Charter Schools - Freedom is not limited to just school choice - Granite Grok

Charter Schools – Freedom is not limited to just school choice

Betsy’s Page is run by a charter school teacher and in the years I’ve been reading her (an “aggregator” sorta like an extended version of Instapundit, or Weekend Pundit‘s “Thoughts on a Sunday”).  Here is a part of today’s “page” that speaks to that the Freedom to Achieve also means the Responsibility to Work Harder / Longer:

A teacher at Success Academy in Harlem reports a question that tugs at the heartstrings from one of his students.

One seventh grader asked me, ‘Why are so many people mad at us if we are doing so well?’

Indeed.

These children work incredibly hard, and they’re proud of their success. No one, especially without knowledge of their situation or home life or personal effort, has the right to undermine their remarkable achievements.

There’s an excellent reason why Success Academy scholars do extraordinarily well on the state exams: We believe they can. We believe all children can succeed, no matter their socioeconomic circumstances.

Our critics do not share that belief. To them, the achievement gap—with only 11% of African-American children and 12% of Latino students prepared for college—is a given, an unfortunate, but unavoidable fact of New York City’s public schools.

Our students have flipped that “fact” on its head. Now it’s time for educators to start believing that with the right changes, we can achieve these results for all New York City students.

Well, I doubt we’ll see regular public schools, dominated by teacher unions, do what Success Academy does. Their students

are in school from 8:00 a.m. until 5:15 p.m. If some students do not fully understand a concept that day, they willingly stay for tutoring after school until they master it, sometimes working till 6 or 6:30 p.m.

You think that unionized teachers would stand for that? I doubt it.

Nope.  I’ve seen the work rules.  And it is absolutely clear that anything not explicitly permitted is prohibited – individual teachers may be fine but dealing with a teachers’ union is just the same as dealing with the Teamsters or dock workers.  They put themselves into a work box and no one gets out.  It is ALL about the union – not the kids.

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