"No Excuses" Charters

[DGS49]

'No Excuses': Can a Return to Traditional Discipline Save Public Schools?

By Vince Bielski, RealClearInvestigationsJune 10, 2024 COLUMBUS, Ohio—On a bright morning in May at the Columbus Collegiate Academy Main, orderliness is on display. Students in khakis and blue t

www.realclearinvestigations.com

While this is a rather extensive article, the basic point is not difficult to discern. It IS possible, it seems, to have a school that demands attention, respect, diligence, and involvement from its students, even in the public school environment.

The "No Excuses" philosophy is simply that you might have any sort of problem at home or in the 'hood, but those cannot be used as an excuse not to pursue academic excellence. But once you start demanding that Black kids be disciplined according to their behavior, the charges of racism are sure to follow.

It's all about "school choice," isn't it? Teachers' unions hate it but parents want it.

I never went to a public school and the level of discipline described in the article is similar to what I experienced. The next step, in my eyes, is to separate boys and girls at puberty or thereabouts, I'd say in 9th grade. That is a source of distraction that provides no real benefit.

 

[IM2]

A society where the majority demographic continues making excuses for themselves cannot demand no excuses from anyone until THEY stop making excuses.

 

[Unkotare]

"Return to"?

 

[Unkotare]

... The next step, in my eyes, is to separate boys and girls at puberty or thereabouts, I'd say in 9th grade. That is a source of distraction that provides no real benefit.

Good luck with your madrasa.

 

[Unkotare]

... It IS possible, it seems, to have a school that demands attention, respect, diligence, and involvement from its students, even in the public school environment.
...

That is what is demanded of them now.

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

'No Excuses': Can a Return to Traditional Discipline Save Public Schools?

By Vince Bielski, RealClearInvestigationsJune 10, 2024 COLUMBUS, Ohio—On a bright morning in May at the Columbus Collegiate Academy Main, orderliness is on display. Students in khakis and blue t

www.realclearinvestigations.com

While this is a rather extensive article, the basic point is not difficult to discern. It IS possible, it seems, to have a school that demands attention, respect, diligence, and involvement from its students, even in the public school environment.

The "No Excuses" philosophy is simply that you might have any sort of problem at home or in the 'hood, but those cannot be used as an excuse not to pursue academic excellence. But once you start demanding that Black kids be disciplined according to their behavior, the charges of racism are sure to follow.

It's all about "school choice," isn't it? Teachers' unions hate it but parents want it.

I never went to a public school and the level of discipline described in the article is similar to what I experienced. The next step, in my eyes, is to separate boys and girls at puberty or thereabouts, I'd say in 9th grade. That is a source of distraction that provides no real benefit.

I taught at one of those boys only schools and I almost transferred to the girls only school when my position was eliminated. The entire process was the result of a failed magnet program. Separating the sexes worked fairly well for the girls but was a total disaster for the boys. The school was flooded not with magnet students, but kids from the local community who were poor minorities and foreign students living in a facility run by Catholic charities. Few spoke English and the cultural disparity was the source of constant fights and disruption. Too much teenage testosterone leads to mayhem.