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At the event, Ramer introduced teachers new to the system, revealed the school system's worst-kept secret (the return of DHS football coach James Counce), defended his sport coat and dispelled five myths about the Dyersburg City School System.
* Myth No. 1: City schools have less and less community support - Ramer said the large turnout for the annual breakfast is an example of the inaccuracy of the first myth on his list.
"That is ridiculous," said Ramer. "(Support from our) community leaders and parents just gets stronger and stronger."
* Myth No. 2: City schools are unsafe - Ramer said this myth is the most frustrating of the group.
"Our number one priority is to have safe schools and we do everything in our power to do that," said Ramer. "We have had unprecedented help from Chief Ledbetter and the SRO officers to do that."
Ledbetter and members of the Dyersburg Police Department were recognized more than once during the breakfast for their presence and service to the school system.
* Myth No. 3: Not all students can learn - Ramer listed ongoing intervention efforts within system aimed to address all types of learning obstacles. The list included the Coordinated School Health initiative, the alternative school or learning center, and Coordinated Health teams at each school, including newly acquired Health Services Coordinator Brad Smith and his work to address non-academic learning obstacles for students throughout the system.
"Yes, they can learn," said Ramer. "But, they learn at different stages. We have more interventions (in our school system) than ever before."
* Myth No. 4: No Child Left Behind is causing teachers to concentrate on system scores instead of teaching - "Any superintendent or teacher who puts 'staying off the list' before student concerns has failed in the educational vocation," said Ramer. "That said, Dyersburg City Schools had the best scores they've ever had since Leave No Child Behind was initiated."
* Myth No. 5: No Child Left Behind causes school systems to neglect its better students - Ramer recognized the school system's drama, music, intersession and enrichment programs as an answer to this myth.
"We offer more dual-credit classes and intersession (and enrichment) opportunities," said Ramer. "And there is not another school system in the state that offers Mandarin Chinese to excel students in grades one through five."
Teachers also were updated on ongoing projects from Coordinated School Health Coordinator Nancy Deere and helped Mayor John Holden officially welcome Mandarin Chinese teachers Yaqi Hao and Yu Liu to Dyersburg.
Same old D-burg unfortunately...
Big ideas with good intentions, but missing the mark when it comes to affecting real change and progress. I left Dyersburg 20 years ago in search of opportunity. I had no choice but to leave. When I return for a brief visit to Dyersburg it is depressing. It is still the same old town with the same old tired unwritten social rules of status and priviledge while the real issues of economic prosperity for EVERYONE go ignored. It is such a shame to see the lack of leadership and results generated by my beloved Dyersburg's government. Don't bother teaching your children to speak Chinese..teach them to speak Midwestern, Northeastern, Western or Extremely Southern American English. Anything but "Dyersburg English" ensures your children will have a happy and very successful life. Unfortunately, like my Mom, you will have to drive to see your grandkids.
I now realize what Ramer meant by "And there is not another school system in the state that offers Mandarin Chinese to excel students in grades one through five." Well, who really knows what he meant - perhaps his statement WAS taken out of context - but this is my take on it:
He's referring to the program of choosing just a handful of handpicked students - my guess, less than 1% of the entire student population in both the primary and intermediate schools - and allowing them to go to a special Chinese language class every day for the whole year.
The criteria in choosing this handful of students was based on the previous year's scores on a reading test for the primary school and TCAP and "other" factors for the intermediate school.
Hmmm...I sure hope this is a pilot program because a lot of potential contributors to AMERICAN society have been left off "The List." But what does it matter? We're talking about future immigrants to China anyway. Why do I say immigrants to China? Because, according to the below comments, everyone knows that "all our jobs are going to China" - so I guess that means the handful of handpicked students who are now going to be fluent in Chinese by sixth grade are defecting to China to get better jobs! Which is good because they are hiring 6th graders over there!
All of this makes no sense at all and I believe Ramer should be held accountable for making such a bold statement when in fact only a handful of handpicked children may or MAY NOT excel in grades 1 through 5 thanks to the new Chinese language program!
I'm not xenophobic, just realistic...the whole "They need to learn Chinese because our jobs are going to China" is ignorant. It's that ideology that will keep this great nation from making a comeback in the manufacturing arena! We cannot forget about all of the future adults who will still be needing jobs here in the US. Not all of them are going to be engineers and stock analysts, you know...
What about the schools that have 22 children in the class room. How can they get the teacher's to help them when they have all these children in a class room. They need to hire aids. I was told when I asked about aids in the class room it was not in the budget. I understand about learning foreign language Chinese should be out of the question. Spanish or French should be required and even latin. Our school systems needs to look over ever little thing. They also need to ask the teacher's what they want. With the children that are ruling the school district needs to look at the over backed classrooms. The teacher's can only do so much.
I recently heard someone discussing where the Dyersburg and D.C. schools (elementary, middle, and high schools) ranked in the state. Can anyone help me find more information on this?
is latin still being taught in the city school system? latin could be one of the most important subjects offered, but i think it's now considered a dead language. nothing could be farther from the truth.
i have two good friends who quit teaching because of the unruliness, and general respect that teachers deserve and receive from local students. neither of them were teaching high school. no wonder the problem becomes compounded by the time the students reach secondary education. and the school superintendent tells all the people running for the school board that he only wants unanimous votes on the proposals he lays before them. what a scam! this is not heresay, it came from the mouth of a school board member.
should we re-start corporal punishment in in schools in order to get a handle on the students behavior? would the court system, school board, and most of all the student's parents back our educators if this method of punishment for wrong behavior were to be re-instated? when i went to school, corporal punishment was one of the realities faced by students. i'm sure that it had an effect on many students behavior(certainly it did mine!)--if not all of us! yes, corporal punishment was abused by some of the teaching staff at good ole dyersburg high school back then when some of the teachers(usually big, bad football coaches)would parade through the halls with a 3 foot board over their shoulder. however, we didn't have the disipline problem that seems to be widespread in the dyersburg system now.
we are fortunate that we haven't had a tradgey locally like some of the systems not very far from here, including paducah, ky & jonesboro, ark. however, how long will our luck hold out? a few blistered behinds may help keep our luck rolling.
we had several school board members up for re-election just yesterday here locally. none of them were even challenged! i do not read the state gazette every day. so, i can't be 100% certain, but i do not recall ANY news story covering this portion of the election--very little concerning any of the elections other than paid advertisements. you people at the state gazette have duty to keep us informed on key issues, and what do we get? a front page filled with pictures of some unimportant fluff stories.
i think it is high time the state gazette starts covering the important news of this community. there are many things going on other than "police blotter" news. is the problem lazy reporters or poor leadership? if you're reading this, you must answer that one for yourself. if it is leadership, then chris rimel is leaving very soon. the state gazette is advertising for a new editor, but from all i hear, they are wanting someone that will tell only the "good" (fluff) stories. give us a break!
jerry osborne
i work at one of the schools, CHINESE CLASS
(PLEASE)
I agree with outt*here. Your graduate will need to know Manderine Chineese to find a job - especially since all our jobs are going to China!
Our children will be dealing with the Chinese more and more as the globalization of markets continues. Learning the language is not only fun and interesting, it will be THE deciding factor when your college graduate competes for a job.
"And there is not another school system in the state that offers Mandarin Chinese to excel students in grades one through five." What the heck does that mean? I'm not picking at the city schools as a whole, but did he really say that or is it a problem with reporting what he said (quite possible)? I've no idea how he can possibly link the academic excellence of students of the primary and intermediate schools with a high school language course. In my opinion, teaching Spanish makes a whole lot of sense due to our southern border with Mexico, like it or not - most of Texas speaks Spanish! Teaching French still may be practical given our northern border with Canada. But Chinese? I really really really believe that's a waste of tax payer money. The only plus of having Mandarin Chinese taught in our high school would be that it does indeed MAGICALLY improve the academic excellence of the students in grades 1 through 5! LOL
"And there is not another school system in the state that offers Mandarin Chinese to excel students in grades one through five." What the heck does that mean? I'm not picking at the city schools as a whole, but did he really say that or is it a problem with reporting what he said (quite possible)? I've no idea how he can possibly link the academic excellence of students of the primary and intermediate schools with a high school language course. In my opinion, teaching Spanish makes a whole lot of sense due to our southern border with Mexico, like it or not - most of Texas speaks Spanish! Teaching French still may be practical given our northern border with Canada. But Chinese? I really really really believe that's a waste of tax payer money. The only plus of having Mandarin Chinese taught in our high school would be that it does indeed MAGICALLY improve the academic excellence of the students in grades 1 through 5! LOL
In my entire nephew's life, other than his art work I have never seen him more excited than he is this year. The reason the new Chinese class and teacher. He has been interested in the Chinese culture for many years through his video games and things that he has read. My hope is that someday maybe he can use this in government or even travel and teach in China. So thumbs up for the school system for recognizing that we are global but, can keep our America values and roots intact.