Cartoon Strip Nota Bene by Leonardo Looks at 'The Truth About Low Performing Schools'

Here is installment 3: Nota Bene by Leonardo "The Truth About Low Performing Schools," by Glen Bledsoe on Salem-News.com

(SALEM) - It is much easier to put things down when you never really see the subject of your insults up close. AM radio talk show hosts are one group that loves to target school districts and teachers, portraying them as villains and a reason for our problems, as the airwave antagonists hide behind a â€ślower taxesâ€ť strategy that has no end in sight.

They know that people respond to fear and anger and ignorance. The result is less money, while more kids attend school. What they attempt to sell as a common sense approach some see as little more than a road to anarchy.

The truth is, nobody becomes a teacher because they think it is going to make them rich. There are plenty of careers that pay more, lots more.

There are problematic teachers and officials, but most at least do not start out that way. Food for thought.

Here is installment 3: Nota Bene by Leonardo "Looks at The Truth About Low Performing Schools," by Glen Bledsoe on Salem-News.com

"Click on the top left picture to view this comic. Your browser will dim and the comic will float above it. Click on the right hand side of the comic to go to the next page (or type n). Click on the left hand side of the comic to go to the previous page (or type p). Click "Close X" (or type x) when you're done."

For browsers that do not support the presentation view load the images separately below.

Salem-News.com Top Stories

2025: Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst

Two Wars with No Way Out

No One Owns the Future

The Ugly Origins of Trump's America First Policy

A One-State Solution Could Transform the World

Comments

Comments are Closed on this story.

Leonardo October 7, 2006 9:40 pm (Pacific time)

John and Anonymous. Private schools can and do reject students who don't meet their behavior or academic criteria. It is the job of public schools to teach every student who walks through the door. By the way, it always amuses me to see people criticize schools who can neither spell nor punctuate. Public or private? Only your teachers know for sure.

john October 6, 2006 10:13 am (Pacific time)

police investigater- the public schools arent going well compaired to the privatized schools. here let me show you. student motivation to learn is 22.9 in public schools, yet in privatized it is up to 36.2 and above. student discipline and behavior is 42.4 in privatized schools, while in public school it is 29.1, so as you can see privatized schools do seem to be better. do you believe all chools should be public or privatized? does this information help you at all? i will give you more information now. "percentage of teachers who agree with the following." the schools administration's behavior towards staff is supportive: in public schools: 79%. in privatized it is 87%. the level of students misbehavior is interfering with my teaching: 41% in public schools....and 24% in privatized. "does this change your first opinion?" my opinion is this: "many children do better in privatized schools than in public. i think all schools should be privatized." heres more information for you. as an investigater, all my info. is extremely accurate. many children who come from privatized schools do better in business and careers when they are older. and private education provide better freedom of choice, their pupils may obtain better results because the classes are smaller. more than six million people go to privatized schools, and most tend to have greater careers and jobs then most and some make businesses of their own. "private schools: a brief portrait" this is what they had to say in 2002. "private school students perform higher than their public schools counterparts on standardized achievement tests." "private school students are more likely than public schools students to complete a bachelor's or advanced degree by their mid 20's." Im done comenting for today. later i will be back with even more information. i hope this has given you a better view on private and public schools. thank you for reading my comment.

Anonymous October 6, 2006 9:54 am (Pacific time)

...........uh...ooookay...what..does this have to do with privatized schools? i think you need to improve this site...........or maybe you dont want to do anything that helps people working on the debate? hmph. please do make this site better, for i will visit it againt to see that you did. -police investigater john

Leonardo September 22, 2006 8:16 pm (Pacific time)

Albert: What closed doors? You are invited to attend school board meetings and parent-teacher meetings. You are invited to volunteer in classrooms, in school libraries. Schools are always looking for help. Volunteer and read to a kid, correct spelling papers, teach a 5th grader how to divide fractions. Teach a 3rd graders who has never eaten with a spoon his table manners. Teach kids that they should bathe regularly and wear clean clothes to school each day. Many of them don't get that at home. For some their only verbal contact with parents is "Get out from in front of the TV!" Maybe you think there are secret money caches. Chalkboard Project is working to make the financial picture of schools as transparent as possible. Fantasize away but there are no secret societies, no secret meetings in which teachers perform mysterious rituals. We go home to our families at the end of the day. There is no time for robes and masks. What do I mean by "assuming your still standing?" Teaching--even volunteering--in schools is a draining task physically, emotionally, spiritually, intellectually. On one hand you see all of our culture's hopes and talents, but on the other you also see the ugliness: the effects of ignorance, poverty, drugs. In my years of teaching I have seen (and reported) children sexually abused, burned by curling irons, beat with straps, ears bruised black as an old banana by fathers who couldn't control their own tempers. Students lead harder lives than I could have ever imagined before I started teaching. At the end of the day educators are drained. I could tell you stories about students which would haunt you for days. Not students in far away lands, but right here in Oregon. In Salem, in fact. Finally, what is it about privatizing which you believe "will emerge talent?" Private schools typically pay less, offer fewer benefits and as a consequence fail to attract better teachers. Private schools look good on paper because they can pick and choose who their students are. Other education businesses (such as those in Philly) hand teachers canned lesson plans. Reading from scripts to students is not going to "emerge talented teachers." The problem in education is teacher retention. Teachers quit at an alarmingly high rate. Teachers do their best work with students after they've had many years of experience. If teachers don't remain in the system for more than a few years, the overall quality of instruction in schools drops. You want to make it easy to fire teachers? Will that "emerge" the talent you're looking for? Come teach here, where we can fire you without due process. Due process is all teachers are guaranteed, by the way. Teachers do get fired, but more often quit when they find the job isn't right for them. Albert, I've read many of your comments elsewhere and appreciate many of your thought--especially on issues of the media. But if you haven't been in schools, please don't pretend to be an expert on what goes on in them. Education doesn't need yet another armchair critic. Get in there, get your hands dirty, then ask questions.

Albert Marnell September 22, 2006 3:49 am (Pacific time)

Leonardo, I would have to know what they are doing behind closed doors. What do you mean, "Assuming you're still able to stand." I believe that all schools should be privatized so that talent can emerge and not have people that can not be easily fired or brought under scrutiny.

Leonardo August 23, 2006 6:53 pm (Pacific time)

Albert, here's what I'm going to do. I'm deputizing you as one of my special undercover agents. Your job is to volunteer at a community school--assuming you have no criminal record. (They will check!) Then I want you to pick one of those dead wood teachers you are so spot on about and shadow them for, say, five days in a row. Assuming you're still able to stand, I want you to report back to us and we'll see that justice is served. Promise.

Albert Marnell August 20, 2006 8:58 am (Pacific time)

Google the Roslyn School District or the name Pamela Gluckin. Here was a case on Long Island where the administrators stole many millions from one district and everyone thought they were as sweet as Miss Crabtree. The scandal put a spotlight on other school districts and other arrests and investigations are still coming.

Albert Marnell August 20, 2006 8:53 am (Pacific time)

I will say it again and again, privatize all schools so that there is no more tenure. Give the children whose parents have limited means government vouchers so that they do not have to be segregated according to income, race or anything else. I went to private schools and a private college. I do not know how the college handled things technically but I know that from grades k-12 if a teacher was not up to par they were out. They also did not have unions backing them up which only keep the incompetent dead wood around. My college was not run on a shoestring budget but my high school, primary school and grammar school were. I received an excellent education (which was very difficult because my parents would sometimes fight till 4:AM and I would go to school exhausted and upset. My father had connections with the head of probation.... so much for law enforcement again. My mother should have been locked up too. I say this with love?) Throwing money at schools only feathers the nests of the administrators and teachers, the children receive crumbs. Teachers especially should be fired when they are not performing well. This country has it all backwards. Teachers are the last ones that should have job security. The kids come first. Ditto for Law Enforcement.

[Return to Top]