How can that be a bad thing? He won't get all that wants due to the forces that be. But at least he is not starting out by announcing all that teachers and students won't be doing as is the current dem mode. As usual, I will probably get some hate mail from conservatves and dems. That's fine. Looks like he wants more charter schools which would be a total reversal of DeBlasios total elimination of them. I hope Usual Tard appreciates the fact that I have not mentioned "vouchers" (a/k/a Education Freedom Accounts) once in this post because he told me that that makes him cry. Looking out for you U-T. I don't know whether that phonics is a method of getting to literacy or some kind of ebonics. We can argue about methods and contents as we go along but the starting point is that there needs to be kids and teachers working on education. And there needs to be measurable results. New NYC Schools Chancellor Wants Longer School Days, Saturday and Summer Classes “Teachers very often may say ‘I don’t want to work on Saturday, I don’t want to work all year long.’ But if we continue to do things the way we’ve been doing them? We’ll continue to get the same results,” said Banks. He also added that if the teachers don’t want to work the additional hours on Saturdays or over the summer, he’ll bring in community groups to fill the void. All is part of his plan to break the mold when it comes to education. Banks noted that students should not be limited to only working with teachers in their own school building. He said that one positive takeaway from the pandemic may be how technology can be used to facilitate and expand the boundaries of the classroom, adding that “the city should be the classroom.” “You can have access to the best teachers around the world, it shouldn’t be limited to just the teacher that’s in their classroom,” Banks said at a press conference Thursday. https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/loc...ool-days-saturday-and-summer-classes/3445341/
Yes, and all serious and capable students should have access to serious and capable schooling somewhere/somehow. Not just limited to high flyer testers. There are plenty of students who are not necessarily gifted but are plenty capable of being a couple grades ahead of national averages instead of four grades behind because they are only taught what the dumb-arse teacher or class full of no-interest students want to work on. Yeh, I know, libs, how white male and colonial of me.
Rather than simply keep doing more of the same adding longer days and Saturdays, it would be better to just focus resources on failing schools and fixing those problems. Kids are not failing because there are not enough hours of school.... inner city schools have poor budgets and good teachers who are forced out due to low pay, lack of resources and no support from above and a desire to run kids through the system.
I did not read it the same way you did...ie. "simply keep doing more of the same wth longer days and Saturdays." The suggestion is more school time AND adding new approaches. That may or may not be fully withing a traditional school although that could be part of the mix. And in regard to "focusing o failing schools and fixing problems." How long we been at that?? Oh, and don't forget to add in "pay teachers more." Nope. We are at a major transitional point. And I have zero interest in all that same old, same old bullshiite that has been the goal for decades. Free up the funding. Let other people make choices in regard to options. Independent state evaluation of those choices is fine and recommended along with independent measurement of outcomes. Otherwise. Leave them the fuck along and go away. And all sorts of options can and should be available to assist parents who may not want or have skills to choose or participate in certain options. Fine. And have a "public option" too so that the public school can compete for business too. You know, as libs want for Obamacare.
Not sure the pay teachers more has ever really been tried... most teachers looking to earn back what they spent on their own education usually means suburbs or private school employers. Also if you live in the Bronx there is no money to pick a school 45 minutes away and get there and back with 2 parents working. Public schools private shelter, heat and food daily for many families. There is no one size fits all solution to inner city failing schools or rural schools in the middle of Arkansas.
Correct. That is what we are talking about. The current monopoly on education by governments. You can argue that that is not so because people are free to go to other alternatives, except the government keeps your money precluding most from doing that in a meaningful, systematic way. Also, it is not all about just failing inner city or rural schools. It is about any and all parents and students and others who want to achieve excellence and happiness and freedom as well. Funding and propping up failing inner city schools is rathole that we have been pouring money into by the billions for decades with nothing but more failure to show for it.