My K-12 experience as a student

I attended Metcalfe Magnet School on the far south side of Chicago for K-8. I was in the "gifted" program for grades 1-8. All of the "gifted" classrooms were split 1/2, 3/4, 5/6, 7/8. All of the assignments and tasks we were given were challenging.
We had a wonderful science lab teacher. Each week we did experiments that corresponded with the lessons we learned. She also took us to Argonne national laboratory and other places on field trips. We had a good Spanish teacher, he went class to class and taught us once a week. There was gym class, a music class, and even recess for 20 some minutes per day!
Metcalfe was a wonderful experience. From 5th grade on, the classes were departmentalized. The teachers just adapted their lessons for the three types of classes. All of the kids knew of how the classes were broken down. As you know children are cruel and this is how they referred to the breakdown of the classes, there was "the gifted class", "the middle class", and "the slow class." I personally didn't care because I was friends with everyone but some of the students discriminated against each other. Mainly the higher scoring students versus the lower scoring students. The percentage was very small when it cam down to it but there were actually fights about "being stupid" or "being a nerd."
The Administration and Staff at Metcalfe worked hand in hand with parents to make sure that the students of the school were receiving the best education possible. There was the occasional fight but no gangs or drug problems. My time at Metcalfe was very fruitful and prepared me for high school.
I attended Morgan Park High School and totally messed up my freshmen year. I went into school with a big head because at Metcalfe I was the Co-Captain and starting point guard of the basketball team. We won the region championship in 1990, 1992 and the area championship in 1993. My Iowa test scores got me into M.P. high, but my basketball skills were what saved me. I ended up cutting lots of class and missed about 2 months of school throughout my freshman year. I was at every basketball practice. At the end of my freshman year my g.p.a. was barely 1.0 and I got kicked off the team in addition to being kicked out of the school. The principal gave me one chance to get myself together and in addition to the worse beating I ever got in my life I chose to do what I should have been doing in the first place. Get an education. I stopped cutting school and everything else that hindered me from doing my best. I focused on my studies and managed to graduate on time with a 2.9 g.p.a I loved my Science classes, Black American Studies, and Computer Technology classes. If I would've done what I should have been doing all along I could have graduated with no less than a 4.0 I truly believe. My high school experience showed me that slacking off and b.s.'ing will get you no where in life. I took full advantage of the Morgan Park high school for my last three years. I was the head of the Stage crew, sang in the school choir, worked on the video crew and was on the track team.
My teachers all took a liking to me and let me know that they were there to help me. I didn't listen my first year. I often wonder what could have been.............. We didn't really take any field trips in high school, however I was prepared for college upon graduating from Morgan Park High School.

http://www.shawnolson.net/a/1/my-experience-at-westland-high-school.html

The other way to view it is that the only reason the other kids never asked the essential question (Why am I in school?) was because they were conditioned to accept their environment regardless of its value. This is probably the truest way to view the situation. I have a terrible feeling about this because it seems all too apparent that this attitude is common, and it is an attitude that leads to cultural stagnation and apathy. I am afraid of a world with no concern with where it is and where it is going because that is a world where there is no vision. Without vision we are at the mercy of forces that do not care about us individually or collectively, and we are vulnerable to the claws of predators and fools.

That is the moral I draw from my time at Westland High School.

I somewhat felt they same way Shawn did about high school. I already knew they things that were being taught my first year and I saw no point of being there other than to play basketball. I was doing work to get a grade and wasn't interested in what was being taught for the most part. The classes I took following my freshmen year were more challenging and I applied myself. However, I graduated, unlike Shawn.



http://lagnada.blogspot.com/2007/01/high-school-experience-introduction-i.html

Staying on Course

"A concept that was new to me was the ability of students to register for courses without the parents' consent. I was very new to this idea and that not liking Science and Math courses at the time I decided to skip all the math and science classes in my sophomore year naturally. This is very ironic since later on in life I received my degree in Electrical Engineering which is a course known for to be intensive in Science and Math classes. I found out later on that there were minimum requirements in Math and Sciences so I had to take the missing courses during my junior year if I wanted to graduate. During my junior year, I had two take a couple of courses which I was the only junior in the class. This situation seemed like a blessing for me since I found that even though the sophomores were still a year older than me they were actually the right maturity level. I craved to be immature and unserious. I had fun with the sophomores and made lots of friends at that level. I have found that there is a blessing to every bad situation."

Everyone has a different experience in school. I'm glad Antonio finished and went on to be a successful Electrical Engineer. I never considered being a teacher. While in high school I only wanted to be one thing and that was a Mortician. I used to volunteer over the summer at my cousins funeral home out west. I went to SIUC majoring in Mortuary Science but I couldn't work on the babies. You cant pick and choose what cadaver you wish to prepare so I dropped out of the program.

Public Vs. Private Schools

The Center for Education Policy did a special study based on analysis of the National Educational Longitudinal Study. They found that there is no real difference between the academic performance given by public and private school students from the same low-income bracket and background, suggesting that family involvement has more of an impact than the school setting.

http://www.cep-dc.org/document/docWindow.cfm?fuseaction=document.viewDocument&documentid=226&documentFormatId=3665

I guess everything that Craig said was correct. However the fact remains that the playing field (financially) isn't even. Suburban/Private schools receive more money to spend on each student versus public schools. I wonder what percentage of private school students are from low income homes? I would assume that these students were some of if not the top performing students in a public school at one time and may have received a scholarship to attend the private school.

Summary of CEP Findings

• Low-income students attending public high schools performed just as well academically as low-income students attending private high schools.
• Neither private school students nor public school students with similar background characteristics were more likely to attend college.
• Young adults at age 26 who attended private school are no more likely to be engaged in civic activities than young adults who attended a public school.
• Private school graduates aren't any more satisfied with the jobs they hold at age 26 than are public school graduates.

Contrary to popular belief, we can find no evidence that private schools actually increase student performance,' stated Jack Jennings, the president and CEO of CEP. 'Instead, it appears that private schools simply have higher percentages of students who would perform well in any environment based on their previous performance and background.'

Home Schooling....... With or without teaching crudentials?

I would think that any parent who wanted to educate their child would be required by the state to have some sort of teaching crudentials. The purpose of teaching is to instill knowledge through experience and learn from it. How can an inexperienced parent teach subjects to their child that they don't know about?

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/aug/09/local/me-homeschool9
"In February, in a child-protection hearing, the 2nd District Court of Appeal said parents must have a teaching credential to home-school their children. The decision caused nationwide uproar among home-schoolers, evangelists and others, and the court agreed to reconsider its decision.

Today the court ruled that California law allowed home schooling but that the right of parents to home-school their children can be overridden if a child is in danger.

Unlike in at least 30 other states, home schooling is not specifically addressed in California law. Today's ruling essentially upheld the position of the state Department of Education, which has traditionally allowed home schooling as long as parents file paperwork with the state establishing themselves as private schools, hire credentialed tutors or enroll their children in independent study programs run by charter or private schools or public school districts."

I don't know whether to be disgusted by this or not. I personally only know two African-American children who were home schooled. They did fine in high school and are now in college. However their father is a major architect and their mom has a masters degree in biology but chose not to work. These circumstances aren't the same for rest of the nationwide home schooled students. Here are some comments from some teachers speaking out on this subject.

http://californiahomeschool.net/resources/teachercomments

"My state teaching credential did not teach me how to successfully instruct children as individuals, nor is it even possible to instruct another how to teach. Teaching is an innate ability possessed by most mothers. Instead, my credential gave me the skills to manage large groups of children efficiently within an institutional setting, a skill set completely unnecessary for home instruction."

"Home Schooling has produced some very educated students. Ability to teach is not conditioned on having a credential."

"The classes required for a credential are more about managing a classroom than becoming an excellent teacher. They are quite irrelevant to homeschooling."

"I hold a current teacher's certificate in the State of Illinois. I also homeschool our five children. My credentials did not prepare me to teach my own children!! Rather, being their mom did."

What do you think?

School violence

http://www.ericdigests.org/2004-3/violence.html

Violence in schools is something that isn't discussed much until a tragedy happens. Inner city schools are more prone to have acts of violence happen there than suburban and rural schools. The urban school administrators should take the time and assess how this affects the test scores of children. There should also be more programs instated that address school violence. Students need to be taught how to work out their differences instead of using violence to solve problems.

* Secondary schools are more likely to report at least one incident of violence than elementary and middle schools, with 92 percent of secondary schools, 87 percent of middle schools, and 61 percent of elementary schools reporting a violent incident. For serious violence, secondary and middle schools (29 percent) report the same incidence of serious violence, while 14 percent of elementary schools report at least one serious incident.

* Similarly, compared to city schools, those on the urban fringe are less likely to report a violent incident, while there are no differences in reports of violent incidents between city schools and those located in towns or rural areas.

After controlling for other characteristics, the only school management practice that remains associated with reports of violence is the number of classroom changes students make during a typical school day; as the number increases, the probability of experiencing a violent incident also increases.

At my school there are some fights but mostly from things that happen outside of school. There are several gangs in the area. However the security does a good job at curbing the violence on school grounds. When things to happen, I know that my assistant principal reports the incidents to area office and to the police. I don't believe that he is fudging data.

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=4032

"In reality, disclosures of school violence vary wildly from one district to another. Some schools report every punch thrown on the playground. Others did not include assaults that police classified as felonies," Denver Post staff writer Doug Oplinger reported.

After comparing police reports with those filed by schools, Oplinger found serious discrepancies. Among the incidents that took place at metro-area schools reporting no violence or fights of any kind last year were a boy who needed staples to close head wounds; a girl who was hospitalized with bruised kidneys; a sexual assault; a knifing; and attacks with a flagpole and a baseball bat.

Between March and April, the Chicago Tribune reported on the failure of law enforcement officials in Illinois to consistently notify school districts when convicted juvenile sex offenders enroll in their schools. Many failed to notify principals in the mistaken belief they were not permitted to alert them, when in fact they were required to do so.