Ed Notes Extended

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Townsend Harris Update: Jahoda Mocks Students in her Class at Stuyvesant, THHS Report on Jahoda Actions

[Stuyvesant] Freshman Audrey Hatch was participating in GLASS's annual Day of Silence on April 14 when.... her math teacher, Rosemarie Jahoda, made jesting comments about her and other students in class for their refusal to speak.....
"I found Ms. Jahoda and told her that I thought she was being rude and I wished she'd apologize," said Goldin. According to Goldin, things escalated from there, and disciplinary measures are now being taken against Goldin for his actions while confronting a faculty member.
.....May 15, 2003, http://stuyspectator.com/spectator/display.cgi?id=1224
“Change is always welcomed if the outcome is to improve things. Townsend Harris is a well-oiled machine. It has always been a well-oiled machine and that does not mean some things might need to be changed. There are directives that have to be adjusted to, but if all the plumbing in your house is working and maybe one faucet is leaking, you would just change the washer in the sink, you wouldn’t rip out all the pipes.” ...... THHS Chapter leader
One of our ace correspondents (who likes to remain anon) dug up this 2003 gem from the Stuy Spectator from Jahoda's past when she taught at Stuyvesant, pointing to her consistent disrespect for students.

And below that is a report from the current students at Townsend Harris chronicling the kinds of changes made by Jahoda that has caused the reaction there.

As the evidence piles up, we must not just demand that Jahoda be removed from Townsend Harris but not allowed to supervise or manage anyone in the DOE. I can just see them making her an ATR supervisor, where she will fit in quite comfortably with the other slugs. Note that Jahoda seems to have spent her career from teacher to AP to temp principal only in the top schools. No working at schools with struggling students for Jahoda because they would have slaughtered her.

I'll be back with another post with audio of Jahoda throwing the f-bomb despite denials, thus having students catch her in a blatant lie. Jonathan Halabi from New Action raised issues about the school at the UFT Ex Bd meeting last night and also called for actions against the Supt and deputy supt.
Student's Feelings Hurt by Teacher for Silent Protest During Class

http://stuyspectator.com/spectator/display.cgi?id=1224
May 15th, 2003

By Josh Ross

Freshman Audrey Hatch was participating in GLASS's annual Day of Silence on April 14 when, according to Hatch, her math teacher, Rosemarie Jahoda, made jesting comments about her and other students in class for their refusal to speak.

According to Hatch, she and two other students showed Jahoda the speaking cards that explained their reason for remaining silent throughout the day at the beginning of the period, but after another student in the class began to insult the three participants, Jahoda told her class, "It would be really funny if I could get them to talk, wouldn't it?"

"She was making a mockery of the whole thing," said Hatch. "When someone's making fun of you and you can't say anything back, it really hurts, and that's sort of what the Day of Silence is about in the first place."

"I don't think [Jahoda] was against the cause itself," Hatch admitted. "She just didn't realize that she was acting inappropriately."

Jahoda declined to comment on the incident for this article.

Assistant Principal of Mathematics Danny Jaye however, said it was a simple case of unawareness. "My guess is that many adults in the building were unclear as to the purpose of the Day of Silence and that may have contributed in some way to any misunderstanding. The staff member involved is a warm and personable individual who was probably just taken by surprise by the event," he said.

Jaye also pointed out that, "given the intelligence of the Stuyvesant community and their awareness of events around the world as well as local, hardly a day goes by without concerned students displaying their concern for various issues."

Hatch's irritation over the matter led her to plan to say something during class the next day, but after meeting junior Roman Goldin at the "Breaking Silence Rally" and telling Goldin about the incident, Goldin decided to take action himself.

"I found Ms. Jahoda and told her that I thought she was being rude and I wished she'd apologize," said Goldin. According to Goldin, things escalated from there, and disciplinary measures are now being taken against Goldin for his actions while confronting a faculty member.

Goldin said, "This has caused the school to turn the focus of this story to me, and I don't think the focus should be on me confronting her; it should be that teachers have no right to harass students like that in front of a class. That makes it seem like that type of harassment is okay and it's not."

The next day, according to Hatch, Jahoda took her into the hallway because Hatch was crying before class. Hatch described herself as acting "a little overdramatic," and in response Jahoda called a substitute and left the classroom.

"From what I understand," said Jaye, "the teacher addressed the issue in class the next day, was apologetic, and considers the matter closed."

"Then the day after that I tried to apologize to her," said Hatch, "saying that I had planned to confront her about the incident but not turn it into a big thing, and she was very hostile to me. That was really uncalled for because she may not have deserved an apology in the first place," she said.

However, after all was said and done, Hatch thought she and Goldin could have handled it better. "After all, she wasn't directly mocking the cause," said Hatch. "I just wish she would have realized how important this day was to us."
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Here is the report from the great student reporters,, at THHS on their site. They bend over backwards to be fair to Jahoda in my opinion.




2 comments:

  1. Lets send our UFT union dues to THHS students. They seem to do a better job at protecting teachers rights.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The average teacher salary at Townsend is 90k+. That could well be the reason for the change in leadership.

    ReplyDelete

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