To the casual person, it might seem redundant, Teachers have plenty of power, they can do whatever they want, Right? Wrong. Teachers have as much power as us students, if not less. The administration at my local high school has an untapped supply of power that I thank the higher powers they don't know how to use it. At this school, the classes aren't for learning; they are for reviewing the same material over and over again for 175 days in order to for the students to take a five hour test. Amazingly, the scores are the lowest in the district.
So what is administration's motive? The oldest one in the book, cold hard cash. The more students that pass, the more money the school gets, the more money the school gets, the more they can put into their own pockets. Although I'm not saying all the money goes to administration, some goes to educational programs, but which ones?
All the money, aid, and grants go to the higher, AP/IB students. Basically it's a case of the richer get richer. I have nothing against those advanced classes, just the way administration treats them. The AP classes have very few students, so it's easier for administration to micromanage them and to use them as the face of the school, while there are students who are truly struggling, and don't get any help because all the education money is going to the AP students. Tutoring at my school isn't really tutoring, 95% of the tutoring classes are students who ditched too much and have to do hours of tutoring in order to get credit for the classes, 4% go to finish their homework because they, for some reason, can't at home, and 1% actually needs help from the teachers, but the teachers are more occupied in making sure the majority of the class doesn't sneak off, text, or do anything remotely fun for the hour and a half.
These students really need the money, the AP students have enough, and if administration keeps spoiling them, the AP students will soon lose the challenge and the motivation to learn. But what can anyone do about it? The struggling students have parents that don't care, and definitely would not get involved. Those students who have parents that get involved in school matter are AP students, so the few parents are inclined to supporting the expansion of AP. The only people who have power in the system are the parents, because who is paying the salaries? To Administration, Parents are not people; they are tax dollars with will. And if something upsets the parents, they switch schools, and the tax dollars go to a different school district. But the majority of parents are apathetic, and do not want to reform the curriculum.
Where do I fit in you may ask, I admit it, I am a Pre-AP student, and I have nothing against the teachers or students. But I was once at the bottom and I know how it feels to be where there is no one to help you, and then you figure school as a whole is pointless, so you go and get yourself in trouble. You ditch, you smoke, you put off homework, and you dig yourself in deeper, while the AP kids have people to help them and they just keep going up and up and up.
Then there are the teachers. I thank the higher powers that I got an excellent reading teacher. (I didn't choose reading, I don't see the point, and again administration chose it at random because I was just a statistic). She is the one who helped me get into writing and post stuff like this. Anyway she shares the same view as me. She sees how Admin is biased, and hates teachers like her, who see the truth, now I ask you, rise up and gather people to help the curriculum reform, make tax dollars go to the under privileged.
The parents have all the power, students have little, and teachers have almost none. Help our cause not just for my school but for all schools, this has got to stop, dropout rates and failure rates are rising because the majority of the students don't get help, and it is the AP/IB students who make the school get a rating in the first place. (On a side note, IB stands for International Baccalaureate; my school is an IBO world school.) Help me, help us, help yourselves, I truly don't see a good future for my children (that I have yet to have) because the majority of the labor pool will be unfit for the demanding jobs that we need. Of course we need lower jobs to help the higher jobs perform their duties, while those higher jobs help out the lower jobs. Our schools need reform, and only you can do it.
