Houston school district to turn libraries into disciplinary centers

Damn, where will all the Asian kids go after school?

 

Less education and more discipline, the Republican's wet dream.

Next lets do away with those pesky nurses and install some "enhanced education rooms" where they strap them in and hold their eyes open like in A Clockwork Orange

 

School districts know best what their needs are and what resources they have and will act accordingly.

I do not criticize HISD for this move as much as I lament it.

I know so many teachers whom feel hamstrung by the 1 or 2 disruptive kids in their class whom suck up so much of their time and bring several other kids down with them.

Hopefully this will allow the majority to flourish while those who need help can get it, but I doubt it, at least the latter part.

 

They don't care if kids in bad school districts have access to books. It's absolutely sickening. Discipline centers over libraries and access to literacy and knowledge is the worst possible solution to educating, counseling, and helping students. Many of those kids don't have the luxury of books at home, or parents who will drive them to libraries or purchase books for them. It's like they simply don't give a damn about the kids who could use libraries more than most Houstonians. Treat them like thugs and you pave the pathway to illiteracy, juvenile detention centers, and prison. Most of the discipline problem kids have terrible home life's, deadbeat parents, and a lack of food or safety at home. Punishment and taking away libraries isn't the answer to helping them.

 

Is HISD deciding this? I thought HISD had been placed under state control?

 

That's the thing, though...it's not a bad district. HISD was given a B rating by the very TEA that took it over. It's solidly in the top half of districts state wide. Other large districts fare much worse (Dallas ISD, for example). The state GOP used bad results at one or two schools in a district of 274 schools as a reason to do what's plainly a political move. This is one part of their plan to punish every Harris County resident because the county typically votes blue. HISD is likely the pilot program to see how it goes before they look to do the same in Bexar County, Travis County, Tarrant County, etc...any area that historically votes strongly Democrat.

 

I have no doubt about that. Sticking it to the Dems is the Republican agenda. We saw it with Trump, and we've seen it with our Texas leaders, who kiss Trump's criminal butt over and over. They bind the hands of the Democrats, then blame them for the results. They hate that the urban majority of the state can't stand their sorry asses.

 

I'm not sure if HISD was experiencing the same problem, but in Pasadena, schools were forced to keep students in class who typically would serve a time-out in another class or on another campus because there just wasn't enough space at those locations. It reached a point where if a school wanted to send a student off campus to the Guidance Center, they had to take back a student already there. So schools would decide to send only the three or four most disruptive students in the school. This created problems with certain students because principals follow a continuum when assigning consequences. Some things could not be documented because the consequence of that particular behavior had to be an assignment to the Guidance Center or the long-term behavior campus. It was and will continue to be a mess.

That said, it's not impossible to be "successful" under those conditions, teachers turn students around all the time, and students turn themselves around all the time. Still, those teachers and students are increasingly rare. Unfortunately, students from broken homes will not be "successful" en masse with the current solutions (liberal or conservative). Case in point, LeBron's school in Akron is failing badly. Ultimately, it is not the building or any other material factors, teaching strategies, or educational reforms that make the school, but the people. For the most part, the schools will improve when the people who populate them improve.

 

They have and the Superintendent who put this in effect was hired by the state.

 

Taking away libraries punishes everyone. They should expand their Guidance Centers instead, if they are so overwhelmed. Maybe they need better behavior therapists or more counselors in those centers. When the state doesn't care enough to put more money into the district to solve the problems with the kids with behavior issues. I know what you mean about those type kids disrupting classrooms, but taking away libraries is a big concern. Republicans would rather just issue vouchers for private schools instead of pouring needed funds into our public schools. They just don't care.

 

Throwing money at the problem is not the solution. Honestly, Republicans see the money-pit schools are and want their cut. No different than Democrats, who see the same thing. Both of them know that they can get money and votes by constantly reforming schools. They know that the schools will only be as good as the people -mainly the students- who populate them.

Practically, I wonder what turning the libraries into behavior centers means for the books. Are they getting rid of them? Could students still order them in some way? Either way, as technology has phased out textbooks, it will also phase out actual books.

 

Sugarland ISD not affected breh
@AroundTheWorld @rocketsjudoka

 

HISD is ran by the inmates breh

 

This is the one thing I thought of when reading the title, as nightmarish as it reads an all

If you don't have a school-aged kid you might not know, in many places, kids are getting pads as early as elementary, on my kids' first-grade "essentials" list is "pad/tablet". We're talking about 6 year olds

Physical libraries at school may be naturally phasing out with digital libraries, gone are the days you carry 40 pound books in a bag, and have a locker full of shet, need a large physical room filled with paper and shelves, it's all on a computer now for these kids.



EDIT - Also, as I remembered it, having had classrooms with 30+ kids in highschool, just 2 or 3 kids putting on a show can ruin a whole class. Having in-school special classrooms where troubled/struggling students get more individual attention and less of a stage to perform on was legitimately helpful in my school. I like that set up more than after-school/weekend detention or even summer school, but it's all in the execution, the system would have to be well set up, and not just a lunch room environment where the kids are being given up on.

my 2 cents

 

All the Asian kids go to math class after school. Okay it’s racist… I get it buttt it’s true sometimes. My Asian friends in middle school did have math class after school and Chinese school on the weekends….while me and my white and black friends smoked weed, played video games, played basketball and boned girls we met at McDonalds or the mall.

 

This is such a Texas - South solution.

This is the biproduct of a single Party dominating at the state level in Texas. The leadership in Texas is arguably the worst in the country.

Abbot - Paxton - Cruz - Cornyn.

You don’t get much worse than that.

Republicans in the Texas government don’t give a **** about minorities, the poor or children.

They took over a district that they had no business taking over and are making it worse - it isn’t prison, it is a school district.

They are self serving, pandering and gutless -

 

Are you saying more teachers, therapists and counseling can't help children learn to find ways to heal, or to learn how to control their behavior? I know for a fact that it makes a difference. The problem is money. The classes are overcrowded, and they don't have enough teachers and classrooms. They need more teachers aides, but can't afford to hire them. They need more than one counselor in a school with over 400 students, especially in areas where many of the kids come from low income families, families with deadbeat parents, drugs, and violence at home.

There are lots of kids who don't do well in school because they don't have a support system at home, and ignoring or just punishing them won't fix them. They need far more counselors in schools these days. Far more. They just don't have the money to hire them, or the spaces in schools for counseling sessions. A few more counselors are far more beneficial than a discipline punishment room for children. But, when kids need removed they simply don't have anywhere to send them, and separate them from the class. Not all teachers are gifted in managing behavior students, just like many parents aren't great at managing their own kids' behaviors. That's where specialists can make a difference with the kids.

Many of the disruptive kids don't qualify for Special Education. They need more counseling, because there is a reason these kids act out. It's a cry for help or attention, stemming from neglect or problems at home. Sure, some of the kids are just spoiled brats, who do what they want at home and have never had discipline, but that's not all kids. Even the kids in Special Ed don't have enough teachers or aides. With inclusion, the aides have to accompany groups or one on one students to regular Ed classes, and some of those kids have serious behavior issues, especially the ones so severe mentally or psychologically that they can be violent. Many of the kids like that go to behavior units, but those too are understaffed. Those kids also need aides to accompany them to regular Ed classes.

Yes funding is important. Yes, books are important, and librarians are great for helping kids find books of interest, especially young children. The kids love going to the library. You can't imagine how many kids I've met who don't have books at home. I could bet you many of those kids don't have parents taking them to Public Libraries either, which are few and far between these days. There's a huge difference between getting on the internet or reading a book.

 

As an Asian kid I did all of the above. But then again I’ve been known for my multitasking skills.

 

Are you saying more teachers, therapists and counseling can't help children learn to find ways to heal, or to learn how to control their behavior? I know for a fact that it makes a difference. The problem is money. The classes are overcrowded, and they don't have enough teachers and classrooms. They need more public schools to accommodate growing areas of population. They need more teachers aides, but can't afford to hire them. They need more than one counselor in a school with over 400 students, especially in areas where many of the kids come from low income families, families with deadbeat parents, drugs, and violence at home. There are lots of kids who don't do well in school because they don't have a support system at home, and ignoring or just punishing them won't fix them.

They need far more counselors in schools these days. Far more. They just don't have the money to hire them, or the spaces in schools for counseling sessions. A few more counselors are far more beneficial than a discipline punishment room for children. But, when kids need removed they simply don't have anywhere to send them, and separate them from the class. Not all teachers are gifted in managing behavior students, just like many parents aren't great at managing their own kids' behaviors. That's where specialists can make a difference with the kids.

Many of the disruptive kids don't qualify for Special Education. They need more counseling, because there is a reason these kids act out. It's a cry for help or attention, stemming from neglect or problems at home. Even the kids in Special Ed don't have enough teachers or aides. With inclusion, the aides have to accompany groups or one on one students to regular Ed classes, and some of those kids have serious behavior issues, especially the ones so severe mentally or psychologically that they can be violent. Many of the kids like that go to behavior units, but those too are understaffed. Those kids also need aides to accompany them to regular Ed classes.

Yes funding is important. Yes, books are important, and librarians are great for helping kids find books of interest, especially young children. The kids love going to the library. You can't imagine how many kids I've met who don't have books at home. I could bet you many of those kids don't have parents taking them to Public Libraries either, which are few and far between these days. There's a huge difference between getting on the internet or reading a book.

You nailed it!