After watching the movie “Waiting Superman”, I was really intrigued by it. It caught my attention of how the public school systems are really terrible. I would have never thought that they were really that bad. I never worked in a public school and I don’t think that I ever would. I enjoy working at BOCES, which really isn’t a charter school, but in my mind after watching this movie I feel that it is. Granted my students have learning disabilities and behavior issues (mostly anxiety). There are programs with much lower functioning students, and English Language Learners, but the main focus is help given these “broken students and really give them a positive outlook on life and how there is a light at the end of the tunnel. A lot of the students that I teach always say to me, “I don’t care; I grew up in BrentHOOD (Brentwood) or RiverHOOD (Riverhead). My response to them is that I grew up in Bellport. At that point they all say “OOO S*** Mr. De Carlo you’re mad HOOD!” Not at all. However, it just so happens that I had friends all both sides of the social class spectrum, which I think, makes me a valuable asset to my students. I am able to relate to them on their level and at the say time I teach them math. I don’t just teach them math, but life lessons and how to truly better themselves and shoot for the stars. I recently got a new homeroom student about 2 months ago. He is an ELL student, but does speak English, his M.O. was that he hated school because he’s teacher sucked and they treated him poorly (literally what he said). I was able to make a connection with him the first hour of meeting him. Long story short the kid comes to school every day, he’s behavior has improved; we are still working on the academics.

I was really impressed by Geoffrey Canada and how at a young age he noticed these problems within the educational system in the United States. Granted he grew up in a worse neighborhood then I did. Also, something that I found interesting and recently learn was that it cost up nearly three times the amount to send a person to jail then it is to public schooling (might have learned that in a different class). What a waste. As Geoffrey states in the video, is it the failing neighborhoods that result in the failing schools or is it the failing schools that result in a failing neighborhood. That is and was one of the main ideas in the movie. Before watching this movie, I always thought that it was the failing neighborhoods that created the failing schools. I was wrong. As stated in the video by one of the individuals, school to them wasn’t important and there was no body that pushed them and talked to them. As an educator I feel that we must not only teach our students academics, but talk to them on a personal level, get to know them, help them, and build relationships with them so our students will trust our judgement.

The article Why Are Finland Schools Successful?, was of  high interest to me. After reading it I was in shock. The US, which is supposed to the ultimate power in the world, has the worse schools. Finland has vastly improved in reading, math and science literacy over the past decade in large part because their teacher are trusted to do whatever it takes to turn young lives around. (Hancock, 2011). I can agree and have first-hand experience that American teachers all don’t feel the same way. I remember when I first started working for BOCES 4 years ago. There was a science teacher and all she did was put on movies. Half of the time she was absent and the students watched Disney movies, not even relevant to science. When the movie discussed teacher and referred them to lemons, that teacher came to mind. Teachers like this could be the reason why only 70% of all students in public schools graduate, and 32% leave high school qualified to attend four year colleges. (Greene, Foster, 2003). The school that I currently work at we have smaller classrooms which helps with providing more of a one on one teaching style with each student. This benefits each student in the way that it allows the teacher to focus more on each student’s individual needs. I was thinking that maybe the problem is that there are too many students for one teacher to handle in a public school setting, maybe we need more teachers. The object of teachers in the United States is to teach to have our students pass our standardized test. Pasi Shalberg, a former math and physics teacher in Finland stated that “we prepared children to learn how to learn, not how to take a test.” (Hancock, 2011). I agree, these standardized test show and prove nothing. Once the student graduates they forget most of everything, to me that’s not education and that’s not teaching. Sadly, that’s what’s expected of us. The finger cannot be pointed solely at teachers; it should be pointed at the higher ups who probably never taught anything a day in their life. The worse advocate of all is the company known as PEARSON. They have a monopoly on the educational system; monopolies are illegal in this country, by the way. Whoever signed that deal got a nice fat check. It’s not the educational system that is flawed as much as those you run it. If I had to guess I would say  98% of the people signing and making these deals are doing for the money they are getting out of it.

Anyways, I feel that teachers are over worked and underpaid. Many people don’t real agree, I can tell you from hands on experience I am. Teachers in Finland spend fewer hours at school each day and spend less time in classrooms than American teachers. Teachers use that extra time to build curriculums and asses their students. (Hancock, 2011). I personally teach 8 classes a day and get a 30 minute lunch. By the time I get to sit down and have my lunch I have about 20 minutes due to all the interrupts I deal with. Granted I get out of work at 2pm. I’m stuck there till 5pm doing work. I don’t get paid for those 3 hours. I don’t know how it is in districts, but I need more of a break to think than 20 minutes. We need more time during the day to plan and discuss. The only times that I do get to do that with my co-workers is during a meeting, and these meetings are scheduled during class time. No wonder why kids are struggling.

Another subject that is greatly mentioned is that a student’s environment will impact on their education. I feel that this is true, but not entirely. Research has corroborated the findings that family background is strongly correlated with student performance. The variables that could play a role in one’s achievement is family education, family income, parent’s criminal activity, and family structure. (Egalite, 2016). I could agree with this in the notion that when I met with a few of my homeroom student’s parent’s. the parents flat out say my kid is an idiot and will never amount to anything. In my head I say to myself why are these people so negative towards their child. I had a parent like this and got them to change their mind about their child. The student is doing great now behaviorally and academically. I never asked why they were so negative towards him; to me it must have been their upbringing. There are parents however understand that their child lacks certain abilities, but still try to push and motivate their kid. This is great and I give praise to those parents who do. I do feel that a student’s family and environment plays a role in the academics. As I’ve previous stated it is our duty as educators to change the mind of those who are negative. I feel that a teacher isn’t just there to teach you things, we are counselors, mentors, and motivators. I have expressed to parents that if your student is struggling to help them. We have so many tools and technology today. If someone doesn’t understand math problem I tell them go on youtube, practice, come in tomorrow and ill help you. About 50% of my students do that. To me that’s not good enough. I ask parents to help them, use the computer, bond with your child. Many refuse; they say that they are too busy. In most studies, parental education has been identified as the single strongest correlate of children’s success in school, the number of years they attend school, and their success later in life. (Egalite, 2016). I’ve come to the assumption that Americans are lazy, and they will pay in the end.

I not only teach in Special education at BOCES, but I also teach at the BOCES STEM Program. This program is a general educational program that incorporates science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This program was designed to help boost the deteriorating K-12 education system and its need for more math and science. American simply is not producing enough of our own innovators, and the cause is twofold- a deteriorating K-12 education system and a national culture that does not emphasize the importance of education and the value of engineering and science. To address the issue, the science, technology, engineering, and math education coalition was formed in 2006 to raise awareness in congress. (Peterson,Woessmann, Hanushek, Lastra Anadon, 2011)  The only problem that we are having with this program is that districts are refusing to allow their students to come to this program. WHY?! I’m not an administrator so I don’t the real reason. It probably has to do with money, as usual. I currently teach math I can and will be eventually able to teach biology. I think everyone is aware of the shortage of math and science teachers in the United States. Why be a math teacher and have a crap salary. When you can be a financial advisor and make three times the amount, that’s the problem. Math and science are the two most important subjects. I hate when people say they hate math and science, everyone is a math person you just have to take the time and listen to it. People like easy things in life that’s the problem. I agree that teacher unions should pay math and science teacher more money, but it’s forbidden. That is why people who know math don’t want to teach it because they get paid crap. I know that if I am not hired within a 6 month time period I will be leaving to go into finance. It makes sense on paper, unfortunately I need to live. In an article that I read, granted it was old but relevant to the subject. The idea to promote students to become math and science teachers was to subsidize their loans. The production of secondary teachers has declined by 78 percent in mathematics and 64 percent in science. The schools are losing five times as many science and mathematics teachers every year to industry as to retirement. ( Maeroff, 1982). This was occurring in the 80’s!, thirty years ago. I feel that if a person goes out to be qualified in to areas that are in high demand they should receive a increase in pay over others. In an industry job if you receive a higher degree, you get an increase in pay. It makes sense, I know that I would still do a good job, but will other people. Think about it why would I waste my time making $50k my first year as a teacher when I could make $70k in finance my first year. Students are doing so terrible in math because schools don’t have any math teachers that are proficient in mathematics. Pay us more money and watch what happens.

Works Cited

Egalite, A. J. (2016). How Family Background Influences Student Achievement. In Education Next.

Greene, J. P., & Forster, G. (2003, September). Public High School Graduation and College Readiness Rates in the United States.

In Education Working Paper. Retrieved from Eric.Ed.gov (ED498138).

Hancock, L. (2011, September). Why Are Finland's Schools Successful. In AskSmithsonian.

Maeroff, G. I. (1982, August 10). Education; US Tackling Crisis In Science and Math. In The New York Times.

Peterson, P. E., Woessmann, L., Hanushek, E. A., & Xabel Lastra-Anadon, C. (2011). Are US Students Ready to Compete.

In Education Next.