE/main problem is lack of funding for education: should be our #1 priority.

[rurallib]

4. Look for FUX to use this

[adnelson60087]

13. This made me laugh out loud. I needed this so much. Thanks for sharing.

[jody]

14. "If the brains and the will to learn are absent, no amount of spending on schools, teacher salaries,

educational consultants or new texts will matter."

See http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=219x30730