Suit Sheds Light on School Makeup Courses Pt 2

"Makeup courses." It is in the the title folks. "Alternative" schools like ACE and others like the one where I work allow students a chance to make up the work that they would have missed if they were suspended. These schools are also sometimes known as credit recovery schools for students who have failed to earn the amount of credits to keep them on par for graduation.


My experience is that some students appreciate these schools and take advantage of what they offer and others play around and complain that "it is too much work." Either way it allows a student to maintain involvement in school and as I mentioned in the last post. However, a statement in the article was that P.E. merely consisted of filling out worksheets. We do the same thing in my school. It involves the honesty of the student and the parent or guardian. The student writes down what they did to engage in exercise. Obviously, the student and parent/guardian can fake this information. However, this is one of the problems within education; the grade, diploma, and degree are taken as synonymous with education. I try to tell tell students all of the time that intelligence is gained through knowledge and not grades.

Another statement from the article was "limited direct access to knowledgeable teachers." I know my subject which is social studies, but chemistry and algebra II are subjects that I am not capable of teaching. I believe that alternative schools should have teachers who are knowledgeable in their fields. I can understand that sometimes these schools expect their teachers to help with all subjects. This would not stand in a regular school setting nor should it at an alternative school.

The article goes on to state that students take tests over and over again without the questions changing. This can be controlled by the teacher I know I do in my classroom. Moreover, the lawsuit claimed that the program had deficits but in my experience it is usually the student who has the deficit. That is one of the main reasons that students can have some success in these programs. The students that I have encountered lack many of the skills one would assume that they should know at their particular grade level. If these classes were more difficult and asked for more in depth analyses these students would never get out of high school.

This leads us into the hot topic of the state of education. Everybody seems to have an opinion about what's wrong with education. I will weigh in on this topic in my next post.

Suit Sheds Light on School Makeup Courses Pt 1

This post is in reply to the St. Louis Post Dispatch's front page story a couple of weeks back about alternative schools particularly in the St. Louis Public Schools. First, the headline implies that these schools operate under the cover of darkness. Although I do not understand why ACE did not let a reporter observe their school, these are not secretive places. I work at such a school located in the affluent inner ring of suburbs of St. Louis. One may witness some off task behaviors but this is not unusual although it may seem more obvious because these schools are much smaller making observation of student behavior much easier.

The time limit of three hours is not suspect given the fact that most of the students are putting all of their focus in one or two classes via the computer. If you take away all of the teacher directions, lecture, discussions, lunch, P.E. and other activities at the regular high school then three hours is not too far off from actual focused learning time. Now, it is true that computer based schools do lack the enrichment activities of the regular school but my experience with students at our school is that they prefer it that way. After all, if a student is interested in these enrichment activities then they would not engage in behavior that leads them to be recommended for an alternative school.

The range of behavior that can lead to a placement in a computer based school is lack of motivation, fighting, truancy, possession of drugs, emotional issues, etc... However, lack of motivation is the root of all the various behaviors that lead a student into one of these schools. In my experience students who are suspended for fighting are focusing on their social lives more than they are focusing on their education. Therefore, the motivation to go to school is more for socializing than it is for education.

If the students from Soldan wanted their chemistry lab then that is where they should have been. The article is mute on what classes these two students were in, their grade point average, and their record of conduct. Their claim was that their rights were violated. HOGWASH! What about the rights of students who would like to go to a school to learn, free from disinterested students who would rather fight than learn the non violent history of Dr. Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement.

Behavior has consequences. You reap what you sow. The parents of these individuals need to let them work through the consequences of their behavior and LEARN something from it. Take advantage of the curriculum that is offered at ACE and LEARN. Malcolm X learned with a dictionary in a prison. Computer based courseware comes in many stripes and some of it can be quite good. We need these schools to catch the students who for one reason or another struggle in the regular school.

The future lawyers and their mentors from The Washington University Civil Justice Clinic have likely been successful students who didn't have a need for the stripped down learning of places like ACE. The students from Soldan could have been suspended out of school left to fall behind on credit. I would have liked to see the ST. Louis Public Schools fight them over this case but they have too many issues to let something like this divert their attention and resources.

Back in the Fold

Well, it has been awhile since I have written anything. Not that it matters much since very few people will read this. But in the end, who cares? Thus, the explanation for my absence from the blog, Facebook, and all other Internet pursuits. As George Harrison wrote and sang "It's All Too Much." I was simply overwhelmed by all of the causes, opinions, arguments, rants, etc... that are found in the electronic media.

Should I join group A, get behind cause B, donate to charity C, like music D, back candidate E, live in place F, follow blog G, befriend friend H, and am I green enough? I think I've always been a little apathetic even as a child. I had no problem quitting little league baseball after one year in second grade, opting out for the school flag football team instead of little league tackle football, and quitting wrestling my senior year in high school. On top of this I started to be skeptical of the Catholic Church in first grade. Of course, my father doesn't believe me but it is true. It certainly wasn't the college professors like he thought persuaded me down the path of agnosticism.

In my freshmen year of college I related to the detached individualism of Thoreau. I earned a degree in Sociology to try and understand society. I later earned a degree in history because understanding the past interested me. So, although pursuing knowledge leads to wisdom we can't always put everything into perspective. Enter the modern digital age where information true and false abounds and opinion is taken as truth. Rhetoric is rampant. On top of this people have etched out their digital niches that allow them to filter information so that the information that they peruse fits into their specific worldview. Nothing is what it is because there is a counterpoint or alternate interpretation to almost any event. In many cases this is warranted in others it is pure contrarious thinking.

I have to admit that the time away from the Internet was really liberating and I still question whether it is better to connect or stay disconnected. As a teacher in the digital age I ultimately need to stay connected and embrace the new era. It is fraught with nefarious individuals and groups looking to make a buck by stealing your identity but ultimately it allows ideas to be exchanged at lightning speed.

In the end staying connected both digitally and face to face seems the best way to travel at this point in my life. I am happier if I can remain somewhat detached from causes and movements. If I donate to this cause and not to that cause then so be it. It is what it is. The only thing I will always commit to and advocate for is rational thought. This will no way be the end of my struggles to adjust to the ever changing world but it marks my commitment to push ahead without dropping out and saying "for-ged aboud id." As the fictional George Castanza said, "I'm back baby!"