A Luther Burbank High School freshman was surprised to read his full name included on a biology final. Not only that, but he was being ridiculed. “In high school, there are individuals who are cross-eyed like (the name of a fellow student) and (the name of the student previously mentioned), which is a dominant trait. We call those individuals ‘weirdoes’. So, if you crossed two weirdoes (the two students named again), that are heterozygous for being cross-eyed, what is the offspring that would result?” Many students in the class were targeted by first and last name on the exam. Teacher Alex Nguyen chose to describe these students by their ethnicities and physical features, and then paired them up, posing questions about what traits a theoretical child of these two students would have. On one question, the teacher wrote a disclaimer, saying “in no way do I promote students being sexually active,” but the student’s parents and other teachers at the school said that the implication of any sexual relationship between students is inappropriate.
I mean, if we wanted our best and brightest (and most compassionate) to teach, we would pay them the best salary they could get with their degrees.
Note to good teachers out there (I’m a teacher too): I’m not saying there aren’t any! I’m just saying that those doing the hiring can’t afford to be terribly picky.
Teacher pay is supposed to be near the best in the nation in California too. But we still don’t pay teachers enough and this is the result we get.
But is that normalized for cost of living? Highest in the nation might still be near subsistence level in one of the highest COL states.
An education system that requires martyrs as teachers is not a sustainable plan.
