They enjoy the mess they are in. If they didn't enjoy it, they would work hard to change their living conditions.

They got the black leadership they wanted. The white people are innocent this time.

".... 18, is a junior at Forest Park High School and a starting cornerback on the football team. The father fears his son won't get a football scholarship if he stays in Clayton and the school district loses its accreditation."

Isn't 18 Senior age? Has to be - I graduated when I was 17 and was only a year ahead. This kid will be turning 20 when (if) he gets out of HIGH SCHOOL!

Shouldn't this kid and his father be more concerned about getting an education than getting a football scholarship?? I would love to see all sports, high school and college, be extra-curricular only and not related to school. The attitude of this parent and 'kid' regarding sports scholarships instead of scholastic acheivement is what is bringing the system down.

You need not worry about this guy getting a scholarship if he is any good!
Georgia colleges (and many others) take them if they can't read and write!

it is, indeed, time for the school board to tighten the reins on making sure Fayette students go to Fayette schools. I do not see it so much as a taxation issue as an issue of right and wrong. What happens to law when we, as citizens, get to choose what laws we obey and which ones we don't? Keep the faith.

Democracy is not a spectator sport.

Clayton county wanted: an all black county commission

an all black school board

a black sheriff

They wanted to run their own county without being "put down by the white man". Now because of what they wanted, they can't pull the race card as an excuse for the mess they have made of clayton county.

They asked for it, they got it in spades. They can clean it up on their own. It will take some very hard work,......are any of them up to the challenge???

all I can do is shake my head and agree (to an extent) with Sleuth's evaluation. I have friends who teach high school in Henry County, and they have gotten "students" from Mundy's Mill HS. They are "drug dealers" and "thugs"...and this is from teachers with YEARS of experience. They have no respect for authority and no interest in actually being educated.

Since you got me started, the root of the problem {not just in Clayton County but with education in general} stems from that point when we began to treat education like another industry, threw in the concept of accountability to the public and placed parents in charge of schools rather than professional educators. Education, by definition, takes students out of their comfort zones into areas where they learn new and different things. If you want schools to parrot what they learn at home, you have lost the educational battle. Minds stagnate and progress ceases. Education must challenge students, not coddle them. Keep the faith.

Democracy is not a spectator sport.

Education must challenge students, not coddle them.

Right on!!! Additionally, education does not start and stop at the school house door.

BTW, be careful. You might begin to have conservative thoughts for which you will have to turn in your card.
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what I personally believe and how I believe government should be operating might, indeed, be two different things. My concerns with government are less with policy than with process. We MUST involve all segments of the society in active discussion in order to create good policy.

As far as education is concerned...we cannot expect teachers to be accountable to us, since we do not want our children to learn things we don't like. (See the entire discussion about creationism/science). We have to prepare students to be able to make their own decisions and the only way they will ever be able to do that is to be able to evaluate information that disagrees with things they know. Keep the faith.

Democracy is not a spectator sport.

Yardman

I agree, we MUST hold schools and our educators accountable. Tenure should be abolished, either you perform or you get gone. If the schools have crime, social issues, or doesn’t measure up, guess what, parents, pull your kids out. Get a voucher system in place that will allow you to compete with the education monopoly, hold educators responsible for results, and bottom line, PARANTS YOU MUST BE ACTIVELY INVOLVED IN THE EDUCATION OF YOUR CHILD! Not just join the PTO’s but get involved, hold your child accountable at or slightly above the level at which they are able to perform. A little stress and some backbone on your part, will pay huge dividends in their lives later!

Interesting idea. A question. When a school system loses its accreditation, do the teachers still get paid a full salary? Do they accrue full retirement benefits? Do they still have to pay their union dues?

Why not a little more focus on the teachers?

Shadow,
I agree with 90% of what you said, especially the part about parents being actively involved, but one of the main problems with the current system is that teachers are being held SOLELY responsible for the students' success. It varies from school to school, but many teachers are getting pressured to pass students who are "borderline" failing. I'm all about helping a student who is struggling, but if a student isn't even trying, that student's failure should not be held against the teacher. Yet many administrators are doing just that--the teacher is held responsible for somehow failing to motivate that student. That is the parents' job--motivating their kids to work hard for future success.

What is happening now is that students are getting the idea that their success is not their personal responsibility, but the teacher's responsibility, or the school system's responsibility. If you look at Clayton County, that's what has already happened. Not only in terms of education, but in other areas such as crime. I never thought I would agree with TruthSleuth, but he really nailed it in his post about Clayton County. Sad but true, as he said.

So, yes, I agree that we should hold teachers accountable, but also the students and their parents. Most of all, we need to hold INDIVIDUALS RESPONSIBLE for their own actions.

Shadow, River, Yard, Truth...everything you all have written is correct. River, one of your comments was right on the money. We must teach at the same school! ha ha ha
Cameras (webcams) in each classroom would take care of a lot of the problems...teachers that don't teach, kids that disrupt and parents that are in denial.

I never meant to be so opinionated. Nor did I intend to come across as such. I am more interested in the dialog and the metacognitive thought process than the actual message.

I usually just try to spur discussion. Very seldom do I actually espouse my actual views. I did manage to spit out a litany of personal beliefs in the blog where I vented that no one running this election cycle appeals to me in the least. Well, I like and respect McCain's war record and I really like Obama's optimism and charisma (although I am a bit bored and would like to hear him talk more about issues and positions).

Hillary is the only one I absolutely cannot stand to hear, see, or envision in the White House. I actually liked Bill Richardson's views but he dropped out pretty quick and if he were to become Hillary's VP he would end up being a house boy /yes man for Hillderbeast or a pimp for Bill.

I suppose I'll vote for McCain but he is opposed to abortion and has some major confusion regarding the economy.

Oh well, thanks for agreeing with my oversimplification of the problem with Clayton Schools anyway.

The failure of Clayton County is due to a lack of personal accountability in that culture. I feel very strongly about that. Likewise, the decline of our public school system. However, I usually don't agree with your political viewpoints, especially in respect to the Clintons. Nevertheless, when you're right, you're right!

By the way, I suspect that the lack of personal accountability stems mostly from the predominance of single-parent families, especially in cases where the father was never seriously committed to the mother. However, there also seems to be a general decline in the concept of personal accountability in this country. This concerns me greatly.

"I suppose I'll vote for McCain but he is opposed to abortion"

(fyi - most are opposed to the idea of having to abort a fetus - not fun for any woman to be faced with this decision)

Do you mean to say he is anti-choice?

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GOD BLESS THIS MESS

Thank you for correcting me.

I am pro-choice and McCain is not.

The entire crux of no child left behind hinges on the accountability of teachers.

There is just one major problem with that - that was a lie there are dozens - let me re-phrase that: The major problem with teacher accountability is that teachers do not make widgets.

Students don't all come from the same place, do not have the same ability, do not carry the same baggage, do not all value education the same, do not all have the same support system and do not all achieve equally. They never have and they never will.

If you were to hold teachers accountable for the mess in Clayton County schools, you would be failing to address the real problem and would run off every decent teacher smart enough to see that devoting themselves to this very needy group and this important cause would be a career killer. This is just one reason why so many good teachers have now moved on.

Some facts:
About 30% of those who study to become teachers NEVER do.
Nearly 50% of those who enter teaching LEAVE within five years.
In many places teachers can be assigned to teach something they've never studied.
Teachers who spend ONLY 40% (two out of five classes) of their time teaching 'out of field' are NOT categorized as 'teaching out of field?'
American teachers spend about 60 FEWER days in school than do their counterparts in Japan but MORE hours teaching.
President Clinton says we are facing a major national teaching shortage and that we need 2.2 million new teachers in the next decade.
Nearly every President since Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950's has said virtually the same thing.

What many people do not realize is that without the support of the parent(s) the teacher is just a valuable tool that will go unused.

Teachers without adequate support from both the administration and the parents are just another example of a wasted opportunity.

And finally, an interesting twist to ponder:

Students spend six hours a day with a teacher (25% of each day). ((One hour in MS and HS which is of course – even less.))

In other words: (.25 x .72. x .5 x .084 x .014 = .00010584 or .010584% of their lifetime.

The solution is not in the school. It is in the home and family.

Not much I can add to that! Parental involvement outweighs all other factors in how a kid grows up. As a teacher, I try to be a "parent" figure to my students, but there's a limit. You said it very well.

the answer. It comes down to individual responsibilities.
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The only people I EVER felt accountable to were my students. I was accountable for making sure they were prepared to move forward after going though my class. Keep the faith.

Democracy is not a spectator sport.

You see interview after interview with Clayton parents and they seem like parents everywhere, i.e. very concerned and well meaning and above all wanting the best for their kids. Yet they continually elect some absolutely lackluster people to their school boards!

Of course, upscale Fayette county insists on returning that chowderhead Lynn Westmoreland to Congress so maybe we don't have a lot of room to talk!

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The Question They Will NOT Answer:How Much Jail Time?

While I'm not always in agreement with the Congressman I would rather be in Fayette County than Clayton. I suspect you would too.
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Caution - The Surgeon General has determined that constant blogging is an addiction that can cause a sedentary life style.

Clayton County: Once the “Jewel of the Southern Crescent” now just a bunch of idiots fighting for power, and in the process destroying thier property values, the educational system, and your self respect. Next time you’re out and about, keep this in mind:

1. How many Clayton County Tags Do You See in our shopping centers, they don’t even want to keep the money in their county?
2. The majority of students removed from Fayette County School are Illegally attending school here, I guess we are you babies daddy!
3. The majorities of the Clayton County Elected Officials do not have the citizens best interest at heart and just don’t care, and if you begin an investigation, immediately its racial motivated.
4. “Walking Small” the top elected law enforcement executive in the county has cost the citizens more money in legal fee’s fighting Chairman Bell then he has give in raises or improvements in his department.
5. The District Attorney prior to election had never handled a felony case, except her Husband who could not buy his election.
6. The School Board has mortaged the future of the children of Clayton County, and have denied them the only true tool for improving one’s station in life, education. I guess the kids should start watching gangster movies or taking Rap lessons, it’s the only way they are going to get out.

The only thing we have going for us is the Fayette County Courts and Law Enforcement. Time will tell, the sub-prime crisis will run a bunch of folks back to Atlanta, Fulton, and Dekalb. We can then buy your houses on the court house steps for pennies on the dollars, tear them down and build green space. You get what you deserve. The cause is lost, lock your doors when you go north on 85. Put a fork in it, Clayton County is Done! Build the Fence Now!