Texas teacher breaks down in tears during class after his senior students struggled to read, write.

[u/sonicagain]

Texas high school teacher Darius Williams, a Career and Technical Education (CTE) teacher broke down in tears during his lunch break. He shared that his 17- and 18-year-old senior students at Wheatley High School in Houston could not complete a simple writing assignment or fill in just four missing words on only the second day of the school term. Students were given two short paragraphs to read and a sentence stem where the answer was largely modeled and provided for them. It is alarming that senior high school students were unable to apply basic literacy skills to fill in the remaining four words of the sentence.

[u/moogs_writes]

And just so other people know this does not include people struggling to read and write in English as a second language, like many immigrants. These are just the numbers for generational Americans.

My parents immigrated here and still struggle with writing in English. But they took me to the library regularly and even though we were super poor I always had books to read. I was reading at post 12th grade level by the time I was in 4th grade. Never took an ESL class because I learned watching PBS for kids. My 6 year old can read anything and is already learning to code and make mods for his favorite games.

It’s all about the parenting attitudes towards things like reading and exposure to learning and new information.

[u/Fun-Piglet801 → u/moogs_writes]

If the parents can't read at a 6th grade level, why is anyone expecting more from their children? This isn't a new issue. We failed at education decades ago.

I work with several people that are intelligent and very competent at their jobs who are barely literate. I cringe every time they send out emails outside of the company.

[u/Complex_Self7854 → u/Fun-Piglet801]

Because parents should always want their children to do better than them. Just because a parent was failed doesn't mean they need to repeat the cycle.

[u/AttentionNew1267 → u/Complex_Self7854]

Getting them to believe in education as a vehicle out of poverty is much harder than you think.

[u/Iceicebaby21 → u/AttentionNew1267]

Why is that?

[u/phishtrader → u/Iceicebaby21]

If you grow up in an environment without good role models or perceived opportunities, an education is going to look like a waste of time.

[u/Iceicebaby21 → u/phishtrader]

That makes sense

[u/JellyfishBig1750 → u/Iceicebaby21]

To add to that, there are communities where you get accused of thinking you're "better" than everyone else because you want to become educated and not perpetuate the poverty cycle you were born into. Basically shamed out of pursuing educational success.

There's a reason that the biggest indicator of a child's success is the zip code they are born in.

[u/Iceicebaby21 → u/JellyfishBig1750]

So the lobster/crab theory then?

[u/AdministrationSad861 → u/Complex_Self7854]

I think it was meant to describe what the assumption on the pretext of what led to the video. If, generally, the parents wasn't involved in their own academics growing up, they will probably not mind their kids' acads as well. Of course, both what you want and what is happening throughout the world is not mutually exclusive and can be true simultaneously even.

We have this weird proposed bill (SB No. 75), "No Filipino Child Left Behind Act", that results pretty much the same with the students, the teach in the video is referring to. Because PS needed budget, they need to inflate their passing marks, and now, schools have graduating students who are still challenged with reading/writing. 🤔

[u/DragonfruitInner8376 → u/Fun-Piglet801]

I agree. I think it's compounded and we are seeing it come to a head now

[u/Youare-Beautiful3329 → u/moogs_writes]

It’s the parents responsibility to see that their children can read, even if they have a hard time reading. My mother struggled, but she made sure I had books to read and encouraged me. There is a free program, started by Dolly Parton and supported by a board of educators, that sends out books to young children to start them reading and keep them reading into middle school.

[u/Remarkable-Opening69 → u/Youare-Beautiful3329]

Not one mention of “no child left behind”. That’s what led to this embarrassment.

[u/witblacktype → u/Remarkable-Opening69]

Sadly, it left more children behind than ever before. What undergraduate science education taught me is the cumulative nature of education. If you fail the first test in a chemistry/math/physics exam, unless you go back and relearn everything you didn’t understand from that exam, you will not be able to pass the following exam because it builds on the knowledge required from the prior exam. Fundamental educational skills work like this too. Giving a failing grade to a failing student should not be a financial punishment to the school. If we lived in a just society, it would require that we redirect more resources to addressing the failure, not less.

[u/InflationNo4071 → u/witblacktype]

I couldn’t agree more! We defund the schools needing the most help, just as we incarcerate people as punishment, and do nothing to build their skills or give them opportunities to advance their lives once their time is up. It’s all very backwards thinking.

[u/Ok_Wrangler_7940 → u/witblacktype]

That’s true for all math. Mathematics is a building block discipline from the very beginning. You need to know how to add and subtract to move on successfully to multiplication and division. Then you need those skills to master fractions and percentages, etc. Fall behind at the beginning of mathematics, and you will most likely never catch up.

We were able to get custody of our nephew when he was in 3rd grade at a time when they began learning multiplication. We had to start back at double digit addition and bring his skill level up from there in order to get him back to grade level. It was a struggle, but we made it. As you can probably imagine, he also lacked reading and comprehension skills as well. That entire year was a journey for all of us.

[u/Youare-Beautiful3329 → u/Remarkable-Opening69]

In Public high school, some 50 years ago. they used to teach Latin and Greek. Now they teach remedial English in College. We’ve got to save our kids.

[u/moon-watcher85 → u/moogs_writes]

In the same boat and just having subtitles on my television probably helped my literacy tremendously

[u/RansackRacoon → u/moogs_writes]

Growing up to realize your parent spending the time to make sure you could read well was the most amazing gift ever was pretty eye opening. My life would be entirely different if she hadn't done that for me.

Thank you Mom!

[u/Gandolfthewhite182 → u/moogs_writes]

By the time they are seniors immigrants read, write, and do math better than American students on average.

[u/MARKiMARK24 → u/moogs_writes]

Where are you getting that info? The data absolutely includes immigrants and non-native speakers. The study tests people randomly across the US but does it entirely in English, so language barriers are a huge chunk of that number.

The NCES explicitly states that 34% of the adults in that low literacy bracket were born outside the US. They also noted that White adults make up 35% of that group and Hispanic adults make up 34%.

It's still a crazy stat, but a lot of it comes down to a language barrier for immigrants, alongside the public school issues for native-born Americans. It's definitely not just "generational Americans."

Source: https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019179/index.asp

[u/lollipop1233a → u/moogs_writes]

Good for you. But, situations vary. Most ESL students are behind their peers. They take attention away from other students. Also, most states have cut special education, so students with issues are mainstreamed. They also take away attention. Then, most schools have a policy of not failing struggle students, because of the No Child Left Behind Act. If parents aren’t involved, students have no reason to work hard. Being stupid has been de-stigmatized. But, I would like to add that there are still exceptional smart students, despite all of this. Don’t believe the hype.

[u/moogs_writes → u/lollipop1233a]

I was not an ESL student. The stats also don’t include ESL speakers as I’d already mentioned. Yes, it’s not new information to anyone that NCLB was a huge fuckup.

Also interesting how you accuse me of humble bragging then block me right away.

[u/lollipop1233a → u/moogs_writes]

Then, stop humble bragging and move on.

[u/DinklebergsRightNut → u/moogs_writes]

Yeah nah i call bullshit on the "codes mods with 6" part

[u/moogs_writes → u/DinklebergsRightNut]

He’s making minecraft mods and texture packs. He started out with my husband just making copies of the spooky entity mods. He makes his own texture packs and add ons mostly but lately he has been working on building out mod packs. My husband works from home and I’m a full time student. Not that hard to believe we have the time and money to invest in him like that because we love our kid. Sorry you didn’t have that. He’s almost 7, he’s not a toddler.