VA school office tells parents not to hire tutors.

fishgutzy

fishgutzy

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2016
Messages
8,579
Location
Behind Enemy Lines.
Rating - 100%
6   0   0
Just when you thought public schools could not get any more stupid, this happens.

Fairfax county public schools is trying to discourage parents from hiring tutor or forming study pods. You can guess why.

"While FCPS doesn’t and can’t control these private tutoring groups, we do have concerns that they may widen the gap in educational access and equity for all students. Many parents cannot afford private instruction. Many working families can’t provide transportation to and from a tutoring pod, even if they could afford to pay for the service."


https://www.fcps.edu/blog/message-parents-tutoring-pods#.XzG1kI-4KuU.twitter
 
fishgutzy said:
Just when you thought public schools could not get any more stupid, this happens.

Fairfax county public schools is trying to discourage parents from hiring tutor or forming study pods. You can guess why.

"While FCPS doesn’t and can’t control these private tutoring groups, we do have concerns that they may widen the gap in educational access and equity for all students. Many parents cannot afford private instruction. Many working families can’t provide transportation to and from a tutoring pod, even if they could afford to pay for the service."


https://www.fcps.edu/blog/message-parents-tutoring-pods#.XzG1kI-4KuU.twitter
Click to expand...

I don't drive a Porsche 911 Turbo because I can't afford one......so what's their point??


DS
 
fishgutzy said:
...may widen the gap in educational access and equity for all students.
Click to expand...
How can tutors and study pods affect educational access?

How can educational equity ever be achieved? Why do we want it?
 
I wouldnt play. A terrible thing was done to children in this country when it was decided that kids would be educated to the lowest common denominator as opposed to allowing kids to advance at their own accelerated pace.
 
B00ger said:
I wouldnt play. A terrible thing was done to children in this country when it was decided that kids would be educated to the lowest common denominator as opposed to allowing kids to advance at their own accelerated pace.
Click to expand...
and causes behavioral problems for kids who are doing well and getting bored at the slow pace.
 
B00ger said:
I wouldnt play. A terrible thing was done to children in this country when it was decided that kids would be educated to the lowest common denominator as opposed to allowing kids to advance at their own accelerated pace.
Click to expand...
DrScaryGuy said:
and causes behavioral problems for kids who are doing well and getting bored at the slow pace.
Click to expand...

Yep. Just imagine if that was the goal when Katherine Johnson was a poor black kid in rural WV. Instead of people recognizing her as "different" and finding a way to get her out. She would have still been in algebra 1 instead of college courses.
 
I wish I had a kid so I could raise hell about it. Your kid's a retard so by default all kids have to be out of fairness and equality? Oh boy. Sounds like the school district leadership graduated via social promotion already.
 
Cowboy said:
Yep. Just imagine if that was the goal when Katherine Johnson was a poor black kid in rural WV. Instead of people recognizing her as "different" and finding a way to get her out. She would have still been in algebra 1 instead of college courses.
Click to expand...

Yup


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:
Timfoilhat said:
I wish I had a kid so I could raise hell about it. Your kid's a retard so by default all kids have to be out of fairness and equality? Oh boy. Sounds like the school district leadership graduated via social promotion already.
Click to expand...
up in MI my nephew said he was opting out of standardized testing, and the school got angry at him. they tried to tell him he had to, until his parents showed up - then they tried to tell THEM he had to. they laughed and threatened legal action.
See, my nephew was at the top of his classes and my sister didn't think her son needed to feel the stress of weeks of standardized testing since he was already able to ace the curriculum. and i think you can see why the school got grumpy...
 
J R Green said:
I've heard of "No child left behind" but "All children held down" is much better.
Click to expand...
and if you aren't buying it, they'll try to shame you by calling you racist and what not. I'm not racist, which means the word has lost all power on me. If anything, it works the opposite way as intended.

I once worked in retail for a very racist manager when i was young. He was openly racist and I was constantly calling him out on it and asking him to be nicer.
2 ladies came in and were running an old scam that most people in retail have seen - One lady goes off and occupies the manager with a lot of endless questions while the other lady asks the cashier monkey (me) "can you break a $20?" I thought it was an honest request at first, but quickly realized she was trying a scam and the numbers weren't quite matching. I was smart enough to know she had experience with it and I didn't, so I just grabbed a 10, a 5, and 5 1s from the drawer, snatched up all the other money, then threw it in the drawer and closed up before things could get away from me.
She was outraged that I didn't continue making further change (giving away free money) and insisted i was racist for thinking something was wrong... she demanded to see my manager. I was like "oh, i don't think you really want to see him. you got your change, let's just call it a day"
Nevertheless, she persisted...
I yelled out something along the lines of "Hey Andy, can you bring YOUR customer to the front? MY customer wants to talk to you about how I make change". And she immediately started into him about how I'm racist... I saw Andy start to grin and take in a deep breath when the light bulb over his head blinked on (during which time I said something like "I tried to avoid this, but you asked for it...")
It quickly became comical and very not-PC
 
B00ger said:
I wouldnt play. A terrible thing was done to children in this country when it was decided that kids would be educated to the lowest common denominator as opposed to allowing kids to advance at their own accelerated pace.
Click to expand...
They decided that tracking was labeling and set low expectations.
Yet high school has honors and AP classes.
Now this school board thinks tutoring will make the gap between the smart kids and the not so smart more obvious.
[In 6th grade I was tracked to group 5 of 6. 6 being the least academically inclined. [emoji38]
Barely graduated high school. Now I design rf, microwave, and millimeter wave components.]


Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk
 
If you read the whole page the link points to, all of the rest of it makes sense.

Basically lays out some rules for teachers moonlighting as tutors, and says "no, we can't rearrange things to have your kids with other kids you want them with". Had they left that one paragraph out, it wouldn't even be a thing. The fact that they put it in though.... well someone has to remind you that wanting to not be a failure or not have your kids be a failure means you're a racist! Had you forgotten? Being able to provide for your kids means you're a racist! Damn you! Just let them fail for social justice, or something.

Also, glad the wife and I passed on the whole kids thing. I'll just die alone, thanks.

Also, racist.

Also, me saying racist. Racist.

I can't stop myself!
 
NCLB SUXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
 
fishgutzy said:
Just when you thought public schools could not get any more stupid, this happens.

Fairfax county public schools is trying to discourage parents from hiring tutor or forming study pods. You can guess why.

"While FCPS doesn’t and can’t control these private tutoring groups, we do have concerns that they may widen the gap in educational access and equity for all students. Many parents cannot afford private instruction. Many working families can’t provide transportation to and from a tutoring pod, even if they could afford to pay for the service."


https://www.fcps.edu/blog/message-parents-tutoring-pods#.XzG1kI-4KuU.twitter
Click to expand...



boo friggin wooooo....
 
Jayne said:
If you read the whole page the link points to, all of the rest of it makes sense.

Basically lays out some rules for teachers moonlighting as tutors, and says "no, we can't rearrange things to have your kids with other kids you want them with". Had they left that one paragraph out, it wouldn't even be a thing. The fact that they put it in though.... well someone has to remind you that wanting to not be a failure or not have your kids be a failure means you're a racist! Had you forgotten? Being able to provide for your kids means you're a racist! Damn you! Just let them fail for social justice, or something.

Also, glad the wife and I passed on the whole kids thing. I'll just die alone, thanks.

Also, racist.

Also, me saying racist. Racist.

I can't stop myself!
Click to expand...
@Jayne ...you should change your screen name to Ray Sis......

Lol

DS
 
MacEntyre said:
How can tutors and study pods affect educational access?

How can educational equity ever be achieved? Why do we want it?
Click to expand...
They're talking about stretching of resources, namely the teachers.

Educational equity is part of the maternalistic perspective that everybody deserves a trophy. Everyone deserves the opportunity to earn a trophy. But, it doesn't address the reality that everyone is in fact different. We have different ways in which we learn and we have different capacities to learn.

This has already affected my daughters schooling when the COVID mess started. She had been a virtual schooler for years. When they stopped regular school, the virtual schoolers we're told to stop, because they were getting too far ahead. :rolleyes:
 
georgel said:
This has already affected my daughters schooling when the COVID mess started. She had been a virtual schooler for years. When they stopped regular school, the virtual schoolers we're told to stop, because they were getting too far ahead. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
For real?
I have a lady who works for me whose senior son was failing... everything. She tried to avoid evening shifts because she needed to go home to "help make sure" her son's homework got done. When the shut down happened he was not likely to graduate, but with the reduced workload and more time at home "working on it" (s)he managed to bring his grade up just enough to pass.

Did they seriously expect parents to say "slow down little johnny, you're learning too much"?
 
DrScaryGuy said:
For real?
I have a lady who works for me whose senior son was failing... everything. She tried to avoid evening shifts because she needed to go home to "help make sure" her son's homework got done. When the shut down happened he was not likely to graduate, but with the reduced workload and more time at home "working on it" (s)he managed to bring his grade up just enough to pass.

Did they seriously expect parents to say "slow down little johnny, you're learning too much"?
Click to expand...
Yep, they did. They shutdown her access to some of the material. Which frustrated my daughter, because she likes to learn. Now, admittedly, there may have been parents that complained about their kids still having to do school work when others didn't, but we saw it as a blessing rather than a curse. We should have been given a choice.
That's what his nation has been about, right? The freedom to excell if we chose to put in the effort? And liberal don't seem to understand the trickle down affect when some of us succeed in getting ahead.
 
fishgutzy said:
They decided that tracking was labeling and set low expectations.
Yet high school has honors and AP classes.
Now this school board thinks tutoring will make the gap between the smart kids and the not so smart more obvious.
[In 6th grade I was tracked to group 5 of 6. 6 being the least academically inclined. [emoji38]
Barely graduated high school. Now I design rf, microwave, and millimeter wave components.]


Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
When I was in high school I scored remedial in MATH after attending this high dollar, highly recognized snob school for the elementary and middle school. /shrug/ my parents choice. The math program was BAD. This was corrected by my Algebra2 teacher taking me into the hallway and discussing the math of fractions for 30 seconds. Not to toot my own horn, but I can honestly say for someone who was remedial in math, most Americans even if indirectly have come in contact with my work, be it by buying postage stamps at a vending machine or walking through an airport terminal where the fire suppression system worked on a board I designed and hand built
 
noway2 said:
When I was in high school I scored remedial in MATH after attending this high dollar, highly recognized snob school for the elementary and middle school. /shrug/ my parents choice. The math program was BAD. This was corrected by my Algebra2 teacher taking me into the hallway and discussing the math of fractions for 30 seconds. Not to toot my own horn, but I can honestly say for someone who was remedial in math, most Americans even if indirectly have come in contact with my work, be it by buying postage stamps at a vending machine or walking through an airport terminal where the fire suppression system worked on a board I designed and hand built
Click to expand...
Have you considered that you may be on the autism spectrum? Many top engineers are. Having been blessed with a set of autistic twin boys, it has allowed me to see it in others and myself. I was put in remedial reading, despite being the best speller in grade school. It was funny when we first suspected the boys might be on spectrum and was we went down the checklist, I kept saying, I did that. And that too! I've also come to recognize that everyone is on spectrum, to some degree. Whenever, i see someone excelling in any particular field, I suspect it. They say it's the ability to concentrate and focus unrelentingly that gives those with autism the edge. And engineering tends to be a non-social activity. Just thought I'd throw this out there.
 
Last edited:
georgel said:
Have you considered that you may be on the autism spectrum?
Click to expand...
No, I don’t think it was something that was even really considered back then. It’s entirely possible as I remember my mother having teacher conferences and saying, “he beats to the sound of his own drum”.
They say it's the ability to concentrate and focus unrelentingly that gives those with autism the edge. And engineering tends to be a non-social activity. Just thought I'd throw this out there.
Click to expand...
Interesting. For me, when it happens, it’s almost like a Zen thing or even manic like experience. It takes a little while to be able to focus on a task without interruption, but it can put you in a state of high creativity for a period of hours, where abstract things and problem solving become clear(er).
 
Because we want to keep everyone equally stupid.
 
I was always told I was no good at math. My senior year in HS, a math teacher convinced me to take Trig. Got a C and she congratulated me. Ten years later I got an engineering degree, graduated top of the class... two more semesters and I coulda added a math degree.
 
Last edited:
noway2 said:
No, I don’t think it was something that was even really considered back then. It’s entirely possible as I remember my mother having teacher conferences and saying, “he beats to the sound of his own drum”.

Interesting. For me, when it happens, it’s almost like a Zen thing or even manic like experience. It takes a little while to be able to focus on a task without interruption, but it can put you in a state of high creativity for a period of hours, where abstract things and problem solving become clear(er).
Click to expand...

late 90s early 00s was when the wave of autism diagnoses seemed to hit. I think most everybody had seen "Rain Man" by that point. I had one friend in maybe 95 that was "allowed" to use a laptop in class because he was diagnosed aspie and could focus in class better by working at a laptop than taking notes on paper. In the early 00s i was a counselor for a high school nerd camp (sorry math and science scholars camp) at university of michigan and they gave us a lot of warnings about a couple of students coming in with aspergers that may need to have less interaction, more independence, but still monitored. When they came in I was like "oh, they're computer and d&d nerds like all my friends were back in... oh." Best kids out of the whole group man, no joke.
 
georgel said:
Have you considered that you may be on the autism spectrum? Many top engineers are. Having been blessed with a set of autistic twin boys, it has allowed me to see it in others and myself. I was put in remedial reading, despite being the best speller in grade school. It was funny when we first suspected the boys might be on spectrum and was we went down the checklist, I kept saying, I did that. And that too! I've also come to recognize that everyone is on spectrum, to some degree. Whenever, i see someone excelling in any particular field, I suspect it. They say it's the ability to concentrate and focus unrelentingly that gives those with autism the edge. And engineering tends to be a non-social activity. Just thought I'd throw this out there.
Click to expand...
It has been written in various paces that Bill Gates displays classic aspergers symptoms.
That is a CAD IT guy where I work that could be on spectrum. He is extremely anal about terminology and gets upset when people refer to a company name instead of the specific tool. Using "Cadence" instead of "Virtuoso."
 
So we come full circle.

The whole idea of "equity not equality" was pushed as being necessary because some kids need more help than others (true) and that the focus should be giving kids the resources that they need to thrive rather than giving every child the same resources (idealistic, but difficult to manage). Here are some examples from the charter school my kids used to attend:
1) The school did not provide transportation, and required each family to log a certain number of volunteer hours every month. This meant that only families who could afford to transport their kids and could afford to set aside time to volunteer would apply for the lottery. This meant the school attendees were mostly economically well off. That "didn't reflect the demographics of Durham", so the lottery became weighted toward applicants of color/lesser socioeconomic status.
2) Transportation was arranged for families below a certain income threshold.
3) Volunteer hours were waived if your family was below a certain income threshold.
These changes are not "fair", but they were deemed as "equitable".

Now, all of that is actually a good thing if your school has the resources to manage it. It truly is important to try to serve the kids who are traditionally underserved. However, in my experience they don't and they dedicate their resources to the most needy while letting the only slightly needy fend for themselves.

On to Fairfax County, these kids need tutoring (in their parent's view anyway). In the equity model that the school wants to claim it is serving, the school should provide that tutoring. The fact that the parents are funding the tutoring SHOULD mean that the school has even more resources to dedicate to the most underserved kids who need more resources, so it should be a win-win. My bet is that the school doesn't have the means to provide that tutoring, and so they are trying to guilt the parents by playing the "equity" card when what they really mean is that the situation is unequal.

Because equity is by definition unequal, and parents were paying for tutoring before COVID because you were dedicating your resources exclusively to those who needed the most help. Honestly, I think that is as it should be and perfectly fits your equity model...until your poor families need help that you can't provide because you are helping even needier kids ahead of them.

Now you have to come out and admit that the equity model only works when there are unlimited resources available. Welcome back to the push for equality that you previously rejected.
 
I don't think this is "stupid" at all: rather, a very well-crafted next stage move in justifying to a "woke" generation the State management of children. Simply put: the nuclear family is an inherently biased/racist/elitist/unequal (...) social construct that cannot be trusted with education (and must be deconstructed): thus, only the State can guarantee equality and justice for all. You must give us your children (and be happy about it).

No, that's not tinfoil on my head, just my scalp shining. :(
 
Last edited:
Back in the day, it was common to buy property in a certain city, town, or neighborhood for the purpose of being in a particular school district. It was recognized that some schools were better than others and this was often times reflected in the property values. The effect was that poorer people were priced out of these better schools. There was a large degree of geographic segregation. In areas (towns) where blacks and Hispanics were more common, segregation was mirrored in the school districts. In the area I grew up, which even today is less than 1% black there was segregation in that there were "those" kids, who lived in XYX neighborhood, or were in the government housing allotment, etc.

When we moved to NC, around the turn of the century, we looked very hard at property through this lens, but learned very quickly that it really didn't matter because kids got assigned to a school via a lottery system in an attempt to make things more equitable for the poorer students. One of my coworkers, who moved here at the same time because of the job, chose to buy property in a county that was less stable in terms of property values (in that they tended to decline) because he wanted his kids going to a school that was predominantly white and wasn't going to take a chance on the lottery system.
 
GreatGazoo said:
I don't think this is "stupid" at all: rather, a very well-crafted next stage move in justifying to a "woke" generation the State management of children.
Click to expand...
18229800._SX540_.jpg


Vonnegut predicted it 60 years ago
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom