Dear Mr. Magill,
I agree with you on several points. The neighborhood where that poor kid
was shot knows who is doing what and all the showboating for the cameras is
not going to change the quality of life for those children.
Children in public school today carry lots of baggage. It's not like the
old days. Lack of parental involvement is astounding. These days parental
involvement consists primarily of coming up to a school and telling the
teachers, administration etc. where to et off concerning their child.
This is not to say there are no parents support teachers, just not nearly
enough.
Also, I feel the bad adult/good children drivel form lots of child
psychologists has gone a bit far. Adults are too often chastised for trying
to instruct children to become good citizens. We are "ruining the kids"
with our talk about restraining their impulses, waiting their turn, being
considerate of other people when you are not at home, working hard for what
you want and the like.
We must not "damage" their self-esteem. I am not sure the people who preach
this stuff really and truly understand what kids are like.
We have kids with highest self-esteem and the lowest achievement scores
because if "I am wonderful just being me," what on earth could YOU possibly
have to tell me or teach me that I should aspire to become.
Too often I see parents who support this view of their kids rather than
trying to see that such rhetoric will not teach children to become
productive members of society.
I realize there are many who would disagree with me. The opinion I am
expressing is not popular, but I think we need to open our eyes and really
think about how we are preparing our children to take the helm of society in
future.
Wilma de Soto
On 2/12/04 3:25 PM, "William H. Magill" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> n 12 Feb, 2004, at 11:51, Wilma de Soto wrote:
>> As a teacher in the Philadelphia Public Schools for more than 25
>> years and as a childless person, I feel I must take issue with some of
>> the points in the article you have posted.
>>
>> My experience has been for all the talk abut �Children are the
>> Future� and children first� and �Save the Children� is just that;
>> talk. �People (and that includes many parents) really do not care
>> about kids of the people who must deal with them.
>>
>> Day in and day out I see so much evidence of parental neglect that
>> it�s depressing. �Children come to school unfed, unwashed, without
>> proper clothing and other deficiencies that I and many other teachers
>> �find it necessary to dig into their own pockets for clothes, shoes
>> etc . �I frankly do NOT see much of the:
>>
>> �Parents are systematically more likely to think of the future of our
>> planet and our society, because their children and the prospect of
>> further generations of descendants give them a long-term stake in that
>> future.�
>>
>> Many of them cannot take the time to come around the corner to school
>> to even meet the teachers or pick up a report card.
>
> You don't even have to be a Teacher to see this. Just be a concerned
> parent ...
>
> Right here in University City you can see this played out day after day
> after day.
>
> Go visit a West Catholic High School Parent Association meeting.
>
> West is a Blue Ribbon School. Top of the heap, even though it is here
> in West Phila. Something like 80+% of its students go on to College. As
> I recall, it has an enrollment of something like 1000 students. It
> costs about $3,500 a year for Catholics and $4,300 for non-Catholics.
> (Monies paid in addition to taxes.)
>
> Yet at any Parent Association meeting (let alone activity) there are
> the same roughly 30 parents who attend. (25 are probably same every
> month) ... duh.
>
> The Parent Infant Center is one of the most expensive Day Care
> facilities in the city. Its "clients" are dominantly "Liberal"
> University City or University of Pennsylvania people. When our son was
> there, it had a requirement that each family contribute 4 hours per
> month in "work hours" for the Center. There was an option to "pay for"
> your hours if you could not help out. But every month there is always a
> surprisingly large number of parents who opted to pay instead of help
> out. ("Helping out" meant doing things to improve or maintain the
> center - painting, cleaning, plant sale, gardening, etc.) Why was that?
> (I have no idea if this "trend" has changed, but it was true for the
> seven years that our son was involved with PIC.)
>
> I'm sorry, but all of the "bleeding heart liberals" who are milling
> around 23rd and Cambria for the TV cameras, are there for just that --
> the TV cameras. The cameras will go away and so will they. Commissioner
> Johnson has it right ... the neighbors know who did it, they just don't
> care enough to tell.
>
> Listening to Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's testimony before
> Congress the past two days was quite instructive. Several International
> Studies have shown that at the 4th grade level American students are
> quite average in their scores in math and science, especially, when
> compared with their peers worldwide. But by the time they make it to
> the 12th grade they have dropped into the lowest 20% worldwide. There
> is clearly something wrong with the way in which Education is "done" in
> the United States -- it did not happen in the 3 years of the Bush
> Administration. (If you have trouble with the math, there are 8 years
> between 4th grade and 12th grade.)
>
> One BIG difference is Parental Attitude and Involvement -- In some
> parts of the world, where scores beat American scores... parents tend
> to "beat" their kids if they don't excel. "Loosing Face" is just as
> real a beating as a physical one.
>
> T.T.F.N.
> William H. Magill
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
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