A few months ago, my daughter had a boy come to her crying, he lived with his brother who was just murdered over the weekend and he didn't know what he was going to do - she did invite him to my house for the holidays, he didn't take her up on it, but another student did. Teachers can only do so much. Another day a good student of hers missed a few days and when she came in she had a bandage on her neck. She took her into hall and asked if she was okay, said she had a fight with her b/f and had cut her own neck, but my daughter saw she also had a black eye and really wasn't sure what had happened. She contacted the school auth and the girl was committed a couple of days. My daughter wasn't sure how the girl would react when she...

Yes, charter schools are wonderful - but again generally if a kid is at a charter school, you more than likely have a parent who is supporting the kids, pushing to try to find best possible school for their child, you've got the parental support that really is very much needed in these schools. And it's not a just 'blame the parents' attitude - there is a direct relationship. In some of the inner city schools as I said above, it's so sad. One day a teacher's helper brought in oreo cookies for the class. A small girl, less than 100 pounds started handing out cookies, large boy (over 200) asked for a second cookie and they got into an argument - started cursing at each other. In a split second the boy picked up the girl and threw her...

I disagree about it being such a courageous thing to do. It's a knee jerk reaction and looks good. I have a daughter who is in her second year of teaching at an alternative high school in inner city Baltimore - you have NO idea what she is faced with every day, it truly is unbelievable. She teaches high school, many of kids read at 2nd grade level (that's only b/c that's the bottom of the reading level) - there really is only so much a teacher in high school can do with kids who have just been pushed through the system. It's not politically correct to say, but majority of problem is b/c of kid's homelife or lack of it - many don't have a chance. Teachers might be able to save a few students, but for majority in the situation in...