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Why is "culling" so bad?
Subj: Re: [Mpls] Why is "culling" so bad?
Date: 9/23/2004 4:35:46 PM Central Daylight Time
From: Socialist2001@cs.com
To: mpls@mnforum.org
In a message dated 9/22/2004 8:24:19 PM Central Daylight Time,
Michael Atherton writes:
<< While it is true that the current approach of providing "everyone" with a college predatory education is not working, I don't think that either "culling" or "tracking" are a necessary or even a positive alternatives. As Mr. Mann argues many minority students are already the victims of low expectations. >>
[Doug Mann] In Minneapolis the current approach is to cull and track in grades K-3 and up. A large majority of MPS students are deemed to be "too hard to educate," and besides, the board members do not want to displease employers who need to
fill unskilled, low-wage, low-status jobs. A college-bound education tends to make one unsuited for those jobs.
It is hard for most teachers to do a good job of educating students when they are new to the job, and when students are overexposed to new teachers. I don't blame the teachers, the parents, or the students for that. Curriculum tracking and an emphasis on behavior management were, in part, adaptations to an environment in schools where new teachers predominate, and are being promoted in a large majority of the district's schools. That might be a good reason for realigning high seniority teachers with multiple teaching licenses out of regular Ed positions in the elementary grades [A few high-seniority teachers have told me they refuse to ability-group their students and had some concerns about facing retaliation for not being "team players."]
-Doug Mann, King Field
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