Censorship in School

[ysabetwordsmith]

A black student was driven out of school for her essay about Frederick Douglass.  She pointed out connections between keeping slaves illiterate and failing to teach black students today.  This connection is pretty obvious to anyone familiar with history and modern education, but it really pisses off teachers when pointed out

Comments

[rhodielady_47]

I can remember feeling the same way about school when I was 13 years old. The problem, when you are 13 years old and bright, is that you really do get the impression that nothing is going on in the classroom

Well...

[ysabetwordsmith]

From the perspective of repairing the educational system, that stuff matters. It highlights a need for smaller classes, more teachers, better funding, and so forth.

From the perspective of students right now that doesn't matter at all. Schools are in fact failing to provide an effective learning environment. Smart students are frequently stifled; school actively interferes with their learning. Slow students are frequently shamed and fall further and further behind; they don't actually learn the material. Most of the material is aimed at average students, who usually do okay if they do the work. But to students at the ends of the bell curve, school can be maddening, and it's no wonder that some of them break under the pressure

Re: Well...

[rhodielady_47]

It also highlights a serious need for the old-fashioned TRACKING that schools used to use but got rid of in order to be more "politically correct".
Many school districts do have the "advanced placement" classes in place but only on HS level. One of the best kept secrets in American education is how often the AP classes are filled with white students while the regular classes hold everyone else!

At least when I was in HS, a bright student could go to school during the summer and cut as much as two years off their time in school.
I knew a pair of sisters who skipped two years of HS that way and then went into nursing school.
These days most school districts won't allow the smarter kids to do this any more.
(I skipped one. I only wish I'd known about this sooner so that I could have skipped two.)
:]

Re: Well...

[peoriapeoria]

Sounds like those AP classes are the old-tracking rebranded. Not cool.

Most kids aren't dumb, though some of them may be working uphill against challenges.

Re: Well...

[rhodielady_47]

"Most kids aren't dumb, though some of them may be working uphill against challenges."

I quite agree with you.
BUT....
The 800 pound gorilla in the room that nobody wants to discuss is what do you do with all the kids who aren't motivated to do their best in school and who outright refuse to allow anyone to motivate them.
The political correctness folks refuse to admit that there are kids like that or they sweep the whole thing under the rug by making it 100% the teachers' problem to deal with.
Anybody who says that all children can be motivated to learn, hasn't had to deal with some of the ones I've seen. One good case of "crazy kid syndrome" would make believers out of most of them.

Kids with learning problems get plenty of help over-coming those problems and have since before the mid 80's. Even Mississippi's public schools were doing one-on-one extra tutoring to help slower students stay up to speed back then and Mississippi is not a well-funded state.
:^|

Re: Well...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Almost all kids have an internal motivation to learn. The problem is that most schools are a stultifying environment, and adults are trying to force kids to learn things that don't interest the kids, where there is no intrinsic payoff of satisfaction or ability to do new things they want, and often little or no external reward either. It's just an expectation, and the ones who aren't socially susceptible to that kind of pressure will tell you to go fuck yourself. Much of that can be avoided by providing a more stimulating educational environment involving things that interest the students and give them some kind of practical benefit.

And the ones that are left? Move them out of the class with the students who actually want to learn, so they're not in the way.