Today's NY Times article about restorative justice programs in schools pushes the agenda that schools should be trying to "fix" kids with severe social or discipline problems.
I'll be honest that the Measure Y poster in the background of the photo accompanying the article didn't improve my mood on reading it. What a con job that was. Pretending to hire more cops so they could funnel more money to terrible social programs.
I don't really care what Oakland does with problem kids in the schools.
My reading suggests the only thing that has any real chance of working is to take them totally out of their environment by putting them in some kind of boot camp program. I assume that's why the most successful inner-city charter schools keep the kids in school 10+ hours a day.
These programs are a shame because there are smart kids in these schools. But when the funding comes, they're overlooked in favor of trying to "fix" the problem kids.
That's the wrong approach. Most problem kids will never amount to anything no matter what you do.
Stop wasting money on them. And, if you're going to spend money on them, take them out of schools and make them break rocks or cut trails in the Sierras or something. Get them out of that inner city environment.
But don't do this. Open a magnet school to empower the smart kids.
No comments:
Post a Comment