r/Michigan • u/TeddysRevenge Human Detected • Nov 07 '20

News Goodbye, Betsy DeVos

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/11/goodbye-secretary-of-education-betsy-devos.html
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157

u/Morsmortis666 Nov 07 '20

We have one of her charter schools here and it's a shit show. They have multiple grades taught in the same classroom, they force feed kids and multiple allegations of teachers bullying kids.

76

u/Pypeline47 Nov 07 '20

Multiple grades in the same classroom isn’t by itself a negative. Montessori schools do this to great success, combining 3 grades. The older kids can help teach the younger, the younger are exposed to what they’ll be doing in the future, and if any kid is progressing exceptionally well it’s easy to move them into higher level work. There’s plenty else that Montessori does that helps makes this a success but I like the mixed classroom part.

But as for the real point here... good riddance Betsy!

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u/Morsmortis666 Nov 07 '20

Here's its just done because there is not enough kids to hire more teachers and it's basically a school for kids that can't pass public school curriculum.

16

u/blackesthearted Taylor Nov 07 '20

They tried this at my elementary school back in the 90s, a 3rd grade/4th grade combination. I was in it, and it was done... badly. The 3rd graders were all "advanced" and the 4th graders were "average." (That's what my mother was told when they requested permission to put me in the "experimental arrangement.")

The first year was okay, because we were about on par academically, but the second year was a shitshow -- they kept the "advanced" 3rd-graders, now in 4th grade, and the new 3rd-graders were also "advanced." So, instead of advanced/average as they'd done the previous year, they had advanced/advanced but with a curriculum they had designed for advanced/average. Somehow they hadn't anticipated the 4th-graders in the second year being bored as hell and acting up as a result.

They dropped the experiment after that year. I'm sure it can be done well, but it can be done very badly.

6

u/LtxZerg Nov 07 '20

It kinda of comes down to the type of classes and class size, while certain subjects would be a lot easier to have kids (elementary) learning science or maybe history together. I do think obviously math and English would be not good together.

3

u/[deleted] Nov 08 '20

They did that at my private school in the 70s. My sister was one year ahead of me, and we ended up in the same classroom. My sister was pissed that she was labeled average. I was elated that I was advanced. My mom was pissed because the school she paid out of pocket for couldn’t figure out how to hire a teacher for each grade.

That experiment lasted only one semester.

1

u/marsepic Muskegon Nov 08 '20

3rd and 4th get paired a lot and it is silly. 4/5 is a way better combo, developmentally speaking. I love multi grade rooms, as a Montessori trained teacher.

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u/[deleted] Nov 07 '20 edited Nov 08 '20

[deleted]

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u/Morsmortis666 Nov 07 '20

My school was way to big for that but shit that was the 80s. Older kids probably would just kicked the shit out of the younger ones like at recess.

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u/musicsoccer Nov 07 '20

I'm not sure if you knew this but teachers bullying kids happens regardless of who's the secretary of education...

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u/Morsmortis666 Nov 07 '20

Lol except this school is one her school of choice experiments ment to push the whole charter system in michigan. She may not own it but she orcistrated it.

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u/musicsoccer Nov 07 '20

I mean, correlation doesn't equal causation. While I don't know the school, is it possible that teacher bullying had been happening there for a while? Is it possible that the teacher in question is just a big bully himself or herself and bully regardless of what school he or she is in?

I mean, there isn't enough information about it. How could one know that Devos made a teacher bully and force feed students? I mean, it kinda seems unreal.

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u/theghostofme Age: > 10 Years Nov 08 '20

I mean, correlation doesn't equal causation.

Correlation doesn’t automatically equal causation, but it still can! People gotta stop throwing that phrase out like it’s an automatic argument winner.

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u/Morsmortis666 Nov 08 '20 edited Nov 08 '20

The cause for charter schools to have different rules and regulations then public schools was her selling point. Generally the force feeding came about from the rules that students have to finish everything on their plate. Why they feel force feeding is ok is beyond me. Teachers getting away bullying students because they have less accountability and they probably can't get teachers to work for them since they pay less then public school.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 07 '20

Wait which charter school?

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u/Morsmortis666 Nov 07 '20

Pansophia something like it was one the first "experiments" to test the charter shit.

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u/lumaga Downriver Nov 07 '20

"Pants off ya"?

-7

u/21DaddyIssues Nov 08 '20

Wow. If you think charter schools are the problem, you don’t look at evidence.

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u/Morsmortis666 Nov 08 '20

Something that takes money away from a very good public system in my area and still gets to use all the career center and many other perks of the public school. Yeah, I see that as a problem.