Grade school: teacher fired for passing failing students so he wouldn’t have to deal with them next year. This was before “no child left behind” existed. At the end of one of the school years a girl tripped and fell and somehow got a metal tent spike through her neck. She was ok, just had a wicked scar.
Middle school: someone did the old flush the fireworks thing and somehow revealed a major flaw in the plumbing that required demolishing a whole building. We didn’t have water on campus for the last month. This was in Phoenix and it was getting stupid hot, so that whole month was half days.
High school: At the end of the year before I started a bunch of students got arrested for using an empty science lab to make meth. In my junior year there was a party that got a couple kids killed in a drive by.
Fired for passing failing students.
At this point in North America teachers have to pass failing students! I’m not US American so I am not sure if “No Child Left Behind” means no failing, though I remember it was a Bush jr policy that lowered standards.
Sounds like you went to very “active” middle and high schools!
The no child left behind policy was intended to ensure that kids got extra help when needed. In reality schools determined it was way easier to lower the bar than to get some kids to learn. Kids and shitty parents have figured this out and will game the system as much as possible. Clear on it being a baby bush policy. FWIW I think the intent was good, but making more demands of the education without providing additional resources and no way of enforcing quality has reached an inevitable point.
Grade school: teacher fired for passing failing students so he wouldn’t have to deal with them next year. This was before “no child left behind” existed. At the end of one of the school years a girl tripped and fell and somehow got a metal tent spike through her neck. She was ok, just had a wicked scar.
Middle school: someone did the old flush the fireworks thing and somehow revealed a major flaw in the plumbing that required demolishing a whole building. We didn’t have water on campus for the last month. This was in Phoenix and it was getting stupid hot, so that whole month was half days.
High school: At the end of the year before I started a bunch of students got arrested for using an empty science lab to make meth. In my junior year there was a party that got a couple kids killed in a drive by.
Fired for passing failing students. At this point in North America teachers have to pass failing students! I’m not US American so I am not sure if “No Child Left Behind” means no failing, though I remember it was a Bush jr policy that lowered standards.
Sounds like you went to very “active” middle and high schools!
The no child left behind policy was intended to ensure that kids got extra help when needed. In reality schools determined it was way easier to lower the bar than to get some kids to learn. Kids and shitty parents have figured this out and will game the system as much as possible. Clear on it being a baby bush policy. FWIW I think the intent was good, but making more demands of the education without providing additional resources and no way of enforcing quality has reached an inevitable point.