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Re: Spotlight Newspapers | Local News

letjusticeprevail — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:51:54 -0000

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. The teacher's responsibility does not extend to spoon-feeding, hand-holding, or mollycoddling. She is there to facilitate learning, not to take the student's place--if that were even possible. Although excellent pedagogy (like Dr. Waltz's) will help greatly, it is still the student that must learn--or not. Neither Dr. Waltz nor anyone else can stick a funnel in a student's ear and pour a knowledge of Chinese or Spanish directly into the brain (if any).

Teachers routinely complain that they hear mainly from the parents of the best students--precisely the ones that LEAST need to get involved. Not surprisingly, students whose parents don't even care enough to discuss their children's poor performance with the teacher are unlikely to improve.

I wonder how the author of the complaint above knows how much Chinese his child learned, and how much his child allegedly would have learned under "a teacher that knew how to TEACH children." Does he speak Chinese? Does he have a background in language pedagogy? Has he obtained any sort of assessment of his child's knowledge of Chinese? By what standard does he evaluate the results in this one isolated case? On what basis does he accuse Dr. Waltz of poor teaching?

Re: Spotlight Newspapers | Local News

letjusticeprevail — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:29:35 -0000

Or else a brown-nosing little lap-dog of this or that power-hungry administrator.

Re: Spotlight Newspapers | Local News

letjusticeprevail — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:45:54 -0000

How odd, then, that even the corrupt administration had nothing but praise for her teaching and the success of the Chinese program that she single-handedly created!

Re: Spotlight Newspapers | Local News

letjusticeprevail — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:45:35 -0000

She most certainly did teach a full day. In any event, state law requires a lunch break for any six-hour shift.

If Dr. Waltz "was late to every class and very disorganized," why did the administration's allegations not say so? Surely that, if true, would have provided a much more solid basis for firing her than all this tripe about saying "I am fat" during a lesson.

Re: Spotlight Newspapers | Local News

letjusticeprevail — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:40:58 -0000

How odd, then, that even the corrupt administration had nothing but praise for her teaching and the success of the Chinese program that she single-handedly created!

Re: Spotlight Newspapers | Local News

letjusticeprevail — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:39:05 -0000

How do you know?

Re: Spotlight Newspapers | Local News

letjusticeprevail — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:38:13 -0000

Funny, the administration never said anything about these complaints when it fired her. Indeed, the half-dozen reviews of her teaching were all positive.

Teachers do not ordinarily distribute lesson plans to the children or the parents.

Re: Spotlight Newspapers | Local News

letjusticeprevail — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:50:20 -0000

Well, now that the school year is starting, they've got their unproven newbie. If they're luckier than they deserve to be, she'll turn out to be a gem of a teacher, like Dr. Waltz. I wouldn't bet on it, though. And if she indeed proves to be stellar, they won't want her.

The ideal teacher for that mismanaged language department would seem to be an incompetent but dutiful apple-polisher whose lips stay firmly planted on administrative buttocks.

Re: Spotlight Newspapers | Local News

letjusticeprevail — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:33:38 -0000

There have been enough complaints here to warrant an investigation. Other teachers posting here have reported much the same vindictive behavior, abuse of power, and lack of accountability. It's high time for the State Department of Education to investigate this district's administrative offices.

Re: Spotlight Newspapers | Local News

letjusticeprevail — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:54:49 -0000

I wrote to you just now. You may wish to delete your address above if you can.

Re: Spotlight Newspapers | Local News

letjusticeprevail — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 10:08:48 -0000

Good observations. Here's another: Dr. Waltz CREATED that Chinese program (which even the district has called a success) from scratch. How likely is some new, inexperienced teacher to make a go of it? How unlikely was Dr. Waltz to continue to succeed?

The district simply is not committed to the Chinese program. It merely wants to be able to say "We're offering Chinese" (a very sexy claim these days) and to have a warm body pretend to teach the language. A Chinese program worthy of the name should include years of study. There's not much point in taking a year of Chinese in sixth grade if one can't continue for four, five, or six more years. Developing that sort of program requires commitment of personnel, money, and administrative support. During the past year, all have been woefully short. Dr. Waltz not only had to teach several Spanish classes (a distraction from the Chinese program) but also had to go without the lunch break that is required by law (for everyone, not just teachers) and the planning time that was provided in her contract. Her full schedule of classes didn't even leave her much time to interact with colleagues during the day. Again, it is the administration that is at fault for failing even to do proper scheduling.

Re: Spotlight Newspapers | Local News

letjusticeprevail — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:41:28 -0000

And how well does that facile suggestion play out in the real world?

Not everyone can just leave. In particular, the students that get stuck in schools mismanaged by the likes of these people cannot leave just because the administration is rotten to the core.

Re: Spotlight Newspapers | Local News

letjusticeprevail — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:58:56 -0000

In both articles published in this newspaper, Dr. Waltz is quoted as admitting that the district had the right to fire her for any reason at all, simply because she was on a temporary contract. That's not at issue. What is at issue is the appropriateness of what they did. Dr. Waltz pointed out that they hid their true reasons--which apparently come down to personality conflicts--behind potentially defamatory allegations of "inappropriate" behavior in the classroom. They don't want to say "We're firing you because we're green with envy and can't stand to look incompetent in your shadow," so instead they cobble together a pretext that puts the blame on her and tends to tarnish her reputation unfairly.

Nor can Dr. Waltz be accused of unprofessionalism for speaking out at that board meeting. She was INVITED to defend herself, and that was the only forum made available to her.

How the board is constituted is of no relevance to our point: it is plainly in the pocket of the corrupt administration. The facile suggestion that we "vote for change" betrays a certain naïveté about the concentration and distribution of power.

Re: Spotlight Newspapers | Local News

letjusticeprevail — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 10:41:04 -0000

That's a good question. The author of this article did a fine job; perhaps he'd also consider investigating the language classes in general. Clearly something is wrong, and it would be great if journalism could contribute to setting things right.

Re: Spotlight Newspapers | Local News

letjusticeprevail — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 10:30:44 -0000

It's funny that "commitment" never seems to entail any ... commitment. You don't show "commitment" to the Chinese program by staffing it with 0.6 teachers, packing the classes with 31 students, saddling the teacher with Spanish classes on the side, depriving her of a lunch break and a planning period (beyond a little coffee break in mid-morning), exhibiting jealousy towards her superior qualifications, subjecting her to a supervisor of questionable competence and integrity, deciding to get rid of her on utterly capricious and tendentious grounds after only one year (despite excellent performance), trumping up ridiculous pretexts for firing her, and getting the decision rubber-stamped by a board that's in the pocket of the corrupt administration.

Re: Spotlight Newspapers | Local News

letjusticeprevail — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:50:07 -0000

Thank you for posting that link. I would like to have been a fly on the wall when Dr. Waltz was ripping the yes-men of the board apart. Just from reading what she said to them, anyone can see that the board acted inappropriately. Only one member of the board had even opened the letter containing her response to the administration's trumped-up charges. Again, the whole affair was a mockery of justice.

Re: Spotlight Newspapers | Local News

letjusticeprevail — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:35:06 -0000

The public finds the wrongful termination of Dr. Waltz outrageous. Please see last week's article, in response to which 45 comments have been posted so far:

http://localspotlightnews.d...

Re: Spotlight Newspapers | Local News

letjusticeprevail — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:31:40 -0000

I'm very much in favor of trimming the administrative deadwood that is holding the schools back. In addition, the administration itself should be subject to far more public scrutiny and control. Something is badly amiss when a huge bureaucracy can fire an excellent teacher by trumping up the most asinine charges and getting the flunkeys of the school board to rubber-stamp it without even investigating it at all.

This newspaper did a service to the community by exposing the firing of Dr. Waltz. There's reason enough to demand an inquiry into her termination. I'm not sure how to go about it, though. Can we complain to the state department of education?

And I'm convinced that this is not just about Dr. Waltz: she's probably only one of many fine teachers that are mistreated by the entrenched administrative bureaucracy.

Re: Spotlight Newspapers | Local News

letjusticeprevail — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 01:03:39 -0000

I wonder whom you would get to teach the Latin classes, then.

A non-native speaker will not speak the language absolutely flawlessly, but some (like Dr. Waltz) come very close. For the job of Chinese-language radio announcer or editor, Dr. Waltz would indeed not usually be the best choice; one would prefer a qualified native speaker. And I'm sure she'd be the first to admit that. In this case, however, the job is that of teacher. What reason do you have to think that an excellent non-native speaker like Dr. Waltz is necessarily unsuitable? Although obviously the teacher has to be able to speak the language well (and Dr. Waltz does), she also has to be able to TEACH it. Dr. Waltz is particularly good at that. And remember that Dr. Waltz has one advantage that no native speaker can claim: having mastered the very difficult Chinese language as a non-native, she is a good role model to her students. She shows them that it IS possible for a dedicated Westerner to attain a very high degree of skill in Chinese—high enough to interpret for the federal government, pursue graduate study in China, translate Chinese literature, and teach the language to others.

None of this is relevant, however. The school district DID hire her, and no criticism of her language skills OR of her teaching has been presented: the only complaints from the administration appear to have been about tangential non-issues such as allegedly saying "I am fat" during a lesson. In fact, she got numerous POSITIVE reviews of her teaching from the administration.

Re: Spotlight Newspapers | Local News

letjusticeprevail — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:47:58 -0000

Which means that the dictatorship will continue, because an independent school board is out of the question.

Re: Spotlight Newspapers | Local News

letjusticeprevail — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 12:53:10 -0000

Someone wrote a few days ago that the school board merely rubber-stamped the decision from central administration, giving Dr. Waltz only three minutes to defend herself against the charges and the district's violations of its own policies--and then they threw Dr. Waltz's case in with a bunch of others and voted to approve them all en masse. Furthermore, the administration was so sure of getting its decision rubber-stamped that it had already interviewed and selected another teacher to be hired the very day of the decision. That shows how completely USELESS the school board is: it's wrapped around the administration's little finger.

Re: Spotlight Newspapers | Local News

letjusticeprevail — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 12:41:22 -0000

It serves to corroborate the conclusion that the administration was waging a vendetta against Dr. Waltz for personal reasons that had nothing to do with her competence and professionalism.

A Japanese proverb says "The nail that sticks up will be hammered down." And that's what happened here: Dr. Waltz distinguished herself by her competence, and the administrators couldn't stand to be outshone.

Re: Spotlight Newspapers | Local News

letjusticeprevail — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 12:29:09 -0000

It's plain to me that that supervisor is incompetent. She should be stripped of her administrative duties and assigned to teaching--if she's competent at that.

Re: Spotlight Newspapers | Local News

letjusticeprevail — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 12:25:27 -0000

Those comments about BC's administration are on the mark. Dr. Waltz was lynched on a personal vendetta.

Although I believe that the administrators in this district use parents' complaints as a pretext for firing anyone they dislike, I have seen no evidence that any parent complained about Dr. Waltz. If anyone had complained, the allegations against Dr. Waltz would have been a lot juicier than the claims that she said "I am fat" one day and brought in a doll as an aid for teaching vocabulary.

Someone else mentioned earlier that another Spanish teacher had been fired in a completely tacky and inappropriate manner after only a few days on the job. Dr. Waltz got that person's classes, and her schedule was such that she did not even get a lunch break. I encouraged Dr. Waltz to complain about that, as it is illegal under New York state law for ANY employee to be denied time off for a meal during any shift of at least six hours. She refrained from complaining because she didn't want any of her students to lose their Spanish class for want of a teacher.

Re: Spotlight Newspapers | Local News

letjusticeprevail — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 11:12:20 -0000

The allegation about one student's lower grades is too silly to discuss. It's all but certain that SOMEONE'S grades will go down when ANY new teacher comes in. That MAY be the fault of the teacher, but we cannot conclude so without investigating the facts. Much more likely explanations include:

1) The student's work was poor.
2) The new teacher is stricter than the old one.