I, like many others, are very disturbed by the recent decision to fire all the teachers at a high school in Rhode Island, and President Obama’s subsequent support of that action.
Instead of writing my own post about it, though, there have been others whom have written about it eloquently and made the same points I would make.
I’d encourage you to read these three posts:
Bam and Arne Get It Wrong Again. . . by Bill Ferriter
Why not fire all the teachers? by Valerie Strauss
Obama’s unfortunate comments on teacher firings by Valerie Strauss
For your information, here’s a New York Times article about the firings that just appeared — School’s Shake-Up Is Embraced by the President.
I am currently a student at Michigan State studying elementary education. I do a lot of my field work for classes in Lansing, where the schools are old and run-down, and the students have more problems then we know about at home. I went to a school district about 20 minutes away, where our high school is brand new and no one is below middle-class.
Its thing like the firing of these teachers that break my heart. Were we smarter in Mason then the kids in Lansing? Is that why our graduation rate is higher and more of us went on to college? Of course not, and I can’t imagine anyone actually saying that was the case. The fact that these people are so willing to blame the teachers not only breaks my heart, but it absolute terrifies me for the future of the schooling system. We need to address the real problems, rather than blaming it on a lesser issue.
Thank you so much for posting these. I hadn’t heard about this situation, but I am glad to have read these articles.
~Rebecca