If we have learned anything at all about bureaucracy and education, it is that the one does not lead to the other.
Yet here we are, considering forming yet another bureaucracy, link; this one to educate Hispanic students.
The flaw in education is as fundamental as the model itself; take a large group of individuals who have nothing in common but chronology, or color, or creed, or ..., and then compel them to move as a group, at the same speed, and in exactly the same direction, for twelve years.
It is called "cemetery seating" for a reason.
If a child stands before a teacher with an educational difficulty, the intervention does not begin with color, or creed, or chronology.
The current model is defers the teacher as the fount of knowledge; the only fount. It is the effort to use teachers "efficiently" that stands in the way using them "effectively".
It serves no good purpose to group students for no good purpose.
I am not aware of any empirical evidence that proves students in groups "learn" better than they would independently. If the purpose of education is to create independent learners, why is that not the goal of education?
Sunday, January 24, 2010
No to "Hispanic" education.
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Ask any APS Bilingual or ESL teacher and you will find it is a mistake to put a bunch of kids of 1 ethnicity together and expect their learning abilities to increase in the classroom.
Reason: The social factor takes over. For example, MExican kids love to be inclasses together because they can freely speak Spanish to each other, and they have a common culture, and they don't get to see each other all together at 1 time, except for ESL class. This creates an overiding "socialization" priority in children, and learning will be slowed. The same can be said for other groups being "tracked" or placed together. The same could also be said if you put all White kids of the same apartment complex together in a class.
And any educator with experience will tell you it's hard to put Mexicans, Chicanos and Cubans together in any class in APS. These groups are socially competitive against each other, especially the males. Ask any teacher at Van Buren... fights break out simply because of the culture group you belong to...though they are all "Hispanic".
Ask New MExicans that consider themselves to be "100% Spanish" if they want "Hispanic Education" benefits like Mexicans and Cubans. Most of their parents will tell you to piss off because their child is not any different then any other and they want their kids to function completely in the American society.
Veroncia Garcia and Gov Richards are dangerous hypocrites. They want to enable, and thus hinder, the education of our Hispanic students in the name of securing a block of Hispanic votes.
IF they cared at all, they would truly fund ESL classes and Multicultural curriculum. IF they really cared about the well being of Hispanic Education, they would have bilingual classes held accountable to specific language standards (whether it be English and/or Spanish), and they would actually fund these classes, which they don't do now.
Garcia and Richardson-- you are disgusting to sell the public (and our beloved Hispanic kids) a pile of feces and call it a healthy meal!
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