The New York Times reports today that a former Success Academy teacher videotaped another teacher demeaning and belittling a first-grade student who could not come up with the right response to her question. Other former SA teachers confirmed that children were subject to psychological abuse to force them to conform to the rigid disciplinary rules of the school.
In the video, a first-grade class sits cross-legged in a circle on a brightly colored rug. One of the girls has been asked to explain to the class how she solved a math problem, but she has gotten confused.
She begins to count: “One… two…” Then she pauses and looks at the teacher.
The teacher takes the girl’s paper and rips it in half. “Go to the calm-down chair and sit,” she orders the girl, her voice rising sharply.
“There’s nothing that infuriates me more than when you don’t do what’s on your paper,” she says, as the girl retreats.
The teacher in the video, Charlotte Dial, works at a Success Academy charter school in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. She has been considered so effective that the network promoted her last year to being a model teacher, who helps train her colleagues.
A spokesperson for the charter chain insisted that this was contrary to its rules. The teacher was briefly suspended.
But interviews with 20 current and former Success teachers suggest that while Ms. Dial’s behavior might be extreme, much of it is not uncommon within the network.
Success is known for its students’ high achievement on state tests, and it emphasizes getting — and keeping — scores up. Jessica Reid Sliwerski, 34, worked at Success Academy Harlem 1 and Success Academy Harlem 2 from 2008 to 2011, first as a teacher and then as an assistant principal. She said that, starting in third grade, when children begin taking the state exams, embarrassing or belittling children for work seen as slipshod was a regular occurrence, and in some cases encouraged by network leaders.
“It’s this culture of, ‘If you’ve made them cry, you’ve succeeded in getting your point across,’” she said.
One day, she said, she found herself taking a toy away from a boy who was playing with it in class, and then smashing it underfoot. Shortly after, she resigned.
“I felt sick about the teacher I had become, and I no longer wanted to be part of an organization where adults could so easily demean children under the guise of ‘achievement,’” said Ms. Sliwerski, who subsequently worked as an instructional coach in Department of Education schools.
These complaints sound like they come from a school of the late 19th century. Not the way most parents want their children to be treated. Not the way to prepare for the 21st century, where creativity and independent thinking should be encouraged.
Pretty sure it wasn’t the child who needed to go to the “calm down chair” (an abuse of language if ever there was one).
It would seem the creature herself, umm, I mean teacher herself, needed to go sit in the “calm down chair.” The fact that the assistant had her camera ready proves, at least to me, that it was a common, if not daily, monolog she would blast her students, I’m sorry, her scholars, with. Anyone who defends this turd is, in my opinion, wrong. If she treated my kid that way, I’d have plenty to do about it. Of course, Eva would just push me and my kid out of her “system” (they don’t call it a school; they call it a system) and I guess that would be ok with me; then again, I’d never NEVER send my precious child to one of Eva’s prisons. She even makes the prisoners wear ORANGE.
have any of you ever been to one of the Success Academy schools?
“As to making children cry, Ms. Moskowitz said that no one at Success purposefully reduced children to tears, but that ‘children cry a lot’ ” .
Perhaps Evita thinks that’s true because it’s the norm at the “Success” Academy gulag that she runs, but no, children don’t cry a lot at real schools across the country everyday. What would Evita know about children, anyway?
The public humiliation aspects of the video make me cringe, not just for the children when they’re shamed in front of their classmates like that but also for the teacher with the release of the video.
I think they have some management and organizational culture problems if current and former employees feel the only way they can get these things revealed and addressed is by going to a newspaper. There’s something wrong with the way that place is being run.
You are more compassionate and empathetic than I am, Chiara: I feel nothing but contempt for this child abuser (and her enablers) and am glad that she is being publicly exposed for her abuse. Rest assured that, like a dog biting a human, if she did it once, she has done it/ will do it again.
She deserves whatever repudiation and shame that comes her way, and should never be allowed in a classroom again.
Whilst this is shocking, I can’t think that it is that unusual in a culture that prizes test outcomes above all things. Where is the servant heart? Where is the desire for the child to grow and manage failure and love success? If we want children to grow in love (and most of us in teaching do) then how does fear as a tool encourage that? As well as being abusive, bullying practice, it is also phenomenally stupid and ill-informed psychologically.
Aim of “going to school” = don’t upset your teacher.
For starters, pair this posting with another recent one from this blog:
[start]
The New York Times reports today that the charter school principal in New York City who created a list of students who had to be removed from the school (the “got to go” list) has taken a leave of absence.
The school is part of the high-performing Success Academy charter chain, which has often been accused of excluding or removing students who might get low test scores.
The acting principal will be the school’s fourth principal since it opened in 2013.
[end]
Link: https://dianeravitch.net/2016/01/05/success-academy-got-to-go-principal-take-a-leave/
Among other relevant pieces just on this blog, also look at 1-15-2016 (“Mercedes Schneider on That Infamous ‘Got to Go’ List at Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy”) and 10-29-2015 (“New York Times: Success Academy’s ‘Got to Go’ List”) and 12-1-2015 (Former Success Academy Teacher: Why I Resigned).
Remember that charter/privatization zealots hold Eva “She Can Do No Wrong” Moskowitz in the highest regard. See this blog, 2-8-2016, “Success Academy Parent: Don’t Be Afraid of Eva” and its accompanying thread.
The problem according to her fanboys & fangirls is that so many of her subordinates, especially the ones she promotes and favors, just keep getting the secret sauce of $ucce$$ Academy wrong.
Does anyone still remember Paul “little test-taking machines” Fucaloro? You know, “her director of instruction and right-hand man” (New York Magazine, online, 4-25-2010) that devised SA iron discipline (see this blog, 11-23-2015, Paul Fucaloro, Director of Pedagogy at Success Academy Charter Schools, on Children as “Little Test-taking Machines” with links to WSJ & other sources).
Whether they stay or go or take a leave of absence, the one common denominator amongst the stars of $ucce$$ Academy is:
Eva Moskowitz.
A fish rots from the head.
😎
No doubt there are parents who actually want to have their children treated this way. However this is just the tip of the iceberg at these schools. Regularly belittling children and speaking to them disrespectfully is an expectation, not an aberration. Any parent who chooses to have their children “do well” at the expense of their self esteem and growth as a human being is derelict in their parental duty IMHO. Luckily there are enough self hating parents around to support this nonsense. Especially when they are convinced that they are somehow better than those lowly parents whose children attend public schools.
It saddens me to think that this young teacher most likely chose this profession because she wanted to help young minds. I can’t help but wonder if the culture of these schools leads to a Stockholm Effect for all enveloped in this sick atmosphere. In New York, it’s very difficult for new teachers to get a job in a public school (I don’t consider Charters to be public). I hope that this teacher can escape and clear her mind. I urge all charter school parents to take their children out of this abusive atmosphere.
This teacher will likely be a Principal in a Success Academy before she is 30.
RL –
She’s not naïve. She’s been held up as a model teacher by Success Academy.
“She has been considered so effective that the network promoted her last year to being a model teacher, who helps train her colleagues.”
Apropos of your comments:
[start]
The Stanley Milgram experiment aimed at getting an answer to the question:
“For how long will someone continue to give shocks to another person if they are told to do so, even if they thought they could be seriously hurt?” (the dependent variable)
Remember that they had met the other person, a likable stranger, and that they thought that it could very well be them who were in the learner-position receiving shocks.
[end]
At the end of the linked piece [see below] under “Conclusion – Obedience to Authority”:
[start]
Before the Stanley Milgram Experiment, experts thought that about 1-3 % of the subjects would not stop giving shocks. They thought that you’d have to be pathological or a psychopath to do so.
Still, 65 % never stopped giving shocks. None stopped when the learner said he had heart-trouble. How could that be? We now believe that it has to do with our almost innate behavior that we should do as told, especially from authority persons.
[end]
For the above, go to—
Link: https://explorable.com/stanley-milgram-experiment
If you google “Stanley Milgram experiment” you will get many hits.
I leave it to you and other readers to connect the dots…
Thank you and other commenters for their remarks.
😎
I don’t think it’s a Milgram-experiment situation. As I recall, most of the “shockers” in the Milgram were visibly conflicted during the experiment and (it seems to me) never would have proceeded to the higher levels if there hadn’t been an authority figure standing next to them and ordering them to continue. This teacher seems to be much more of a self-starter, so to speak.
Ponderosa, I think there is or might be some truth to what you say, if the “tough love” is carried out strategically and in a measured way. There is a big difference between expectations that are insisted upon with a firmness tempered by love and respect, and this video, which is straight-up incompetence, humiliation and child abuse. There is not the merest hint of love or respect written on this martinet’s face.
This video shows the opposite of firmness, love and respect, and it is also clear that it was typical behavior in this child abuser’s classroom.
No, this woman should be kept away from children, and the fact that she is now teaching other temp teachers at Success Academy shows how degenerate Moskowitz and her backers are.
Sorry, the above comment was intended in response to Ponderosa below.
FLERP!: yes, I made a limited analogy, and I appreciate your comment—I meant it more to provoke discussion than anything else.
Just one follow-up comment. SA is characterized (at least in some of its outlets) as implanting the feeling amongst teaching staff that, whether admin authorities are physically present or not, staff should always feel/think/act as if Big Brother and/or Big Sister are peering over their shoulders. So if a child quite obviously is in distress, and even more is suffering from verbal abuse, then the important thing is to remember cui bono—yes, “to whose benefit.”
In the case of SA, over and over again arise instances where the interests of a few adults (with Eva Moskowitz stack ranked #1) are more important than the interests of the staff, students and parents.
So as I see it, it is possible for teachers in SA (but not only there, of course) to do something they felt was wrong and later regretted. However, I also think we should always ask the question: to what extent are they responding to the imperatives and expectations of their bosses, and do those imperatives and expectations outweigh the interests of creating/nurturing/sustaining an environment where genuine learning and teaching can take place?
I hope I have expressed myself clearly.
Thank you for your comment.
😎
I almost feel sorry for the Success Academy teacher. When you are in an environment where this kind of “teaching” (if you can call it that) is not just tolerated, but REWARDED, you tend to lose sight of your own principles. What is sad is that the people with principles leave Success, and the ones who lack any inner sense of right and wrong become “model teachers” (as the teacher in the video is) and are soon promoted to running their own school where they can tell other teachers how to do their job.
It’s a similar feeling that I had with the young Enron guys. They were in a culture where their bad behavior was rewarded and they forgot that doing what is ethical is very different from doing what you can get away with and what gives you the most rewards.
There is as much of a poisonous culture at Success Academy and it comes from the top. It is all about how much Eva Moskowitz can get away with to achieve more power. And her enablers — the SUNY Charter Institute, the hedge funders on her board, the billionaires who give her money, Andrew Cuomo, Mike Bloomberg, and yes, President Obama — should be ashamed. Every one of those people should be apologizing to this child for allowing this to go on.
Whoops, it seems that Eva Moskowitz is still having some quality control problems with what, in her stereotypically ed reformish way, she likes to call “customer service.” I guess she’ll have to find another temporary TFA-bot, so that perhaps “One Day” young children won’t have to suffer abuse as a result of such ugly and incompetent malpractice.
Need I say that a NYC public school teacher who was found to treat students this way would immediately (and rightfully) be removed from the class room and brought up on disciplinary charges? For those still bedazzled by charter propaganda, or those spreading it, I suppose I do.
Now cue Tim, who will presumably troll on in and remind us how charter school “choice” is beneficial to Black and Latino children, who would otherwise be abused and humiliated by those racist, incompetent, unionized public school teachers who get such benefits and thrills from racial segregation.
If you’re a Massachusetts teacher who is on Twitter, Governor Baker has chosen today as a rather inauspicious time to tweet about the glories of the charter industry and why we need more! more! The hashtag is #TruthAboutCharters.
Sadly, my 2nd grader reported a similar thing happening – ripped paper, thrown in trash – in his classroom at a public school within blocks of this school.
Testing even outside of charters is still very much with us, and teachers are losing their cool.
I don’t know about the situation in your 2nd grader’s class, but this video is clearly not a situation of “losing one’s cool”. This is this teacher’s intentional, routine mode of operation. You can tell because of how the other kids react – meaning, they don’t. They’re not surprised at all, they just move on, keeping their heads down, hoping not to be the next victim. Also, the fact that the TA was ready to record it – if this wasn’t a regular, predictable occurrence, how would she have known to have her phone out and ready?
Sickening. Demented. Tragic.
If you scroll through a few of the comments as organized under “NYT picks” and then scroll through a few organized under “Reader Picks” you will learn a lot about the NYT (albeit probably nothing we didn’t already know).
Good point. Same thing on any Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton article.
Bullying.
I’ve never been a fan of proposals to put nanny-cams in classrooms. Not sure if this video makes me reconsider that position or not. Maybe I just don’t want to know what goes on in elementary school classrooms.
It is not “what goes on in elementary school classrooms” for the vast majority of public school classroooms. Now, the question is, In how many charter school elementary classrooms is this a common affair?
No matter if charter, public, private or Catholic (I saw that kind of humiliating and belittling of students many more times than once in the parochial school I attended), ONE TIME is TOO MANY.
As you say, one time is too many, and especially when it’s your kid. And of course I have no idea what happens in my son’s classroom. It’s a black box to me. Based on my own interactions with and observations of his teacher, I tend to assume that she is often rude, dismissive, and insulting, and harsh. (Can you tell I dislike her?) I doubt she’s ever as bad as that Success teacher, but again, it’s a black box to me.
Re: parochial school — I saw and experienced the same (much worse, truly, although it was high school) in my brief time in parochial school.
While I think this teacher’s behavior crosses a line, and while I know saying this will result in my receiving public shaming and verbal abuse akin to what she delivered, I do wonder if some level of calculated displaying of anger is a legitimate way of motivating SOME students. The vast majority of my students absolutely do not need this, but I’m thinking of J., a happy-go-lucky boy in my classes this year whom everyone likes, but who NEVER does homework and NEVER studies for tests. We teachers beg and cajole him. We have great rapport with him. We call home. He just glides through school without lifting a finger. Since there is no retention, he knows he can carry on this way…learning little to nothing, falling further and further behind, thoroughly enjoying his play-filled days with his agreeable teachers and friends. His parents, from what I’ve gathered, never pressure him. It strikes me that J. could use a little Tiger Mom treatment, rather than the endless love-fest he gets now. Amy Chua makes the provocative argument that the love-fest parents are really showing less love for their kids because they’re unwilling to play the heavy, even if that would, in the long run, be beneficial for their child. While the teacher in the video seems guilty of taking this too far, I think many adults are guilty of the opposite offense: harmful laxity.
Does J respond when you come down on him? Does it help? What does J want out of his life and how does your class help him with that? That’s the connection you have to make if you want him to engage, which is something he has to choose to do (or not). You cannot control other people. At least, not for long, not without harmful consequences and not without losing some of your own humanity in the bargain.
Incidentally, I’m guessing J is not a first grader?
Ideally reasoning with a kid would do the trick. But what if reasoning fails? It is very hard for some kids to see the reality of potential misery ten or twenty years down the road. On the other hand, it is not hard for them to see the reality of an adult getting visibly angry, or feeling a sting of shame. Is it unethical to devise a small, temporary, artificial and immediate negative consequence (e.g. getting chewed out or shamed) that would, in the long run, help avoid a large, permanent and serious consequence (e.g. poverty)? This seems to be the underlying logic of Tiger Mom behavior, and I find it somewhat persuasive. Perhaps one of adults’ important roles is to contrive minor immediate pains to prevent major future pains –because of the difficulty kids have in perceiving the reality of those major future pains and of fearing them sufficiently.
J is 13 and I have not “come down” on him for his insouciance. I’d rather not –it is quite unpleasant. It would tarnish my self-image. But maybe being nice is not the most ethical choice.
I’ve been retired for going-on five years. During the last three years, I had a student like your J. It was high school at a special admission school where nearly everyone was headed to college. I enlisted others to help, including the baseball coaches, who told me that he brought the same attitude to the field. His classmates have gone on, finishing college and beginning careers, but from what I hear he is mired in the mess he created. Still bugs me that I couldn’t get through to him.
Ponderosa “I do wonder if some level of calculated displaying of anger is a legitimate way of motivating SOME students.”
Other kids also see the anger, so it’s never directed to a single, specific student. Stern, firm, yes. Anger? How can it be useful?
Mate,
I’m not sure if it’s good or if it’s worth it, but anger does tend to get a person’s attention. Kids’ attention is often given –often lavishly –to the wrong things. It seems that one trick adults have used to get kids to pay attention to the right things is displaying anger.
Yes, Ponderosa. I regularly get verbally flogged at my job — it MOTIVATES me. Without being treated like dirt, I fear I would never do my work. I don’t even know why they don’t fire me, I suck so at my job that the only way to get me to do it is to abuse me. Ya think?
Donna, are all displays of anger “verbal flogging” and “abuse”? I tend to think not. Once I angered my department head, and though he did not make a big display of it, I could tell he was angry and it certainly made me perk up and pay attention. I have never forgotten what it was that made him angry and I’ve tried to avoid doing that ever since.
Fear motivates much of what we do, doesn’t it? For example we save money, in part, because we fear we could lose our jobs one day. We exercise because we fear obesity, strokes and dementia. When we’re mature and wise, we fear the right things. When we’re kids, we may not have sufficient fear for the real and serious things down the road. Kids may fear falling out of favor with their friends more than getting bad grades. Adults can rejigger the fear equation by attaching tangible negative consequences to getting bad grades, etc. Unless you’re a sadist, this is no fun for the adult. But maybe it’s sometimes necessary.
ponderosa, do you realize what you are saying here?
This child did NOT act out. She did NOT disturb other children. All she did was not understand how to do a math problem that apparently, the teacher had once taught her in the past and expected her to understand and remember. Did it even occur to you that this child just didn’t know how to do the answer? She is six. Sometimes six years don’t learn at the exact pace that charter schools who need to brag about their high test scores demand.
If you are really arguing that publicly shaming, humiliating, and making a child feel guilty by telling her that her wrong answer ruined it for all the other children is NOT teaching. And it never will be. How can you possibly think otherwise when we are talking about young children?
^^^sorry, a typo in there.
If you are really arguing that publicly shaming, humiliating, and making a 6 year old child feel guilty by telling her that her wrong answer ruined it for all the other children is a teaching method, then I just cannot comprehend your mindset. That is NOT teaching. And it never will be. How can you possibly think otherwise when we are talking about young children?
Ponderosa,
We as teachers can never get inside the head of the student to know what is going on. While outward behaviors can be an indication, they can also be a mask. I’ve had many a student whom I thought I was not getting through as the behaviors didn’t change, much at all. But when it was all said and done sometimes I was downright shocked at how much they had learned.
I cannot agree with using the “a little bit of anger” approach for the reasons Mate explained. And although outwardly it may appear that the anger is working, I suspect otherwise as many children have figured out how to “play the adult game”, especially by the time they are 13 year olds. I will always error on the side of caution with kindness, or is that kindness with caution, over the mixed message of kindness with anger/anger with kindness.
“Is it unethical to devise a small, temporary, artificial and immediate negative consequence (e.g. getting chewed out or shamed). . . “?
Yes, because one is not being “upfront” and honest, one is not being faithful to truthful discourse and action.
“. . . that would, in the long run, help avoid a large, permanent and serious consequence (e.g. poverty)?”
That type of hypothetical thinking is specious at best, pretentious and delusive to oneself to believe that one can have that much power and effect on another human,
If you walk by a dog, daily, and kick it, and it finches, the day you walk by and do not kick it, it still flinches, because it expects the kick. Not because it wants or desires the kick. Not because the kick somehow motivated it do to anything.
This teacher is an abomination. She told this girl to go to the calm down chair like she was sending her away for punishment. So she didn’t have to look at her anymore, the child so disappointed and disgusted her. Her word were harsh, her actions more harsh than her words. This was not MOTIVATIONAL; she was just kicking the dog (and I in no way mean to call the little girl a dog; I’m referring to the paragraph above).
That you can defend it speaks volumes about you. If ANYONE spoke to me/treated me like this teacher, I’d have an issue with it.
Saving money because you fear losing your job…dieting/exercising because you fear heart attack–whatever examples you were trying to give–children, little children, should not be “motivated” by a scary, awful, yelling, horrendous at her job, teacher. Period.
No need to further reply.
“I will always error on the side of caution with kindness, or is that kindness with caution, over the mixed message of kindness with anger/anger with kindness.”
Same. Does it always “work?” No. And yet, it’s ultimately the better alternative…
I want to mention that I went to private school in the 70’s through 90’s and a version of this was used frequently – with us! Middle class white kids! Some of us – upper middle class, perhaps wealthy. The teacher to me went too far – but a lighter version of this would in my opinion been absolutely fine.
I prefaced my first comment by saying I think she crossed a line. I do think a screaming martinet is a horrible type of teacher. I just wonder if what we’re seeing is an over-the-top version of something that has a legitimate place in child rearing. I vividly remember a neighbor’s mom berating her son after he’d darted out across a street without first looking. The anger served a cognitive purpose: it seared in his brain (and mine) that this behavior should never happen again. Doing one math problem wrong is not equivalent to running across the street without looking. But perhaps controlled and safe doses of anger or shaming, strategically deployed, are valid tools for penetrating the haze of self-satisfaction and contentment that envelops certain lazy and underachieving youth (and I am thinking of middle school kids, not first graders). I wonder this when, predictably, the same crew of kids who fail most quizzes fail yet another quiz. I give them study guides WITH THE ANSWERS and select quiz questions from those study guides. I tell them to have someone quiz them at home. I give them a week to prepare. The ones who follow my advice pass. But most of this crew don’t bother to study. I have good rapport with most of these kids. They laugh about their failing grades. There is no tangible negative consequence for their failing. I wonder if I should somehow contrive one, as unpleasant as that would be for me. I wonder if, because we may be wired to LEARN and alter behavior when a degree of anger and fear are involved, that these should be part of an adult’s toolkit. Toxins and viruses are bad, yet we use them carefully and strategically to heal (chemo and vaccines).
Who cares what infuriates this woman? Why is the responsibility of first graders to care about her interior life, let alone seek to gratify it?
This woman is a mess–she ought to get out of teaching before she damages more children.
Dickensian video.
She sure looks like a teacher that would make bureaucratic bosses happy…as long as we ignore that these are first graders.
I’ve seen this kind of thing in market research for years. There are focus group moderators who succeed just by keeping clients happy – but once you put them with real consumers in a group format their “business like” demeanor kills discussion and we don’t learn anything.
It’s a disconnect where bureaucratic management struggles because it doesn’t really understand people – and respects best the people who can play the politics best. And as we all know, far too often the best political players are the people who are also worst at their jobs.
This makes particular sense here given that Success Academy had been recognizing her as such an outstanding teacher – she made management happy.
If you read the investigator’s report in the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal, the over-all ed reform management philosophy in those schools was one of public acclaim and rewards for success (test scores) alternating with public humiliation for failures.
In that case children weren’t publicly humiliated but principals and teachers were.
It was really a pretty sick environment. At one of the meetings where they scream at them to get test scores up, they so berate this one teacher she crawls under the table.
I thought of that when I saw the video.
In January, New York Times reporter Kate Hill interviewed seven Success Academy Cobble Hill parents and showed them the Charlotte Dial video. The interview audio is on the SuccessAcademies YouTube channel.
Ms. Dial is, in fact, a saint. How wonderful. This proves it. I wonder who wrote the script?
Triumph104, we already know this teacher is happy as long as your child doesn’t need to be taught beyond the one way she knows how to do it. When the student struggles at Success Academy, it is always their fault — they just aren’t “trying”. This video made that VERY clear and that is why this teacher is in charge of showing every other teacher the “Success Academy” way to teach. Shame any child who doesn’t learn.
No wonder Eva Moskowitz can sit in an interview and tell the world that she finds that more than 20% of the Kindergarten and first graders in her schools are doing “violent” things that make them deserving of a suspension. I’m sure that with teachers like these making certain a struggling child feels the “misery” that is a documented part of the Success Academy way to “teach” (as e-mails from their most valued and rewarded administrators have shown), many 5 and 6 year olds DO act out. But since it is only the ones who don’t learn fast enough who are targeted, other parents look the other way.
Admittedly, I only listened to the first five minutes of the video of the parents speaking in support of Teacher Dial — it is as sickening as the first video. One mother says, “She did the same thing I do at home.”(!) It’s like a weird sado-masochistic cult. Don’t have the stomach for anymore.
Of COURSE the audio is on SA’s youtube channel. You don’t see them holding their scripts as they read, but you hear some clickity click clicking of keyboards (?) as the “journalist” types? I don’t get it. They sure sound like actors to me, vehemently stressing certain words, loudly. Ridiculousness.
I’m surprised Campbell Brown wasn’t there to orchestrate the cold reading.
I listened the video … and one word comes to mind.
“Jonestown”.
Eva = “Reverend Jim Jones”
This is no aberration-this is standard practice at SA. I worked for SA for one year. I had 15 years teaching experience when I was recruited and was an admirer of SA & Eva Moskowitz. “The scholars need you” I was told. I am not averse to speaking plainly to students when warranted and when I think it will serve a constructive purpose. I regularly witnessed teachers yelling at students telling them they were going to wind up homeless, remain poor, screaming “You disgust me!” and other comments that were clearly out of bounds and served no pedagogical purpose. It was child abuse as institutional policy. If you are a recent college grad-white-middle/upper class and enjoy berating/belittling/humiliating children of color and low SES then SA is the place for you. After 1 year the scales fell from my eyes.
Ms. Dial=Ms. Trenchbull in “Matilda.” Dial in Vial.
Would someone who understands Common Core math be willing to explain what in the world counting to “one and a split” is about?
Any of you who have tried to deal with alcoholics will be familiar with this pattern. Alcoholics “misbehave.” Those trying to “straighten them out” end up angry and frustrated, and usually take it out on the alcoholic. Does anyone think that’s useful?
Children “misbehave,” or are confused, or contrary. Does anyone really think expressing your anger or frustration toward them is useful?
Speak harshly to your little boy
And beat him when he sneezes.
He only does it to annoy
Because he knows it teases.
Wah, wah, wah.
I just watched a documentary film “In the Last Day in Viet Nam”. I remembered my French class in University of Pharmacy. My French Professor was frustrated because he got left behind due to his trust of American Politicians. His anger poured out on his students.
Everyone in 20 out of 26 students got hit and yelled at. Some cried and some were fainted due to their fear, at the age between 18 and 22.
Eva, please do not compare athletes’ tears due to their lost games to all innocent children’s tears due to their fear.
People are not trained to be commandos who only kill others without fear.
Public education’s goal is to educate and cultivate young people with love, kindness, forgiving, and compassionate, whereas charter school tries to SET EXAMPLE of looting public fund, of intimidating the lesser, of insulting the mistake, and of damaging the innocent trust.
As some other bloggers suggest about Karma that if karma is real, Eva will suffer all lies that she creates for her own gain in money. Nobody can escape the damage or consequence from his/her intentional thought and action to hurt others’ emotion, body, and dignity. Back2basic
Thank you so much for these very strong comments. They reflect your life’s experience that those with power may use it with impunity, justifying it as necessary for the good of the victims.
Now that I have witnessed this abuse, and I am a mandated reporter by law in NY State, I am going to report this to CPS and the BCW in New York City. By law, I must report it if I believe a child’s welfare is compromised or in danger. I have no other choice.
I would urge all other certified, licensed educators to do the same.
Eva Moskowitz is an extremely intelligent and capable woman, but perhaps her arrogance and general disdain for everyone not up to her “standard” really blinded her to this very predictable problem that she has now. She can blame the media for vendettas all she wants. She can blame the unions for trying to take her down because she has “proven” that our public schools suck because HER test scores are so high. None of that matters because her real problem is simple: she has lost control of the information and, therefore, of the narrative.
Success Academy now spans over 30 schools and 10,000 students, but the model is still the one they worked out by their third year when their out of school suspensions skyrocketed to nine times district averages. Success Academy functions via extreme behavioral control and high pressure tactics on very young children. Children who can adapt to this quickly are rewarded. Those who cannot are subjected to repeated punishments until they break or their parents give up. Same with teachers – become a model SA teacher quickly and they put you on the path to be an “exemplar” or a principal before you are even 25.
Keep in mind that every family that gives up and leaves SA because of repeated abuse of their “scholars” is a family that DELIBERATELY SOUGHT OUT THE SCHOOL.
So by now there are likely a few 1000 or more families who just gave up on the school and a couple of 100 teachers who have been through the meat grinder and who either left deliberately or were told to go. DID MOSKOWITZ REALLY THINK NOT ONE OF THEM WOULD TELL WHAT THEY KNOW TO THE PRESS? She can lash out at them like Scientologists do to people who leave the Church all she wants. She’s not in complete control of the narrative anymore. The insider view of Success Academy is a lot more available to the outside world.
It has to be her absolute worst nightmare.
There is a group of parents at our public school who would back this approach. There are as many complaints about “coddling” as there are about “no excuses” discipline – the school has to attempt to walk a line in the middle.
It’s just one (small) district but after two years of listening to “both sides” it’s my impression they love the idea of harsh discipline more than the reality- they back it until it is applied to their child. We get a lot of breast-beating and loud testimonials extolling behavior standards and no more “slaps on the wrist” when we’re talking about the school as a whole but that all melts away when they’re talking about how their child should be treated and bring individual complaints.
Of course it’s a public school so it’s more difficult than a “choice” school- we have to listen to everyone.
If you listen to the NYT interview with a group of SA parents, they pretty much dismiss the video. One parent says “This is my parenting right there.”
So what kind of videos could be made in states where corporal punishment in schools is still legal—and, according to stats, still actively practiced?
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0934191.html
Dear Lord, that “both sides do it” conservative meme is SO TIRED and useless. If you want to provoke an enlightened discussion try stating a position to argue from. This kind of faux provocateur pose is a naked emperor in a parade.
Deflect the abominable abuse of this woman toward an innocent 6 year old child for faltering and thinking while sharing a solution to a math problem by insinuating that there ‘must be’ instances of abuses in public schools too.
Victim blaming, deflecting, spinning, outright lying? All tools in the conservative/neoliberal/reformist tool chest brought out in full force whenever someone shines a light on their disgusting practices.
It is intellectually lazy, pointless diversion, and prevents the discuss from moving forward. Exactly why it is embraced by so many corporate ‘journalists’ and PR flacks.
That your name links to a university professors’ chat board is deeply disturbing and suggestive of big, big problems in the academy as it stands today.
What “both sides”, Chris? One side thinks the teacher in the video exhibits tough love taught by the Old Testament and similar textbooks, and the other side cringes just by seeing neckties on 3rd graders.
There is a good reason why SA and similar schools are tolerated: half of the country cannot even make up its mind about corporal punishment in schools let alone tearing up a kids’ work.
This video and blog posting had nothing to do with corporal punishment in public schools. You tried to make a spurious connection implying correlation. States that allow corporal punishment and Success Academy culture are not synonymous. Implying that there is a need for an agreement of some kind nationally is silly. This is intellectually lazy. Nope.
“Implying that there is a need for an agreement of some kind nationally is silly.”
I think the problem is that you had a certain reading of my post, and can’t let that go. It’s time.
I suspect that a large chunk of the US population wouldn’t condemn this video at all.
The reason I brought up the corporal punishment stat is simply because in my opinion it expresses the same kind of mentality that dictates Dial’s disciplinary methods. Apparently, over 200K kids are hit in schools by teachers each year. That means about one thousand strike on kids every single day of the school year, and this is all lawful.
Hence I doubt that there is some kind of general educational principle that would be acceptable to all parents and which would say, teachers cannot tear up kids work.
Aside from the clearly abusive nature of this interaction and the fear and conformity of the other little darlings this person is practicing very poor pedagogy, whether she gets ‘high test scores’ or not. The damage down the road to the mathematical interests of these children will be longterm and egregious.
Anyone remotely familiar with up-to-date brain research, best practices in mathematical teaching and learning, mathematical mindsets, and simply interacting with young humans knows that what this so-called teacher is actually doing is setting this child up for developing a fixed mindset that she is not ‘good’ at mathematics, that it is too hard a subject to tackle, and automatically ensuring that she will never consider a career in any field involving mathematics because she will remember that mathematics was the source of early and persistent humiliation, it is something for people who are ‘good at it’ only, and she is not ‘good at it’. Girls particularly get that message loud and clear from an early age.
Mistakes are golden opportunities for rich mathematical discussion, a time when others can hear what you were thinking and why you chose to do what you did and together work to find a solution that is reasonable and makes sense. Like real mathematicians do.
I’ve taught first graders for most of my career. They consistently score high on appropriate standardized assessments in mathematics not because I humiliate, berate, and shame them but because I teach them how to problem solve, discuss their thinking, and take their time learning mathematical concepts. They cheer when I say “It’s time for mathematics!” and love solving challenging problems together and sharing their strategies and thinking, including their mistakes, because they know that’s how they learn new things.
I’m not surprised that some parents and educators extol this abusive approach used by Success Academy. It is the same people who applaud Donald Trump when he screams for bringing back torture, like he did yesterday in Tampa. They love seeing other people humiliated, degraded, and treated like less than humans and they support political philosophies that justify this antisocial behavior. They have been the source of much human misery over the centuries.
I pray for them every day and I challenge them at every opportunity. Evil can only thrive when good people stand by silently and do nothing, to paraphrase Edmund Burke.
Máté Wierdl
February 13, 2016 at 8:38 am
If you listen to the NYT interview with a group of SA parents, they pretty much dismiss the video. One parent says “This is my parenting right there.”
Which is fine but this is a public school. The good part about public schools is there’s an attempt to serve everyone. The bad part about public schools is there’s an attempt to serve everyone 🙂
I think ed reformers under-value compromise and a move to the middle. I think they identify that as “mediocrity” when often the move to the middle has a beneficial moderating effect, where the most extreme parents aren’t permitted to drive the agenda for the whole school.
I come down in the middle. I don’t think schools should be chaotic and have no standards, but I don’t want my children subjected to this humiliation either, especially in pursuit of test scores which have turned into a kind of status symbol. I don’t want my children modeling that kind of adult behavior, where people are berating other people and ripping things up and such and setting a whole group against one person. I don’t admire that, no matter how high the test scores are.
Chiara, my point is that the main pedagogical views expressed in this blog are not the “generally accepted” views.
Don’t forget, almost half of the states still allow corporal punishments in schools.
What we need to understand is that the reason no-excuses schools exist is not because the public is misled by false advertisements, but because a good chunk of the public (and in some states like TN this is a BIG chunk) actually agree with this philosophy.
So no, the reformers’ success is not due to some kind of new brainwashing techniques. No, they are succeeding because their seeds fall on very fertile soil.
Not sure where you are getting your data from here Mate. A teacher in my district was arrested and fired for taking hold of a middle school student’s upper arm while breaking up a fist fight. Parent outrage on both social media and in the local papers and newscasts was overwhelmingly against the teacher.
The claim that some kind of majority of citizens in this country support this kind of Dickensian approach to education is based in no facts that I am aware of and smack of cynicism.
The majority of citizens repeatedly show in polls that they are not in sync with the Tea Party and neoliberal politicians who get elected over and over with less than 30% of the vote in highly gerrymandered districts with massive roadblocks to voting to weed out minority and liberal voters.
How is it that the reformers claim an overwhelming ‘liberal bias’ in schools of teacher education and a ‘soft, touchy-feely’ pedagogy dominating teacher training when you claim that the majority do not support or believe in that?
I don’t think you are making any kind of point that I can understand or agree with here. Are there anti-social, fear-driven citizens who condone and promote this kind of educational abuse? Absolutely! And the data show over and over that they make up only about 31% of the population. Hardly a majority.
While corporal punishment may still be ALLOWED in Tennessee, I have not seen it in practice since 1996. I don’t know of a system, personally that still uses it, but I’ll be asking on Facebook in a minute to find out. My current students are completely outraged and baffled that it was ever allowed (11th grade)..
I’ve had my moments where I snapped–all teachers do–but mine were over things like an idiot breaking a window screen or my fan while I was out one day or blatant classroom cheating that I caught them on or “Whoever can’t turn their phone to mute doesn’t deserve to have a phone and this is the end of public education as we know it.” I cannot imagine a scenario where I would shame a child like that over academics, especially in a group. It is one thing to call them out when they are talking and not paying attention–or looking at a stupid phone—but to do that? It breaks my heart.
There is just no way to excuse what this person attempting to teach did unless there is a segment we missed where she is apologizing to the class and explaining her reaction was wrong. Then there is still no excuse, but at least there is a sign of compassion. Some of my most humbling moments in life have been explaining to a class why I was so very wrong to do what I did. Thankfully, none of them involved something like that.
Well, Kim, according to the page below, 14K students were hit in TN in 2008.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0934191.html
Chris “The claim that some kind of majority of citizens in this country support this kind of Dickensian approach to education is based in no facts”
I cannot find what you are referring to. Where did I write “majority”? I believe I was talking about a large chunk of the population—and your quote of 30% is a darn large chunk—100 million people. In some states, this 30% would be higher, and may actually reach majority. TN may be that kind of state, MS probably, and FL may be too.
About 30% of the people want to raise their kids in an authoritarian manner, 30% would rather nurture their kids, and the remaining 40% is somewhere in between. This is the claim of George Lakoff, and I don’t think anybody ever disputed this, so it can be safely called a fact.
I homestly don’t understand what point, if any, you are trying to make here. Are you justifying the abusive teacher’s actions? Are you arguing that because a lot of people accept this kind of abuse that there is nothing to see here so we should move on? Are you arguing for the sake of argument? Your point is clear as mud and has been from your first post.
And, I should have researched before I posted–there are more counties still allowing it than I thought. Who knew my county was ahead of the curve. Yes, still used in a few, but not the norm. I know many teachers across the state at all grade levels and it isn’t even an option for them, whether personally or policy.
Only 19 states still allow it per The Tennesseean.
After I viewed this on our local news station I thought for a bit about my first grade teacher. She was quite strict and she was a nun. A “woman of God” with 35 children to instruct. She was also the school principal. I respected and feared her. And I only was jabbed once with the dowel rod sharpened to a point that she walked around the room touching any body part not precisely aligned in its assigned position. I saw her pull boys from their chairs by their ears and drag them to board, fasten a ribbon bow to their hair and make them stand with nose to an x on the chalkboard. And I was smacked with a prayer book when we practiced for our “first confession” and I confused the words of the “Oh my God I am heartily sorry for having offended thee…..” just a month prior to my 7th birthday with the dinner prayer and recited the wrong prayer to the empty chamber where Father would eventually sit to hear me pour out my grievous sins of my first 6+ years. During my fourth grade year I was sent back to her classroom where my sister was a first grade student and whose memory never failed her. I had made a subtraction or addition error in a long division problem on a paper I submitted. My teacher, also a nun, and “woman of God” had decided to shame me and sent me with paper and note to my sister’s first grade class and to my former first grade teacher. While I stood facing all the first graders my sister was sent to the chalk board to complete the addition or subtraction and of course she was able to correct my error as her class and teacher observed. I was then reprimanded and told that if my little sister in first grade could add/subtract correctly, so could I. The nation has not seen a secret video of those events in my elementary years but when I see a child mistreated as in this recording I understand the outrage. I am nearly 64 years old and the bitterness toward the purposeful shame of those reactions to my memory failures still is with me. This is not an example of best practice and I applaud the person who recorded this and submitted, hopefully in an attempt to prevent other children from being shamed.
This does seem abusive. Most public school teachers today have so little power to discipline that it’s easy to romanticize a time when they had more. It’s good to hear these stories.
SA school chain is all about test scores.
Was Ms.Dial targeting a child for abusive mistreatment — purposely making her miserable — because Ms. Dial believes this student will not provide the test scores Eva demands?
It is easier for parents to pull a child if the child is afraid, worried and panicky at the very thought of school.
If they didn’t target students, how else would SA actually implement a Got to Go List?
A look at their mobility rate will indicate whether SA values their students or their test scores.
Where is the outrage against the person holding the phone? How is videotaping this situation acceptable? It’s the other adult’s job to stand up and do the right thing.
Let’s not celebrate bystander behavior when bullying is occurring.
I want better of my students, and I demand better of my coworkers.
And yes, I once lost a job for standing up to a bully when I was an entry-level employee, so don’t lecture me about how the person with the phone had no other choice.
The aide did the right thing and did NY parents a huge favor. Parents now realize what is really going on at SA — what is in the charters ‘secret sauce’ — from this video. If there is any justice for children, her video should inspire an attorney general’s investigation into SA abusive practices.
Her video is far more valuable than interfering at that moment and being fired shortly afterward. And we all know how poorly whistle blowers are treated now.
I was a bit shamed in my elementary school days, and honestly, it didn’t hurt me one bit.
It allowed me to develop a thick skin, strong tenacity to keep going on hard days! I have been backstabbed in business, and can just shake it off! While this video may show harshness, too much coddling can have worse impact. I live in a state where 20% of teens are highly suicidal, and I often wonder if it’s because of the coddling. It’s a messy world, maybe we should just homeschool our child, so they can never face any outside hurts!
In low grades, we are not preparing kids for life, and it certainly isn’t our job to teach them to fight or fight back.
We want kids to love the subject we teach and to love learning.
Very few kids would grow to love math if they see their work torn.
I also was a teacher with Success Academy and decided to end my employment with them in the first year of my contract. I witnessed, every single day, countless instances just like these. Although there was no ripping of papers I did see teachers grabbing students by the scruff of their necks, ordering children (as young as kindergarten ) around as if they were animals, and the insane programming they put these kids through. They don’t teach or nurture bright minds, they belittle and scold students for being kids. They aren’t allowed to move, they aren’t allowed to speak for almost the full 8 hours they are there.