Please take this opportunity to learn from the best practices of Success Academy.
As you know, it posted nearly 500 videos. Then it took some of them down after Gary Rubinstein posted one of them. Then they were restored. Then they were all removed.
A reader informed me that one of the videos is back up. It is about teaching middle school math.
Please watch and tell us what you learned.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Critical thinkers all move the same way and give the same hand signals at the same time. That’s what I learned.
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Where is the joy? Why all the yelling? Is this the same teacher that was secretly taped and exposed in the NYTimes? And if it’s a different teacher yelling, then perhaps the NYTimes teacher was not an aberration. In sum, I see a school that will not give children of color the tiniest bit of latitude or freedom (why can’t they even unclasp their hands??). And I see white teachers and white leaders. Yelling at children of color.
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I thought the same thing. I’ve noticed in all the SA pictures and videos that no one EVER smiles. What this is teaching kids is that learning is a chore. And what WAS with the yelling? I was a timid student. That yelling would have terrified me in the extreme.
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Pretty scary! The teacher’s tone is so harsh. What is the rationale behind that tone? Children seem very tense. The pedagogical fallacy is that one student’s response is an indicator of the learning of others. It is not. Too bad the video does not show multiple students’ responses after they whispered to one another.
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Of course the kids are tense! All they’re getting is yelled at.
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My first comment of the new school year…..Wow, how much conditioning (reward and punishment) was needed to get the students to behave like clones at this point? Was this filmed half-way thru the year, after all the imperfectly-compliant students were dismissed from the school (sent back to their public schools) and only the “pliable” ones remain? I’m all for having “scholars”, but where is the freedom to not act in such a rehearsed manner? If students learn that schools are nothing but conditioning labs, then all we have produced is Skinnerian rats (which they call “scholars”).
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I am a pre-service teacher and new to this blog. I have never though of anything like what you are saying before. Thank you for opening my eyes to a new perspective. I’ve been taught that we must teach children what proper behavior looks like, it never occurred to me that one could take that too far and end up conditioning the individualism out of the child.
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This is not middle school math. This is thumb up answering group where you learn to track the one scholar that always answers correctly!
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This is more like watching a cult than a classroom of kids. The idiosyncratic terminology and jargon (scholars, tracking), the overly dramatic affect displayed by the “teacher”, the clearly scripted lesson plan, the emphasis on rote instruction and massed or choral responses…if you told me this was an English translation of a Societ Cold War era training video I would absolutely believe it.
Those kids–all black or brown–were getting yelled at by the woman in front of the class–white–and were never actually involved in what was happening in the classroom. It was totally teacher-centered–she may as well have been standing on a pedestal with a spotlight shining on her. The narrative of the “savior teacher” is overwhelming here. And the racial and classist undertones are unmistakable.
The kids were forced to sit quietly with their hands folded, and never moved during the entire segment of instruction on the video clip. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a real teacher teach this way, and hope I never do. It’s a vision of what “good” teaching looks like from someone who obviously never taught, and shows no understanding of developmentally appropriate practice, child development, learning theories, or simple human compassion.
Most troublingly, I never saw a single kid smile during the length of the clip. While I’m not suggesting that every minute of instructional time should be full of laughing, smiling children–much of learning is about hard work and concentration–I came away from watching this clip with a feeling of terrible sadness for those kids, who were trapped in a joyless, pedantic, adult-focused learning environment designed by non-teachers to produce a barren, test-driven data set.
If this is the “choice” promised by Success Academy, that’s no choice at all.
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Cult is right!
I noticed regimentation and that these students are treated as if they in basic training for the military.
I noticed the environment was sterile with no joy and curiosity at all.
I noticed the students were treated like dummies and the teacher from Success Academy was just another automaton.
Guess this is creating “GRIT” in students … Ridiculous! Ugh.
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THIS is the video they are most proud of? Heavily edited, there is no real context. The narrator states that it may be at the beginning of the school year. Who knows?
Is this an actual class, or a group of “5th grade” ringers assembled for this advertisement? Did someone sign a consent form, or do parents automatically sign away their right to privacy when they enroll their kids there?
They are told where to look, what to say, and how to say it.
It’s extreme classroom management just to teach basic multiplication.
I don’t who I feel worse for, the teacher or the students.
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Scary. I am sad for parents who want to see their children in this setting. There is no joy in learning here.
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t is all so robotic the teachers look vacant and like they are on some kind of drug.
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The students look robotic, too. There is no light behind their eyes. Sad.
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My daughter learned that math in 3rd grade. And she didn’t get yelled and badgered into doing it. How odd.
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Um, I guess I can understand how some of this “works” to get those test scores up….but it isn’t necessary — and I am sure it causes collateral harm to the mindset of these kids….
Kids from neighborhoods and homes where there is a lot of chaos and uncertainty do like structure — but structure does not have to be unpleasant or harsh or joyless….
It is a real shame that the adults in our society have allowed this school to exist, to serve the interests of control-freak adults — and to damage, in many cases permanently, innocent children….
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I guess I would add that nothing in the video shows anything creative or mathematical going on — memorizing procedures, even multi-step or inefficient ones, is still just memorizing procedures….
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Sometimes memorizing is a proper pedagogical practice.
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I could only watch a short piece because thereafter the tears in my eyes and the acid reflux in my throat from suppressing vomit became unbearable. “Excellence training.” Really? (although a digression, I also hate the term “scholars.” They’re children.) The lip service paid to creativity and the notion of children learning from one another (a good, progressive idea), was instantly contradicted by depressing jargon, the sharp expectation of compliance, and all the other offensive, scripted nonsense they impose on teachers and kids. How did these Stepford teachers come into being? Are humans really that susceptible to brainwashing. Perhaps the teachers were once students at Success Academies. That’s the only explanation for the total inhumanity and lack of critical capacities.
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And how could some of those “scholars” hear each other in the discussion? They were too far apart to be able to hear tiny whispers.
Not to mention, the public school classrooms around my area would NEVER have only 15 students in the room. Double that, or even more. No amount of “excellence” training will help with enormous class sizes.
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“Excellence training” is a sick euphemism for “obedience training,” like my dogs got, only when they were too spirited to comply most of the time, I still kept them because I loved them anyways, whereas rambunctious kids will end up on some SA principal’s “got to go” list.
Calling students “scholars” really irks me as well. I trained and studied and worked very hard to become a genuine scholar in my field, but kids at “no excuses” charters get to be called that on their very first day of Kindergarten. What a bad joke.
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Interesting SA has students do an extended-arm thumb-up gesture instead of raising their hands when they have an answer to the teacher’s question. In several cultures around the world it’s the equivalent of a raised middle finger. Critical thinking, indeed.
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Oh my, not sure I would want my child in a military academy. Or at least that is what it feels like. Designed to garner unquestioning loyalty. Maybe that is what the military needs, but do we want the same for our society. This is scary mind control to me. I am an alternative learner and would be thrown out of such a school. My children, both of which are advanced, would rebel. I am raising independent critical thinkers. None of the people funding these schools would put their own children into them I would imagine. But these are tor “those children”, the dangerous ones we need to control and do what we want them to do. Sorry for the sarcasm.
John
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And BTW this is the video they were most proud of and willing to show to the world? Wow what a skewed vision of the world.
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Terrifying. Seriously terrifying.
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The whole thing just seemed unnatural. Everything was initiated by the teacher – the students responded to her. I worry about what happens if a child screws up somehow. The teacher’s tone of voice never seemed encouraging or supportive. She got loud, and, to me, threatening, toward the end.
Definitely not a classroom I’d want my grandchildren placed in. Oh, and the teacher was not the same ethnicity as the children – that would have made too much sense. Adult concepts placed on children.
I was an elementary school educator for 30 years.
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If you look closely in the background at around 2:33, you’ll see a Hitler Youth book. Coinsidence? I think not. And as a side note, imagine dating or worse being married to that teacher!? What would that be even like?!
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I noticed that, too.
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And the next Charter person who calls students “scholars” I swear I’ll jump over the table and choke them.
Scholar: a learned or erudite person, especially one who has profound knowledge of a particular subject.
As Inigo Montoya famously said, ““You Keep Using That Word, I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means”
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Aggod,
I agree. It makes me crazy to hear little children called “scholars.” I have spent 45 years studying the history and politics of education. I have a Ph.D. I worked very hard to earn the title of scholar. Five year old children are not scholars.
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Like using the term “measure” in reference assessing student work and progress. Total misuse and abuse of the meaning of that word.
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I particularly liked the casual, unrehearsed conversation at the end about
WHAT DAMON SAID WILL ALWAYS WORK
It was critical for success and understanding and critical thinking and clear expectations. .
I downloaded the video for the case it disappears.
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Do you have a link for the downloaded video you can share?
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It was posted online yesterday. Now, it is gone. I don’t have another link. Only Success Academy can unlock it.
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Not my dream classroom, but let’s be honest. A lot of classrooms are chaotic messes where little learning takes place. Kids’ bad impulses take over; they run around, they pull hair, they don’t do any work, they don’t listen. THEY DON’T LEARN. Let’s give credit where credit is due. These kids are paying attention –the sine qua non of all learning –which often doesn’t happen. They’re being polite –child-worshippers here notwithstanding, most kids are capable of truly odious behavior that often comes out in group situations like schools. Success has succeeded in stopping odious behavior, at least in the classroom.
It’s easy to posture here and say, “I’m all for order and manners, but you don’t need to go to this extreme.’ Finding the middle ground between this ultra-tight ship and anarchy is harder than you might think in many situations.
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We can talk all day about what’s worse, total chaos or harsh discipline.
No doubt, what the kids learn in math in the video’s way is useless. Yeah, they sit quietly, yes, they repeat what the teachers says. So what? They are multiplying 12 by three in middle school. Now that is success.
Yes, discipline is needed for learning. But what we see in the video is not learning, it’s circus training.
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What’s odious in my opinion, is training Black kids, or “low-income” kids, to sit and stay, like dogs.
This would be a sick joke at Sidwell Friends, Waldorf, or any Montessori classroom.
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“Finding the middle ground between this ultra-tight ship and anarchy is harder than you might think in many situations.”
Sure it’s hard, or said better, it’s an art. It is not a uniform step-by-step procedure to be inculcated into newbies & mimicked precisely. Even the low-paid relatively inexperienced teachers at the chain PreK’s I visit do a world better than this video’ed example of the SA method, after a couple months’ observation & training by their directors. They use normal voices and maybe a couple of tricks like “bubble”. Mostly they beam affection, teach, model and acknowledge good behavior, and kindly correct those who need it.
Any child held to the sort of über-control shown here for a period of hours daily is going to be an obstreperous handful for their parents when they return home. As to whether learning is increased by constant choral parroting is debatable.
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Ah, just head back to the Ponderosa, Pardner. Yes, let’s be honest.
There is no “credit due.” “Paying attention to the teacher” is not good education. Especially in this case. Any self-respecting kid would tune out this controlling, emotionally-barren, robotic woman.
Controlled chaos, which you ridicule, is often a wonderful educational context.
“Child-worshippers” is a bad thing? I am one. Every teacher should be a “child-worshipper” or should leave the profession. No kids this age are “capable of odious behavior.” This teacher and all Success Schools engage in odious behavior. Our inequitable society had done odious things to children and their families. Corporate greed is doing odious things to public education. Children need love, not tough love, not “order and manners.”
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One of the things I love about kids is that they’re honest. Who are the first to admit kids’ behavior is often odious: the kids themselves.
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Where is the love – of either kids or subject matter? I taught at middle school for 14 years – and another 22 at high school. If my days were like this, I’d be 2 years and done for sure.
As a world language teacher, I was taught that the biggest obstacle to learning a second language were a student’s natural inhibitions, fear of making an error in pronunciation or meaning. The antidote was to create a relaxed atmosphere for learning, where errors are nothing more than an opportunity to correct (or self correct) and move on. These kids appear to be on red-alert continually. They must go home exhausted.
Ponderosa – I’m not suggesting chaos is preferable – it’s not. A middle course takes time, knowing your kids and caring about them, but it pays off in spades, even with a few aberrations.
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Here is the “understanding” part of the video’s class:
Now turn to your partner, and repeat what Damon said is always true. What Damon said is always true.
This repetition of the approval of Damon’s ideas supposedly deepen the understanding of the fact that if you multiply the divident and the divisor by the same number, the quotient doesn’t change.
Dogs learn exactly the same way: they do what they are told many times, and eventually we declare them smart for following orders so well.
I remark that the teacher’s tone is outdated even in dog training.
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I remark that the explanation Damon gives (at 3 mint 30 sec) for why the quotient doesn’t change is a no-explanation (in fact, it’s incorrect). Nevertheless, it’s shown as an example for “deeper intellectual understanding”.
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If you have watched the SA video, then…
DO NOT WATCH “Children Full of Life”
https://youtu.be/1tLB1lU-H0M
DO NOT WATCH “A Year at Mission Hill”
http://www.missionhillschool.org/a-year-at-mission-hill/
UNLESS you want to see something that’s human-oriented learning,
OR UNLESS you want an excuse to get mad and go do a hissy fit on something.
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Great videos, thanks!!
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I am a first grade teacher. After 30 years in the classroom, I found this video absolutely scary! It breaks my heart to see the joy of learning completely disappear. For what reason was this video posted? For whom?
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What kind of institution would promote this?
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The oligarchy wants SLAVES!
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What about non-linear, creative thinkers who want to explain their thinking? How many kids get kicked out of this school because they can’t get with the robotic program?
Where are the children with learning differences?
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The contrast of “Children Full of Life” with Success children, deprived of individuality, curiosity, questioning, self expression- to say nothing of activity- is SCARY. Their gestures, their responses, their words, the teacher’s words, are all programmed in a controlled language unique to this assembly line production of successful test takers. For teachers: No humans need apply. and children- they are robots, and yes, robots is what business leaders ( and hedge fund managers) want.
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What happened to the pencil and paper? What happened to the students working out the problem and allowing them to do their own strip math models? Are they really absorbing this information?
Seems like the entire video was staged. Even the narrator was stiff and appeared to be reading from a prompt.
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Campbell Brown keeps claiming these Success Academy schools are cutting edge, miracle-working schools, schools that every child should experience:
( 01:36 – )
( 01:36 – )
CAMPBELL BROWN: ” … I’m a soldier in Eva’s Army. … the accomplishments of Eva and the team that makes (the SUCCESS ACADEMY schools) possible. It amazes me that anyone would dare try to put a chokehold on the most exciting, innovative things happening in public education right now.
Therefore, I keep asking this question… if treating children like they do in these godawful videos is so gosh-darn great …
Then why aren’t Campbell Brown and Dan Senor’s two little boys — who currently attend the rich kids’ private school Heschel, a school where to two Senor boys, and the rest of the Heschel student body, are not subjected to ANY of this SUCCESS ACADEMY bullsh#%, where they attend a school (Heschel) where the pedagogy, the classroom management, the curriculum, the overall philosophy of how kids get educated IS THE DIAMETRIC OPPOSITE OF EVERYTHING THAT GOES ON IN SUCCESS ACADEMY?
I’m going to keep asking this question to both Campbell and her allies until mother-freakin’ Doomsday until one of them answers it.
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“. . . the rich kids’ private school Heschel. . . ”
Those “rich kids” have no need for such “training”. It’s in their genetic makeup (hint their parents are soooo much better, than their peers-why they consider themselves to be the bestestest and brightestest) to be way beyond that training.
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So let’s publicize this particular video. Is there any law against posting it on places in many copies, like youtube?
I really am curious what the general public’s reaction would be.
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I tried to view the video just now (9/9/2106 at 8:20 am edt) and failed because it wants a password.
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I had the same problem. Is it available any other way?
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I will keep watching to see if they ever post the video again. It is pretty funny how videos appear and disappear. Now they are all password protected. Strange way to collaborate.
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Guy, I guess it was taken down like all the others. They are supposed to show that Success Academy is showing other public schools how to improve, but now they are hiding all the videos (nearly 500).
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I downloaded the video, so if somebody wants it, perhaps send me an email, and then I put it on the web and I send you a link to it. But I need to have a confirmation, that my butt cannot be kicked for this. I don’t see any warning anywhere that I can’t distribute the video.
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Con cuidado, Mate. Con cuidado.
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It was a professionally produced video. (No surprise there, considering the private funding they receive). So I have to give the kids credit for performing their roles. A stage shoot can be intimidating.
The kids looked scared and the teacher used the word “Awesome” like a sledgehammer.
I loved the comparison to “Children Full of Life”. Thanks, Ed.
Is this an improvement over, “….chaotic messes where little learning takes place. Kids’ bad impulses take over; they run around, they pull hair, they don’t do any work, they don’t listen. THEY DON’T LEARN.”?
Having taught in those classrooms for a decade and a half, I can definitely say, “yes”. An improvement. Thumbs up.
But why make the shift from chaos to such a mechanical, top down, intimidation based model to begin with? The parents of their students are highly motivated, which has to filter down to the kids. SA can weed out those who aren’t top notch and they aren’t required to accept children with disabilities or who need ESL services.
With significant advantages such as these and the large amounts of money and resources at their disposal, why not provide the kids with caring, smart, experienced, nurturing teachers who can introduce them to a world where education can be fun and rewarding? Classes similar to what you see in the best performing schools in upper middle class and affluent neighborhoods? Why not let the kids smile? Do you really think that these kids would be running around the room, pulling each other’s hair, not doing any work, considering the advantages SA has in choosing and retaining their students? I don’t.
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These days, behavioral engineering is implemented for the sake of adults as much as it is for kids. That approach is typically seen in schools that have “teachers” and administrators who are not well-trained in education, including in child development and pedagogy, and that have very limited classroom management tools in their tool belts, many of whom don’t plan on sticking around for very long.
Behaviorism also works for parents who think kids just need tough love, such as the many black adults who have told me “our kids need that.” As Oprah once said (before she came out in support of charters), that belief could stem from a long history and acceptance of being treated poorly in slavery and under Jim Crow. However, it may also come from thinking that the only alternative to permissive parenting is authoritarian, because in my experience working with diverse cultures, many lack knowledge of the authoritative parenting style (which research has demonstrated is the most effective approach) due to their limited training.
Behaviorism is like the quick fix of a slap: That jolts, so you could immediately see the reaction that is desired, but over time, the lesson learned could be that it can be personally expedient to capitalize on one’s power by bullying and assaulting others. It is not the way to build trust, develop a love of learning. instill a sense of community or promote collaboration.
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It is illegal for a charter school to get rid of any student. Period.
However, it is perfectly acceptable, and even encouraged by the SUNY Charter Institute that oversees charters to make any child you want feel as much misery as you want and if a side effect of that is that their parent of a child who is the target of that misery “chooses” to pull him from the charter school, why that’s just a happy coincidence! The fact that you gave out of school suspensions to over 20% of your Kindergarten students is nothing to question.
This kind of teaching works to separate the wheat from the chaff. Bully the chaff, Ignore the small infractions of the wheat. That’s why the parents of the “wheat” just can’t understand what the problem is since their children are treated with rewards and celebration and a far lighter touch (especially in their schools serving significant numbers of white kids where most non-white children have college educated parents and are not at-risk kids.)
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The Bensonhurst SA is full of Russian kids and Russian parents actually love these draconian methods. In the link below, you will see them commenting on how great the school is and how they actually love the discipline and the draconian methods. It’s shameful how they don’t see this type of teaching as wrong.
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The fake “progressives,” including the Democratic leaders from Chicago who set the tone for education “reform” both nationally and locally for the past 8 years, Barack Obama, Arne Duncan and Rahm Emanuel, have all put their own kids in genuine Progressive Education schools, including where John Dewey first instituted Progressive Education, at the University of Chicago Lab School. They all experienced Progressive Ed personally in their own schooling, too, as Duncan attended the Lab School himself, Obama went to private Progressive schools and Emanuel attended New Trier, in the wealthy suburb of Winnetka, where the entire public school district has been dedicated to Progressive Education for many decades.
These leaders and their kids have been very fortunate to get the exact opposite of the behavioral engineering approach they condone that’s implemented in boot camp charter schools like SA. There is absolutely nothing new or innovative about Behaviorism, and we have long known that Operant Conditioning works best with dumb animals, not the brighter ones, because they catch on to the fact that that game is all about manipulation…
The horrible irony is that Milton Freeman’s neoliberal, free market economic policy approach was also born at the University of Chicago. And that is touted by both parties, even though adopting such policies in Chile under Pinochet’s dictatorship resulted in the loss of public education to privatization, and a decades long inability of democratic leadership to recover public schools once privatized, as well as a highly stratified society –both of which occurred in Sweden as well. The fact that Democrats promote this for poor children of color, even though it’s inferior and it denies the democratic involvement of students, parents and teachers –and elected boards– as promoted by the genuine Progressive Education they choose for their own kids, shows it’s all a huge lie and they know it.
This has been occurring while we have been told that what’s on the “reform” menu is for the purpose of overcoming zip code based discrimination. That is blatantly false, when the focus could have been on increasing equity, like Finland did, such as creating a level playing field by providing more funding and resources to the neediest, since they typically get a lot less than advantage districts, especially when schools are primarily funded by property taxes. The misrepresentation of the value of behavioral engineering and appointed leadership, particularly for historically marginalized and low income groups, does not occur just by accident or chance. It’s all a part of the business plan, in this new gilded age, where the 1% betters assure their foothold by fooling the 99% lessors into believing they are on our side. Sadly, judging by the elections of billionaires, like Bloomberg and Rauner, and recent poles showing increased popular support for Trump nationally, it looks like the PR propaganda bought by the super-rich is still working and seems to be especially effective for haters, as well as people enamored by celebrity and the fantasy world of ‘”reality” TV.
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Well said.
Also known as: Public education costs too much money and the return on the investment is not easily measurable. We don’t think the recipients are worth the gamble.
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As a contrast, check out the videos recently produced by the Showcase Schools program at the NYC Department of Education, which present a different vision of educators and students at work. Here’s one focusing on the Academy of Arts & Letters in Brooklyn: https://vimeo.com/album/3348492/video/128902615
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What have these kids learned that will help them in the future? You need to sit still and keep your hands folded? That’s a 21st century skill?
And the math doesn’t seem like 5th grade level math at all. My kid just started 3rd grade. She came home with what they did in math class yesterday–a problem that I had to think about when I looked at it. My kid had to grapple with it. Yes, she knows all the appropriate algorithms, but she knows that math is about more than just spitting them back.
My 1st grader came home with a little worksheet where she had a chance to circle which emotion she felt when she started school. She circled both “Happy” and “Scared.” She is learning she can feel two very different emotions at once, and that it is ok to feel those emotions. She probably has had more school time devoted to emotional learning in one day than the SA kids have had in five years. Oh, and last night she asked me if I thought zero was a big number. I said I didn’t think so. She said, “No, it is! Think of all the negative numbers!” I had never thought of it that way. My kid who has had 2 days of first grade has more meaningful mathematical thinking than I have as an adult.
My kids go to a public school four blocks away from our house. Why don’t we look at public schools that get it right, rather than this garbage?
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My email username at gmail is wierdlmate. At this point, I doubt, I can put the link here at this blog.
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“Sweet Jesus!”
— Daniel Katz’ two-word response after watching a video of a couple of young Success Academy teachers demonstrating cutting edge Success Academy pedagogy:
Ouch!
Cheers to Jersey Jazzman, for finding this video and then getting this discussion going among veteran teachers’ opinions of the video:.
First, here’s vimeo url of that video that was just made “private”:
Well, it’s private forever after, so you’re going to have to used your imagination.
However, you can read the withering critiques from veteran teachers (posted on Facebook):
Jersey Jazzman –
Dear followers who teach K-5: would you please take a few minutes and watch this training video from Success Academy?
Katie Lapham
“They need to be shut down. This is hideous.”
Lynn Fedele
I watched (mostly, I had to do some scrolling), but this lesson includes: An introduction that focuses solely on scores and score goals, over 5 minutes of lecturing about reading, no pre-reading or anticipatory set related to reading content, a 4-minute discussion of one child’s error, a score competition.
It is pure test prep under rigid disciplinary conditions. I thought charters were supposed to be about innovation. There is nothing here that couldn’t be found in a classroom mid-nineteenth century, except maybe the bubble sheets. (The screen only shows a projected image of the reading passage.)
Denise Concidine Funfsinn
I was a 6th grade reading teacher. Lead teacher is not a reading teacher. She is an over the top cheerleader for inane testing. She turned me off at the start, but I persevered for 5 minutes. I feel so sorry for these kids.
I gave up after watching it after six minutes. It was appalling to watch!
Adrian DeVore
I gave up after watching it after six minutes. It was appalling to watch!
Suzanne Libourel
I’m a bit late to the party, Jersey Jazzman, but I wanted to offer my perspective as a School Psychologist who works with 5th and 6th graders. My first thought was that there was way too much ‘teacher talk’ and way too little ‘student talk’.
It was skill-and-drill with a shiny new coat of paint. Although the lead teacher stated that ‘we’ care about the thinking, it was clear that the sales pitch was focused on only the answers to the questions.
My next thought was, what about the children who learn differently? What about the children who have slower processing speeds? What about the children who are uncomfortable being put on the spot to answer in front of the class? What about the children who have a different opinion about what the most important sentence is, and has a great reason for why their choice is important?
This looks like more about creating widgets than creating thinkers.
I gave up after watching it after six minutes. It was appalling to watch!
Jenn Martin-Kochis
Couldnt make it to the 1 minute mark!! What quality teacher spends day one psyching kids up for their pretest score (which can a 0and its still TOTALLY ok since they haven’t been taught anything yet…)instead of getting to know their students and building community in the classroom?!
I gave up after watching it after six minutes. It was appalling to watch!
Meño Mayorrga replied · 1 Reply
Jameson Michelle
Why was this posted? Is it to be considered exemplar? I mean I applaud their enthusiasm, they look young and maybe this is their first job?
I gave up after watching it after six minutes. It was appalling to watch!
Ladd Turner
My biggest concern about the video is that -this- is what is used as a training video for new teachers. The objectives were not made clear and the lesson starts off with kids scoring themselves before a detailed explanation of the task is provided. Y…See More
I gave up after watching it after six minutes. It was appalling to watch!
Melissa Love Light Tomlinson
I made it about half way through before I felt the stress that was created in this classroom and then had to stop. The assumption that all kids do not want to do their best, the call and response that is devoid after human nature, the purpose of learning this to get good test scores, the emphasis on how fast everything can get done, the lack of conversation with the students being replaced with ‘talking to’, the direct disregard for deep full understanding of what you read…disgusting
I gave up after watching it after six minutes. It was appalling to watch!
Suzanne Munk Brian Timbrouck
HORRENDOUS! A “score” means nothing. Who is training these teachers? What kind of teacher thinks this is OK?
Like · Reply · 1 · August 29 at 3:24pm
Shoshanna Ramone
So from day one they are taught testing drills, timed, and lectured at about test scores. This all seems extremely scripted, the children are visibly not excited to be there, and competition is encouraged, not love of learning and thinking skills.
Like · Reply · 2 · August 29 at 3:30pm
I gave up after watching it after six minutes. It was appalling to watch!
Renee Goularte
Well I lasted three minutes and I could not take any more. I can’t stand the way she is talking to the kids. She sounds like a football coach or something, not a teacher.
Tina Andres
I swear I can’t do it again, I just watched a different one last night and my blood pressure went up. Nope, not doing it to myself again. All I know is that hell hath no fury like the fury any teacher treating my own kids like this will receive.
Cecilia Palao-Vargas
:47, tuning out because I detest the stress and emphasis on measuring your self-worth based on a number. My child would panic, listening to this BullShit!
Vicky Smith
This is suppose to be the “first score of the year” which leads me to believe that this is one of the first days of school. It is perplexing that ALL of these children have their behavior “cues” down pat. My question is; where are the students with b…See More
Ami L. McChesney replied · 1 Reply
Bert Van Dyke
This is pushing a ‘hard sell’ on children. Entirely invalid, non-educative, and likely harmful. Distorted purpose. Actresses, not educators.
Emmy Thevanesan
My thoughts are similar to when I saw the video of the Success teacher who ripped up the kid’s math paper. First, at least some of those kids are sick to their stomachs with nerves from being forced into an environment like that. And that is criminal. Second, these teachers will one day become parents, may actually learn a thing or two about childhood and adolescent development, and will be sickened by what they did to these kids. Or, charter school teaching is just a stepping stone for them and they’ll never look back.
Steve Spangler
This is hideous. The score becomes the child’s identity, and the teacher sells it as if it were the most exciting thing since sliced bread. Actually looks like a training video for selling used cars.
Andy Mitchell
50 points for Slytherin! Potter, there are consequences for thinking. De-TENT-tion this Friday evening.
Mark Collins
Download for possible use in an abuse trial. This is nuts.
(This video) Should be blasted on the airways as a B roll on an endless loop.
As for Eva — and it was she who made that call — removing these videos from public view, some cliches come to mind:
“That which we hide is that of which we are ashamed.”
“If you’ve got nothing to hide, you hide nothing.”
Also, regarding their claims of higher test scores, these videos are similar to a video expose of the meat industry. You get to see how the sausage (higher test scores) is made, and it’s not pretty. It’s also analogous to steroids. You may get short-term results — impressive athletic performance — from using them, but you do permanent long-term damage in the process, and the effect doesn’t last.
One more cliche: in Citizen Kane, is asked his opinion of Kane’s guardian, the wealthy Thatcher, with the interviewer prompting Bernstein, “Thatcher made a lot of money.”
Bernstein, “There’s no trick to making a lot of money .. if all you want … is to make a lot of money.”
It’s the same thing with higher standardized test scores. If that’s all you want, it can be done… even if you have to cheat like they did in Atlanta and Washington, D.C.
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Jack,
The video that I posted yesterday now requires a password to open.
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Over on Jersey Jazzman’s Facebook page, Kevin Reed provoked a spit-take on my I-mac screen with his link comparing the now un-viewable Success Academy female teacher duo to a brief scene in the teen classic “FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH”.
It’s the scene where the two cheerleaders are overly enthusiastic one moment, then attempting to manipulate through fabricated victimhood and through guilt a moment later.
I’ve seen the original Success Academy video of the two female teachers and Kevin is spot on. The two S.A, teachers are quite similar to the two cheerleaders in this video:
Note: the brunette is played by Bruce Springsteen’s kid sister Pamela.
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I learned that they all either have parents who want them educated in that manner or parents who are content not knowing/not caring about the manner in which their child is educated. Either way, charter schools will continue to thrive under a President Trump OR a President Clinton.
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This is a perfect example of not being able to walk the talk.
Life’s easy when someone is allowed (even encouraged) to operate with no oversight whatsoever. Just hire a great PR firm that can make a harmonica into a Stradivarius and you’re set.
But when push comes to shove and you’re finally called on to show what you’ve got…
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Bensonhurst SA has tons of Russian kids and their Russian parents actually love these harsh draconian educational methods. See the link to the post where they rave about them. It’s sad they don’t see that these methods will be harmful to their kids…
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