Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Life as a public school teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2021

adamcadre.ac

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

281–290 of 764 posts

Re: Life as a public school teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2021

#281

Post by ZephyrBlu »

somethingor wrote: post #118
mmarq wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point of school is not to produce geniuses, but to take a mass of illiterates and turn them into semi-literate persons, also giving them time to mature as human beings before they are allowed into university or work. If an 18 year old person can read, write, use basic math operations, know a few facts about the country they live in and speak in a way that doesn't require their fellow countrymen to use subtitles,…

> can read, write, use basic math operations, know a few facts about the country they live in and speak in a way that doesn't require his fellow countrymen to use subtitles This seems achievable by the 8th grade.

I guess it depends what you classify as being able to read, write and use basic math operations because in my opinion a large majority of 13 year olds can't do these things well.

Most adults don't seem to be able to do these things well though, so I obviously have a skewed perspective.

Re: Life as a public school teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2021

#282

Post by bombcar »

amha wrote: post #159
rossdavidh wrote: post #153

So, this seems ludicrous and sad. What I am wondering is whether or not this is an accurate representation of the real situation in SFBay area schools? If we have any parents from the SF Bay area on HN who are sending their kids to public schools, I'd be interested in hearing their take on this.

I teach at an elite private school in the Bay. We're a much better place than the school described here, with kids who like learning, and administrators who are well-intentioned. But many of the author's frustrations are, directionally, exactly the same as what I experience, namely: > .. The emails sent to me personally from counselors and administrators have overwhelmingly broken down along these lines: such-and-suc…

You might as well have an option to pay the $x and be given the degree and not require anything. At least then those who do want to put in the work have the option.

Re: Life as a public school teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2021

#283

Post by dqv »

wutbrodo wrote: post #268

> Meanwhile, here’s what it’s like in the teacher email threads. This is a verbatim, non-ironic quote: “I didn’t really hear you at first, steeped as I am in a culture of assumed patriarchal white privilege, rank privilege, and inequitable hierarchy" It's my perception that adults involved with schools, especially younger grades, have been penetrated so intensely by woke ideology[1], much more so than the broader sub…

> adults involved with schools

I don't know what group you're trying to capture by saying this. You mean the parents as well as the school employees?

>Is this just down to how skewed female this group is?

No I think it has to do with how young both the parents and the teachers are. Someone who is 40 years old today is right on the cusp of being a millennial.

Re: Life as a public school teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2021

#284

Post by yhoneycomb »

gcheong wrote: post #259
yhoneycomb wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We all know this is because they didn't like it that "too many" Asians were getting in. Remove the objective measures, and it becomes harder to prove that you're racist - even if everybody knows it.

Standardized and objective are not the same thing.

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/objective-test

Re: Life as a public school teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2021

#285

Post by hef19898 »

WalterBright wrote: post #198
mmarq wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If we do not take advantage of the more capable students because of equity, what will the future of the country be without people who can do the sorts of things that require highly capable individuals? > No iphones, electric cars, or covid vaccines, for example. Do we have any data on the correlation between high-school admission criteria and inventing the Covid vaccine or whatever? We are not talking about taking…

> Do we have any data on the correlation between high-school admission criteria and inventing the Covid vaccine or whatever? Caltech requires good grades as criteria for admission. Caltech graduates have a disproportionately high percentage of Nobel prizes. https://www.caltech.edu/about/legacy/awards-and-honors/nobel... BTW, I think the mRNA vaccine technology is worthy of a Nobel Prize. Don't you?

Wasn't the most successful mRNA vaccine developed by migrants working in Germany?

Re: Life as a public school teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2021

#286

Post by jimbob45 »

ArkanExplorer wrote: post #235
Ivdg3 wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, public school in the United States is broken. They're quite functional in the majority of the OECD. If you are a parent and are in SF this should be a wake up call. The city is rapidly failing, it's in your best interest to get out now.

The fundamental problem is that formal schooling is basically a waste of time for a reasonable fraction of the population. Do you need any more than basic literacy and numeracy to be a retail worker, cook, laborer, driver? These students would be much better off learning a hands-on trade, or in the workforce. The school leaving and employment age should be moved to 14. Expulsions should also be properly enforced, inc…

What’s the cut-off though? Kindergarten is clearly too little and 12th grade Calculus is used by so few.

Furthermore, there are intangible social outcomes of having kids in school for 12-13 years that can’t simply be ignored.

Re: Life as a public school teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2021

#287

Post by spaetzleesser »

mindvirus wrote: post #64

One of the most radical beliefs I have is we should get rid of private schools, because it lets the people most capable of forcing change to opt out of an increasingly broken system, and so it doesn't get fixed. Of course I say this as I seriously consider sending my kids to a private school because of articles like this.

That describes a lot of the US. Rich people are creating their own country with nice schools and neighborhoods while they never have to interact with the country the rest of people are living in. That's why I am against things like congestion based pricing for toll roads or school funding based on property tax. They give rich people the impression that everyhting is wonderful and no change is needed.

Re: Life as a public school teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2021

#288

Post by lr4444lr »

staticassertion wrote: post #166
WalterBright wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we do not take advantage of the more capable students because of equity, what will the future be without people who can do the sorts of things that require highly capable individuals? No iphones, electric cars, or covid vaccines, for example. Even the communists realized that when you've got smart students, take advantage and educate them as best you can. The third reich idiotically drove out their best scientists…

Is there any evidence at all that AP classes and high GPAs leads to success, when controlling for other variables?

Who cares? You're dealing with millions of school kids every year, and need aggregatable data to make important policy decisions about how education is done. As long as it correlates well, it's easy to collect, and can be trusted not to be manipulated for bad incentives like this article implies is happening, we use it.

Re: Life as a public school teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2021

#289

Post by jbluepolarbear »

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #227
dnndev wrote: post #155

Public school is broken and we all know it - in general. We need competent administrators, more teachers and smaller classes. Parents need more time to teach their children what is not and should not be taught at school. Kudos to parents who can afford and decide to be more hands on with children’s education. It is heartbreaking when all a child has is public school.

> It is heartbreaking when all a child has is public school. All I had was public school in a small town and I was a National Merit Scholar. I don’t understand this line of reasoning that you need more teaching from parents or for profit tutoring etc. I got a great education at my public school. Now are some schools not great? Yes. But a blanket statement that all public schools aren’t enough seems incorrect, in my e…

If you have a learning disability and your only choice is public school, your pretty screwed.

Re: Life as a public school teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2021

#290

Post by DoreenMichele »

bombcar wrote: post #246
DoreenMichele wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe you don't understand California law. Most homeschooling families stay legal by registering as a private school. Source: I homeschooled my sons in California for several years and participated on various homeschooling lists at the time.

This was a loophole discovered by the homeschoolers - the state could ban homeschooling but the bar for registration as a private school was quite low.

My kids are in their thirties, so it's been a while, but my recollection is there were three legal means to homeschool and registering as a private school was one of them. Another was to hire a tutor for three hours a day.

I think the third was probably to go through an umbrella school, which my family did initially.

Homeschooling laws vary by state. Some are more stringent than California and others less.

Post reply on HN