Reply to Soaring Child Poverty in DC

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "Soaring Child Poverty in DC "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

And there's that attitude again... I'm not making an extreme statement.  Nor am I blaming teachers.  I'm actually taking you at your word, and repeating to you what the logical extension of your position is.

You blame poverty for poor outcomes.  I agree.

You then jump to attack DCPS for imposing a set of objective standards for teachers because it's unfair.  After all, we can't expect teachers to get results when the real problem is poverty.

Let's unpack those two assertions:  first, if teacher quality is irrelevant, let's get rid of highly trained (and paid) teachers until we lick this poverty problem.  After all, it's just pearls before swine at this point.  And we can sink the savings into poverty abatement programs.

Secondly, as you put it so eloquently "poverty - too scary and beyond  the scope of DCPS".  DCPS is designed to create and maintain a public primary education system.  Read very carefully:  DCPS CAN NOT UNILATERALLY SOLVE THE PROBLEM OF REGIONAL OR NATIONAL POVERTY.

A few other things DCPS can't do:

- Cure cancer.
- End tribal infighting in sub-saharan Africa.
- Stabilize the Afghan tribal regions.
- Resolve the Israel/Palestine Question.
- Monetize cold fusion technology.

Okay, so now that we've got that out of the way, let's take a look at your solution to improving DCPS:

1) DCPS needs to fix the poverty issue.
2) [Whatever you follow with is completely irrelevant.][/quote]

And where's the part about opposing standards for teachers?  except in your post, that is?

Notice that nothing in your list of things DCPS can't do relates to education.   Poverty does.  I don't expect any school system to overcome poverty.  I do expect schools to recognize it as a problem that needs to be addressed for educational outcomes to improve.

I do expect school leaders to realize that teachers can't overcome poverty either and that youthful energy and determination, merit pay, evaluations, engaging lessons and strongly held beliefs aren't going to make a significant difference for kids until the effects of poverty are addressed.

Regarding cancer, There are highly trained people working on curing and treating cancer.  They haven't been successful yet, but they aren't getting blamed for cancer deaths either.  People realize cancer is very complicated and can't be cured overnight by determined amateurs claiming they have a miracle cure.
[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics