wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Comments

• [1] paul peacock from new york city July 15, 2008 - 10:32AM

  i'll go with whatever randi weingarten says - the aft is a great organization.

  
  
• [2] BORED July 15, 2008 - 10:53AM

  Teachers alone can't save these kids. I watch the kids in my own neighborhood and these kids or a mess.

  
  
• [3] markbnj from www.sos-newdeal.blogspot.com July 15, 2008 - 10:54AM

  I agree with Randi.

  We need to make education MORE friendly, to HELP the parents LEARN HOW to be better parents.

  BUT I think that this has to take place EARLIER.

  I say federally paid Day care starting at 6 months will be A positive addition to her plan...

  sos-newdeal.blogspot.com/2008/02/proposal-day-care-at-6months.html

  here's a deeper discussion on it...

  
  
• [4] NC from NYC July 15, 2008 - 10:55AM

  Ms. Weingarten is raising some interesting ideas, but how do you engage parents who are very hard to engage? Yes, motivated parents will take advantage, but how do you change the less motivated ones?

  
  
• [5] Cliff from Manhattan July 15, 2008 - 10:57AM

  How about schools proving that they can actually teach so that students learn before they take on the rest of our social ills!

  
  
• [6] Jon P. from Hewitt, NJ July 15, 2008 - 10:57AM

  I have had to work with many unions over the years being a heavy equipment designer. I have been put in the middle of union strike (professor strike at my college, university of Bridgeport) and my girlfriend is in a union. Could you ask your guest why is it that unions seem to care about and spend more time protecting bad workers and not really helping good workers?

  
  
• [7] Linda Davis from Riverdale July 15, 2008 - 10:58AM

  I'm going crazy here. Teachers are NOT the most important factor in a child's education their PARENTS are. The type of school you talk about is doing nothing more then taking the family father away from one another. I could say more but Brian is running out of time!!!!

  
  
• [8] markbnj from www.sos-newdeal.blogspot.com July 15, 2008 - 10:59AM

  NC: if you look at MY proposal, we will be addressing parental involvement at an earlier age, (as part of providing child care, family involvement WILL be required).

  Also: the reason for doing this at such an early age is because "head-start" has been shown to work.

  You're right, parents DONT want to get involved, it's work too!...

  
  
• [9] markbnj from www.sos-newdeal.blogspot.com July 15, 2008 - 11:02AM

  PS: Linda... You are right, teachers are SECOND, parents are first. My proposal takes into account that there ARE lots of un-prepared, and un-interested parents, and by trading day care for some time to help educate/train/help

  THE PARENTS, so the students /children can excel

  sos-newdeal.blogspot.com

  
  
• [10] hjs from 11211 July 15, 2008 - 11:06AM

  Cliff,

  can student learn 'if' the rest of their lives are in chaos?

  
  
• [11] WL July 15, 2008 - 11:06AM

  Are teachers the most important factor in a child's education? I'm not so sure. Here's a useful quote to consider though:

  "The schools have assumed the burden of solving extremely important problems, but they are simply not equipped to achieve the solutions. If you heap upon the school all of the problems that the family, the church, the political system, and the economy cannot solve, the school becomes a kind of well-financed garbage dump, from which very little can be expected except the unsweet odor of failure."

  –Neil Postman, Teaching as a Conserving Activity (1979), p. 110

  http://www.fireandknowledge.org/archives/2006/05/31/school-as-a-well-financed-garbage-dump-postman/

  Spelling is obviously a tool of the Bush administration's horrendously failed policies, but I'm not sure I completely agree with Weingarten's approach as the best alternative.

  
  
• [12] Theresa July 15, 2008 - 11:11AM

  Randi threw teachers to the Klein-Bloomberg wolves. She allowed them to perpetuate their rhetorical campaign against teachers as the villains in the educational mix. Not looking forward to something similar on a national scale.

  
  
• [13] Cliff from Manhattan July 15, 2008 - 12:07PM

  hjs,

  Of course not. But their responsibility should stop at diagonsis. Then the reponsibility goes to the parent/guardian. And if those parents/guardians fail to take that responsibility there are other components of the social network that are (or should be) better prepared to fix a specific problem. Schools should not be looked to as the panacea for all our social ills. Schools should teach and that's it. Period. Otherwise where will it end? Should we be looking to them to pave our streets as well?

  Not all tax payers have children in public schools and asking them to pay for the indolence of others is unfair. And even if you wish to use the schools to fix all social ills, how do you reach those outside the school system? Schools should stick to teaching.

  
  
• [14] hjs from 11211 July 15, 2008 - 12:26PM

  if it helps kids learn schools should pave the streets.

  there is no panacea. do you mind paying for prisons? i think it's unfair to me as a tax payer that students can't learn in schools then i have to pay for their welfare and prison cells.

  i wonder how many single mothers with 2 jobs are you calling indolent or are you talking about the 8 year olds

  
  
• [15] Cliff from Manhattan July 15, 2008 - 01:45PM

  hjs.

  If schools are to pave streets, why not ask them to cure cancer, aids and alzheimers? There as to be a limit to their function.

  There are libertarians who truly believe that there should be no such thing as public schools. To the extent that public schools fail to teach, their argument is harder to refute.

  I'm calling no one with two jobs indolent. But the fact that a single mom needs to work two jobs is not the fault of the school nor should the school be called upon to fix it. Providing aftershool programs may ameliorate her predicament but it does nothing to address the underlying problems that cause families to break-up and puts too many minority men behind bars. In fact it may mask those problems and let us sweep those more difficult issues under the rug.

  Do we deal with hunger, homelessness or adult drug abuse only if it involves a student?

  Should there be day care and afterschool programs? Of course. But they need not be schoold based and if so based should be incidental to the school's primary objective: teaching well.

  
  
• [16] hjs from 11211 July 15, 2008 - 03:23PM

  we should do anything that will educate children. i don't see the connection to alzheimers and of course you're going to far to make your point but i agree with the guest we should remove every barrier to education. today's students will need to compete in a world labor market and they are not ready.

  I know some people don't think poor people should be educated but I don't want to live in a 3rd world country that doesn't view education as a nation security issue. education is cheaper than prisons, so educating children is a great investment, an eye test, just pennies.

  
  
• [17] Cliff from Manhattan July 16, 2008 - 10:29AM

  In a perfect world with limitless resources, I could not agree with you more. But that is not the world I experience day after day.

  Schools are failing and seem to be looking at every one and thing but themselves for excuses. And failure seems across the board, not just with students from troubled homes. If they were still turning out at least some good students I might agree with you. Until that time, I would chose to invest in curing other social ills to fix the underlying problems that educators complain about. Once those are addressed, I'll be aggressive in funding schools and their perphrial needs.

  Education is a national security issue. The problematic state of our current military is

  a case in point. I'm just not convinced that trying to fix these problems on the cheap through the education system will work, especially since schools are failing generally. Moreover that solution misses those with no connection to schools.

  b/t/w. The way the US is going, hjs, you may want to think about moving. We are beginning to manifest 3rd world attributes that have nothing to do with education: like distribution of limited health resources.