First, I lay out the story for you and then I proceed to rant afterwards...
I was reading yesterday's newspaper and an article about iPads caught my attention. The Rankin County School District spent $25,000 on iPads (50 iPads) for principals, school board members and district department heads. District officials say the new technology will help educators "stay mobile and abreast of new technology".
The deputy superintendent of elementary programs in Rankin stated that the world is so technologically advanced that the iPads will help them "stay on the cutting edge".
The first few iPads were bought with Parent-Teacher Organization money for a few principals, but then more principals wanted one. After receiving a federal grant for $116,000 to improve internet connections and related infrastructure, $25,000 of that money was use to be more iPads for principals.
The plan is to get iPads for the teachers and high school students within the next few years. The reasons given are:
"There are educational games on the iPad."
"Principals can use the iPads to do teacher evaluations and give instant feedback."
"They also can use the devices to quickly look up student information without having to return to their offices."
Some parents have even chimed in to support the purchase of iPads in the schools. "Book bags are really heavy for the kids, and if they can eliminate the books and condense them onto an iPad, it would be beneficial."
Okay, now here comes my cynical view of this garbage. I think I've held my tongue long enough to give you an overview of everything.
(clears throat) To the lady who stated iPads are easier to carry than books: how sorry must your children be to not be able to carry books? Books have been carried to school for decades and now all of a sudden they're "really heavy"?
It's parents like that who make me wish a license was required to even have children. It's the "punkification of America". Parents babying their kids so much that we wind up with a bunch of Lindsay Lohans in the world. But, that's a story for another blog.
Sorry, but I got a bit off-track. iPads for upper-level administration is supposed to be for the improvement of the school system? Really Rankin County? My god kids' mom is a high school teacher in the Rankin County school district. I can't count how many times she's had to come out of her pocket for every day school supplies for her kids and now her principal is trekking around the office setting up his iTunes playlist.
So, upper-level admins (whose jobs are mostly made up) can get $500 toys while the students don't even have the necessary items that they need to participate in a normal school day. And the reason I say most upper-level admins are "made up" positions is because the Department of Education has a superintendent or bureau director for every single thing in school:
Bureau Manager of Healthy Schools, Bureau Director II Child Nutrition, Bureau Director II Innovative Support, Bureau Director II Conservatorship... Do I need to continue? Conservatorship isn't even recognized by my spell checker so how in the world is it a legitimate position? LOL! The MS Dept. of Education hiearchy chart looks like a family tree that dates back to the Mayflower.
MS ranks at the bottom in education every year because these losers are destroying the budget by creating these fake jobs for their friends and buying company vehicles and toys. Stop pissing on the people's legs and telling us that it's raining.
Corruption isn't just on Wall Street any more. It's every where. Everything is a business now. Hospitals have to keep their rooms full. Can't make money if people aren't sick. Prisons have to keep their jail cells fulls. Can't make profits off of cheap labor without someone to work it.
Add our school system to the list of corrupt businesses. We have to deal with school board shenanigans simply over one reason: because there is money in it. That money should be for the kids, not the fat cats who probably haven't stepped on campus in months.
Parents are blaming teachers for their kids not learning, but low wages and lack of supplies isn't helping the situation. Do you really think those kids are going to get iPads in a few years? Or even the teachers?
I hate to play the role of Conspiracy Brotha, but some one has to say something. I work with so many people who complain about some of the same things I do, yet they don't ever do a thing about it. They don't vote. They don't attend meetings at City Hall. They sit back and fuss as if that alone will change things. Guess what? It hasn't!
In the words of my 6th grade teacher, Mrs. Ellis, "get off of your rusty dusty (translation: butt) and do something about it!"
wtf! Such a total waste of money! Punkification TO THE HIGHEST POWER! I'm getting sick of this shit for real! Too many of my friends going to the extreem and treating their kids in a way to compensate for what their parents didnt give to them...the shit is getting out of hand. I know its good to get the best for your kids, but damn! Treating them as if they are still in diapers is retarded!
ReplyDeleteMake them carry a fucking book! Shit they gotta do something! That school district is just bullshitting around really!
I can see how having an Ipad would be beneficial to a principal. What I do not agree with are the means to purchase that Ipad especially with the state of our economy. You talk about carrying books while some students parents can't afford book bags to put them in. What is really going on here?
ReplyDelete@ Falen - you're right. Things are out of hand now. 50 years from now kids won't even have to wake up. They'll just be in a coma-like state while everything is done for them. Like that movie "Surrogates". LOL!
ReplyDelete@ MissLAKnight - I agree that the iPad could be useful, but the way they went about obtaining it was foul to me. And to top it off, school board members need them, too? If it were just the principal, I still would be skeptical about it, but at least it would make sense from a productive standpoint.
It's a shame that Rankin County schools are so twisted. They even defend a mathematics curriculum that doesn't teach the traditional methods of large number multiplication or long division and my 5th grader is bringing home spelling words that I learned in 2nd grade. (They'd rather use a calculator!) In addition to that, they spent multi-millions on a new central office for the Board of education with marble inlay floors so that they (Board of Education - Administrators and clones) can be rest all comfy and cozy while many of the classrooms at the middle school lacked heat in the worst part of the winter. We have a bunch of baffoons running RCSD. Check out the fact that many of the schools fell in MCT II standings for 2009-2010, and combine that with lack of adequate supplies and relentless nonsensical spending on ipads, and see if it adds up to a select a brighter future. Given the fact that our economy is in the state it is in, wouldn't they rather subsidize a teacher salary and reduce the burdens on teachers who are taught that quantity equals quality. WRONG wake up and speak up Rankin County citizens, this is our future!
ReplyDelete@ Anonymous (applause)! I wasn't aware of the marble floors. That is absolutely backwards. The kids and the teachers' needs seem to be the farthest thing from these people's minds. The schools are suffering, but they don't want to do anything about it. Thanks for commenting.
ReplyDelete