This note was posted earlier today, in response to an earlier post about child abuse at Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy:
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.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
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It sounds like working in this school is similar to being an overseer of the plantation. It is the same type of institutionalized, oppression.
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The “reformers” have a very low regard for parents and students of color. The “reformers” want them in “no-excuses” charters where they are taught unquestioning obedience, and they urge the takeover of schools and districts where the majority are people of color. You would never see the same policies in an affluent white neighborhood.
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Maybe the very existence of the deformers IS the civil rights issue of our times.
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It is just a thought. All righteous educators at Charter schools should be forced to work like Mother Theresa who is canonized by Pope Francis on September 4, 2016
Children cannot be forced to be matured or to be self-disciplined in military-style. In the same vein, people cannot be forced to be nun, priest or to be self-disciplined in Sainthood style.
The least educators can do is that in an education system and style, educators should cultivate the spirit of humanity and civility to all YOUNG (kindergartens) and OLD (new and old immigrants) learners and citizens. Back2basic
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Well stated. It reminds me of the book by Robert Fulghum “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” Life lessons are important to social, emotional development.
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What I remember about discipline in school is not getting disciplined myself (although I was disciplined occasionally) – I remember how awful it was watching other people get punished. We had a sort of “no excuses” teacher who the adults raved about because she was (supposedly) “tough” but I hated that class. I had so much sympathy for the people she would go after- she would do things like make people stand in the wastebasket. It seemed so unfair and it was like we were all a party to this excess, like she made us all complicit in it. Ugh.
I think maybe adults forget that- just as a chaotic classroom affects everyone in it an excessively cruel classroom is not a nice place to be, for anyone, even those not being punished.
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Sadistic teachers like that have fueled the anti-discipline backlash. Now sadistic students are fueling the no-excuses backlash. A middle ground –firm but non-sadistic discipline –is what’s needed.
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The politically correct image of the poor minority student, is one of an underprivileged kid struggling and striving to get his education despite his broken down, under-supplied school while facing a carousel of burned out teachers just cashing their checks while enjoying the luxury of union protections. Nothing could be further from the truth in many high-needs schools located in poverty stricken, crime ridden communities. The best efforts of teachers and administrators in the typical troubled inner city school are derailed by a daily onslaught of pure chaos and an underlying tension that is beyond exhausting. The group dynamics in classrooms, hallways, and cafeterias would have to be experienced to be believed, complete with routinely rude, insulting, threatening, combative, and defiant students who openly reject the learning opportunities offered. In such settings, students refuse to pay attention, refuse to behave in a civil manner, refuse to complete classwork and homework, and even refuse to attend school; 20, 30, 40 absences in a school year being far from unusual. The worst of the worst find sport in their misbehaviors; it is a common occurrence for teacher-student confrontations to end with a profanity laced tirade directed at the teacher just before the child walks out of class, while reminding everyone in earshot that they really don’t care about your subject or their education. Of course this description fits a minority of any student population, but the chronic nature of such disruptions by a critical mass of just 3 or 4 or 5 students per class is enough to poison the educational climate to the detriment of the majority. These are buildings where substitute teachers end their day by saying they will never come back because of the abuse they were put through. The “struggling schools” phenomena is rarely about poor teachers, instead, the root of the problem lies in the hopelessness and dysfunction of the families and their communities and the parent(s) who seem to have little interest in the sacrifice required to support their own children’s attendance, behavior, or effort in the classroom. And therin lies the politically incorrect (and very unfortunate) truth of the matter – and the real reason that “no-excuse” environments like SA seem to be a better option for some parents.
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What about the 90%+ not going to o excuses charters?
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That Diane is the $64K question. As long as public schools must educate ALL, and as long as a growing underclass concentrated in America’s inner cities is forced to navigate life without any real economic hope, there will probably be no realistic solution. And the blame lies squarely on the 0.1% and the plutocrats that enabled their unprecedented accumulation of wealth on the backs of the poor.
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What do you think can realistically be done to fix this societal mess given the lack of political will ($). This underclass of mostly minority citizens is not a constituency that many politicians seem very concerned about. Ghettos were not created by accident.
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RageAgainstTheTetsocracy
Ghettos, not allowed to use that word. Ask Sanders . But agreed our schools are the scapegoat for an economy that increasingly leaves no exits out of the ghetto. While building one way entrances to it.
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Kind of ironic that Moskowitz continues to profit ($600K/yr) by offering false hope to the economically deprived. Just another shameless and soulless snake-oil peddler selling hope in the form of bogus test scores.
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Rage –you’ve done an amazing job of articulating the conventional wisdom and then exploding it. Thank you.
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Rage,
I had a girl call me MF and a boy called me a little B. A friend more informed than I explained that a little B is better than a big B.
A group of girls was sharing a lip gloss and I told them to stop because they would get germs. One of the girls looked me straight in the face and said, “Ms. Shure, this is the ghetto.”
I am now far better educated on a range of issues.
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Thanks Ponderosa. The dirty little secret of teaching in the inner city has been left unspoken for too long. And where oh where has minority leadership been on this issue? A problem that is dooming a generation of lost young people of color. Too busy with your photo ops Corey? Bigger fish to fry Barack? We’re only talking about millions of children (and parents) without hope. And where there is no hope there is no dignity. So why would we expect the hopeless, mired in generational poverty, to take their education seriously, when they no longer see it as a way out?
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Imagine thinking that “higher” standards and harder tests could fix this mess?
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It’s worse. It’s a direct and demonstrated threat. It is abuse to all.
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The problem with consulting test-scores for “ed quality” is that if this SA school/chain submitted average or better test scores than public schools, they would be considered “better” schools.
But are they?
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Are parents complaining about this? If not, why not?
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See my comment below.
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No more school reform-But- instead Human Development Cenrters See Red Queen.(http://redqueen.me) David N. Campbell
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“They don’t teach or nurture…they belittle and scold.” This describes a dangerous pattern now much associated with school reform across the nation. Blame and failure in place of appreciation and support.
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I agree. And this kind of phony school “reform” that is used by many charters like Success Academy to get high test scores works only in charters. It has never worked in REAL public schools but only works in fake public schools like charters.
A REAL public school that belittles and scolds (and humiliates, and punishes and suspends) is still responsible for that child’s education. And everyone who isn’t enriching themselves from the billionaire privatizers’ trough knows that all the belittling and scolding in the world won’t teach a 6 year old to read or learn math.
A charter school that belittles and scolds (and humiliates, and punishes and suspends, and “forgets” to send home renewal forms if all of the above doesn’t work) will find those tactics work very well to get the students you belittle and scold (and humiliate and punish….) out of your school. And at that point the charter is absolved from any responsibility for teaching those students forever and ever and ever. They can use the savings to recruit students to replace them who do not have to be belittled and scolded.
I doubt the Success Academy teacher above who quit taught at Upper West or Union Square, where as many as 75% of the students are middle class and no different than the students you’d find at the highest performing neighborhood public schools (except that there are almost no children with more than the mildest disabilities).
The teachers at Upper West do not grab their affluent students by the scruff of the neck. Those students are not scolded and punished the minute their hand becomes unfolded or if they squirm a bit or occasionally speak out of turn because they get excited. The ugly little secret of high performing charters is that they only have to teach who they want to teach. Because they have absolute free reign to belittle, scold, humiliate and punish whichever students they deem worthy of that belittling and scolding. And if the belittling and scolding doesn’t work to turn them into scholars, it will work to get them out of the charter.
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Well and very clearly said.
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The sad part is that you cant file a grievance if you pull the child out because of the abusive coduct, behavior and environment with DOE. You have to build a file of complaints before they will look into it causing irreversible damadge to the child if you stay and endure . Success is given a free pass to openly treat these kids harshly because they view it as serving and giving underprivileged children a golden goose egg of a lottery! The truth always comes out sooner or later. You did the right thing in getting out congratulations!! I was glad to save enough to provide my child a rainbow of options, she is thriving in a private school and blossomed into a wonderful young woman, the timing was perfect because the experience made her stronger and resilient!!
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