Liberalism Applied to Education

Applying liberal principles to education works out great for teachers, educrats, and the unions that represent them. No one has to work very hard, students don’t need to be challenged, equity in grading is achieved, and the results look good on paper. For kids, it does not work out well at all, as a Queens mother shared with the New York Post:

For 13 years, Adriana Aviles, a fierce education advocate and former NYPD cop, has been the ultimate insider in New York City schools. As a powerful leader on the Citywide Council on High Schools, she championed Queens District 26 as one of the best in the city. She knew the principals and the teachers — and trusted them. She was gratified that her son consistently received good grades, especially in math, throughout his K-8 years. Then, two weeks ago, she sat down with her 14-year-old son to help him review for his second high school math exam.

Adriana Aviles reports what she discovered:

He couldn’t solve basic algebra. He couldn’t do geometry. He couldn’t compute elementary-school fractions.

Yet at PS 221Q, the North Hills Elementary School, he regularly received the highest grade in math. At MS 67Q Louis Pasteur Middle School in Little Neck, his lowest math grade on an end-of-term report card was an 89 in seventh grade. He got a 92 in sixth grade and a 93 in eighth grade — the equivalent of A’s.

Since the school didn’t do it, she now has to teach him math herself, using books intended for first- through fourth-graders.

Had my son’s teachers just told me he was having trouble, we could have gotten him the help he needed early on. He would have done the work. But we were never told that. And the grades never gave us a clue.

However, there were warning signs:

The teachers barely gave homework. He was allowed to revise his answers on tests after they were graded — and get a new grade. Teachers had a surprisingly laid-back attitude about missed assignments.

Democrats of the sort who run New York piously proclaim that their highest priority is the best interests of non-Caucasians. However:

The [Department of Education] enables failure in minority communities by constantly lowering their standards instead of grading our children accurately… They don’t even police chronic absenteeism. How can our kids get jobs if they can’t read or do math, and [are] not even taught the value of showing up?

Without discipline, effort, and the possibility of failure, the result is the certainty of failure. But then, only when everyone fails can we achieve equity.

On tips from Steve T and DCGere.

The post Liberalism Applied to Education appeared first on Moonbattery.