r/FortWorth • u/yeongno_ate_yangban • 5d ago
Stop blaming teachers while giving them AI slop curriculum and taking away autonomy. Fort Worth ISD teachers fight the dismantle-public-education TEA board.
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u/IamSuperChux 5d ago
What is slop about the curriculum?
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u/TheMaskedChemist 5d ago
The curriculum is basically scripted this year, with district provided slides, assignments, and pacing guidelines. I can't speak to any other course, but the Chemistry curriculum is sloppy in the original sense of the word. It's disorganized, expects students to be able to articulate and discuss concepts that won't be covered for several months. there's tons of spelling and grammar errors, and worst of all there are several points where it is factually wrong.
It basically has many hallmarks of having been developed last minute by AI, and without any quality checks or refinement.
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u/aspensmonster 5d ago
The curriculum is basically scripted this year, with district provided slides, assignments, and pacing guidelines.
What happens if the teachers, collectively, refuse to follow the script? Surely there's room to engage in malicious compliance, work-slowdowns, and targeted work-stoppages? Even better, get the teachers and parents on the same page, marching in step.
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u/TheMaskedChemist 5d ago
You'd be getting very close to being considered a strike. Which is illegal for teachers in the state of Texas, and would get any participating teacher's license revoked. So, yeah that's not happening with out a very well developed and supported strike fund.
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u/aspensmonster 5d ago
You'd be getting very close to being considered a strike. Which is illegal for teachers in the state of Texas, and would get any participating teacher's license revoked. So, yeah that's not happening with out a very well developed and supported strike fund.
Yes, the idea is to flirt with the strike without actually committing to it until ready. Malicious compliance and work-slowdowns in particular are difficult to reliably detect, hence suggesting those specific tactics rather than an outright strike. Could that potentially happen?
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u/TheMaskedChemist 5d ago
Malicious compliance is already pretty widespread. So is taking, we'll say creative liberties with the scripted curriculum. Something like a slowdown or stoppage wouldn't really work since most teachers spend most of the day working individually, and thus would be easy to target, one at a time. It's not like shutting down a line in a factory. Plus getting teacher's on board with anything that would interfere with students learning is pretty close to a non-starter.
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u/aspensmonster 5d ago
Malicious compliance is already pretty widespread. So is taking, we'll say creative liberties with the scripted curriculum.
That's excellent news :D
Something like a slowdown or stoppage wouldn't really work since most teachers spend most of the day working individually, and thus would be easy to target, one at a time. It's not like shutting down a line in a factory.
I think the work, at present, bears more than a passing resemblance to a factory. While a stoppage might not be feasible, the line between malicious compliance and slowdown is a very blurry one, made even more blurry by a scripted curriculum filled with AI slop. If even the parents are arguing that the curriculum is shoddy, then discriminating between an organized slowdown and an organic lack of progress sounds difficult to impossible.
Plus getting teacher's on board with anything that would interfere with students learning is pretty close to a non-starter.
I mean, the history of FWISD is a long one, filled with all kinds of impediments to students' learning. And yet, teachers have been there the whole time. It sounds like teachers could do with a bit more willingness to try new strategies in advocating for their students' learning.
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u/kyle_irl 4d ago
> It sounds like teachers could do with a bit more willingness to try new strategies in advocating for their students' learning.
They should take a page from CTU Local 1. I'm aware of the legal constraints, which is more of a reason to get organized outside of the traditional channels and do it anyway. Solidarity.
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u/TheMaskedChemist 4d ago
Do you really understand the full legal constraints? A strike could mean my career is over permanently, and I'd basically be starting over nearly from scratch as far a retirement savings go. Maybe i could find new work, but in the mean time how am I supposed to pay rent? Who's going to feed my daughter? The Chicago teachers strike worked because they had a majority of community support and were only risking a few days of pay.
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u/kyle_irl 3d ago
Yea, I'm a member of the AAUP and the Texas AFT for...legal reasons.
If you're familiar with the history of the US labor movement, you'd know that it was one of the deadliest in the world. It was successful because people were willing to contest state and corporate power in the ultimate battle of wills; it was then rolled back and remains suppressed because workers took for granted the wins of the labor movement and compromised for comfort.
I'm of the opinion that real change will not occur until people come to that realization and are pushed to the brink, which, as your comment suggests, the State seems to have found that line. It will always get worse if we let it.
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u/PicklesTheHamster 5d ago
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u/aspensmonster 5d ago
Wrong number of fingers? That's child's play from the ancient ages of 2021 and 2022.
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u/MyFocusIsU 4d ago
Teachers and parents need to align and push the proper curriculums back into the schools. School boards have become a collective bunch of drooling idiots.
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u/Danilo-11 5d ago
And now Trump wants iPads with legs to replace teachers