Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

Read carefully and you might understand  --- A Bachelor's Degree requires 120 credit hours  --- to be a certified teacher in New York, one needs 30+ hours IN THE SUBJECT AREA  ----  PLUS  hours in CORE and PEDAGOGICAL COURSES.   New York State has ONE OF THE HIGHEST REQUIREMENTS for becoming a certified teacher in the country.   THOSE ARE THE FACTS -- the bs that you spouted previously is NOT based on the facts.  Sorry if you don't like to hear the ACTUAL TRUTH -- actually .. no .. I won't apologize for having to tell you the ACTUAL TRUTH  because you have a habit of posting stuff that isn't true and bad-mouthing people based on falsehoods.

New York State and the Schenectady City School District have many GREAT teachers who do their best to educate our young people.   They don't deserve to be lied about and bad-mouthed by people who get their cheap thrills bashing others.

Your friend - MikeChristine - knows where he/she can stuff the lies that he/she pedals, too.

Oh, yes, again, a copy/paste comment.   DV doesn't know this stuff himself.   He has to go have one of his two mommies get the information for him.


Now, DV, can you tell us how parents in Schenectady can pay for an education alternative to the Schenctady government school?   Well?   What are you so afraid of that you won't answer this question?

The pedagogical and core classes are the education classes. The 30 hours are in the science. A BS in Biology requires 60+ hours in Biology and 60 in other course work (liberal arts and electives typically). The training in science is far greater for the person with the actual degree in science vs The degree in education. NYS requires a crazy amount of hoop jumping for teachers, but that is not the same as someone being knowledgable in a subject.

There are some unbelievable teachers in Schenectady. The 2012 NY state teacher of the year was a Schenectady teacher. Look at the stats though, talk to the kids in the schools, talk to the young adults who are coming out of the high school...they are far behind their peers from other areas.

It is not a matter of bashing anyone. This school district is a failure and ignoring it and pretending it's fine only makes the problem worse.

Quoted from CICERO

I'm not saying teachers aren't great people, or that NYS his higher standards than other states.  But the fact is, teachers MUST teach to the curriculum the way their PEDAGOGICAL COURSES teach them.  The truth is, the government schools teach to a minimum standard.  If your child is bright and advanced entering public school because parents started teaching their child before they entered school, that child will be ignored by the teacher because they know the child already know that part of the curriculum. The teacher will spend time with the children that need the attention, and that child will not be challenged and advance until the other students that entered school at a lower level catch up to them.  In many cases, kindergarten is just a social event because some children already know much of the kindergarden curriculum.  The learning process is stunted right from when they enter public schools.  In some cases, it isn't worth preparing your child for school because the school system by design will drag them back to that minimum standard.  It's a horrible system.

Having taken pedagogical courses in teacher education, I can say that none of the courses that I took taught us to "teach to the test" (which I believe is a what most people believe is bad -- "teaching to the curriculum" would be a different story altogether)  ... and the very best teachers that were my mentors never "taught to the test"  and yet their students did very well on those standardized tests.

Your point about students being challenged is a good one -- and actually points out the biggest mistake that our public education system (not just in New York) made about 25 years ago.   At one time, you had "tracks" or classes grouped by ability -- accelarated/advanced students, "slower students", etc. -- but then it became politically correct to mix all students regardless of ability levels.  And yes, the "faster" students can feel less challenged and/or the "slower" students feel overwhelmed.

From my own personal experience as a secondary teacher, I can show that "tracking" makes sense and that teaching content and skills is more important than "teaching to a test".   During one particular year during my teaching career, I had 3 sections of "slower students" for 10th grade Social Studies and of the 75 or so students that I taught only 2 failed the 10th Grade Regents test at the end of the year and all did quite well on the school administered final/departmental exam.   One of my colleagues, who "taught to the test", and had 2 or 3 sections of "faster students" had almost half of his students fail the 10th Grade Regents test.

I don't have enough time to discuss all the issues in that particular school system -- but will add that the other teacher was the nephew of the school board president and managed to become tenured despite the poor performance of his students.   The "politics of education" is more of the problem -- politics decides who gets tenure, politics decides between tracking and mainstreaming.   To quote a wise teacher who was one of my mentors, she said "I wish the politicians and state ed department would take their noses out of education.  Every time they stick their noses in they make matters worse not better."

Quoted from visitor

Parent

My grandson is in the high school and he has homework every night, and certainly had it in middle school.

My friend and neighbors are saying their children do not and that they have checked with teacher and confirmed this to be true. My kids are too young and not in the city schools so I can only relay what they have told me. I haven't been in the schools myself since Mont Pleasant was a high school...I rarely had homework then though. Of course I didn't mind then.

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

From my own personal experience as a secondary teacher,


To quote a wise teacher who was one of my mentors, she said "I wish the politicians and state ed department would take their noses out of education.  Every time they stick their noses in they make matters worse not better."

Oh gosh, now he claims he was a teacher.   But of course, he will NEVER provide any proof of that, never name the school, etc.  Of course, everyone on these boards knows that there is no credibility to what he writes, just like claims to have graduated from two different high schools.   Keep having a "mommy" tell you what to write.  

So, can you tell us yet how parents in the city of Schenectady are supposed to be able afford tuition to avoid Schenectady government schools?   Still don't want to answer that, huh?

Parent - the schools are fixable.

One problem - kids arrive at the gate to their education (kindergarten) unprepared.  

First three grades are critical and they fall behind even further.

Quoted from visitor

Parent - the schools are fixable.

One problem - kids arrive at the gate to their education (kindergarten) unprepared.  

First three grades are critical and they fall behind even further.

because the collectivism has removed that desire/need of parent to teach off-spring...why bother when the
government has it all set up for you and it's called 'the best' 'the way' etc etc.....

even the "I paid for it they can do it"

You know, in the 1960's when the school district was CONSIDERABLY larger, the Schenectady School District was ranked #3 in the State.

Now it's not..not by a long shot.

I'm not saying teachers aren't qualified, what I'm saying is that the Teachers Union would rather make sure Suzy Substitute can get a retirement package (yes, substitute teachers CAN get retirement?!?!?!) rather than concern themselves with the success of the students.

The system is flawed. Take away the Union and let each teacher bring their OWN merits to the table.

Quoted from rachel72

You know, in the 1960's when the school district was CONSIDERABLY larger, the Schenectady School District was ranked #3 in the State.  

If it ranked 3rd, why is Schenectady so fu(ked 50 years later?  I'll tell you why... They were taught to comply and "go with the flow". They were conditioned to walk off a cliff...and they did.

Quoted from visitor

Parent - the schools are fixable.

One problem - kids arrive at the gate to their education (kindergarten) unprepared.  

First three grades are critical and they fall behind even further.

^^^ stand up comedian^^^

Quoted from visitor

Parent - the schools are fixable.

One problem - kids arrive at the gate to their education (kindergarten) unprepared.  

First three grades are critical and they fall behind even further.

I dont agree. Kids shouldnt have to come to kindergarten prepared--that has historically been the entire purpose of kindergarten-to work on social and communication skills and reading readiness. Kindergarten was never supposeto be the stressful academic setting that it has become.

With many kids in pre-k classes there are kids who have essentially "done" kindergarten already and are ready fora slightly higher level of academics but even with that foundation there needs to be a realistic expectations of what is possible for their developmental age. Cognitively this age still learns through growth and play-not sitting at desks, not compulsory writing activities.

I believe that many of the standards are too high for the lower grades--and too low in the higher grades. We pushthem when they are too young to achieve some arbitrary standard rather than instill in them with core skills and the desire to learn--we undermine their abilities when they are young, burn them out, squelch their natural curiosity and creativity and then give up when their older and expect nothing more than mediocrity.

This is a nationwide problem, but is magnified in this community because of  poverty and violence.

Parent

I do not know it needs to be stresful in order to transfer the information to the student.

Your points are thoughtful, but given the fact some parents will contiunue to try and ghive their children the competitive edge - I don't see it changing.

A big part is how the child's home environment fits into the educational equation - how doe the home support what the schools are tring to do.

Cicero - why is Schenectady in the shape it is today - that is primarily due to the loss of jobs in teh area (GE, etc.)

Quoted from visitor

Cicero - why is Schenectady in the shape it is today - that is primarily due to the loss of jobs in teh area (GE, etc.)

That's the convenient default answer.  Why did GE leave?  They didn't leave the country, they went south.  I believe Schalmont is STILL paying GE back the taxes from years of over assessing.

The dems got rid of the evil capitalists and now they want to get rid of the evil Union College. Anything good HAS to be destroyed in the mind's eye of a pink bolshevist. I am sure Visitor concurs that there is a 'revenue' problem and not a spending problem.


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