I'm a Middle School Teacher in the Hood Who's Losing Hope For our Future AMA

[shadowking]

So you're saying parents at your mostly black school have a pathological problem?

Most likely it's environmental issues

U know back home in igboland your teacher or parents will kill you for a bad grade...
In India and south korea kids throw themselves of buildings and train stations with a bad grade.
In both examples more likely than not the parents are together...They may be poor but the kid will be disciplined. Most of our issues u know are with northern kids who are abandoned and are street beggars coupled with a non existent govt

 

[EBK String]

ppl living in poverty don't take education serious it has nothing to do with race. You think whites living in the economically depressed Appalachia region on meth care about how their kids are doing on school? When you are struggling to survive getting an education is not a priority. This thread is borderline c00nish. If these kids lived in areas with resources and their parents were making a nice living and they say a path from the classroom to prosperity they would be better behaved.

 

[SCJoe]

As someone who grew up in a similar area, just having my father there who was ex military made a HUGE difference compared to my single parent friends.

I still believe in separating bad kids from those who ain't ....

It's coming. Schools are gonna start sending "problem" students to online school where they stay home and only show up to a testing center a couple times a month, on the other side of the campus away from the other students. It's already happening for charter schools.

 

[Verbal Kint]

My parents had access to check my grades whenever they wanted.
Imo this should be standard in high school.

But then again I also went to a highschool where your GPA was posted on your dorm for the world to see so they clearly didn't give a fukk about "privacy" and "feelings"

they have that. There's even an app you can use as a parent or a student and parents can get notifications whenever a grade is entered or a note is put into the system. Since 80% of our kids have cell phones I'm assuming the parents do to. Ain't no excuse for them to not know

 

[GoldenGlove]

One of my guys went back to the HS he graduated from and taught there...

Started out prideful about it, but then after a while he was like man, I have to get out of this place. He was telling me how he won't hear nothing from a parent until they find out the kid is failing, asking, how and why they failing. My guy would be like, "... all the grades are posted online, there shouldn't be any surprises"



Ended up relocating and teaching at a better school

Cycle continues


It's gotta be hard to really make an impact on a child's mental and learning in general when the school just wants you to teach what's on the standardized test compared to anything else. Season 4 of The Wire with Presbo is an accurate depiction of how flawed the system is, and that show came out over 10 years ago. GOAT

 

[sunny80]

This is a class issue. Not ethnic or race based.

 

[ignorethis]

As someone who grew up in a similar area, just having my father there who was ex military made a HUGE difference compared to my single parent friends.


It's coming. Schools are gonna start sending "problem" students to online school where they stay home and only show up to a testing center a couple times a month, on the other side of the campus away from the other students. It's already happening for charter schools.

That's the endgame of the whole charter school push, to basically make it so people who don't value an education aren't forced to receive one and aren't entitled to one, especially not on the government's dime.

I understand the logic but it's a very dangerous shift.

 

[Gold]

But here's the flipside tho...

Black students in college (in my experience) are serious as a heart-attack

The AA kids I went to Vanderbilt with were ALL more serious than the White kids.

It was no comparison. The average black kid at Vandy was probably 2x as studious as the average cac.
So clearly at some piont personal responsibility kicked in.

It got to the point where if I had a class with a fellow black kid or a Malaysian, i would target them as a study partner cuz I knew they were serious about it.

With White kids it was so hit or miss because so many of them are either legacy, or just from wealthy Nashville families so they were just there to get wasted and throw frisbees

 

[verbalkint]

A teacher homey told me him and the other teachers collab'd to pass a kid just because they didn't want to deal with his crazy moms over leaving him back....our future yall...

 

[ignorethis]

This is a class issue. Not ethnic or race based.

It's a culture issue, because there are poor black parents raising intelligent black kids.

 

[shadowking]

My issue with most of these parents is that they're simply not involved at all.

I started the year tracking all the times I reached out to parents. Quit after a few months because it was a waste of time. This is a quick screenshot from 1 day. Notice how only a few have later dates on them? That's because none of these parents ever responded. If my kid gets a note home or if a teacher calls me I'm on it. These parents aren't. I'm empathetic to the macro issues we deal with and I know most of these parents are likely products of the same education system, but it's still an issue

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• Verbal Kint
• May 21, 2018

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Christ!!! That's horrible. Don't blame u at all if u decide to leave

 

[Gold]

they have that. There's even an app you can use as a parent or a student and parents can get notifications whenever a grade is entered or a note is put into the system. Since 80% of our kids have cell phones I'm assuming the parents do to. Ain't no excuse for them to not know

Wow, learned something new.

So basically if they don't know its because they dont want to know.

 

[mcellas]

I retired from teaching Middle School them kids crazy af.

 

[Goat poster]

You can't paint with a broad brush because of what you've witnessed at your school. The black community is in a terrible state, unquestionably, but there are schools where black children are excelling and going on to be accepted at institutions of higher learning where doors to brighter futures have opened.

We have to figure out a way for those schools to be the STANDARD in our community though.

I’m an ex teacher and I agree with OP 100%

 

[staticshock]

I teach elementary kids. I will never do middle or high school again