Handwriting is on the wall, but kids can’t read it
By Rick Montes
As a teacher in a middle school here in Moore County I can attest to everything (Steve)
Woodward has written (Unmasked, May 16, 2023).
As a retired law enforcement officer, I followed my passion for teaching and thought I could
make a difference teaching in a public-school setting. This will be my second and last year
teaching in the (Moore) public school system. The system is so broken only a fundamental
and systematic rebuilding can fix it.
The tip of the iceberg is behavioral issues. It was easier dealing with hardened criminals
than trying to rein in completely unruly middle schoolers. I was told to my face on several
occasions to go “F@%k” myself, with hardly any repercussions. Kids would come in “high
as a kite” smelling like Cheech and Chong and would receive slaps on the wrist. Classes
would be routinely interrupted by the same students, day after day, and punishments would
be shrugged and laughed off.
Suspensions did little to nothing. It was a day off with no parental supervision. Parents of
the offenders could not be counted on to lend support to the teachers or staff. The apple
doesn’t fall far from the tree!
But the most glaring problem was the lack of reading skills of far too many students. Almost
three-quarters of the school’s students are at least one grade behind, and some are five
grades behind.
I continually pointed this out at every opportunity to administration but received excuse after
excuse. All that matters is becoming a “C” school instead of a “D”. I was instructed on
several occasions to document the failure rates of the different races of students, which I
found offensive. Why would it matter? Well, statistics showed that only about 25% of black
students were passing and most were grade levels behind where they should be, especially
in reading. Another failure of the system. However, this is nothing new. I decided to look up
the statistics for public school education in North Carolina and found that the federal
government keeps track. Since 1998 there has been no improvement in reading or math for
middle schoolers with almost the same failure rates for minorities.
Twenty-five years of failure!
But I want to note that it is not the teachers who are failing the students. Most teachers and
administrators are dedicated to the educational welfare of the students. But how can a
teacher reach an eighth grader in social studies when he/she is five grade levels behind in
reading? How can one expect them to read and understand the Declaration of
Independence when they can hardly read or understand Dr. Seuss? The answer, we are told, is to try different teaching strategies. Hold their hands, coddle them, and capture their
hearts.
All the while they are telling you to go “F@%k” yourself. No, (John) Nagy, your way has not
worked and never will. (See Unmasked, May 16, 2023). The Democrats and their fellow
travelers destroy everything they touch. It’s time to clean house and rid our great state of
the cancer of Democrats. Then, maybe, we will get a (state education) administration that
will be committed to helping our kids learn to read and write again.
Printed with the author’s permission.
تعليقات