Buffalo Schools protest

If you want a good laugh reading the Buffalo News, you don't have to read the comics. Sometimes interesting in his candidness, Rod Watson usually is good for some laughs when it comes to the Buffalo schools. In his latest column, he bemoans the fact that only 40 protestors showed up at Phil Rumore's office the other day. Perhaps they are waiting for a government program to hire full time protestors to show up in their absence?

Forty people, and I'll bet you half of them were the "Occupy Buffalo We'll protest anything with 15 minutes notice" type. Watson is surprised at the low turnout? How many parents does he think show up to parent/teacher conferences in the city of Buffalo? I've talked to some teachers who sit at their desk all day waiting for  one parent to show. Does he really think they're going to take time off from the Jerry Springer show to worry about their kids' education?


This parental impotence illustrates the bigger problem in the city, and it's one that millions of dollars won't fix: The majority of  students and the parents in the lower performing schools simply don't care! The ones who bother to show up are there more for social reasons than anything else. Disruptive students is an understatement at these schools. If you tell them to put away their phones (in class), they look at you as if you're speaking another language. And where does Watson think they learn this behavior from? From the Buffalo News...


“What we have now” clearly doesn’t work for most students, only about half of whom graduate on time. But it works great for teachers, who refuse King’s call to be held accountable for their ability to deal with challenging kids.

I got news for Watson. What we have now doesn't work great for teachers, either. The teachers I know from the struggling schools are stressed out from trying to raise other peoples' children for them. Challenging kids? Buffalo is forced to pay it's subs $30 more/day than the local suburban districts. It's not because the students are a little bit more "challenging." Watson loves to use  euphemisms like "challenging" and "sassing" to describe the behavior of these students. The people I know on the front lines who deal with the disrespectful ones use other words. Disruptive is usually high on the list.


The schools are a reflection of the community. What we have in Buffalo right now is a group of people who want other people to raise their children for them. That's why none of them show up to these protests. The schools and their kids are not their problem. You can throw $6 million or $600 million at the problem and it won't matter. Until the community itself (families) start taking education seriously, nothing will change.

Here's one parent who understands what is really taking place in the classrooms:
Waiting for miracle won’t fix the schools

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Rod Watson must be reading the blog

I have to give credit to Buffalo News reporter Rod Watson. He's clearly been reading the blog in an effort to make himself more informed on the topic of the Buffalo Public Schools. His article today basically is the same article I've been writing for the last two years. I give him credit for tackling some tough topics, but he continues to place most of the blame on the district/teachers and continues to make excuses for an entire community. From today's column...

Whatever assets a parent brings will be tapped to help teachers improve education. It’s the kind of help that parents in suburban schools and the elite city schools routinely provide. But you may not even know you’re supposed to do that if you grow up in a neighborhood where you’ve never been asked.

Never been asked? The low performing schools hold parent teacher conferences every quarter, where only a handful of parents bother to show up. And they were asked. Never been asked? Teachers routinely call student's homes to find out why they haven't been showing up to class or to inform the parents that they've been causing disturbances in class. Upon being called into a school for her daughter's misbehavior a few years back, one mother at Burgard High School told the principal, "nobody disciplines my child!"

A few years ago, parents from a Buffalo Public School in South Buffalo called the Metro Community News to complain that the principal was making their children be quiet in the halls and on the way to classes. ??? As if the principal was in the wrong for this. This is the mentality we're dealing with. How about the parent(s) from Lorraine Academy who dressed their six year old son up as a pimp for Halloween? And the two parents from School #17 arrested a few weeks ago for fighting with the assistant principal? I hope they never do get asked.
http://mikeblake-myopinions.blogspot.com/2011/11/school-17.html

I wish the parents' group success. It is important part of the process. But the bottom line is that education starts at home. The parents need to read to their kids, monitor their classroom behavior, and stop blaming the adults in the buildings for their shortcomings.
Kids succeed when boost is given at home


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"Race Card" Rod at it again

The one thing great about the recent turmoil in the Buffalo Public schools is the fact it's forcing people to think about the real roots of the district's problems. Is it the school system or is it the people comprising the school system? Buffalo News columnist Rod Watson's article in today's paper was an insult to every teacher, student, and taxpayer in the city, both white and black.

Watson raises a good point when he talks about the disparities in the ratio of white to black students in the city's three best (arguably) high schools: City Honors, Da Vinci, and Hutch Tech. There's only one problem. Each of these schools chooses their students primarily on an entrance exam. Watson questions whether the entrance exams are (play the race card music) culturally biased. Culturally biased! Here is Watson, doing what he does best, making excuses and playing the race based blame game...

• Did this occur because the top schools use tests and selection criteria that are culturally biased or that give an inside edge to better-educated parents who know best how to navigate the system?

Outrageous. Fortunately, teachers, parents, and taxpayers have had enough of liberal nonsense from the likes of "Race Card" Rod. Guys like Watson want to blame everything on race. The white controlled educational system is keeping the black students down, etc., etc. But how does this explain the Vietnamese, Burmese, Thai, and Somalian refugees who come to Buffalo with little more than the clothes on their backs? They don't even know the language, yet most come to school willing to work and make something out of themselves. In no time, they are speaking English, performing well at school, and graduating. Oh, yea. Most aren't being continuously disruptive in class, either. Look at the suspension rates, Rod.

Instead of blasting grammar school parents, whose children miss 35 days a year, Watson thinks we need to form a focus group for them. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahaha. We need a focus group to tell parents that keeping their kids home 35 days a year is not in their best interest? Is he serious?...

• Why do some parents feel so little sense of efficacy when it comes to education that they don’t make sure their kids attend school, as reflected in the Buffalo Teachers Federation analysis showing alarming absenteeism rates? Who’s going to convene the parental focus group, suggested by union chief Phil Rumore, that could help find out why?

In the past, I've worked in a racially mixed charter school, where students from both races were being accepted at Hutch Tech and Da Vinci. In fact, race was rarely even discussed at this school. The white kids at this school all got along and worked hard in class. The difference? The parents of these students were involved in their kids' education. The students were not allowed to walk around the classrooms while the teacher was trying to teach. They were not permitted to talk over the teacher. Kids with behavior problems were not made the center of attention (which is exactly what they want). The whole day did not become about them. Cell phones were collected and put in a lock box until the end of the day. Homework was expected. There were consequences to misbehavior.

It's 2011. We need to stop making excuses for bad parenting and lazy students. There are so many great students in Buffalo, willing to come to school and make an effort. It has nothing to do with "culturally biased" test scores or the district. The leaders in the black community need to start asking their neighbors why they don't value education or the importance of good parenting. Watson's flimsy excuses are pathetic and quite frankly, I'm embarrassed for him.
Two-tiered district cries out for reform


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She was just sassing

We're finally starting to see everyday citizens pointing the finger where it belongs on the education crisis in the city of Buffalo: on the students and their parents themselves. Letters to the editor are finally being written on this subject, exposing what is really going on inside these buildings.

When cops crossed the line in Lancaster and West Seneca, I took the side of the citizens. In the case of 17 year Riverside High School student Ieshia Huffman, I have to side with the police officer. Of course, Buffalo News columnist Rod Watson doesn't see it this way. He thinks the police officer should have taken poor little Ieshia aside and given her a hug. My favorite part of these articles is when the News' writers (usually Donne Esmonde or Watson) throw in the one line grudgingly conceding the poor behavior of the students led to the problem...

No one’s pretending that cops are always dealing with Beaver Cleaver and Marcia Brady. The girl was wrong for pointing the fake rifle; ROTC should have taught her to treat every gun as if it’s loaded. She also was wrong for mouthing off and cursing instead of obeying; one would hope the program also instills more respect for authority.

But respect has to be earned.

Respect has to be earned? That's where most people would disagree. Kids in decent families are taught at a young age to respect police officers and teachers from the word go. In a previous article, Watson dismissed the disrespecting of adults by Buffalo schoolchildren as "sassing." This girl is a 17 year old single mother, still immature enough to be disruptive in school.

I've been very critical of Superintendent Williams as well as Phil Rumore on here. However, the biggest problem with the schools these days in Buffalo is not them or the teachers or the length of the school day. It's disruptive, disrespectful students and the adults that enable them (see Rod Watson and Donne Esmonde). I feel so bad for Ieshia that she had to listen to some curse words while she was trying to "sass" an authority figure.
Cops must set example, not dumb down

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