HISD: Public Schools are fun

[Nivek 16,946]

So the other day I am stopped by one of the administrators and asked to discuss something. The Lady then tells me how my kid did a little doodling while in class, and that is okay but his pictures included a guy holding a laser. And there were two other guys that might be laying down. These images could frighten other children I am told.

 

My boy is in the 4th grade. Which includes topics on the Texas revolution, with pictures of people in battle, pistols, rifles, cannons, and the talk of casualties and slaughter. This week a teacher knows my boy is sensitive to violence and asked me if the book Naming the Stars is fine. This book is a fictional girl hiding from Nazi’s in Germany/Poland and includes a story about a girl getting run over by a fucking tank. I declined.

 

But my son’s picture is the potentially disturbing subject. Sure.

 

Hey kids we want to teach you some inappropriate shit but please don’t look, pay attention, copy, draw, or write about it.

[South Austin 52,521]

[RDCanecutter 26,454]

In kindergarten we were given line drawings of animals to color, to get us to quit screaming and settle down.

I was handed a piece of paper with three baby chicks on it, one was at the top right looking left, the other two were towards the bottom, looking back at the first one.

So I colored them yellow, then grabbed a red crayon, drew fireman hats on the bottom two, and gave them a hose that they were using to spray water at the one farther up, who was shown standing in the open window of a building that I portrayed as engulfed in billowing flames.

The teacher wanted to talk to my mom about it. I didn't see the big deal. The FireChicks were saving the VictimChick.

[Brisketexan 105,161]

Just now, RDCanecutter said:

In kindergarten we were given line drawings of animals to color, to get us to quit screaming and settle down.

I was handed a piece of paper with three baby chicks on it, one was at the top right looking left, the other two were towards the bottom, looking back at the first one.

So I colored them yellow, then grabbed a red crayon, drew fireman hats on the bottom two, and gave them a hose that they were using to spray water at the one farther up, who was shown standing in the open window of a building that I portrayed as engulfed in billowing flames.

The teacher wanted to talk to my mom about it. I didn't see the big deal. The FireChicks were saving the VictimChick.

You can try to hide your kink from the teaching lady, but you can't hide it from us.

[RDCanecutter 26,454]

5 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

You can try to hide your kink from the teaching lady, but you can't hide it from us.

[Deej 76,847]

They just want to be sure there's no chance your kid will bring a laser gun to school.

[Brisketexan 105,161]

36 minutes ago, Deej said:

They just want to be sure there's no chance your kid will bring a laser gun to school.

If you think I'm gonna leave my kid vulnerable to attack by Ming the Merciless, you got another thing, comin', commie!

[Harrison Bergeron 1,798]

This is the type of traumatic horror I hear my teacher friends sharing on Facebook and why your kids now is on a terrorist watch list.

[Nivek 16,946]

If you think I'm gonna leave my kid vulnerable to attack by Ming the Merciless, you got another thing, comin', commie!

Did you cut that off on purpose so we cannot tell if it is Flesh or Flash?

[UTGrad98 2,280]

[bernorange 8,362]

2 hours ago, Deej said:

They just want to be sure there's no chance your kid will bring a laser gun to school.

Phased plasma rifle in a 40 watt range

[billfromlaketravis 11,519]

You had me at HISD. 

[MaybeACoordinator 8,349]

They haze new teachers in HISD and my ex's first job was kindergarten at Louisa May Alcott in Sunnyside. She got them to draw pics of their homelife and let's just say about half of them depicted violent felonies. Lots of bloody knives, a parent on the ground bleeding, and tears flying out of kids' faces. Horrifying. 

[conVINCEd 21,469]

1 hour ago, MaybeACoordinator said:

They haze new teachers in HISD and my ex's first job was kindergarten at Louisa May Alcott in Sunnyside. She got them to draw pics of their homelife and let's just say about half of them depicted violent felonies. Lots of bloody knives, a parent on the ground bleeding, and tears flying out of kids' faces. Horrifying. 

My wife is a teacher and spent her first few years in DISD.  She would spend her own money to buy her kids toothbrushes because they obviously didn’t have them at home.  She moved on to a richer school district which brought on a whole new set of problems.  All things being equal, she’s happier dealing with high maintenance parents, but she misses giving a kid a toothbrush and feeling like Santa Claus on Xmas morning.

[Goofyboy 3,293]

You haven’t lived till you have had to sit in a room and get questioned on how realistic could it be for your third grader could bring a shotgun to school.

Also, my kid is no longer in Fort Bend ISD.

[MaybeACoordinator 8,349]

7 hours ago, conVINCEd said:

My wife is a teacher and spent her first few years in DISD.  She would spend her own money to buy her kids toothbrushes because they obviously didn’t have them at home.  She moved on to a richer school district which brought on a whole new set of problems.  All things being equal, she’s happier dealing with high maintenance parents, but she misses giving a kid a toothbrush and feeling like Santa Claus on Xmas morning.

Ex swiftly moved on to better schools and is now working at the central admin building. It's funny because she's White but ghetto AF -- she grew up in an English slum with no indoor toilet until she was five years old and when she gets tested -- look the fuck out. That's probably how she has risen through the ranks as fast as she has.

[52-80 19,195]

[66BUFF 2,564]

13 hours ago, bernorange said:

Phased plasma rifle in a 40 watt range

Hey, just what you see pal!

[Nivek 16,946]

11 hours ago, Goofyboy said:

You haven’t lived till you have had to sit in a room and get questioned on how realistic could it be for your third grader could bring a shotgun to school.

Also, my kid is no longer in Fort Bend ISD.

Something like this?

Quote

 

 

[Goofyboy 3,293]

 

That is awesome. Oh, and don’t draw a gun, make a finger gun, etc…

[Harrison Bergeron 1,798]

1 minute ago, Goofyboy said:

That is awesome. Oh, and don’t draw a gun, make a finger gun, etc…

Pound for pound there is no greater collection of hysterical dramatics than public school teachers / administrators. 

[MNLonghornFUKM 8,817]

I was in a public schools office about 5 years ago dropping off some papers. The Secretary and principal were in the office and the secretary was just had to have the principal tell me a story on what just happened. Some kid brought moms special pleasure friend to school and was showing it off to his friends. Word caught wind of what was being displayed so the principal confiscated the toy and called the owner to return it. He called the wrong mom so had to make that phone call twice

[atomheartbevo 89,738]

Meanwhile, after school I hear the Minecraft conversations my oldest and his friends are having, and it's all about building something big, blowing/burning it up, fighting various monsters, etc. and they have plenty of Minecraft t-shirts that have the characters with various blocky weapons.

[HornOnTheBayou 8,939]

19 hours ago, Harrison Bergeron said:

Pound for pound there is no greater collection of hysterical dramatics than message-board posters who whine about public school teachers / administrators. 

fify

[Guest]

On 2/20/2022 at 12:29 PM, Harrison Bergeron said:

Pound for pound there is no greater collection of hysterical dramatics than public school teachers / administrators.  people who bitch about public schools and don't do shit to improve them.

 

Additionally, teachers are some of the best folks in our society, period.   Parents should be stepping up to pull their own weight, not take their money elsewhere because them publics are so scary. Stop being a pussy.

[Harrison Bergeron 1,798]

10 minutes ago, slorch said:

Additionally, teachers are some of the best folks in our society, period.   Parents should be stepping up to pull their own weight, not take their money elsewhere because them publics are so scary. Stop being a pussy.

I agree. Schools with strong parental involvement always perform better, which is another reason why public officials and school leaders should stop trying to silence parents who want to get involved and hysterically labeling them "terrorists."

[Goofyboy 3,293]

 
Additionally, teachers are some of the best folks in our society, period.   Parents should be stepping up to pull their own weight, not take their money elsewhere because them publics are so scary. Stop being a pussy.

As long as your kid fits in public school, maybe. They are not so amazing in my experience.

[BabaYaga 15,302]

15 minutes ago, Goofyboy said:

As long as your kid fits in public school, maybe. They are not so amazing in my experience.

Yep.  Most are various grades of shit.  Parents vote with their wallets.  The district they chose.  The house they buy.  Even the cars they own.  Many teachers are great.  father was one for a while.  I have the utmost respect for what they do and what they go through, but like the "heroes" in blue, not all fit that bill.

The really good ones, for the most part, recognize their value on the open market and go elsewhere (higher performing schools, etc).  Not all, but many.  This leaves many that really "can't" leave.  Can't in that they understand that they can't make more in the open markets, and stay.  This asymmetry of information on their skillset/aptitude relative to the market, or adverse selection (as they self-select to stay) plagues many, many districts and widens the gaps between many districts. 

[Guest]

46 minutes ago, Goofyboy said:

As long as your kid fits in public school, maybe. They are not so amazing in my experience.

If your kid can’t fit in at school( whatever the hell that means,) I’m sure things will work out on the employment and familial fronts in adulthood.

[BabaYaga 15,302]

18 minutes ago, slorch said:

If your kid can’t fit in at school( whatever the hell that means,) I’m sure things will work out on the employment and familial fronts in adulthood.

Smaller schools with small class sizes?  Schools with household demographics or median incomes that rival some small countries?  Or schools with certain developmental options for students with learning disabilities, etc?  "Fitting in" is a amorphous term, but I can see how certain students perform better in certain settings over others.  Had a good friend @ McCallum HS that at the 11hr hour decided to bypass Texas and went to Trinity down in San Antonio.  He just wanted a small setting with smaller classes.  Did great, wound up going back to Texas to get his law degree.  Had the self awareness to go where he felt he would be better served.  

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, BabaYaga said:

Smaller schools with small class sizes?  Schools with household demographics or median incomes that rival some small countries?  Or schools with certain developmental options for students with learning disabilities, etc?  "Fitting in" is a amorphous term, but I can see how certain students perform better in certain settings over others.  Had a good friend @ McCallum HS that at the 11hr hour decided to bypass Texas and went to Trinity down in San Antonio.  He just wanted a small setting with smaller classes.  Did great, wound up going back to Texas to get his law degree.  Had the self awareness to go where he felt he would be better served.  

So parents live in/ move to a community in which they feel they are actively engaged in supporting?

The engagement piece is well, elusive…

It’s a shit-on easier to point fingers and blame those inept teachers.

Edited February 22, 2022 by slorch

[BabaYaga 15,302]

6 minutes ago, slorch said:

So parents live in/ move to a community in which they feel they are actively engaged in supporting?

The engagement piece is well, elusive…

It’s a shit-on easier to point fingers and blame those inept teachers.

Don't disagree with pointing fingers vs. being actively engaged themselves.  It's not just important, it's critical.  

The community piece is more nuanced.  Often people move where they can.  If not the best choice, it's a matter of the best they can find with the resources that they have.  

[ABSR 5,319]

On 2/20/2022 at 12:29 PM, Harrison Bergeron said:

Pound for pound there is no greater collection of hysterical dramatics than public school teachers / administrators. 

Have you never been to the cloak room?

[Harrison Bergeron 1,798]

5 hours ago, slorch said:

So parents live in/ move to a community in which they feel they are actively engaged in supporting?

The engagement piece is well, elusive…

It’s a shit-on easier to point fingers and blame those inept teachers.

Some do. I've known parents of different demographics that moved for their schools, but obviously it is easier for wealthier folks to have that mobility. But parental engagment is such a huge factor - not necessarily at the school level per se but supporting their kids, making them study, behave, etc.

I agree teachers can be too easy and too oft targets, but I stand by my earlier comment around dramatical hysterics.

[BonzoMontreaux 1,061]

On 2/19/2022 at 8:02 PM, MaybeACoordinator said:

They haze new teachers in HISD and my ex's first job was kindergarten at Louisa May Alcott in Sunnyside. She got them to draw pics of their homelife and let's just say about half of them depicted violent felonies. Lots of bloody knives, a parent on the ground bleeding, and tears flying out of kids' faces. Horrifying. 

I went to kindergarten at LMA in Sunnyside.  I can see things changing over the last 50+ years.  

[Doc Reeves 6,434]

7 hours ago, slorch said:

If your kid can’t fit in at school( whatever the hell that means,) I’m sure things will work out on the employment and familial fronts in adulthood.

Hmmm… I mean, I guess. CSB alert:

See, my HS at the time I went mid 90s was the most diverse HS in the country and was huge. My graduating class was 750+ and the FR class that year was over 1200. It was an interesting experience, there were a small group of some of the best students in the state/nation side by side a much larger group of legit psychotic and connected criminal sociopaths.

Honors/AP/TAG classes were a necessary tool for the Administration to insulate students that produced scores necessary for state excellence grants from the violent, horrific, and (at least in relation to the HS) worthless humanity in the hallways. 

My first week of HS, I came in and sat down in my Honors Biology class which was a hodgepodge of mostly middle class kids from FR-Sr classes. A guy who thought he was a badass swanked in looking like he belonged in a Genuine video. It’s still the passing period and people are still wandering in so he’s making jokes, razzing some people and winking at girls. He sits behind another quiet, nerdy guy who also happened to be black and says something like “what up” and extends his hand for 5s. He is ignored.

This upsets Genuine so he starts talking shit, and truth be told he’s fucking excellent at it. He is still ignored. So, Genuine started to add some heat. He says something like “Damn n——a, you brave or stupid. You need to know what the fuck is up, bitch. I’m mother fucking bad. “

Nerd turns around with a puzzled look on his face and Genuine starts a little stare thing like “you want some?” Then, nerd punched Genuine in the face- right in the nose with lightning explosive force. It was a top tier mma strike and Genuines nose exploded. Like, actually exploded. Imagine a NCAA OL punching a tangerine on a table with all his force. It actually caused his blood to form a sort of aerosol cloud for a fraction of a second that hung in the air after Genuine dropped. Nerd said with a slight chuckle “you ain’t bad. You don’t know shit,” and then just turned around and went back to what he was doing. Well, for a moment we all thought he had accidentally killed Genuine, blood was pooling behind his head and he legit looked like he had been shot in the face.

A few guys carried genuine to the nurse and one of the school PD officers took nerd away who was so calm it felt eerie. We then went on with the lesson while 2 janitors cleaned up the mess. A girl I knew was sitting closer to the action and had tiny specks of blood spray on her book cover she never noticed for the rest of the year.

I would see genuine in the hallways for the next couple years and he was a real good looking guy before, after he had an aquiline nose that had an almost 90degree hook. 

Thats not the worst story by far, just the first.

 

[Guest]

That you had a fight at school?

Are you still getting treatment for PTSD?

 

I was expecting the Paul Harvey moment to include some gang-bangers blasting the Brian Johnson knock-off...

Edited February 22, 2022 by slorch

[Doc Reeves 6,434]

7 minutes ago, slorch said:

That you had a fight at school?

Are you still getting treatment for PTSD?

Lol. No. Like I said, I was all down hill from there. Tired out nerd was a juvenile murderer who had just beed released in the summer. I’m just telling that story because you literally wouldn’t believe most of my others. 

[Goofyboy 3,293]

If your kid can’t fit in at school( whatever the hell that means,) I’m sure things will work out on the employment and familial fronts in adulthood.

Right - because a kids can’t learn how to deal with their emotions and anxiety.

Kid has gone from being assaulted by two special education teacher, being told he was a sad kid, not smart (Never mind he tests in the top 97%), shoved by an assistant principal, etc, etc…. To straight A’s, well balanced, and much better at controlling anxiety by learning online at home.

So, that’s how a kid doesn’t fit. Every kid in special education doesn’t fit traditional school.

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, Goofyboy said:

Right - because a kids can’t learn how to deal with their emotions and anxiety.

Kid has gone from being assaulted by two special education teacher, being told he was a sad kid, not smart (Never mind he tests in the top 97%), shoved by an assistant principal, etc, etc…. To straight A’s, well balanced, and much better at controlling anxiety by learning online at home.

So, that’s how a kid doesn’t fit. Every kid in special education doesn’t fit traditional school.

Username checks out.

[Goofyboy 3,293]

Username checks out.

Cool. Hook ‘Em. Dick.

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, Goofyboy said:

Cool. Hook ‘Em. Dick.

Well it seems like a normal conversation to skip right past ARD meetings, legal remedies for child abuse, and general responsibilities within the educational process and paint every public school with that brush.

Very fucking reasonable.

[Goofyboy 3,293]

My apologies - every school in Fort Bend ISD. Their special education department has had problems for years and continues to. Also, Oakland Elementary school had to spend multiple days being trained on how to behave with a special education class on campus.

My point remains - there are great teachers, but there are a whole lot less when a kid does not fit traditional school.

Oh, and I’ve had ARDs, meetings, CPS, Fort Bend ISD police, etc etc… the one good / amazing special education teacher we had was run off because the principal at the elementary school didn’t like her speaking directly with parents. It was so bad there that a friends kid has been given 400 hours of compensatory services.

[JesusSweatDuck 17,784]

12 hours ago, slorch said:

If your kid can’t fit in at school( whatever the hell that means,) I’m sure things will work out on the employment and familial fronts in adulthood.

Typically nerds don't get spit on, stabbed with pencils, or regularly threatened in a work environment

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, JesusSweatDuck said:

Typically nerds don't get spit on, stabbed with pencils, or regularly threatened in a work environment

I guess the Air Force never has any fun...

[JesusSweatDuck 17,784]

14 minutes ago, slorch said:

I guess the Air Force never has any fun...

Nerds are usually not landing in the air force

[JesusSweatDuck 17,784]

And the above is just an example of what my son went through in K-3rd grade before we pulled him out. I don't blame the teachers because their hands are tied. It's the ladder climbing admins that only care about gaming the numbers that are the problem

[Nivek 16,946]

10 hours ago, JesusSweatDuck said:

And the above is just an example of what my son went through in K-3rd grade before we pulled him out. I don't blame the teachers because their hands are tied. It's the ladder climbing admins that only care about gaming the numbers that are the problem

Never saw True Detective season 2 solution to this problem?   

 

[Nivek 16,946]

15 hours ago, Doc Reeves said:

Hmmm… I mean, I guess. CSB alert:

See, my HS at the time I went mid 90s was the most diverse HS in the country and was huge. My graduating class was 750+ and the FR class that year was over 1200. It was an interesting experience, there were a small group of some of the best students in the state/nation side by side a much larger group of legit psychotic and connected criminal sociopaths.

 

 

Nothing of your story phased me.  None of it sounds worse, bigger or more diverse than my school in S. Florida.   My HS seems like it was designed to be a hardening lesson for middle class doughy naive white, hispanic, black, and asian kids, as we mixed with the worst they could offer.   I would have rather been in the Hitler Youth than my high school.   I am sure their instructors would have been better as well.   

A drug dealer kid showed me his pistol in class.  Loaded of course.  Teacher saw it, stopped, and then went back to the lesson.  Welcome to the 9th Grade.  Kid later stole from me, I was stupid enough to think we were kind of friends at school.  Willy had no friends.   Lesson learned.  No fucks given should have been the school motto, I can count 4 teachers who were good, and one of them married his student.  

[Doc Reeves 6,434]

11 hours ago, JesusSweatDuck said:

And the above is just an example of what my son went through in K-3rd grade before we pulled him out. I don't blame the teachers because their hands are tied. It's the ladder climbing admins that only care about gaming the numbers that are the problem

Yup.

ok, CSB about how I went to battle with my Honors Chemistry teacher and the administration. Me and my principal were on first name terms after this one.

Chem teacher failed everyone but my friend and the starting QB who sat on either side of me, both of whom were dumb as fuck and copied my shit. It didn’t mathematically add up and was clear it was malicious. Because they were my friends i could take their returned work nd unquestionably prove it. Of course the admins and teacher slandered me, called me a fuckup, brat, entitled, yada, yada. Then we did a background check on Chem ‘teacher’ and it turned out that he didn’t have a teaching certificate and had forged one because he had felony sex crimes with juveniles conviction (this was adjudicated before sex offender registry started in TX). Whoops.

So, the admins allowed me to switch classed for “my own good” then a week later gave everyone still in the class a passing grade because of the scandal. So everyone passed, except me. I was in fact probably the only fucking student who legitimately passed that class. Most peoples family would stick up for them, but my dad is a bit of a coward when it comes to his kids. So, i was ordered to drop it.

Well, shit didn’t end there of course. Endless bullshit started to roll down hill like, I was constantly given false tardys and absences, I was the only Sr out of 750+ to be punished for Sr. Skip day, shit like that to the very last day of school. They even tried to fuck up my admission to UT by not mailing my transcripts. My ace in the hole was my buddy from 4th grade was the son of the attendance lady, so i got all the low down info. i heard what they were planning to do and was able to go into the office and get multiple copies printed out (so i could sue if they lied on them). I then drove to Austin that day which was also the deadline for that record. First time i ever went in the main building and remember thinking “oh, shit there’s a Natural science library in here too?”

I mean, i had a couple AP and TAG teachers who stood up for me and even threatened the principal to call out some of his past, worse bullshit to other students after the Sr skip day thing. I don’t know why, but that one really pissed off some of the facility. I never complained, just took whatever on the chin so the admins would get mad and according to my buddy it worked. They hated me.

I haven’t thought about this in years and it brings a smile to my face.