Comment Archives: stories: News & Opinion: News Blog
Re: “[UPDATED] Lovely Warren will run for mayor”
Somebody call the television networks ! This contest has all the makings of a hit reality show.
Watch each week as two equally inept and equally unqualified candidates, one a white male, the other a black female, pander to the electorate and bloviate about their plans for rearranging the deck chairs on a sinking ship as they race to see who will be the next captain !
Re: “[UPDATED] Lovely Warren will run for mayor”
From this morning's D&C " Asked about marriage equality, Richards said he was in favor before New York made it law, calling it a civil rights and personal issue. Warren responded: "as an attorney, i support the state's laws. . . Since that is the law the state passed, I support it." Wow. It is nice to know that under the force of law, Ms. Warren sort-of tolerates gay people. Her quite vague and political answer is incredibly revealing. If their positions were reversed, this would be a City newspaper headline! The LBGTA community (and particularly LBGTA youth) deserves a mayor who gets that this is an issue of human rights and supports marriage equality with full throat as Richards did on the steps of city hall BEFORE it became law.
Re: “RCSD teachers say discipline is still a serious problem”
@Insatiable Dragon
Yes, I do do some comments during the school day. However, it's only when I have the time available. I do my planning weeks in advance, I keep up on grading as best I can, and I also have the ability to quickly and cogently organize my thoughts and get them into the computer.
However, if you were to look at my "participation" in these comment streams, you'll notice that I have only been making significant comments recently. That's in part because the discipline issues and other stresses this school year kept me busy. The students' behaviors haven't gotten better, but I've gotten better at managing them. Contractually we get "planning periods," so, if I'm planned days or weeks in advance, I have the time, when everything else is going according to plan. Also, during the school day students are supposed to be in their classes. After the school day, I get students, meetings and other events that keep me busy.
Also, this year my school starts late, thus giving me some time in the morning to participate during a time when other schools are already in session.
I know what you were insinuating and I don't resent it, but it is telling that you even decided to make the observation in the first place.
Re: “[UPDATED] Lovely Warren will run for mayor”
One must note that in the last two democratic mayoral primaries the designated candidate did not win the election. So in my mind it would be better for Warren to not get designated. Remember, Richards won during a special election where every party could vote. Not the case here. It is definitely going to be a interesting year in Smugtown!
Re: “[UPDATED] Lovely Warren will run for mayor”
Fasten your seatbelts everybody. This is going to be a VERY interesting time in Smugtown this year!
Re: “RCSD teachers say discipline is still a serious problem”
@Yugoboy,for someone who claims to be a City School District teacher, you sure seem to have an awfully lot of of time to make a great many posts, and long posts, during the work day hours. Must be nice.
Re: “In Pittsford, Corby wins reelection”
Looks like Trip and his county legislature crony Danielle found out that people in the village are not as dumb as they think, especially when they name their party "No to 75 Monroe" when they are actually for the building of 75 Monroe!
Re: “RCSD teachers say discipline is still a serious problem”
PARENTS PARENTS PARENTS!! I never got in trouble in school because I knew that both (yes, there were 2 of them) would flip a sh*t if I got any kind of suspension. Discipline starts at home with the parents. If you can't raise a kid, don't have one! Having a kid isn't some disease that you just catch, we know how it happens and how to prevent it!
Re: “RCSD teachers say discipline is still a serious problem”
Thank you for bringing this topic to people's attention (again).
One of the direct observations people can make when looking at the district's test scores is that the decline in Middle School is universal and dramatic. Our students don't get stupider, the behavior does. Discipline in the middle schools is such a major issue that keeping experienced people in Middle Schools is very hard. It takes a special kind of angel to be able to tolerate the incredible strain of dealing with the behaviors, defiance, and lack of effective consequences that teaching in Middle School requires.
When I describe my students' behaviors to people outside the district (and I refuse to use hyperbole) people still think I"m nuts. The teachers in my school have tried literally everything we can think of short of corporal punishment, and the results have been significantly worse behaviors. Phone calls home are done only so we can say we did them, because it's not like they have any significant impact. Kids don't care about their grades because they know they'll get socially promoted. Even if they don't, they can go to summer school for free.
Until we end social promotions, start charging for summer school, and somehow make parents accountable enough for their children's behavior that they will find some sort of effective discipline for their kids, little will change.
Despair amongst my colleagues is high. We are all simply struggling to get to June. The countdown started weeks ago, and the way people talk about April recess in a couple weeks, you'd think it was prison furlough. From a Vietnamese POW camp.
Re: “Praising attendance, appealing suspensions”
Thank you for some insights, Yugoboy. I think the problem is more particular, though. Serious behavioral problems are found mostly amongst African American kids and the relevant parental critique is that the parents care very little about their kids (and thus such basics as discipline).
One phenomenon I have seen in working with kids is what I call "The Kiss of Death". Every few months I will get one or more new African American kids from the same family to show up at my table and wanting to do some worksheets with me. Later that day, or perhaps the next, their parent (almost always a mom) will find their kids there working and awkwardly express gratitude to me (and other tutors present) that there is local tutoring/learning help available. That is "The Kiss of Death". I almost never see their kids again.
The larger context is that amongst our tutors we do have many poor kids showing up regularly - quite a few with illiterate refugee parents - and they try and they behave (and it works). Behind it all they appear to have the essential ingredient - a supportive parent or parents.
Short of a significant change of direction amongst a good chunk of the city's African American community - including getting on board with learning (which one way or another can help in the long run and feels good in the short run), RCSD is going to have an ongoing uphill battle.
Re: “MCC move looks increasingly certain”
If Winn companies wanted to save the taxpeyers money then why did they not propose the $57 million deal first? They onyl want the money and are not worried about MCC or the taxpayers. Winn has already recieved COMIDA assistance but apparently that is not enough. Why is Winn begging for MCC to stay? It is obvious Mayor Richards needs to stay out of real estate and focus on the finances and needs of the City of Rochester. Also, a proposed RPD substation is proposed for the Sibley building. Why? RPD is already on East Main street and the surrounding area!
Re: “Hemlock-Canadice meeting is tonight”
Flashback to 2010. Then Mayor Robert Duffy completes a deal that puts the land surrounding Hemlock and Canadice Lakes into the hands of the state to be protected forever. Read the press release: http://www.cityofrochester.gov/mobilesite/…
Since the state gained control of this land, they need to develop a UMP--unit management plan--for this state forest. The proposed UMP has been released and it allows for the possibility for commercial logging and gas/oil drilling.
YOU need to speak up and prevent these devastating possibilities from happening. It is clear from the city press release that we were told the lakes and land would be “protected” forever. This is a promise the state must keep.
Below is the link to the DEC’s public comment website for the Hemlock-Canadice Lakes State Forest Unit Management Plan. Please submit your comment before April 15, 2013. Please tell the state you want the UMP to state clearly and absolutely that NO OIL OR GAS DRILLING WILL BE ALLOWED. Also tell the state that commercial logging must also be prohibited.
I learned by attending the public hearing that the designation as a State Forest is insufficient for the absolute protection needed for Hemlock-Canadice. So also tell the state to change the designation from State Forest to State Nature and Historic Preserve.
http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/68822.html
While you’re offering your comments to the DEC, why not contact Lt. Gov Robert Duffy to tell him to weigh in on this topic because he is the one who started it.
Re: “Praising attendance, appealing suspensions”
The suspension problem in the city would not be as severe as it is if parents began to behave more like parents, and enacted discipline on their kids instead of requiring the schools to do it. There are more than a few students who are remarkably resistant to behavioral modification and make teaching and learning exceptionally difficult for others.
If parents started disciplining their kids in elementary school and took measures that caused the kids to behave in manners more conducive to teaching and learning, the suspension rate would not be so high. The suspension rate is as high as it is, not because schools aren't flexible and haven't tried damn near everything they can think of (they have... I've seen a goofy number of different attempts, only a few with even moderate results), but because the students all over the district, for whatever reason, have decided that they have no reason to behave as scholars, or even allow others to behave as scholars.
The reasons are numerous and come from all sides of the problem. A few:
1 - Students realize their prospects for getting jobs that they can support themselves with is minimal at best, and that a high school diploma won't provide enough help, and that college is an unrealistic goal.
2 - Students have been socially promoted far above their ability level, and rather than make the effort to either get themselves up to speed, or find someone to help them get up to speed, have decided to camouflage their ineffectiveness with unruly behavior.
3 - Discipline begins too lax at the beginning of the school year, and by the time the school catches up to what needs to happen, those horses are out of the barn and running for the hills.
4 - As stated above, parents are not effective enough at exerting discipline on their kids.
5 - The pull of the streets (short-term reward) is stronger than the desire for an education (long-term reward).
6 - Poor diets and too much X-Box mitigate against their ability to sit still for 40 minutes.
7 - Students are fed a diet of unhealthy media that impacts behaviors in very subtle ways, especially when there is little to counter-balance those behaviors.
This is obviously not a comprehensive list, but it begins to give one a sense of the struggle being waged. If a parent decides to appeal a long-term suspension, some serious questions need to be asked of BOTH side of the appeal. Something has gone tragically wrong, and the kids are the ones suffering. (Doesn't mean I want to keep unruly kids in my class, though... I've got too many "good" kids who need an education).
Re: “FILM: "Amazing Spider-Man 2" scenes to be filmed in Rochester”
Gordon Osburn - You do know that Hollywood uses blanks don't you? If New York's gun crazies agree to do the same I'd support a waiver for them as well.
Re: “FILM: "Amazing Spider-Man 2" scenes to be filmed in Rochester”
If Hollywood isn't willing to follow the same Cuomo inspired gun laws that I am forced to follow, then as far as I am concerned, they aren't welcome here. Cuomo lied when he said that the purpose of the SAFE act was to reduce gun violence. Waiving these laws for Hollywood promotes gun violence. Damed hypocrite.
Re: “The question we need to answer before we talk about dissolving the RCSD”
"Racism" today is never the reason, but the result. Rarely anymore are people overtly discriminated against because of their skin color. However, take a look at the results of the various programs and policies in the area (or the nation as a whole). Certainly no suburban school would turn an African-American kid away from the school doors if the parents have a home in the district. I cannot imagine many suburban parents objecting to their child sitting next to or playing next to a minority kid in their school.
A big reason for this acceptance is the mere fact of the "minority" being just that... a minority. They pose no threat to their child's status, and in fact enhance everyone's status by demonstrating how enlightened and tolerant they are.
There is at least one suburb in Chicago (whose name escapes me) that managed to remain solidly middle class while at the same time allowing African-Americans to move in. So many moved in that it is now very much "majority minority" and it is patently obvious that white flight has indeed occurred.
If you polled each and every suburban family, greater than 90% would demonstrate a genuine belief in their own toleration and progressiveness. See what the actual response is any time Metro Schools gets proposed.
I am indeed a City School District employee, and you would be amazed at the responses I get when I tell people where I work. Far far far too many people respond with pity and an astounding number reveal absolute ignorance of the behaviors of my students and/or reasons behind them.
These kids deserve a fighting chance at success, and current policies and programs both within and without the city are denying them that, ostensibly due to class, but the racial correlation is undeniable.
The belief that "behavior" is the main reason for district or student failures is a cop-out.
I know I and my colleagues appreciate your efforts at tutoring and assistance, but come into the schools and talk to us and our students on a larger basis than just those that need tutoring.
We've managed to replace "race" with "class" as the discriminated group, but again, the correlation is undeniable.
Re: “The question we need to answer before we talk about dissolving the RCSD”
This is a significant topic and City's slant is as expected. But it is Yugoboy's response that deserves attention.
Essentially a solution exists but because "racism" it will never come to pass. It is worth noting that I believe Yugoboy is in fact an RCSD employee.
First, the obvious. The solution has in fact been tried for decades within RCSD. Has there been a bigger - albeit unstated - policy goal than to get "integrated" classrooms and in particular to get poor African American students into middle class/mostly white programs? Look at the history of East High School. And what has been the upshot of this double standards-based effort? The dominant attitude of African American students (certainly by middle and high school) is basically don't study (and sometimes characterized by "don't be white"). I volunteer tutor 4 days a week and this hugely self-evident.
And what happened to those middle class programs? Well some qualified kids had to directly be displaced by this policy. But the secondary effect is creating programs with big differences in the student backgrounds and interests. This is a big problem. What would East High School's basketball program/legacy have been under a policy of integrating several Asian American kids onto teams?
But the deeper issue is honesty. Yugoboy knows this. The accusation that suburbanites are biased against skin color as opposed to behavioral issues is absurd. By the way, for overt racism is there any group that demonstrates more of it than young urban African Americans?
It is good to honest about important issues - even PC-ified topics like race.
Re: “The question we need to answer before we talk about dissolving the RCSD”
What would we do with the students of the dissolved district?
If the answer is to divvy them up between the various suburban districts, we can just end speculation now. That'll never happen. Suburban parents would never tolerate "those" students coming to their child's school. (I don't care how you phrase it, the fear isn't of low performing kids in the schools; that just makes their children look better. The fear is having brown and black kids in the schools with their children. Irrational fear which under a less polite umbrella is known as racism.)
If the answer is to make a Metro/County school district... see above; except the parents would find a way to make "busing" the issue, and kids would be relegated to "neighborhood schools" with the same issues we already have. If that could be overcome, all you'd be doing is promoting a significant jump in charter and private schools and/or white flight to the 5 surrounding counties.
It is an interesting idea to contemplate, and I have long felt that the only really good way to raise the performance of many urban kids at once is to send them to suburban schools. A significant majority of the kids would find a way to make up the gap. The problem is that the parents will never stand for it. Suburban parents would also bemoan the amount of their money would spent on city schools, if only to improve facilities.
As much as I could and would support this idea, it will never come to pass here. That ship has already sailed.
Re: “Police chief responds to problems with city's red-light camera program”
Yugoboy - If as you claim these red light cameras are unconstitutional then some court must have issued a ruling of which I am unaware as only the courts, not you nor I, are qualified to do so. So could you post the link to that decision?
I'll avoid repeating the obvious fact that the violation of ANY traffic law can result in a fine (or worse) and that Rochester's use of red light cameras is therefor no more mercenary or unjust than is the enforcement of any law, and instead focus on those two decisions that plague you when you approach a red light with an attendent camera. You say you have to decide either to brake and risk being rear-ended, or stomping on the gas to beat the light. Out of curiosity, how does this differ from the available options in pre-camera days? Surely you're not implying that you would have violated the law and run a red light in former days because you knew that the chances of being caught were practically nil?
Re: “[UPDATED] Lovely Warren will run for mayor”
I support neither candidate.