President of Detroit Public Schools- Illiterate?

[Tuckins1]

This article came out recently in the Detroit News... Emails from the president of the school board have been leaked, and BOY does that explain a lot about why Detroit Public Schools are in the toilet! Here are some excerpts-

"If you saw Sunday''s Free Press that shown Robert Bobb the emergency financial manager for Detroit Public Schools, move Mark Twain to Boynton which have three times the number seats then students and was one of the reason''s he gave for closing school to many empty seats."

From The Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100304/OPINION03/3040437/DPS-leader-s-bad-writing--Wrong-message?#ixzz0hiwzJYNt


Another-

"Do DPS control the Foundation or outside group? If an outside group control the foundation, then what is DPS Board row with selection of is director? Our we mixing DPS and None DPS row''s, and who is the watch dog?"

From The Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100304/OPINION03/3040437/DPS-leader-s-bad-writing--Wrong-message?#ixzz0hix9IVsX

Here is a to the article. Apparently he had a difficult time graduating because he failed an English proficiency exam MULTIPLE times... How did this man get this position in the first place??

Link

 

[HollyS]

HOW did he get his position?


I could offer several reasons, all of which may be accurate.


I prefer not to engage in that discussion, however.

 

[Lula]

Kind of reminds me of a man who recently left office after 8 years of public service at the national level.

Seriously, I think he may have a learning disability. At the time he was in grades K-12, there were no programs in place to assess students for disabilities such as dyslexia, so many students with problems similar to his were labeled stupid, dropped out, or developed their own compensatory strategies to get through. He''s obviously not stupid.

 

[iheartscience]

Date: 3/9/2010 7:16:04 PM
Author: sarap333
Kind of reminds me of a man who recently left office after 8 years of public service at the national level.

Seriously, I think he may have a learning disability. At the time he was in grades K-12, there were no programs in place to assess students for disabilities such as dyslexia, so many students with problems similar to his were labeled stupid, dropped out, or developed their own compensatory strategies to get through. He''s obviously not stupid.

SNORT. And ditto.

 

[lulu]

I grew up in Detroit and live about 2.5 hours north of there now. I can''t begin to tell you what a desperate situation the city is in. The last mayor did jail time for perjury.
There is a proposal that a third of the city be razed and that current inhabitants be moved out to more populated areas. Another city council member is about to be sentenced for bribery. We''re in a mess. All I can say is pray for Detroit. It was a great place to grow up in the 50s and the suburbs are still vital.

 

[PumpkinPie]

Date: 3/9/2010 7:16:04 PM
Author: sarap333

Seriously, I think he may have a learning disability. At the time he was in grades K-12, there were no programs in place to assess students for disabilities such as dyslexia, so many students with problems similar to his were labeled stupid, dropped out, or developed their own compensatory strategies to get through. He''s obviously not stupid.

I agree with this, particularly the compensatory strategy part- I think there are more "illiterate" people out there than you may suspect - you probably know one..

 

[ksinger]

I had several teachers like him, IN THE CLASSROOM, where people like that can do much more damage to young minds. Coach Irwin for history. Ah! the memories! Dumber than a box of hammers. Didn''t assign work, but READ to the class, or rather, he attempted to read. He had to sound out the words.

Also, in highschool I and other students were receiving some awards prior to graduation. Our parents looked wide-eyed at one another as the PRINCIPAL gushed about how all of us so deserved those "condemnation" awards.

Yeah, he was a bright one. He had been a coach too. Just shows those types have been around forever. No need to be all that shocked, like it''s something new.

And there is no defending this guy truly, but really, his grammar is NOT the reason that the public schools in Detroit are failing. The public schools in Detroit and the rest of the country are failing for some very complex reasons, among them a massive lack of leadership and vision at the adminstrative levels, an unwillingness to look the staggering levels of poverty driving the schools into the ground and straining their ability to address the non-education related social problems that come with that poverty, and the fact that we can neither define nor agree on what constitutes educational success - or what the end product of all those years of schooling should be. There are also growing numbers of people who WISH for it to fail, who think education, like everything else in their world, would be better served by a market model. I of course, disagree.

As a culture, we are well on our way to destroying public education in this country, although we''ll hypocritally wail to high heaven about how much we want it and need it.

Here''s an interesting piece from the WSJ...addresses some of the fictions that a bunch of people are haning onto.

Why I Gave Up On School Reform

 

[Imdanny]

Date: 3/9/2010 10:55:09 PM
Author: ksinger


As a culture, we are well on our way to destroying public education in this country, although we'll hypocritally wail to high heaven about how much we want it and need it.


Here's an interesting piece from the WSJ...addresses some of the fictions that a bunch of people are haning onto.


Why I Gave Up On School Reform

I agree with her 100%. Her views now, not her former views.

Thank you for the link.