On Winter Solstice, Monday, December 21, 2020, darkness had already arrived in North Minneapolis:
Another teen-ager (17 years old) fell to homicide; as is all too typical, the adolescent was shot after an altercation with another youth.
Few understand the strong connection between youth violence and the wretched level of K-12 education with which the students of the Minneapolis Public Schools are abused each day.
Because of a history of residential covenants, out-migration of the middle class from the urban core from the 1970s forward, and the increasing demographic challenges that decision-makers at the Minneapolis Public Schools proved incapable of meeting, cyclical poverty and familial dysfunction too often describes the households of the city’s North Side.
From the time that crack cocaine hit the streets and gang activity became rife in the 1980s, an already mediocre school system became ever more abominable at meeting the needs of its very challenged student population.
Be clear. There remain solid middle class families on the North Side and one need not fear most of the time in strolling amidst the arboreal beauty of the area’s streets. But the challenges are evident, and too many youth bearing the burden of our historical sins strike out desperately at the wrong targets, as did the poignant character of Levee in August Wilson’s magnificent play, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
K-12 education is key to ending cyclical poverty and redressing the wrongs of history.
Excellent education is a matter of excellent teachers imparting a logically sequenced, knowledge-intensive, skill-replete curriculum to students of all demographic descriptors throughout the preK-12 years. An excellent teacher is a professional of deep and broad knowledge with the pedagogical ability to impart that knowledge to students of all demographic descriptors.
The Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) have neither knowledge-intensive curriculum nor excellent teachers at the median.
Students from grade 2 forward lack knowledge that they should possess in mathematics, natural science, history, government, economics, literature, English usage, and the fine arts. They have poor vocabulary development and slim grasp of fractions, decimals, percentages, ratios, proportions, and probability necessary to succeed in algebra, geometry, pre-calculus, and calculus courses. Because of the knowledge-deficient, skill-deplete approach to curriculum and the mediocre teaching in the Minneapolis Public Schools, MPS students do not gain the necessary knowledge and skill base to achieve at a high level on the ACT college readiness exam; in particular, students from families facing dilemmas of finance and functionality tend to record a score in the 9-14 range, not even reflecting middle school capability.
MPS students do not read broadly and deeply across a full liberal arts curriculum. Students move forward from grade 5 having little knowledge of any subject area. Curriculum and teaching is not much better in middle school and high school; only students who take Advanced Placement (AP) courses learn anything of substance, and then only in the off-chance of getting a teacher qualified to impart college preparatory curriculum.
The most vexing dilemmas at the Minneapolis Public Schools are the lack of scholars among academic decision-makers; knowledge, deficient, skill-deplete, incoherent curriculum; and teachers lacking the subject area training to impart knowledge-intensive curriculum and failing to comprehend the life experiences of young people living at the urban core.
The Minneapolis Public Schools serve no student well; failure to provide the subject area knowledge necessary to aspire to post-secondary education hurts students mired in cyclical poverty and facing problems of familial functionality the worst. Most of these students had the requisite rudimentary reading and arithmetic skills upon entering grade 2; but from grade 2 forward, they never received the knowledge-intensive, skill-replete education that would maximize chances of breaking the cycle of poverty and going forth to a life founded on the three great purposes of public education: cultural enrichment, civic participation, and professional satisfaction.
As the national sickness of year 2020 goes into remission and celestial light increases from now into June, we must dedicate ourselves to the brighter future that we owe the long-waiting students of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
The Davis Center (MPS central offices, 1250 West Broadway) staff members named in this article’s title are highly paid occupants of sinecures who year after year draw their excessive remuneration without indicating any remorse for the wretched academic program of the Minneapolis Public Schools, nor the role that they have in sending young people who lack any grounding at home or school to their deaths.
I have explained the culpability of most of these staff members many times in the articles entered on this blog. Emerging evidence and the passage of time without proper action on the part of Eric Moore, Maggie Sullivan, and Suzanne Kelly will lead me to turn toward greater exploration of their culpability in articles soon to come.
Students of the Minneapolis Public Schools have long waited for celestial light to be beamed into their lives via knowledge-intensive, skill-replete curriculum, imparted by teachers capable of mastering and delivering such knowledge:
Eric Moore, Maggie Sullivan, Suzanne Kelly, and the previously reviewed other members of the inept group identified in the title must get busy, resign, or face professional embarrassment.
No comments:
Post a Comment