Teacher exposes the craptastic decline iof MCPS in Reddit rant

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach dance at a high school in MCPS (dream job-or so I thought). The students in the ALL of my classes don't want to do anything except TikTok dances. They don't want to learn anything. They don't think they need to because they can do a 10 second TikTok dance and therefore, they are "dancers." They get tired after about 5 minutes of moving. They complain everything is "too hard." It's pathetic and embarrassing. I don't know where everything went wrong, but it's a joke. Quitting at the end of this year, if I make it that long.

Ha, I saw these two girls watching and doing a Tik Tok dance and thought it was sad. In our day (I am 35), we used to make up our own dances! At least they were getting some physical activity

Different dance teacher, but YES this. Choreography is part of their curriculum. Asking them to make up their own dances..you'd think I was torturing them. They can't think of songs. They can't get started. "What songs do you listen to at home?" "I don't listen to music..." "What songs do you ever hear do you think, 'this would be such a good dance song!'" "I don't ever dance at home or think about dance." "Why are you taking dance?" Blank stares...We used to jump at the chance to make up our own dances. We were obsessed with music. We were always doing this stuff for fun. I truly don't understand it, but I'm so glad I am not growing up right now. I feel sorry for them. They have no intellectual curiosity, they have no passion for anything, they just want to be on their phones for the rest of their lives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That was a pretty enlightening Reddit thread. If a student is not self-motivated and high-performing, they are completely failed by MCPS schools today. It's a race to the bottom for average kids. And it's entirely caused by central office bureaucrats. Monica McKnight cannot leave soon enough.

I just read the reddit post, and agree with all, but I don't think what's happening in MCPS started with McKnight. It's been sliding for a while all in the name of equity.

The sad part of all this is that the system is failing the most neediest. What happens to these types of kids once they graduate HS? I guess it's no longer MCPS problem, so.. shrug. As long as their numbers look good.

I have one who graduated from a magnet program in MCPS, and now at college. Doing very well.

The other is an above average student who is taking a couple of AP classes, but the rest of the "honors" classes is a joke. Such a joke. They struggled a lot in the beginning of their AP classes because the lack of HW in the MS didn't teach them to study. They got such easy As, and then all of a sudden, the AP classes expected more. It was too high of a leap. I had to teach DC how to study. Luckily DC got their grades up in their AP classes.

MCPS is really doing a disservice to kids all around.

This, for sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is an American culture problem. We want to pretend everyone is the same, but they aren't. Not every kid is college-bound. But every kid should be able to learn and thrive and end high school able to read and understand enough math to live life and pursue higher education if desired. Everyone who has an average IQ (and I mean everyone) can learn to read and do algebra. Also, we can teach kids what tools they can use to have success. What we can't do is pretend every kid needs to or is able to make it through AP calculus by their senior year in high school. Kids unfortunately do not start school on a level playing field. Schools can't level all the differences. If we were able and willing to meet kids where they are, spend more time reteaching kids who need repetition to get concepts and spend time building background knowledge for kids that need that, we'd end up with more kids happy and thriving in school. Unfortunately, we want to pretend different needs don't exist, all kids can meet the same benchmarks in the same time frame, and we consequently teach to an almost non-existent middle which leaves a lot of kids bored and a lot of kids perpetually confused.

But why????? How do we change this?

First, you have to admit far leftist policies resulted in this disaster. Then you have to get back to the basics of accountability. Kids don't hand in he on time? Zero. Kids don't attend class? Zero. There are no make up sessions and 50% awards for not showing up to work in real life. Look, accountability and common sense education WILL mean there will be some brown kids who fail and cannot keep up. So what? It is far more racist to assume they cannot do the work and be held accountable to high quality standards.

Everyone wants equitable outcomes, for sure. But throwing all standards out the window to reach that goal is a fatal mistake. Nothing will change until voters stop voting for far left liberal loons and their policies. It's truly remarkable how people have congitive dissonance and cannot associate the rapid decline of MCPS with their voting behaviors.

MCPS and MoCo are permanently screwed and will be in steep decline, because do you think they'll ever stop voting far left? One party rule with carte blanche to do whatever and never be held accountable to anyone.

Change all of that first and then you can get back to the basics of quality education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They raised our taxes for this freakshow too.

Can we just admit MCPS is one giant baby sitting program for a bunch of delinquent losers with trash parents?

Zero education is going on. I am sick and tired of the argument 'It's for the schools!' as justification for constantly raising our taxes.

They raised taxes less than inflation. Doesn't take a CPA to see the inherent problem there.

Motivated kids will get their education. We can't make schools into prisons. There is definitely a societal cost when there are a bunch of undereducated adults roaming around. How enforcement oriented to we expect the schools to be? If the parents aren't reinforcing the value of education, attending class, good grades, how do we expect the schools to deal with it?

It takes more than motivation to get an education. If all that was needed was desire and hard work, it wouldn’t matter if teachers are burnt out or classmates are disruptive. The fact is that those things do matter. And they matter a lot, in fact.

Usually second marking period is when I experiment with something new that challenges both students and myself. It’s the time of year when I typically know the students’ skills and personalities well enough to let them help design quarter-long a learning experience unique to the current year. This year, absenteeism means many are little more than a name on a roster followed by a string of 50%s. Even those I do know have such huge skill deficiencies that we can’t stray far from the basics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think enough criticism or scrutiny is being aimed at MSDE. Some of these idiotic policies are being driven by equally idiotic demands, audits, arbitrary metrics, etc. from the bureaucrats in Annapolis. They’ve picked some random number of what percentage should be in self-contained classes, how much suspension makes you racist, etc. based on fantasyland research from their third-rate PhD program and use it as a cudgel. The push toward inclusion for all that is dumping kids in classrooms with inadequate support is not just an MCPS initiative and MSDE wants to make it even worse, without realizing that not every county is the same or that their pie in the sky figures on paper don’t work in reality.

Who do we write to about this?

It’s useless. MCPS is just too large and it’s a bureaucratic mess so it’s almost impossible to get things done. The hyper-focus on race and equity has led to a huge decline in standards and a lack of differentiation.

There is no accountability for bad behavior so the kids get away with anything and everything. Admin gets pressure from Central Office not to crack down on students so teachers can’t do anything. It’s horrible and our kids are suffering.

But this is what voters in this county (and this country) want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is an American culture problem. We want to pretend everyone is the same, but they aren't. Not every kid is college-bound. But every kid should be able to learn and thrive and end high school able to read and understand enough math to live life and pursue higher education if desired. Everyone who has an average IQ (and I mean everyone) can learn to read and do algebra. Also, we can teach kids what tools they can use to have success. What we can't do is pretend every kid needs to or is able to make it through AP calculus by their senior year in high school. Kids unfortunately do not start school on a level playing field. Schools can't level all the differences. If we were able and willing to meet kids where they are, spend more time reteaching kids who need repetition to get concepts and spend time building background knowledge for kids that need that, we'd end up with more kids happy and thriving in school. Unfortunately, we want to pretend different needs don't exist, all kids can meet the same benchmarks in the same time frame, and we consequently teach to an almost non-existent middle which leaves a lot of kids bored and a lot of kids perpetually confused.

But why????? How do we change this?

First, you have to admit far leftist policies resulted in this disaster. Then you have to get back to the basics of accountability. Kids don't hand in he on time? Zero. Kids don't attend class? Zero. There are no make up sessions and 50% awards for not showing up to work in real life. Look, accountability and common sense education WILL mean there will be some brown kids who fail and cannot keep up. So what? It is far more racist to assume they cannot do the work and be held accountable to high quality standards.

Everyone wants equitable outcomes, for sure. But throwing all standards out the window to reach that goal is a fatal mistake. Nothing will change until voters stop voting for far left liberal loons and their policies. It's truly remarkable how people have congitive dissonance and cannot associate the rapid decline of MCPS with their voting behaviors.

MCPS and MoCo are permanently screwed and will be in steep decline, because do you think they'll ever stop voting far left? One party rule with carte blanche to do whatever and never be held accountable to anyone.

Change all of that first and then you can get back to the basics of quality education.

Exactly. We need balance and this county is SO far left that it’s impossible to make changes.

[Anonymous]

I teach Honors level classes and it is impossible to get through advanced content because counselors always throw in some low level students into the mix. And it is considered bad form to request that some students should be transferred to the on-level class because apparently good teachers should be able to get all students up to the advanced level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think enough criticism or scrutiny is being aimed at MSDE. Some of these idiotic policies are being driven by equally idiotic demands, audits, arbitrary metrics, etc. from the bureaucrats in Annapolis. They’ve picked some random number of what percentage should be in self-contained classes, how much suspension makes you racist, etc. based on fantasyland research from their third-rate PhD program and use it as a cudgel. The push toward inclusion for all that is dumping kids in classrooms with inadequate support is not just an MCPS initiative and MSDE wants to make it even worse, without realizing that not every county is the same or that their pie in the sky figures on paper don’t work in reality.

Who do we write to about this?

It’s useless. MCPS is just too large and it’s a bureaucratic mess so it’s almost impossible to get things done. The hyper-focus on race and equity has led to a huge decline in standards and a lack of differentiation.

There is no accountability for bad behavior so the kids get away with anything and everything. Admin gets pressure from Central Office not to crack down on students so teachers can’t do anything. It’s horrible and our kids are suffering.

But this is what voters in this county (and this country) want.

Principals need to step up and hold students and teachers accountable. Our school tells the kids the rules, such as they have a closed lunch but when you go to meetings with the principal he openly says it's fine for the students to leave campus and no consequences. If you make rules, hold kids accountable. He was also ok with them coming to school late and returning to lunch late. That's the #1 problem. #2 problem is teachers and their expectations. We have a mix from I don't care teachers to ok but relaxed to strict and old school and the strict and old school are the best and our kids have gotten the most from.

Ultimately it's what the parents want and if schools don't hold kids accountable, we can still hold our kids accountable as parents. Many parents, especially come HS are very checked out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach dance at a high school in MCPS (dream job-or so I thought). The students in the ALL of my classes don't want to do anything except TikTok dances. They don't want to learn anything. They don't think they need to because they can do a 10 second TikTok dance and therefore, they are "dancers." They get tired after about 5 minutes of moving. They complain everything is "too hard." It's pathetic and embarrassing. I don't know where everything went wrong, but it's a joke. Quitting at the end of this year, if I make it that long.

Ha, I saw these two girls watching and doing a Tik Tok dance and thought it was sad. In our day (I am 35), we used to make up our own dances! At least they were getting some physical activity

Different dance teacher, but YES this. Choreography is part of their curriculum. Asking them to make up their own dances..you'd think I was torturing them. They can't think of songs. They can't get started. "What songs do you listen to at home?" "I don't listen to music..." "What songs do you ever hear do you think, 'this would be such a good dance song!'" "I don't ever dance at home or think about dance." "Why are you taking dance?" Blank stares...We used to jump at the chance to make up our own dances. We were obsessed with music. We were always doing this stuff for fun. I truly don't understand it, but I'm so glad I am not growing up right now. I feel sorry for them. They have no intellectual curiosity, they have no passion for anything, they just want to be on their phones for the rest of their lives.

This is also my experience. (Not a dance teacher). I'm special education in HS, so it's hard for a lot of my kids to express themselves, and they struggle more than other kids but.... At the beginning of the year I do a lot of getting to know you questions. They don't listen to music. They don't watch movies. They don't follow sports teams.

They tell me they watch tik tok so I ask who their favorite tik toker is or types of videos, and they say they don't know or "anything" and shrug. I've watched some of them scroll and it really is mindless, and they don't often laugh or show to a friend or engage in any way.

Many tell me they want to be an influencer when they graduate so I ask what types of videos they would make, ask what they're passionate about...and either get no answer or they say video games.

There's no spark or passion. I don't know if it's the population I work with or kids overall, but it's sad.

[Anonymous]

I know parents hate hearing this, but this is a huge parent problem. (And no, just because I'm writing this doesnt mean ALL parents. I'm not attacking you personally.) In general though...I had a girl walking around my class, filming kids WITHOUT their permission, she was defiant as I told her to put it away or I'd take it away. Instead, she called her mom on speaker and told her mom I threatened to take her phone away...mom started screaming through the phone I had zero rights to do this, started yelling profanity, etc...she shut off her phone smugly...smiled at me and said, "see, it doesnt matter. My mom doesnt care." I wish I was making this up. I informed principal and she just said, "our hands are tied." This isn't a sustainable profession or job anymore. The future is bleak.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is an American culture problem. We want to pretend everyone is the same, but they aren't. Not every kid is college-bound. But every kid should be able to learn and thrive and end high school able to read and understand enough math to live life and pursue higher education if desired. Everyone who has an average IQ (and I mean everyone) can learn to read and do algebra. Also, we can teach kids what tools they can use to have success. What we can't do is pretend every kid needs to or is able to make it through AP calculus by their senior year in high school. Kids unfortunately do not start school on a level playing field. Schools can't level all the differences. If we were able and willing to meet kids where they are, spend more time reteaching kids who need repetition to get concepts and spend time building background knowledge for kids that need that, we'd end up with more kids happy and thriving in school. Unfortunately, we want to pretend different needs don't exist, all kids can meet the same benchmarks in the same time frame, and we consequently teach to an almost non-existent middle which leaves a lot of kids bored and a lot of kids perpetually confused.

But why????? How do we change this?

First, you have to admit far leftist policies resulted in this disaster. Then you have to get back to the basics of accountability. Kids don't hand in he on time? Zero. Kids don't attend class? Zero. There are no make up sessions and 50% awards for not showing up to work in real life. Look, accountability and common sense education WILL mean there will be some brown kids who fail and cannot keep up. So what? It is far more racist to assume they cannot do the work and be held accountable to high quality standards.

Everyone wants equitable outcomes, for sure. But throwing all standards out the window to reach that goal is a fatal mistake. Nothing will change until voters stop voting for far left liberal loons and their policies. It's truly remarkable how people have congitive dissonance and cannot associate the rapid decline of MCPS with their voting behaviors.

MCPS and MoCo are permanently screwed and will be in steep decline, because do you think they'll ever stop voting far left? One party rule with carte blanche to do whatever and never be held accountable to anyone.

Change all of that first and then you can get back to the basics of quality education.

I would say right-wing policies resulted in this. The GOP's whole jam is to dumb down the population in order to expand their base. This is who mainly benefits from these policies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That was a pretty enlightening Reddit thread. If a student is not self-motivated and high-performing, they are completely failed by MCPS schools today. It's a race to the bottom for average kids. And it's entirely caused by central office bureaucrats. Monica McKnight cannot leave soon enough.

You spelled “parents” wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is an American culture problem. We want to pretend everyone is the same, but they aren't. Not every kid is college-bound. But every kid should be able to learn and thrive and end high school able to read and understand enough math to live life and pursue higher education if desired. Everyone who has an average IQ (and I mean everyone) can learn to read and do algebra. Also, we can teach kids what tools they can use to have success. What we can't do is pretend every kid needs to or is able to make it through AP calculus by their senior year in high school. Kids unfortunately do not start school on a level playing field. Schools can't level all the differences. If we were able and willing to meet kids where they are, spend more time reteaching kids who need repetition to get concepts and spend time building background knowledge for kids that need that, we'd end up with more kids happy and thriving in school. Unfortunately, we want to pretend different needs don't exist, all kids can meet the same benchmarks in the same time frame, and we consequently teach to an almost non-existent middle which leaves a lot of kids bored and a lot of kids perpetually confused.

But why????? How do we change this?

First, you have to admit far leftist policies resulted in this disaster. Then you have to get back to the basics of accountability. Kids don't hand in he on time? Zero. Kids don't attend class? Zero. There are no make up sessions and 50% awards for not showing up to work in real life. Look, accountability and common sense education WILL mean there will be some brown kids who fail and cannot keep up. So what? It is far more racist to assume they cannot do the work and be held accountable to high quality standards.

Everyone wants equitable outcomes, for sure. But throwing all standards out the window to reach that goal is a fatal mistake. Nothing will change until voters stop voting for far left liberal loons and their policies. It's truly remarkable how people have congitive dissonance and cannot associate the rapid decline of MCPS with their voting behaviors.

MCPS and MoCo are permanently screwed and will be in steep decline, because do you think they'll ever stop voting far left? One party rule with carte blanche to do whatever and never be held accountable to anyone.

Change all of that first and then you can get back to the basics of quality education.

I would say right-wing policies resulted in this. The GOP's whole jam is to dumb down the population in order to expand their base. This is who mainly benefits from these policies.

You can’t blame the GOP for this. MCPS and Montgomery County, in general, aren’t even touched by the GOP.

These changes are due to progressive policy changes here in MoCo. Own it. Progressive politics did this. Period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know parents hate hearing this, but this is a huge parent problem. (And no, just because I'm writing this doesnt mean ALL parents. I'm not attacking you personally.) In general though...I had a girl walking around my class, filming kids WITHOUT their permission, she was defiant as I told her to put it away or I'd take it away. Instead, she called her mom on speaker and told her mom I threatened to take her phone away...mom started screaming through the phone I had zero rights to do this, started yelling profanity, etc...she shut off her phone smugly...smiled at me and said, "see, it doesnt matter. My mom doesnt care." I wish I was making this up. I informed principal and she just said, "our hands are tied." This isn't a sustainable profession or job anymore. The future is bleak.

It really is. Middle school teacher here. I called a parent a few weeks ago regarding a student who doesn’t submit work, is constantly laughing and making faces at people around the room and just generally has totally inappropriate behavior for a classroom.

The parent said to me “is it just her?” ?! Are you kidding me? I told her her daughter does this more than any other child in the class and is a constant instigator. I couldn’t believe that response. No accountability

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That was a pretty enlightening Reddit thread. If a student is not self-motivated and high-performing, they are completely failed by MCPS schools today. It's a race to the bottom for average kids. And it's entirely caused by central office bureaucrats. Monica McKnight cannot leave soon enough.

Exactly. It’s a damn shame. How do we change this?

We don't. Progressives live in a fantasy world and implement solutions that only work in that world. Because they control MoCo from to to bottom, things cannot get better.

LOL. Yes, because the regressives care soooooo deeply about public education.

You’re a buffoon.