I teach English in Japan. If you thought that English education in Japan was lacking, check this story out and weep quietly to yourselves. Yes, it’s true. English education in America has reached a new level of shameful.
Let’s play a game. …

UTLA, which is the school district for L.A. had newsletters that talked about the serious deficiency the system, forgetting the rest of the state, will have around 2008 with a large amount of the school system’s Boomer teachers majorily start their retirement. They were talking about a shortage crisis with available and incoming teachers in 2001 or 2002 when my parents first started thinking about retirement outside of the Peoples Republic of California.

Weebork on September 4, 2007 at 7:27 PM

UTLA is not the district, it is the teacher’s union for LA’s teachers. The district is LAUSD, Los Angeles Unified School District.

Both groups are extremely political and powerful. The district and teacher’s unions both operate from the liberal playbook on social issues. However they have often found themselves in opposition to each other, usually around contract time.

Mayor Villaraigosa’s plan to take over the school district caused great consternation and political infighting between the two.

Many people here are harping on teachers. I won’t. Many teachers make great sacrifices to teach their students. Also, in California you must have at least a BA to teach or even sub.

My mother taught for many years in LAUSD and she was constantly spending her own money and working outside of the classroom, on behalf of her students. She had two Masters degrees and never stopped learning.

She did not speak Ebonics. Nor would she tolerate its use. She was often at odds with the administration because of her high demands. There were and still are many competent, dedicated teachers in LAUSD.

LAUSD will continue to fail as long as local politicians treat Los Angeles like an municipal extension of Tijuana. We have normalized spanglish, gang culture and political activism among kids in our most challenged neighborhoods. We have marginalized standards, American culture and values.

Remember, LA is the social harbinger for the rest of the nation.

My friend’s mother is a teacher in Houston.

She teaches one of the district’s non-English speaking elementary school classes.

Her class is a mix of kids from all over the world (Indonesia, Vietnam, Romania, Thailand, etc). The only kids she doesn’t get are the Spanish speaking kids (there are enough of them that they are combined into one class and taught by a different teacher).

Her class is taught entirely in English and, the largest group of kids she’s ever had that spoke the same language were 3 siblings from Indonesia one year that spoke Bahasa (?).

By the end of the first semester (so, Christmas break), the kids in her class can all have short conversations with her in English. By the end of the first year, almost all of them are ready to mainstream into English speaking classrooms. The longest she’s ever had a child in her class was 3 years for an extremely slow learner that had learning disabilities.

In contrast, the kids in the Spanish class are taught in Spanish by a teacher that is natively fluent in Spanish. Most of them haven’t mainstreamed to English classes by the time they leave the elementary school (6th grade).

The best part is that the teacher that teaches in Spanish is paid $4000 more each year because she’s a bi-lingual teacher.

The whole system is broken.

JadeNYU on September 4, 2007 at 5:12 PM

JadeNYU,

This is known as HISD’s Bilingual Program. As a former English Teacher in HISD years ago, I remember when this was introduced.

After claiming 50+ languages were spoken in Houston daily, the Bilingual Program was identified as one solely for Spanish-speakers. 1 1/2 hours each day was to be taught in English.

But wait! Before you ask why only 1 language was singled out or why only 1 1/2 hours a day in English, it gets better: They could find nobody in Houston (either willing or able) to teach in English and Spanish.

So where did they go for teachers? Why, Mexico City of course!

How many of these “teachers” could speak English? None. (NONE!)

It just ensured ESL students would outpace their Spanish-speaking counterparts, and that Spanish speakers would remain part of the permanent underclass. Exactly what the Left wants.

Your happiness with your local school underscores the problem; when parents are concerned and involved, schools generally do well, when the parents aren’t…

oldleprechaun on September 5, 2007 at 7:56 AM

Unless of course the teachers and administrators don’t give a rats bottom what the parents think. I have found that to be the case in my area.(Semi-rural, upstate NY)

THEY have an agenda and teaching our children to read and write is NOT the primary objective any more.

My neighbor’s son is a nurse with the ANG and he was sent to Kuwait a few times during the beginning of the war. My son (9 at the time) sent him a few care packages while he was there. The nurse e-mailed my son to say thank you and he offered to come to the school(THE SAME SCHOOL HE ATTENDED AS A CHILD)and talk about what he did in Kuwait. He worked in a hospital taking care of wounded soldiers, ours and theirs alike.

My wife mentioned this to my son’s teacher and you would not believe the letter we got from the school. Aside from the fact that the teacher has no composition skills, she also showed her TRUE feelings about the Iraq war. She said in the letter that, “We do not feel that speaking about the war is appropriate in the school environment as it is very controversial.” WELL WHAT WAR WASN’T?!?!?!?!??!?! HOW ABOUT THAT LITTLE THING CALLED “THE CIVIL WAR”?!?!?! Guess that is off limits too? I asked the stupid bi#@% about that and she just stood there and blinked.

Best part of the letter was this, “The school district feels that parents have the right to discuss the war at home.”

I asked her AND the principle what would happen if the school district felt the we DID NOT have the right to discuss the war at home. They had no answer.

The school system in America is MUCH worse than most people think.

I’m quite happy with the state of the public school.

If memory serves, when president Peanuts & Love gave the teacher’s unions the Department of Education in exchange for their support, a major function of the DoEd was to “standardize” schools throughout the nation.

Your happiness with your local school underscores the problem; when parents are concerned and involved, schools generally do well, when the parents aren’t…

It’s sad when a teacher doesn’t even know how to spell ‘aks’ :(.

rockhauler on September 4, 2007 at 8:19 PM

As I described about the distance learning my wife was involved in teaching it worked kind of as follows:
1. Teacher broadcast lesson to x number of classrooms in several states.
2. Native Japanese speakers conducted telecons with the classrooms for interactive practice and questions about 2-3 hours per week. Class sizes were around 10-15 since it was a language class. My wife had six classes in six states and spent about 30 hours a week working with them “live”.
3. The way it is taught is each classroom still consists of the normal number of students (25-40 depending on school size).
4. The assistants would need to get specialized training I agree.

I don’t claim it is the perfect solution but part of a comprehensive strategy to address public education.

If the US really wanted to improve its educational approach and I was king for a day I’d make the DOE quit producing nothing as they are now and establish a centralized curriculum that all states had to follow. That is how they do it in Japan and it works very well — some criticisms to be sure but they have a 95% literacy rate with a language that requires them to know 1200 characters in order to graduate high school. They have to pass a test to get into high school as well as college.

Jaibones on September 4, 2007 at 9:34 PM

30K is applicable to the larger cities where it is more expensive. The rural areas are paying 20-25K on average. Texas pays in the mid to high 30’s so guess where most of the talent goes and what we are left with.

I’m certainly not a proponent of throwing more money at student education. That’s why I think a new approach needs to be applied. I’d be rich if I had a workable plan.

skpman15 on September 4, 2007 at 10:54 PM

.
I would like your honest opinion, if you can write it publicly. :-)
As an educator, do you agree with my assessment of no child left behind?
look just above at -shooter on September 4, 2007 at 9:52 PM

My sons grades have plummeted in high school after doing pretty well in his previous years. He did well in math but in 9th grade he got behind in algebra, then tanked. ( he doesn’t live near me and I found out months into the problem….which we’re still working on).
His teachers, vice principal, principal , counselor all told me he progresses thru to the next grade level regardless of his grade scores…until he’s a senior. Then he, and scores of other students, will have to repeat their senior year until they pass, or drop out.

My father was a high school english teacher at Jefferson High School. You may have heard about that school, there was a riot there a year or two ago, thankfully my father was off track then. We have year-round schools in SoCal.

Weebork on September 4, 2007 at 7:17 PM

I’ve more than heard about “Jeff”–I live in its district. (No children, however.) My grandmother and great-aunt graduated from Jeff back in the forties.

I graduated from LAHS, however, and was wondering whether I knew one of your parents. God bless them for hanging in as long as they did.

“Me fail English? That unpossible.”

EACH STUDENT PROCEEDS TO THE NEXT GRADE LEVEL, EVERY YEAR, REGARDLESS OF THEIR GRADES/SCORES. IF THEY HAVE TO STAY IN 12TH GRADE AS SENIORS FOR MANY YEARS, SO BE IT.
.
I’VE BEEN COMPLAINING ABOUT THIS ABSOLUTE DISASTER FOR TWO YEARS NOW. IT’S REAL, AND IT’S RUINING OUR CHILDREN AND THEIR FUTURE AS WELL AS OURS.
.
we aint got no good enouf teachers weak to weak, month to moth in are scholls, lemme tell ya.
.

A teacher in louisiana makes roughly 30K per year.

Bradky on September 4, 2007 at 7:55 PM

Life’s cheaper in rural Louisiana, Bradky.

The average cost to teach a child in elementary school is $10,000 per year — and that’s without any capital expenditure. Give me the building and long term equipment, and then $300,000 per year to teach 30 fourth-graders, and I can do it better than we are now. Betcha.

The highest cost per pupil of any district in the country is Washington, D.C.; let’s get a quick show of hands for all those who believe that the students coming out of the District demonstrate the value of additional education funds.

Here in south suburban Chicago, we have two gym teachers from my high school days still on the payroll: they are making over $150,000 per year. To teach gym class. And coach a sport or two. They will receive 80% of that per year upon retirement … for the rest of their lives … without Social Security withholding for taxes.

That’s the Senate Retirement Plan.

Who thinks we can afford that?

A teacher in louisiana makes roughly 30K per year.

Ouch.

Fortunately mine are grown and until they have kids of their own I can take a breath. You make some good points. In rural states like Louisiana it is increasingly difficult to get teachers to settle in small towns.

Sometimes I think of retiring early and then going off to some other state and doing just that…teach for a few years more in one of those small rural towns. I’ve read that those small schools don’t usually attract teachers who are, ummm, as over edumacated as I am, and it might be nice to work somewhere like that. The pay would suck compared to what I make now, but if I had the retirement pay from CA it might work. And the cost of living would likely be a lot less than it is here.

Thinking about it.

Allah’s busy with 699 comment posts with atheists expounding on how much they hate Christians, and Christians expounding on how evil the other Christians are, etc.

But here is my reddest meat: tax money down a shithole, a brainwashing operation staffed 95% by lefties, with our children as guinea pigs, an bloated and growing Federal bureaucracy in support of a local and state-funded operation, a continuing experiment in multi-culti bullshit…

This is the shangri la of political scams.

Bradky on September 4, 2007 at 7:55 PM

I remain open to the idea, but skeptical. As you describe it with a local ‘teachers aide’, the distance learning lecture is still a supplement to the local classroom.

In a technical subject, the local teaching assistant would have to be competent in the subject in order to respond the the student questions, since it is impractical to expect the distant lecturer to respond to all the demands for attention from the large class, and it is that interaction between student and instructor where learning takes place.

I’m sure you would agree, that in learning your technical field, it was important that your individual questions were addressed by your instructors, in a way that made sense to you.

How does your suggested distance learning scenario differ from something like “The History Channel”, or “Discovery Channel”, or taped lectures?

It was my experience that in the auditorium, we students sat and listened while the lecture told us what was in the textbook. I could read the textbook, but when I didn’t understand it, listening to the lecture repeat the material didn’t help. Plus, it was easy, as just one of many hundreds of students, to just sit back and do nothing.

In my opinion, where the education establishment has gone wrong is concentrating oh ‘how to teach’ rather than being competent in a subject. In other words, if a teacher knows the litany, the Kant, of the eduction establishment they don’t have to know the subject they are teaching. Thus, you get an English teacher who ‘knows how to teach’, has all the proper credentials, but can’t speak English.

rockhauler on September 4, 2007 at 7:46 PM

I could be wrong. But I think in rural areas particularly eliminating full time teachers and replacing many of them with class assistants you would have many of the parents taking on those jobs because they could participate in their children’s education and work a schedule compatible with that of the kids.

A teacher in louisiana makes roughly 30K per year. If you hire teacher aides at 7-8 bucks an hour, pay them for time only, their salary would be around 12K a year. for the sake of argument let’s say a school with 50 teachers could cut back on 10 teachers by using distance learning the school has a net savings of 180K and still has adult presence in the classroom. Since it is distance learning the class size would still be 25-30 students in a class, but would be broadcast to multiple classrooms.

I’m always open to ideas but haven’t seen that many alternatives explained in detail.

If you are one of the lucky few who can do it (stay home to raise kids), the more power to you!

Bradky on September 4, 2007 at 7:25 PM

I have to politely disagree. The distance learning thing might be a useful supplement, but it is the teacher/student ratio that makes it a poor choice.

The reason why home schooling works so well is because it is one on one education, plus there is the strong re-enforcement you get from your parents. In effect, with home schooling, the student has a private tutor.

Perhaps my opinion is distorted because I did so poorly in a couple of university classes where the ‘classroom’ was an auditorium, and most if not all of the other students were both smarter, and better prepared.

We’ll just have to put up with more stuff like the topic of the thread in the mean time.

By the way, I’m from AZ and it troubles me to see they’re affected by the same plague that CA has had for much longer and is more widespread.

Weebork on September 4, 2007 at 7:30 PM

Thanks for the reply. I’m in the IT field and know all too well the risk of counting on technology to solve everything. By itself it is not a solution but in conjunction with other reforms I think it has some value. My wife taught Japanese to rural schools through a combination of video telecast and telephone conferences with the classroom for a couple of hours a week for the live interaction. It wasn’t perfect but without it the schools couldn’t afford language teachers on the county school budget.

It sucks when you think about all of the people in previous generations who worked so hard and sacrificed so much for this United States of America only to watch this generation just piss it away. It only took a little over 200 years to complete the whole rise and fall cycle. That has to be some kind of record.

LakeRuins on September 4, 2007 at 3:46 PM

Yeah.