Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Urban Schools' Failure

From Mensah M. Dean at the Philadelphia Daily News:
Looking back on her brief stint as a Philadelphia schoolteacher causes "Rebecca" to shake her head sorrowfully.
Every day of that career, she says, she had to break up fights between her fourth-graders, who cursed and threatened each other - often making good on the taunts.
She spent far more time on discipline than on teaching.
Administrators at Samuel H. Daroff School offered her little help and did not provide a promised mentor teacher, she says.
So, on the seventh day of classes, Rebecca quit - walking away from a $41,000-a-year job in the School District of Philadelphia.
Rebecca - not her real name - has $50,000 in student loans, but says she does not regret leaving because her mental health was at stake.
"It was the worst experience of my life," she says of the first day of class, Sept. 4, at the West Philadelphia school.

To read the rest of the story click here.

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