No Child Left Behind: Douglass HS (BMORE) Documentary (HBO NOW)

[fistofrage]

Re: No Child Left Behind: Douglass HS (BMORE) Documentary (HBO NOW)

What was up with that scuffle between that guy and those 6 girls. Did those girls attack him or did he just go nuts, I missed what started it all. But it made me wonder at what point would the camera crew step in if it got nasty.

[Heelfan71]

Re: No Child Left Behind: Douglass HS (BMORE) Documentary (HBO NOW)

The thing that I don't understand though, is why they don't want to be taught. Granted there would be alot of peer pressure to not academically succeed, but they see their community going to shambles. They should want to succeed for the selfish reason of getting the heck out of there with the ability to have a good career or for philanthropic reasons of doing well to come back to contribute to the community.

The teachers preach this being their ticket to better things. Why don't they get it? I mean some go to school to hang out in the halls. If you are already there, might as well go to class and get a diploma.

my guess is it starts at home. Very few of these kids had 2 parents. Some didn't have any.

[Stumbleweed]

Re: No Child Left Behind: Douglass HS (BMORE) Documentary (HBO NOW)

If anyone finds this in torrent or streaming form, let me know via PM. I want to see this and don't have HBO.

[ProfessaPackMan]

Re: No Child Left Behind: Douglass HS (BMORE) Documentary (HBO NOW)

yeah yeah. not at the "no disrespect" comment, that joke is just a little played. whatever floats your boat... bama

All good man lol

[ProfessaPackMan]

Re: No Child Left Behind: Douglass HS (BMORE) Documentary (HBO NOW)

those kids have zero respect for elders. Half of them skip class or the teachers tell them to do something and they refuse too. They are basically digging there own grave. Plus the teachers are told to give retakes on the final exam if a student can't graduate. One kid was 17 and in 9th grade.

All the teachers I saw were pretty good and really trying. Hard to teach someone that doesn't want to be taught though.

+1

[aholbert32]

Re: No Child Left Behind: Douglass HS (BMORE) Documentary (HBO NOW)

What was up with that scuffle between that guy and those 6 girls. Did those girls attack him or did he just go nuts, I missed what started it all. But it made me wonder at what point would the camera crew step in if it got nasty.

They called him a clown (in Baltimore that's a bigger insult than it sounds) in front of the cameras, the girls started to (playfully?) get in his face and one of them grabbed him by the throat.

I replayed that part like 3 times and was wondering the same thing. Why didnt the camera crew step in after the fight started or at least notify a teacher?

[Heelfan71]

Re: No Child Left Behind: Douglass HS (BMORE) Documentary (HBO NOW)

Sad how low income kids can't get a good education. So the cycle continues. Some of those classes didn't even have enough books for every student. And they couldn't take books home because there were not enough. This stuff would never happen in a middle / upper class school. EVERY kid deserves a good education and that is not the case. Sad....

[wwharton]

Re: No Child Left Behind: Douglass HS (BMORE) Documentary (HBO NOW)

The thing that I don't understand though, is why they don't want to be taught. Granted there would be alot of peer pressure to not academically succeed, but they see their community going to shambles. They should want to succeed for the selfish reason of getting the heck out of there with the ability to have a good career or for philanthropic reasons of doing well to come back to contribute to the community.

The teachers preach this being their ticket to better things. Why don't they get it? I mean some go to school to hang out in the halls. If you are already there, might as well go to class and get a diploma.

Man you are really expecting A LOT. It's probably hard for some (I really don't mean this as an insult) but honestly none of us just come up with logical reasoning and unselfish giving nature like you're expecting here. Those are all learned traits. Most of these kids have only learned survival skills... and bad ones. Often most of what they've learned is from other kids around their age or adults making money hand over fist illegally. It's a lot more than peer pressure in school. Kids don't think long term.

You also have to understand that these kids aren't expected to graduate, let alone go to college. Most couldn't afford to go to college even if they did get in, and as mentioned earlier the schools are often far from properly equipped. Yes, with libraries and the internet, the information every kid needs to succeed is available, but for many it's not all that easy to get to. Alot of people ignore a lot of factors and say "why don't these kids just get it". My guess is that's why they're starting to documentaries like this, to shed light on all aspects of the problem. The best teacher in the world is worthless without a support system at home.

All good man lol

[ProfessaPackMan]

Re: No Child Left Behind: Douglass HS (BMORE) Documentary (HBO NOW)

Man you are really expecting A LOT. It's probably hard for some (I really don't mean this as an insult) but honestly none of us just come up with logical reasoning and unselfish giving nature like you're expecting here. Those are all learned traits. Most of these kids have only learned survival skills... and bad ones. Often most of what they've learned is from other kids around their age or adults making money hand over fist illegally. It's a lot more than peer pressure in school. Kids don't think long term.

You also have to understand that these kids aren't expected to graduate, let alone go to college. Most couldn't afford to go to college even if they did get in, and as mentioned earlier the schools are often far from properly equipped. Yes, with libraries and the internet, the information every kid needs to succeed is available, but for many it's not all that easy to get to. Alot of people ignore a lot of factors and say "why don't these kids just get it". My guess is that's why they're starting to documentaries like this, to shed light on all aspects of the problem. The best teacher in the world is worthless without a support system at home.

Good points made.

[p_rushing]

Re: No Child Left Behind: Douglass HS (BMORE) Documentary (HBO NOW)

No matter how much money is thrown at the problem, its not going to change anything. If the kids were able to take books home, how many do you think would take them home or how many would bring them back or even make it home and still have the book. If the school had nice computers, how long do you think the computers would still be in the school. The problem isn't the school, teachers, education budget, etc. The problem is the kids and the community. This school could become on of the best schools in the country even on the same budget if only the community would care. The only way anything will work is to get the community to drive the people out who want to continue living the destructive life and are bad influences on the kids.

At schools like these, the goal of the teachers basically is to find the 1 or 2 students that actually cares and has a shot at making it. Once you find them, then throw all your energy into helping them reach college so they can better their life. The rest of them are hopeless and nothing you do will make them change because they don't want to change.

Its sad that its like this, but at some point you have to stop wasting money, time, energy, etc and say look, we've given you all the tools/help you need to succeed, its up to you to actually do the needed work. For some reason, they don't want to put any effort in.

[Jackdog]

Re: No Child Left Behind: Douglass HS (BMORE) Documentary (HBO NOW)

No matter how much money is thrown at the problem, its not going to change anything. If the kids were able to take books home, how many do you think would take them home or how many would bring them back or even make it home and still have the book. If the school had nice computers, how long do you think the computers would still be in the school. The problem isn't the school, teachers, education budget, etc. The problem is the kids and the community. This school could become on of the best schools in the country even on the same budget if only the community would care. The only way anything will work is to get the community to drive the people out who want to continue living the destructive life and are bad influences on the kids.

At schools like these, the goal of the teachers basically is to find the 1 or 2 students that actually cares and has a shot at making it. Once you find them, then throw all your energy into helping them reach college so they can better their life. The rest of them are hopeless and nothing you do will make them change because they don't want to change.

Its sad that its like this, but at some point you have to stop wasting money, time, energy, etc and say look, we've given you all the tools/help you need to succeed, its up to you to actually do the needed work. For some reason, they don't want to put any effort in.

It's a goverment plantation mentality. I have a sister and many cousins that fall into this trap. Many of these kids and their parents have always had thier basic needs taken care of by the goverment. Jesse Jackson said "We have Babies making Babies". He left out one word in that statement that's very important in this. Welfare. We have welfare babies making babies. It's a vicious cycle. They have no incentive to get an education.

If they fail,they can still get free housing and food. The extras come from dealing drugs or other hustles. I found it pretty sad when the basketball team lost it's playoff game because of some questionable calls and the star player started this rant about dealing drugs and going to jail because that's where they want us. In my mind if that bull**** was true,that's even more reason to strive to do better.

These kids get 3 years to pass the SAT test. What's that tell them? They aren't smart enough to do it like all the other kids around the country? No thanks.

This school in DC proves that if you have just one parent willing to help their kids get an education they can break away from the goverment tit and become a sucess in many ways.The school is in one of the most crime ridden parts of town and all of the kids are from low income families.It should be the model for all schools. http://www.thurgoodmarshallacademy.org/

Congratulations to the Class of 2008! As in previous years, 100% of our graduates have been accepted to college. The entire Thurgood Marshall Academy community wishes you the very best and looks forward to learning of your future successes.

HBO needs to cover this school. I am tired of seeing failure stories. Cover some good **** for once HBO.

[jmood88]

Re: No Child Left Behind: Douglass HS (BMORE) Documentary (HBO NOW)

No matter how much money you throw at the schools, it's not going to matter unless the parents are involved. If a kid's got no support at home, he's got little to no chance to succeed, with very rare exceptions.

You can't just throw kids in ****ty schools that have no money however.

People love to talk about how much the US spends on education(I'm not talking about you) but what they don't realize is that the money that is spent is not given to the schools that need it.

[jmood88]

Re: No Child Left Behind: Douglass HS (BMORE) Documentary (HBO NOW)

My roommate teaches on the southside of Chicago and I hear the horror stories of no child left behind from him.

As an example students who are in special education have to be scoring and improving at the same rates the "normal" students are...the whole system is a freakin joke!

No Child Left Behind makes absolutely no sense to me. Yeah, let's take funding away from the schools that obviously need it because the students did bad on a test. That's really going to help solve the problem. It's a good idea to hold schools accountable but for one, it's not always the teacher's fault and two, the students are the only one's who are being punished.

[jmood88]

Re: No Child Left Behind: Douglass HS (BMORE) Documentary (HBO NOW)

No matter how much money is thrown at the problem, its not going to change anything. If the kids were able to take books home, how many do you think would take them home or how many would bring them back or even make it home and still have the book. If the school had nice computers, how long do you think the computers would still be in the school. The problem isn't the school, teachers, education budget, etc. The problem is the kids and the community. This school could become on of the best schools in the country even on the same budget if only the community would care. The only way anything will work is to get the community to drive the people out who want to continue living the destructive life and are bad influences on the kids.

So instead of trying to help the kids just don't do anything for them because they'll mess it up anyway. That's a self fulfilling prophecy, how would you know what would happen if you aren't going to do something? It's not like these kids have been in nice schools all their lives and just didn't take advantage, they've been in these ****ty schools for forever and they are the one's being left behind.

At schools like these, the goal of the teachers basically is to find the 1 or 2 students that actually cares and has a shot at making it. Once you find them, then throw all your energy into helping them reach college so they can better their life. The rest of them are hopeless and nothing you do will make them change because they don't want to change.

Its sad that its like this, but at some point you have to stop wasting money, time, energy, etc and say look, we've given you all the tools/help you need to succeed, its up to you to actually do the needed work. For some reason, they don't want to put any effort in.

Except that isn't true at all, schools like this aren't given everything that they need to have their students succeed.

[wwharton]

Re: No Child Left Behind: Douglass HS (BMORE) Documentary (HBO NOW)

No matter how much money is thrown at the problem, its not going to change anything. If the kids were able to take books home, how many do you think would take them home or how many would bring them back or even make it home and still have the book. If the school had nice computers, how long do you think the computers would still be in the school. The problem isn't the school, teachers, education budget, etc. The problem is the kids and the community. This school could become on of the best schools in the country even on the same budget if only the community would care. The only way anything will work is to get the community to drive the people out who want to continue living the destructive life and are bad influences on the kids.

At schools like these, the goal of the teachers basically is to find the 1 or 2 students that actually cares and has a shot at making it. Once you find them, then throw all your energy into helping them reach college so they can better their life. The rest of them are hopeless and nothing you do will make them change because they don't want to change.

Its sad that its like this, but at some point you have to stop wasting money, time, energy, etc and say look, we've given you all the tools/help you need to succeed, its up to you to actually do the needed work. For some reason, they don't want to put any effort in.

As someone who grew up walking distance from Douglass and who knows A LOT of people working in the Baltimore City school system, teaching or in administration, I can tell you that you're dead wrong. For one, we can talk about the issues with community and that's true for different reasons. You're focusing on the crime, drugs, etc. which is a small part of the problem in communities like this... especially in a discussion about education. Most of the people in the community don't deal or do drugs, work (maybe multiple jobs), etc. Most of the "hustling" going on is from get rich quick schemes that make things worse bc they don't know any better way to try to move forward. It was only 2 generations ago (roughly) when going to college straight out of high school wasn't even an option for 90% of any of them. If they are home enough to monitor their children's education, they're poorly equipped to help guide them also.

Contrary to what seems to be popular belief, there is reason for the crime. Kids wouldn't just destroy books or computers for the sake of it. Libraries aren't burned to the ground. And honestly, you can find 10 year olds that can count dime bags, understand ounces, grams, and figure out complex equations involving money in a matter of seconds. They want to learn to succeed, they just have a skewed image of success b/c the drug dealer on the corner has more tools to convince them his way's best than the teachers in the schools.

There are bad seeds everywhere, and of course you can't do much about them, but the large majority of ALL kids are clean slates that are influenced by their peers, people of direct power in their life and their environment in general. I can dig up links of examples, movies, articles, etc. if you're really interested but I'll get off my soap box.

HBO needs to cover this school. I am tired of seeing failure stories. Cover some good **** for once HBO.

I disagree. I think no problem should be presented without hope for a plausible solution, but I think you're underestimating the HUGE number of people that are clueless to the true problem. I agree that stories on schools like the Thurgood Marshall Acadamy should be done to show that it can work. There are some out there... it'd be great if HBO did one since that would hit a wider audience. However, the failure stories need to be covered b/c too many people think like p_rushing (sorry, not trying to pick on you man) in that there's no hope, these kids need to see the opportunity they have, etc. It's much, much, much more complicated than that.

"The truth is if there's no hope for the youth, there's no hope for the future."

Ignoring the "failures" and giving up on the kids that teachers can't identify as 1 or 2 that might make it, is a bad plan.