Tag Archives: CI

Abusive Teachers

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It has recently been announced that Rutgers University will be removing their head basketball coach from his position after a video of the coach yelling, shoving, grabbing, and using gay slurs towards his players was released. The video was shocking and it was difficult to see a person that was supposed to be a leader, guide, and role model to these young players, treat them so poorly. The coach has remarked that he is deeply remorseful and sorry and luckily the players seem to be able to move pass this, but it does bring up the issue of how much coach, or teacher, to student abuse occurs in schools, and how damaging can it be to students?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbaYqcMMZ6A – video of Rutgers coach

This post is a sort of addition to my last article about how it can sometimes to be difficult to tell how good of an educator a teacher is. Unless an officially is willing to sit in for every class, every day of the year, which seems virtually impossible, the going-ons within a classroom can really become a mystery.

Most of the people in this class were probably very quick learners in grade school, and most-likely fairly well behaved, probably a teacher’s dream. But we all know that not everyone is like that. For many kids it takes a while to learn material, and when it is difficult the struggle can become even more intense, and that is when they need a teacher most. A teacher must be patient and nuturing because if they themselves become frustrated with the student’s lack of progress and decide to move on or become upset with the student it can have detrimental affects on that student for the rest of his life.

One mother tells the story of her son, a boy she describes as “smart as a whip” but who suffered from ADHD. She criticized the way schools run their curriculum where it is read, memorize, and spit out and claimed that her son was just unable to learn that way. So when he found himself getting poor grades or marks on a consistent basis the teacher, rather than helping, made an example out of him. He displayed the boy’s failing term paper to the rest of the class as an example of what “the worst paper he had ever read” looked like and told the boy in front of all of his peers that he would amount to nothing and that he was plain stupid. The mother claims that this was the turning point in her son’s life. As a 13 year old he was at an age where so many things were changing already and being told that he had no future he turned to drugs, alcohol, and fighting. She claims that if the teacher would have been more supportive and willing to their job, not abuse her son for his attempts at school, then who knows what his future would have been like.

Another teacher in Florida made her sixth grade students write out the words that they missed on their spelling tests using sandpaper on their hands. All of the students claimed that by the end of the day they were bleeding and could hardly use their hands to write anything else down. As college students many of us would most-likely just leave the room and report such abuse, but because most of these kids were ten and eleven years old they feared the further punishment from their teacher and let this continue for months.

One of the most disgusting forms of teacher abuse comes in the form of how some teachers treat disabled students. Cheyenne was a 14 year old special needs student from Ohio who complained to her parents about bullying in school. While at first they thought it was just other students what they found was the abuse was coming from her teacher. Because of the fact that she was special needs many people thought that she might have been lying or twisting the story, but after they put a tape recorder on the girl, what they found was shocking.

“Cheyenne, are you kidding me? Are you that dumb? Oh my God, you are that dumb! Cheyenne, don’t you want to do something to get rid of that belly? Well, evidently you don’t because you don’t do anything at home. You sit at home and watch TV. ” And there was more. “I’m not going to bother grading this test because I know you failed.”

These were all words uttered by someone who was supposed to be helping Cheyenne grow as a person, when instead she was tearing her down.

I won’t even start to go into the other types of abuse that can occur in schools and is sexual related but one can only imagine what that kind of relationship does to a young student.

In teacher’s defense we are living in a society that is very quick to jump to the lawsuit. While I don’t doubt any of these testimonies given I have personally seen situations where a student will purposely push a teacher to their limit just to get a reaction out of them and then complain about how that teacher got mad at them. Or when a teacher will give an extended deadline or offer extra help to a student who refuses to take it and then becomes upset with their less than desirable grade and the teacher’s disappointment in them. Of course in the case of children this abuse is inexcusable but I know a lot of high school students that learned how to work the system in their favor and turn the abuse around.

The classroom or the basketball court is a place where a trusted adult should be there to help students grow and develop. It has been proven that students will do this best in an environment that is nuturing and they are constantly encouraged to improve with constructive criticism. When teachers or coaches become a negative force in a child’s life it can affect that child for the rest of their life. As soon as a teacher calls a student stupid or tells them they have no future it becomes a lot more likely that they are right.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/karin-kasdin/after-a-teacher-calls-you_b_1103566.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57566947-504083/fla-teacher-accused-of-abusing-students-with-sandpaper-until-their-fingers-bled/

http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/bullying-teachers.html

Should We Abolish Tenure?

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“It should be recognized that the proper status of teachers and due public regard for the profession of teaching are of major importance.”
UNESCO (Art. 5 of 1996 Recommendation)

As the United States continues to fall behind many other developed countries of the world in the realm of test scores there has been a larger and larger push to improve our education system. One, if not the most, important factors in a child receiving a solid education is who they are receiving the information from. Intelligent, passionate, creative teachers are necessary to ensure that a child, or college student, is able to grow and develop academically. However, America seems to be lacking in the amount of these skilled educators. There are lots of possible explanations for why our teachers seem to lack the skills necessary to inspire and teach students today but one possible way that is being discussed in order to change the system would be to abolish tenure.

Tenure commonly refers to life tenure in a job and specifically to a senior academic’s contractual right not to have his or her position terminated without just cause. Reaching this point in a professor or teacher’s career is very important to them. Under most teaching contracts the school can simply choose to not sign the educator on for the next year for no apparent reason. Once a teacher obtains tenure however they cannot be let go unless there is just cause. This job security is important for educators because it acts as a type of reward after many years of schooling and dedicated years as teachers. It also allows them the chance to explore new research or teaching methods that could previously have “rocked the boat” and risked their employment. It also protects senor members of the teaching staff from being replaced by younger, new teachers. Teaching used to be a profession that was considered to be guaranteed and to always have available, steady jobs. But now that there is a push to eliminate the unskilled teachers from the system all educators are under constant surveillance and pressure to “teach better”. If teachers cannot produce the adequate test scores from their class or get bad reviews then their job is in jeopardy. While this might help to improve test scores it may be hurting students and discouraging future teachers. Another huge reason education is not a field many people want to get into anymore is the fact they there are not many benefits to it. The paychecks are very low in comparison to some other, perhaps less crucial jobs. And the fact that it is so easy to be let go is frightening to young teachers with student loans. By offering tenure it gives an incentive for more people to want to go into teaching and is a reward for those already in it. Proponent of tenure claim that if the University is careful to hire good professors from the start then once they review their application for tenure they will find that they still have the same level of passion. In addition after they have tenure some professors and teachers will be more comfortable challenging the authorities of a university or pursuing more intensive research. Educators should not have to fear speaking about certain concepts or topics because the University will punish them. And a solid staff of tenured professors creates an environment filled with knowledgeable teachers with experience. Tenure definitely protects those good teachers and professor who worked hard to achieve it, but it also protects the not-as-good ones and keeps members of the teaching staff on board while other, better teachers may be out of a job.

In order to obtain tenured professors or teachers commonly have to display outstanding teaching and research efforts. However, since it is difficult to accurately rate how effective the teaching is, more often than not professors must focus most of their efforts of pursuing research topics and writing papers that commonly no one reads. While conducting this research it means that they focus less on creating valuable lesson plans, thinking of enriching assignments, and on their students in general. Their day to day duties can get passed down to junior faculty or teaching assistants which provides their students with an education unequal to what they need or are paying for. Then once a professor or teacher is granted their tenure there is little more incentive to perform. They have achieved their job security and for those teachers they have lost their passion, their job becomes unimportant to them and they become lazy. Also hurting their students.

The system for obtaining tenure seems to be all around detrimental to education. Teachers and professors are put in a position where they are fearful about job security so they need the tenure. But by attempting to gain it they are essentially forced into being less attentive educators, so the students suffer. Then after they do get it there is a chance that they will become lazy and abuse their new found job security. It is definitely a controversial issue and the debate has become extremely topical. Improving our education system is a major concern since we want our youth to be able to compete with other industrialized countries. By improving our teachers and professors the idea is that we will see the results in the student’s test scores. However, pressuring the teachers to teach to the test or conduct unnecessary research in order to achieve tenure is not the proper way to gain these results. In addition by granting these teachers tenure it could possibly result in educators who do not have any motivation or incentive to teach to the best of their abilities any longer. However, if we eliminate the tenure system it may detour future teachers from pursing a degree and other skilled lectures will feel abused because of their lack of job stability. It would seem that the entire system needs to be revisited. Teachers and professors deserve to be treated fairly and since they are responsible for the nurturing and shaping of our nation’s youth their pay and benefits should reflect that. However, it is also extremely important to make sure the right teachers are in these positions as well.

A possible end to D1 college football and the NCAA

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When you think of Penn State one of the very first things that has to come to mind is Penn State Football. We belong to a major conference that has its own network on television. Beaver Stadium is one of the most massive structures in the country. Countless players have made the transition from college ball to the NFL. And if you ever been to a game, it suffices to say, they’re a lot of fun! But, due to enormous pressure on the NCAA there is a chance that college football cease to exist before we graduate. On Tuesday night at New York University’s Skirball Center as part of the Intelligence Squared U.S. Debates series, two prominent writers debated on whether or not college football should be banned. When the audience was initially polled on their views only 16% believed the sport should be banned, by the end of the night that number was up to 53%.

College football, especially at the division 1 level, brings together some of the best athletes in the entire country, or world, and exposes them to experiences that many would never get a chance to see. One of the contributors to the debate, Jason Whitlock, who is for the continuation of the sport and also played in his college days, described college football as “the highest level of the melting pot.” Thus implying that football, as is so with many sports, is able to bring together players of all different races, ages, and backgrounds and have them competing towards the same goal and promoting fellowship between them. These same athletes then are dependent on their performance in college to be the stepping stone to their professional career.  Many student athletes additionally rely on the scholarships provided to them for their sports and then the additional support, such as team tutors and required study sessions. And finally, football brings in a huge amount of revenue to schools. By selling tickets, merchandise, alumni donations, marketing, and television deals, millions of dollars roll into schools with prominent football programs. It also provides a spirit of unity within the nonplayers. Every student is able to stand behind the team and cheer them on together. So why would a game that provides such great opportunities for players as well as create an atmosphere that benefits the entire school be at risk of dissolving? Well, there’s a few reasons.

First of all, I am sure everyone is aware of the scandals college sports have faced in recent years. Not only the mammoth Sandusky/Joe Paterno disgrace, but schools like Ohio State and Miami came under scrutiny for their special treatment of players and breaking of the rules that say they cannot receive any form of payment while still in school. The problem is that the sport is getting too corrupt. Every year it seems there is a problem with breaking the rules of the NCAA and while it is a touchy subject it’s hard to deny that many of these scandals would not be an issue in other, less prominent, sports. Jerry Sandusky would most-likely not have been so protected by ‘good-ol-boy’ semantics in tennis or soccer. Football has become such a cult that many people are getting away with certain things that are simply unacceptable and the culture has become so crooked that more scandals are just waiting to happen and who knows who will be hurt next.

Secondly, the sport itself is extremely dangerous. Of course any physical activity potentially runs the risk of tearing ligaments or bones. But in the case of football, head injuries, and injuries to the brain are becoming all too common, and the idea of just providing safer helmets seems to be a bit of a pipe dream. Multiple concussions is common to many linebackers and doctors have said that the scans of these players brains look like they’ve been hit by a truck. Junior Seau was an NFL linebacker that killed himself in 2011 and it is widely believed the extreme trauma to his brain could be a large factor in his fateful decision. The question arises are the players of this vicious game completely aware of they are getting themselves into? As well as why are we encouraging young men to bulk up to massive sizes and then knock into each other as hard as they can. Sure it is exciting for an audience, but sort of in the way that a car crash is exciting to a NASCAR fan.

The third problem with the football programs at schools is the unfair advantage the athletes receive. At large schools like Alabama or Ohio the football is kept completely separated from their fellow students. They get first pick in their classes, special help with anything they need, and the scholarships they receive are often substantial. Why are these athletes treated like kings when they are supposed to be just representatives of the school? While some student-athletes are very serious about their schoolwork there are many that are simply betting on their drafting into the NFL and don’t even take school seriously, and if they were an average student would most-likely flunk out. The players get so much time on TV that they become famous and thus get the celebrity treatment.  It doesn’t seem fair that certain members of the student body get to have first pick at everything and are treated at a standard higher than everyone else. And at a University shouldn’t the first and foremost concern be with education? We should be celebrating the academics that are achieving the highest successes and rewarding them. But instead many of the focus are on the athletes, and the main reason is the revenue they bring in.

So lastly, the problem arises with the actual corruption of the NCAA. The amount of money flowing into their association is unbelievable and when you think about it, it is basically slave labor. When players sign their letters of intent they are promising that they will not accept a dime of payment for their sport. However, it is a little hard to stay quiet when your likeness is being reproduced in a video game that sells millions of copies and you don’t see any of the profits. The NCAA is becoming dependent on these athletes to bring in the viewings of television as well as all the merchandise the sell, and yet the players aren’t rewarded for it. A solution would perhaps to be to change things around and compensate the players but that runs into a huge argument over how much, and who, and with title nine in effect it just does not seem plausible that they can do that. A different way to go would be to eliminate college football and turn it into a semi-pro league, but that would mean loss of millions for the big schools as well as losing a chance at an education for many players.

With a large number of law suits being filed against them today the NCAA is forced with the decision to either reform or it will completely crumble, so unless things are done the end of college football as we know it could be coming to an end, but is that a bad thing? With the spotlight being taken off the dangerous and corrupt game there can be more of a focus on education as well as the players of the sport will cease being taken advantage of.

Affirmative Action in Higher Education: Helpful or Harmful?

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In 1961, amidst the civil rights movement of America, the President of the day, John F. Kennedy official signed Executive Order 10925, which stated that any discrimination because of race, color, or creed goes against the principles of the US Constitution and is hence unlawful and wrong. This was the first act of the now called “affirmative action” which is a term that was first used by President Kennedy in a speech were he demanding “affirmation action to ensure that all applicants are employed, and treated as employees, without regard to race, color, or creed.” And of course this was a huge step in US history, later the Order would be changed to include women as well, as thus elimate all supposed biases against minorities. The sixties was a time of great turmoil in America with many minority groups, specifically the African Americans and Feminists, demanded that something be done to change the system which they firmly believed was biased towards white men, and in all honesty, most-likely was. It was probably true that employers, and also universities, made decisions on who to accept based on “old fashioned” ideas and stereotypes. Not to mention the resources available for different groups available growing up were widely unjust, where Caucasian boys were given many more opportunities than say their female counterparts who were usually assumed to simply become wives and mothers. There is no doubt that something had to be done to say, “even the playing field.” Minorities experienced incredible amounts of discrimination for generations so in order to make any progress in the realm of equality, positive, or affirmative actions had to take place to propel minorities into the so-called system.

As a result of these measures colleges and university felt a pressure to increase diversity in their schools. There was a large push to accept more ethnic minorities and women even if they were perhaps not at the same academic level as their previous, less-diverse, students. Still, this seemed like a good idea. Of course some of these minority members were not going to be as impressive as their white counterparts because of the discrimination they faced growing up and the only way to improve their social ranking would be to first give them a proper education at a good university. In addition, diverse schools expose students to a wide variety of people, cultures, and opinions, and many would argue that that enhances the college experience. Also, minorities of lower classes that were now able to attend better schools were being taken out of a poisonous inner city environment and instead left to better themselves with education. Many attribute the creation of the African-American middle class to the effects of affirmative action. Overall, affirmative action was seeming like a solid plan to promote general equality. Now having an ethnic background was no longer a disadvantage but rather a strong advantage since colleges were striving to be more diverse and not appear biased.

However, is this still not biased then? Are we not combating racism with just more racism? And is it fair to be choosing less impressive minorities for positions that a nonminority member worked extremely hard for? In a landmark Supreme Court case Grutter vs Bollinger a female college graduate of Michigan State was denied entrance to law school because of the universities emphasis on the importance of race, thus making a white female undesirable, which she claimed violated the 14th amendment. The Court ultimately ruled in favor of affirmative action but it did lead Michigan to join states like California and Washington which have officially banned affirmative action and the use of race or gender to influence acceptance. These states claim that affirmative action creates a sort of reverse racism as well as in counterproductive to equality. If the point of affirmative action was to eliminate race biases it seems to have failed. This chart illustrates that fact.

College Acceptance Rates (2005)[34]

Overall Acceptance Rate

Black Acceptance Rate

 % Difference

Harvard

10.0%

16.7%

+ 67.0%

MIT

15.9%

31.6%

+ 98.7%

Brown

16.6%

26.3%

+ 58.4%

Penn

21.2%

30.1%

+ 42.0%

Georgetown

22.0%

30.7%

+ 39.5%

 

It doesn’t seem fair that non-minorities should be punished by the mistakes of their forefathers and now face their own discrimination in college acceptance. It also undermines the achievements of minorities since they must live with the stigma that they were helped by unfair biases in their favor.

In a place like University Park every day you encounter thousands of students coming from ethnic or racial backgrounds, and personally I think that is great. I think it’s great that I attend such a diverse university that accepts people from all around the world and I am able to meet so many intelligent, talented people that didn’t come from my background. However, I believe these people should have been accepted solely based on merit. I know when I was filling out forms I would check the “prefer to not specify” option under race because I think it is ridiculous a university would even ask that question.  As part of the female minority I do believe that at a time the system worked so much in favor of white men that minorities did need a boost to help them move forward. However, now I believe, perhaps naively, that a lot of that discrimination is disappearing and I hope that my acceptance to Penn State was not to fill a quota of how many females to accept, but rather because they saw my potential as a student. Unfortunately it is true that many people don’t receive the best educations growing up and that puts them at a disadvantage but it does not seem fair to discriminate against those who were fortunate enough to go to good high schools. In additon acts of racial discrimination against minorities still happen everyday. In a study done results showed that even if race is not listed, schools will judge people based off of ethinic sounding names. It is definitely a complex issue and achieving a level of completely unbiased admissions to college will be difficutl due to unfortunate harmful sterotypes but if we want equality we have to start by treating everyone equally.

CI: Education

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For my CI blog I chose the educational option as my focus for blogging. While all the topics seemed interesting the Educational topics spoke out to me most. Out of high school my friends and I went to a wide variety of colleges and universities. Some, like me, went to large schools such as Pitt and Temple. Others went to the smaller state schools like Bloomsburg and West Chester. Then there were the small Liberal Arts schools and even one Ivy leaguer. Upon reuniting for winter break we all shared our first semester in college experiences and I found that all of them had similarities but also a lot of differences. I feel it would be interesting to look at the different factors that make up these universities and why they differ. For example, state funding is a large difference in the colleges, as well as the importance of college sports.

In our society college is becoming more and more important and there is a lot of pressure on high school students to be picking the “best” university that will assuredly lead them to the greatest, and highest paying career. Since colleges differ in so many ways it will be interesting to explore what makes certain colleges “better” than others and how education might need to change. This will definitely require a lot of research and hopefully I can get some firsthand opinions from some of my friends that go to different universities where a certain topic might not be relevant to state college.