New Jackson-Reed HS (Wilson HS) School Principal - Sah Brown from Eastern High School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its true, parents are too busy with hustle of dual careers and house chores/social life/internet. They want schools to babysit and raise their kids. Unless schools are set up for all that, tgeir will be issues to deal with.

As a parent, I don’t want this. I want schools to be successful at their fundamental purpose of education. I want policy makers to stop over-burdening schools.

As a teacher, I really appreciate this sentiment. The past year on this forum have shown me too many times, however, then when teachers ask for things, they are called greedy, selfish, lazy, etc...

If you look on the local politics board right now, there are multiple threads of people who didn't vote for R. White because of his relationship with WTU. Who do you think is making the policies that overburden the schools? Right now that is Mayor Muriel Bowser and her all encompassing control of schools.

We get that the once in a lifetime (hopefully pandemic) wasn't ideal. We get that the WTU upset people with their actions. If people don't move on from it and keep disqualifying politicians because they support teachers, it is only going to get worse.

R. White just seemed to running to say "I ran." He had no plan at all which is just sad. His every answer seemed to be "We'll study it." He sits on the Council and has no answer. I'm no Bowser fan but White was beyond disappointing. If he had a plan for DCPS, he may have won.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its true, parents are too busy with hustle of dual careers and house chores/social life/internet. They want schools to babysit and raise their kids. Unless schools are set up for all that, tgeir will be issues to deal with.

As a parent, I don’t want this. I want schools to be successful at their fundamental purpose of education. I want policy makers to stop over-burdening schools.

DP. I’m not sure where this notion of “overburdening schools” comes from. Nobody is giving teachers extra hours and making them take kids to the doctor or make their lunches. What exactly do you mean by it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its true, parents are too busy with hustle of dual careers and house chores/social life/internet. They want schools to babysit and raise their kids. Unless schools are set up for all that, tgeir will be issues to deal with.

As a parent, I don’t want this. I want schools to be successful at their fundamental purpose of education. I want policy makers to stop over-burdening schools.

As a teacher, I really appreciate this sentiment. The past year on this forum have shown me too many times, however, then when teachers ask for things, they are called greedy, selfish, lazy, etc...

If you look on the local politics board right now, there are multiple threads of people who didn't vote for R. White because of his relationship with WTU. Who do you think is making the policies that overburden the schools? Right now that is Mayor Muriel Bowser and her all encompassing control of schools.

We get that the once in a lifetime (hopefully pandemic) wasn't ideal. We get that the WTU upset people with their actions. If people don't move on from it and keep disqualifying politicians because they support teachers, it is only going to get worse.

Actions have consequences, as they say. It’s a really bizarre political philosophy to think that parents who were angered by school closures should vote for the candidate who is … in favor of continued closures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its true, parents are too busy with hustle of dual careers and house chores/social life/internet. They want schools to babysit and raise their kids. Unless schools are set up for all that, tgeir will be issues to deal with.

As a parent, I don’t want this. I want schools to be successful at their fundamental purpose of education. I want policy makers to stop over-burdening schools.

DP. I’m not sure where this notion of “overburdening schools” comes from. Nobody is giving teachers extra hours and making them take kids to the doctor or make their lunches. What exactly do you mean by it?

Most teachers work a lot of extra hours. Especially teachers who have taught for less than 10 years.
Good teachers who have less than 5 years experience are generally working 60 hours or more.
Some of the students who are mainstreamed have high special ed. needs or have been exposed to high levels of trauma. Teachers are not equipped to handle that level of student distress. Some of these kids continually disrupt the classroom and teachers are left mostly on their own trying to figure out how to help them and keep learning progressing for all the other kids. ELL students also present huge challenges. I have had students added to my class mid year who barely speak a word of English and who have just arrived in the US and have trauma associated with leaving their home country and crossing the border possibly illegally and dangerously. There is more but this gives you a snapshot of some of the issues schools and teachers are dealing with

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its true, parents are too busy with hustle of dual careers and house chores/social life/internet. They want schools to babysit and raise their kids. Unless schools are set up for all that, tgeir will be issues to deal with.

As a parent, I don’t want this. I want schools to be successful at their fundamental purpose of education. I want policy makers to stop over-burdening schools.

DP. I’m not sure where this notion of “overburdening schools” comes from. Nobody is giving teachers extra hours and making them take kids to the doctor or make their lunches. What exactly do you mean by it?

Most teachers work a lot of extra hours. Especially teachers who have taught for less than 10 years.
Good teachers who have less than 5 years experience are generally working 60 hours or more.
Some of the students who are mainstreamed have high special ed. needs or have been exposed to high levels of trauma. Teachers are not equipped to handle that level of student distress. Some of these kids continually disrupt the classroom and teachers are left mostly on their own trying to figure out how to help them and keep learning progressing for all the other kids. ELL students also present huge challenges. I have had students added to my class mid year who barely speak a word of English and who have just arrived in the US and have trauma associated with leaving their home country and crossing the border possibly illegally and dangerously. There is more but this gives you a snapshot of some of the issues schools and teachers are dealing with

so “overburdening” means expecting teachers to teach SN and ELL kids. Ok then!

I’m all for giving teachers more hours to plan and better behavioral support resources. But your “overburdening” argument seems more like you’re saying “those kids” should not be in school with yours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its true, parents are too busy with hustle of dual careers and house chores/social life/internet. They want schools to babysit and raise their kids. Unless schools are set up for all that, tgeir will be issues to deal with.

As a parent, I don’t want this. I want schools to be successful at their fundamental purpose of education. I want policy makers to stop over-burdening schools.

DP. I’m not sure where this notion of “overburdening schools” comes from. Nobody is giving teachers extra hours and making them take kids to the doctor or make their lunches. What exactly do you mean by it?

Most teachers work a lot of extra hours. Especially teachers who have taught for less than 10 years.
Good teachers who have less than 5 years experience are generally working 60 hours or more.
Some of the students who are mainstreamed have high special ed. needs or have been exposed to high levels of trauma. Teachers are not equipped to handle that level of student distress. Some of these kids continually disrupt the classroom and teachers are left mostly on their own trying to figure out how to help them and keep learning progressing for all the other kids. ELL students also present huge challenges. I have had students added to my class mid year who barely speak a word of English and who have just arrived in the US and have trauma associated with leaving their home country and crossing the border possibly illegally and dangerously. There is more but this gives you a snapshot of some of the issues schools and teachers are dealing with

so “overburdening” means expecting teachers to teach SN and ELL kids. Ok then!

I’m all for giving teachers more hours to plan and better behavioral support resources. But your “overburdening” argument seems more like you’re saying “those kids” should not be in school with yours.

DP but the reason we are overburdened is because we don't have those things. Please don't be so snarky

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its true, parents are too busy with hustle of dual careers and house chores/social life/internet. They want schools to babysit and raise their kids. Unless schools are set up for all that, tgeir will be issues to deal with.

As a parent, I don’t want this. I want schools to be successful at their fundamental purpose of education. I want policy makers to stop over-burdening schools.

As a teacher, I really appreciate this sentiment. The past year on this forum have shown me too many times, however, then when teachers ask for things, they are called greedy, selfish, lazy, etc...

If you look on the local politics board right now, there are multiple threads of people who didn't vote for R. White because of his relationship with WTU. Who do you think is making the policies that overburden the schools? Right now that is Mayor Muriel Bowser and her all encompassing control of schools.

We get that the once in a lifetime (hopefully pandemic) wasn't ideal. We get that the WTU upset people with their actions. If people don't move on from it and keep disqualifying politicians because they support teachers, it is only going to get worse.

Actions have consequences, as they say. It’s a really bizarre political philosophy to think that parents who were angered by school closures should vote for the candidate who is … in favor of continued closures.

You can keep defending your stance. It's not making teachers any less burnt out and ready to leave. It's not stopping buildings from deteriorating. It's not stopping your tax dollars from going directly to a bloated central office where ppl make 6 figures to edit ppt decks and not answer phones from their couches.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its true, parents are too busy with hustle of dual careers and house chores/social life/internet. They want schools to babysit and raise their kids. Unless schools are set up for all that, tgeir will be issues to deal with.

As a parent, I don’t want this. I want schools to be successful at their fundamental purpose of education. I want policy makers to stop over-burdening schools.

DP. I’m not sure where this notion of “overburdening schools” comes from. Nobody is giving teachers extra hours and making them take kids to the doctor or make their lunches. What exactly do you mean by it?

Most teachers work a lot of extra hours. Especially teachers who have taught for less than 10 years.
Good teachers who have less than 5 years experience are generally working 60 hours or more.
Some of the students who are mainstreamed have high special ed. needs or have been exposed to high levels of trauma. Teachers are not equipped to handle that level of student distress. Some of these kids continually disrupt the classroom and teachers are left mostly on their own trying to figure out how to help them and keep learning progressing for all the other kids. ELL students also present huge challenges. I have had students added to my class mid year who barely speak a word of English and who have just arrived in the US and have trauma associated with leaving their home country and crossing the border possibly illegally and dangerously. There is more but this gives you a snapshot of some of the issues schools and teachers are dealing with

so “overburdening” means expecting teachers to teach SN and ELL kids. Ok then!

I’m all for giving teachers more hours to plan and better behavioral support resources. But your “overburdening” argument seems more like you’re saying “those kids” should not be in school with yours.

DP but the reason we are overburdened is because we don't have those things. Please don't be so snarky

To be clear - I have no doubt that teacher's feel overburdened, particularly since DCPS does not seem to provide ANY prep time to deal with IEPs etc. Like every time we have an IEP meeting, several team members can't make it. Not legal but I know it's DCPS's fault so I don't push it.

My specific question was about the commonly heard complaint that "schools are expected to do everything for kids these days and be social services agencies. that's impossible, they should focus on teaching." So I'm wondering what people mean when they say that. What I think they mean is that kids should be suspended/expelled etc instead of schools trying to address behavioral issues (whether they come from trauma or a SN).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its true, parents are too busy with hustle of dual careers and house chores/social life/internet. They want schools to babysit and raise their kids. Unless schools are set up for all that, tgeir will be issues to deal with.

As a parent, I don’t want this. I want schools to be successful at their fundamental purpose of education. I want policy makers to stop over-burdening schools.

As a teacher, I really appreciate this sentiment. The past year on this forum have shown me too many times, however, then when teachers ask for things, they are called greedy, selfish, lazy, etc...

If you look on the local politics board right now, there are multiple threads of people who didn't vote for R. White because of his relationship with WTU. Who do you think is making the policies that overburden the schools? Right now that is Mayor Muriel Bowser and her all encompassing control of schools.

We get that the once in a lifetime (hopefully pandemic) wasn't ideal. We get that the WTU upset people with their actions. If people don't move on from it and keep disqualifying politicians because they support teachers, it is only going to get worse.

Actions have consequences, as they say. It’s a really bizarre political philosophy to think that parents who were angered by school closures should vote for the candidate who is … in favor of continued closures.

You can keep defending your stance. It's not making teachers any less burnt out and ready to leave. It's not stopping buildings from deteriorating. It's not stopping your tax dollars from going directly to a bloated central office where ppl make 6 figures to edit ppt decks and not answer phones from their couches.

No matter how many times you repeat "bloated central office," you're not going to make anyone who cares forget about school closures. If you wanted unconditional support from parents for WTU (which I think you fairly would have had pre-covid) you should not have closed schools and made a big deal about how WTU is there to defend teachers interests only.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its true, parents are too busy with hustle of dual careers and house chores/social life/internet. They want schools to babysit and raise their kids. Unless schools are set up for all that, tgeir will be issues to deal with.

As a parent, I don’t want this. I want schools to be successful at their fundamental purpose of education. I want policy makers to stop over-burdening schools.

DP. I’m not sure where this notion of “overburdening schools” comes from. Nobody is giving teachers extra hours and making them take kids to the doctor or make their lunches. What exactly do you mean by it?

Most teachers work a lot of extra hours. Especially teachers who have taught for less than 10 years.
Good teachers who have less than 5 years experience are generally working 60 hours or more.
Some of the students who are mainstreamed have high special ed. needs or have been exposed to high levels of trauma. Teachers are not equipped to handle that level of student distress. Some of these kids continually disrupt the classroom and teachers are left mostly on their own trying to figure out how to help them and keep learning progressing for all the other kids. ELL students also present huge challenges. I have had students added to my class mid year who barely speak a word of English and who have just arrived in the US and have trauma associated with leaving their home country and crossing the border possibly illegally and dangerously. There is more but this gives you a snapshot of some of the issues schools and teachers are dealing with

so “overburdening” means expecting teachers to teach SN and ELL kids. Ok then!

I’m all for giving teachers more hours to plan and better behavioral support resources. But your “overburdening” argument seems more like you’re saying “those kids” should not be in school with yours.

DP but the reason we are overburdened is because we don't have those things. Please don't be so snarky

To be clear - I have no doubt that teacher's feel overburdened, particularly since DCPS does not seem to provide ANY prep time to deal with IEPs etc. Like every time we have an IEP meeting, several team members can't make it. Not legal but I know it's DCPS's fault so I don't push it.

My specific question was about the commonly heard complaint that "schools are expected to do everything for kids these days and be social services agencies. that's impossible, they should focus on teaching." So I'm wondering what people mean when they say that. What I think they mean is that kids should be suspended/expelled etc instead of schools trying to address behavioral issues (whether they come from trauma or a SN).

dp: Behavioral issues that disrupt the class are unfairly left to the teacher to deal with and the rest of the students to bear. Rather than suspension or expulsion, why can’t these kids go to *all day* to a tiny class within the school equipped with teacher + social worker combo that intensively addresses their needs, whether for a brief time or an extended time? I know that gets labeled as “tracking” and is not pc these days. But it is crazy that we have classes where 90% of students time and patience is wasted by 1 or 2 kids. What we are doing is not working, but we keep doubling down and pretending all the other students “will be fine.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its true, parents are too busy with hustle of dual careers and house chores/social life/internet. They want schools to babysit and raise their kids. Unless schools are set up for all that, tgeir will be issues to deal with.

As a parent, I don’t want this. I want schools to be successful at their fundamental purpose of education. I want policy makers to stop over-burdening schools.

DP. I’m not sure where this notion of “overburdening schools” comes from. Nobody is giving teachers extra hours and making them take kids to the doctor or make their lunches. What exactly do you mean by it?

Most teachers work a lot of extra hours. Especially teachers who have taught for less than 10 years.
Good teachers who have less than 5 years experience are generally working 60 hours or more.
Some of the students who are mainstreamed have high special ed. needs or have been exposed to high levels of trauma. Teachers are not equipped to handle that level of student distress. Some of these kids continually disrupt the classroom and teachers are left mostly on their own trying to figure out how to help them and keep learning progressing for all the other kids. ELL students also present huge challenges. I have had students added to my class mid year who barely speak a word of English and who have just arrived in the US and have trauma associated with leaving their home country and crossing the border possibly illegally and dangerously. There is more but this gives you a snapshot of some of the issues schools and teachers are dealing with

so “overburdening” means expecting teachers to teach SN and ELL kids. Ok then!

I’m all for giving teachers more hours to plan and better behavioral support resources. But your “overburdening” argument seems more like you’re saying “those kids” should not be in school with yours.

DP but the reason we are overburdened is because we don't have those things. Please don't be so snarky

To be clear - I have no doubt that teacher's feel overburdened, particularly since DCPS does not seem to provide ANY prep time to deal with IEPs etc. Like every time we have an IEP meeting, several team members can't make it. Not legal but I know it's DCPS's fault so I don't push it.

My specific question was about the commonly heard complaint that "schools are expected to do everything for kids these days and be social services agencies. that's impossible, they should focus on teaching." So I'm wondering what people mean when they say that. What I think they mean is that kids should be suspended/expelled etc instead of schools trying to address behavioral issues (whether they come from trauma or a SN).

dp: Behavioral issues that disrupt the class are unfairly left to the teacher to deal with and the rest of the students to bear. Rather than suspension or expulsion, why can’t these kids go to *all day* to a tiny class within the school equipped with teacher + social worker combo that intensively addresses their needs, whether for a brief time or an extended time? I know that gets labeled as “tracking” and is not pc these days. But it is crazy that we have classes where 90% of students time and patience is wasted by 1 or 2 kids. What we are doing is not working, but we keep doubling down and pretending all the other students “will be fine.”

^^ the time and patience of 90% of the students, not 90% of their time

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its true, parents are too busy with hustle of dual careers and house chores/social life/internet. They want schools to babysit and raise their kids. Unless schools are set up for all that, tgeir will be issues to deal with.

As a parent, I don’t want this. I want schools to be successful at their fundamental purpose of education. I want policy makers to stop over-burdening schools.

As a teacher, I really appreciate this sentiment. The past year on this forum have shown me too many times, however, then when teachers ask for things, they are called greedy, selfish, lazy, etc...

If you look on the local politics board right now, there are multiple threads of people who didn't vote for R. White because of his relationship with WTU. Who do you think is making the policies that overburden the schools? Right now that is Mayor Muriel Bowser and her all encompassing control of schools.

We get that the once in a lifetime (hopefully pandemic) wasn't ideal. We get that the WTU upset people with their actions. If people don't move on from it and keep disqualifying politicians because they support teachers, it is only going to get worse.

Actions have consequences, as they say. It’s a really bizarre political philosophy to think that parents who were angered by school closures should vote for the candidate who is … in favor of continued closures.

You can keep defending your stance. It's not making teachers any less burnt out and ready to leave. It's not stopping buildings from deteriorating. It's not stopping your tax dollars from going directly to a bloated central office where ppl make 6 figures to edit ppt decks and not answer phones from their couches.

No matter how many times you repeat "bloated central office," you're not going to make anyone who cares forget about school closures. If you wanted unconditional support from parents for WTU (which I think you fairly would have had pre-covid) you should not have closed schools and made a big deal about how WTU is there to defend teachers interests only.

So bored of this. WTU didn't close schools, never had the power to. We still don't even have a contract and the DCUM mob continues to think we closed schools. I literally just copied and pasted onto my notes app so I don't to keep responding to the same tired lie

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its true, parents are too busy with hustle of dual careers and house chores/social life/internet. They want schools to babysit and raise their kids. Unless schools are set up for all that, tgeir will be issues to deal with.

As a parent, I don’t want this. I want schools to be successful at their fundamental purpose of education. I want policy makers to stop over-burdening schools.

DP. I’m not sure where this notion of “overburdening schools” comes from. Nobody is giving teachers extra hours and making them take kids to the doctor or make their lunches. What exactly do you mean by it?

Most teachers work a lot of extra hours. Especially teachers who have taught for less than 10 years.
Good teachers who have less than 5 years experience are generally working 60 hours or more.
Some of the students who are mainstreamed have high special ed. needs or have been exposed to high levels of trauma. Teachers are not equipped to handle that level of student distress. Some of these kids continually disrupt the classroom and teachers are left mostly on their own trying to figure out how to help them and keep learning progressing for all the other kids. ELL students also present huge challenges. I have had students added to my class mid year who barely speak a word of English and who have just arrived in the US and have trauma associated with leaving their home country and crossing the border possibly illegally and dangerously. There is more but this gives you a snapshot of some of the issues schools and teachers are dealing with

so “overburdening” means expecting teachers to teach SN and ELL kids. Ok then!

I’m all for giving teachers more hours to plan and better behavioral support resources. But your “overburdening” argument seems more like you’re saying “those kids” should not be in school with yours.

DP but the reason we are overburdened is because we don't have those things. Please don't be so snarky

To be clear - I have no doubt that teacher's feel overburdened, particularly since DCPS does not seem to provide ANY prep time to deal with IEPs etc. Like every time we have an IEP meeting, several team members can't make it. Not legal but I know it's DCPS's fault so I don't push it.

My specific question was about the commonly heard complaint that "schools are expected to do everything for kids these days and be social services agencies. that's impossible, they should focus on teaching." So I'm wondering what people mean when they say that. What I think they mean is that kids should be suspended/expelled etc instead of schools trying to address behavioral issues (whether they come from trauma or a SN).

I'm not the PP, but see below:

-Kids experiencing hunger--why do you think schools distributed meals during the pandemic?
-Parents are addicted and kid has taken the role of adult
-Severe behavior problems--cursing out the teacher, throwing things, wondering halls and disturbing classes, etc.
-Homeless

Just to name a few...Do you actually have kids in a school at all? None of this is news...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its true, parents are too busy with hustle of dual careers and house chores/social life/internet. They want schools to babysit and raise their kids. Unless schools are set up for all that, tgeir will be issues to deal with.

As a parent, I don’t want this. I want schools to be successful at their fundamental purpose of education. I want policy makers to stop over-burdening schools.

As a teacher, I really appreciate this sentiment. The past year on this forum have shown me too many times, however, then when teachers ask for things, they are called greedy, selfish, lazy, etc...

If you look on the local politics board right now, there are multiple threads of people who didn't vote for R. White because of his relationship with WTU. Who do you think is making the policies that overburden the schools? Right now that is Mayor Muriel Bowser and her all encompassing control of schools.

We get that the once in a lifetime (hopefully pandemic) wasn't ideal. We get that the WTU upset people with their actions. If people don't move on from it and keep disqualifying politicians because they support teachers, it is only going to get worse.

Actions have consequences, as they say. It’s a really bizarre political philosophy to think that parents who were angered by school closures should vote for the candidate who is … in favor of continued closures.

You can keep defending your stance. It's not making teachers any less burnt out and ready to leave. It's not stopping buildings from deteriorating. It's not stopping your tax dollars from going directly to a bloated central office where ppl make 6 figures to edit ppt decks and not answer phones from their couches.

No matter how many times you repeat "bloated central office," you're not going to make anyone who cares forget about school closures. If you wanted unconditional support from parents for WTU (which I think you fairly would have had pre-covid) you should not have closed schools and made a big deal about how WTU is there to defend teachers interests only.

NP. THis is how I know you’re not a serious person. Teachers unions and teachers have been vilified forever as lazy, entitled, selfish. Take a little stroll through the DCUM archives pre-March 2020 if you don’t believe me.

The anti-union/anti-teacher fervor did not appear with covid; the pandemic just gave union-haters a new avenue for attack.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its true, parents are too busy with hustle of dual careers and house chores/social life/internet. They want schools to babysit and raise their kids. Unless schools are set up for all that, tgeir will be issues to deal with.

As a parent, I don’t want this. I want schools to be successful at their fundamental purpose of education. I want policy makers to stop over-burdening schools.

DP. I’m not sure where this notion of “overburdening schools” comes from. Nobody is giving teachers extra hours and making them take kids to the doctor or make their lunches. What exactly do you mean by it?

Most teachers work a lot of extra hours. Especially teachers who have taught for less than 10 years.
Good teachers who have less than 5 years experience are generally working 60 hours or more.
Some of the students who are mainstreamed have high special ed. needs or have been exposed to high levels of trauma. Teachers are not equipped to handle that level of student distress. Some of these kids continually disrupt the classroom and teachers are left mostly on their own trying to figure out how to help them and keep learning progressing for all the other kids. ELL students also present huge challenges. I have had students added to my class mid year who barely speak a word of English and who have just arrived in the US and have trauma associated with leaving their home country and crossing the border possibly illegally and dangerously. There is more but this gives you a snapshot of some of the issues schools and teachers are dealing with

so “overburdening” means expecting teachers to teach SN and ELL kids. Ok then!

I’m all for giving teachers more hours to plan and better behavioral support resources. But your “overburdening” argument seems more like you’re saying “those kids” should not be in school with yours.

DP but the reason we are overburdened is because we don't have those things. Please don't be so snarky

To be clear - I have no doubt that teacher's feel overburdened, particularly since DCPS does not seem to provide ANY prep time to deal with IEPs etc. Like every time we have an IEP meeting, several team members can't make it. Not legal but I know it's DCPS's fault so I don't push it.

My specific question was about the commonly heard complaint that "schools are expected to do everything for kids these days and be social services agencies. that's impossible, they should focus on teaching." So I'm wondering what people mean when they say that. What I think they mean is that kids should be suspended/expelled etc instead of schools trying to address behavioral issues (whether they come from trauma or a SN).

dp: Behavioral issues that disrupt the class are unfairly left to the teacher to deal with and the rest of the students to bear. Rather than suspension or expulsion, why can’t these kids go to *all day* to a tiny class within the school equipped with teacher + social worker combo that intensively addresses their needs, whether for a brief time or an extended time? I know that gets labeled as “tracking” and is not pc these days. But it is crazy that we have classes where 90% of students time and patience is wasted by 1 or 2 kids. What we are doing is not working, but we keep doubling down and pretending all the other students “will be fine.”

that’s called a self contained classroom, and there are specific criteria for it. which can be met if a school puts the effort into it. but that runs contrary to the people who argue schools shouldn’t be “social service agencies.”