D. Burns

Recent Activity

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  D. commented on the article | about 2 years ago

  Hawaii Forced to Cut School Year by 20% to Save Money

  Joe: Right On with the WICS!! Now we also need to "test" (whatever word you want) our dumb teachers yearly AND PUBLICLY POST RESULTS WITH NAMES! I'll bet half can't pass any of their own grade level tests.

  
  

  Ms. Aoki you probably consider yourself the exception and bully for you, but quite miserably, most teachers in Hawaii today are in fact lazy, ignorant and/or self serving. More worried about their contract and what they're doing this summer. Granted, of course, there are some excellent teachers in the mix - they are such a tiny minority here though. The  bottom line to me is the teachers because they are supposed to be the advocates for the children. They are the ones who stand in the classroom with them daily. They are the ones who are supposed to have a beautiful calling to teach. For centuries teachers have taught around campfires, in one-room schoolhouses- the passion, the calling was there with or without supplies. The teachers need to suck up responsibility. Love that one "guilted into working long hours"! Are you kidding me? Every worker in America these days has to put in extra hours. Lots bring their work home at night. Lots work two jobs. See why I say teachers are lazy these days? Stop whining. Start screaming for the children not yourself, then parents will climb on board with you. In a perfect world the parents would be more involved, yes, yes!! But they are the ones who are working ALL THE TIME to keep the roof over the head of their babies, paying for huge childcare costs, insurance, etc. As I said before, I speak from experience, I've been frustrated listening around the "water cooler" and the HSTA to the complaints and gripes of teachers. ENOUGH! Teachers please step up, ultimately what our children know or don't know is your responsibility. There's no denying that.

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  D. commented on the article | about 2 years ago

  Hawaii Forced to Cut School Year by 20% to Save Money

  Again you have such pie in the sky. How EXACTLY do you measure "how well they are serving the needs of the children"? You do not offer any SPECIFIC method, just  generalities. Also, I am a former teacher myself (I've walked much, much more than a mile in "your shoes") AND born and raised in Hawaii (were you?) so I will use "Aloha" however I see fit (never again with you.) I am glad to hear that your own personal little group of  kids and teachers are all happiness and rainbows, but having been in education here in Hawaii for over 25 YEARS (how long have you been at this?) and on TWO different islands, my experience might be more well rounded than yours ("Your experience is not my experience and I don't know if it is true of the entire state of Hawaii".) You bet I have an axe to grind, I've worked with admin, parents, kids and it keeps coming back to the teachers.  I want ALL the TEACHERS  tested annually too! I've worked with teachers here that can't even SPELL Hawaii! You must have some really great gig going where ever you are - but GET REAL! We've got huge problems here and your sunny outlook isn't helping anything/anyone. You are too young and naive to realize all of the ramifications of your narrow minded viewpoint. Just because you and your friends had a wonderful little experience you have no clue how it really is. You talk about the poverty here but from your tone I can tell you have had no REAL connection to the problems associated with it. Have you sat in Tutu's shack and explained why Leila can't go to school because of her lice? Have you hunted down a truant child to find him living in an abandoned car? No, I thought not. Stay up on your ivory tower, don't get down in the muck. Continue to make excuses for the teachers, it's not your fault, it's someone elses.

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  D. commented on the article | about 2 years ago

  Hawaii Forced to Cut School Year by 20% to Save Money

  Aloha Diane - I respectfully disagree with your statement- "Please do NOT use that "Hawaii is near the bottom of the country in student achievement" argument. Progressives for change need to stop making test scores the holy grail of truth, and need to be able to analyze situations in context rather than via a test score."

  
  

  As questioned by Carolyn Santo, what would you reccommend as a measurement of the success of our public schools? What is the "context" you speak of?

  
  

  As a parent of a gifted and talented child in Hawaii's public schools I can honestly report that the teachers are teaching to the lowest common denominator in the classrooms and ignoring the best and brightest. It is not a surprise therefore that Hawaii is spectacularly crashing and burning in education.  Furloughs are making this situation worse, and the teacher unions are so concerned with their own salary, benefits, etc. that they have lost sight of why they are there at all. To teach - to raise the bar - to be advocates for the children, not themselves. Personally I am sick to death of the whining from teachers. Dollars are thrown at special-ed kids, athletics, and admistration but not one penny is spent on  furthering and promoting our smartest kids. Instead they are dragged down by this nonsense. Why aren't teachers screaming loud and long that althletics needs to be cut FIRST, rather than the arts and sciences?? Where is the teacher indignation? Test scores are uncomfortable for kids, teachers, and parents who allow the children to skate by. Lazy teachers promote kids to the next grade even though they can not read. Let the next teacher worry about it. It is shameful. It is easy to blame the govenor when your own special interests come before the children.