A Teacher Grows Disillusioned After a ‘Fail’ Becomes a ‘Pass’
To everyone who was not forced to suffer through the NYC school system (or worse), consider yourselves incredibly lucky.
I, myself, have seen this first hand. I only just graduated High School last year and let me tell you, that's not even the half of it.
A couple of years ago, they lowered the passing Regents (New York State's standardized test for all high school students and certain, advanced junior high students) from 65 to 55, the student now only requiring a 65 or higher to obtain a Regents Diploma and a 55 to pass the course. It's disgusting. The reason they had to do this is because teachers now rarely teach more then what's (supposed to be) on the Regents Exams. Sometimes, on rare occasions, you'll get a teacher who'll break the mold and teach it in a new way, or add more then simply the standard, required curriculum, but other then that, you're lucky if you get out learning anything of any worth. Furthermore, so many kids are bad at testing, yet they do nothing about this, offering no alternatives.
I agree there needs to be certain standards set in education, but when it's all about testing, it falls horribly short.
And this whole "45 for showing up once" thing is also relatively new. Before, when I was a Freshman and maybe even Sophomore it was 20 for showing up at least once.
The whole fucking system is fucked. Rather then set higher fucking standards for teachers, they lower the standards for students to pass. Who the hell do they think they're helping here? It's cheating, that's all.
So far, the only thing I've seen done right in the Education system here is that community colleges are now allowing people who didn't graduate High school to enter college and allowing them to receive diplomas as they study towards their Associates or Bachelors degrees. In this way, they're helping people who don't necessarily test well, or who don't do well in the high school environment work in a better, more educational and sane system. People are all upset about it, but I think it's a good thing.
From Michigan, Mr. Lampros recalled one comment that Mrs. Fernandez made during their meeting about why it was important for Indira to graduate. She couldn’t afford to pay for her to attend another senior prom in another senior year
Is that really a fucking priority? Honestly, if my kid flunked out of their Senior Year of High School, and rather then be able to take summer school would have to go for ANOTHER year of high school, they're not going to fucking Senior Prom. That is something for GRADUATING seniors, not brats who take it upon themselves not to go to school and flunk out.
And, that mother needs to understand something before telling this guy to be a man: Her daughter needs to grow up and be a woman. SHE took it upon herself to cut class. SHE took it upon herself to not do her homework. SHE failed more then half her tests, and cut the day of the final. SHE is the one who's supposed to be going to college soon, not the teacher. Graduating from High School represents becoming an adult and taking responsibility for her own actions. That's supposed to start in AT LEAST Senior Year.
Obviously, her behavior shows that she is NOT ready to take responsibility, and NEEDS to repeat the fucking grade.
