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When I was in school, I had maybe a couple crappy teachers, but with my two youngest ones, I see far more crappy teachers then I used to. I am not sure why this is, but, in my personal experience, which is all I can speak from, this seems to be how it is.
I think even a very good teacher can suffer from burn-out at the end of their career and turn into a crappy teacher. I have no idea how teachers, especially single subject teachers, can teach the same material, year in and year out, with the same enthusiasm and brightness. My son had a teacher this past school year for Physics II who was probably the most popular teacher in his school. Quirky, interested in the kids, laid back but very interesting but seemed not to put a lot of thought into some important teaching items, such as giving tests on the material that was actually taught.
I've also read that it takes a teacher two to three years to become a good teacher so a new disorganized new teacher can also be considered crappy even though he or she may become excellent after they hit their stride.
I should have asked this in the beginning so I'll ask it now. Please describe the crappy teachers you have known after you answer.
A former math teacher thought the best way to learn was to split us into groups and have us give presentations on each formula that we were going to use that semester. The entire process took several weeks and we got completely behind schedule (compared to the other classes).
Our sons Algebra 1 teacher last year was "crappy". We try to teach our son to respect teachers, that there are some that will be better than others and that he has to learn how to deal with whatever teacher he's dealt. We also give the teacher the benefit of doubt if he complains about them. Math is one of his strongest subjects and he kept complaining that his teacher wouldn't show them how to work the problems. He said she would do one problem on the board and when the students would ask questions she told them to help each other! How would they do that if they didn't get what she told them to do?? She also would have them grade each others papers in class and make fun of the ones that didn't do well. It was a very demeaning atmosphere. By Christmas break most parents had figured out that it wasn't jus their kid whining but that no one understood what the heck they were supposed to do. The majority of parents hired tutors so their kids wouldn't miss out on the fundamental skills involved with Algebra. This is a high school level class that kids have to test into to take in 7th grade. I was stunned to hear that the school brought her back for the upcoming school year after all of the complaints they received. If she's the teacher for Advanced Geometry this year my son will not be sitting in her classroom. I'm not usually a parent that asks to have specific teachers or teams but this year I will if necessary.
Hmmm, for my 13 yr old going into 8th grade.....she's been a top academic student from before she began school. She loves school and was willing to try most anything offered. Until 4th grade.
K - teacher was one of the best ever in all ways. She was actually voted Teacher of the Year too.
1st - teacher for 1st semester was very good, teacher for second semester was crappy. She was moved from 3rd to 1st against her desires and it showed not only in her attitude but also in her ability to relate to the younger students.
2nd - was ok but not great.
3rd - had been teaching that same grade for years and had it down to a science. Very good.
We moved schools at this time and in many ways it turned out to be a wrong move.
4th grade there were 4 teachers.
Social studies was an excellent teacher, he loves history (especially Texas history) and it showed. Math teacher was in a rut and found it difficult to do anything but what was required, so I'd say adequate.
Reading teacher was either burnt out to the max or feeling stressed to the max. She was crappy with a capital C.
Writing teacher, and homeroom teacher, was one of the worst she's had. She belittled and yelled at the students, refused to believe that anyone was gifted (which included my daughter, or I wouldn't have mentioned it) and rarely held a conversation with parents. She was the root cause for my daughter withdrawing and refusing to participate in anything other than what was required.
The math teacher rotated up to 5th. She was refreshed and a much, much better teacher.
The reading teacher also rotated up to 5th, but taught social studies and was a completely different teacher. Not top notch still, but adequate.
The writing teacher also rotated up teaching reading and my daughter simply attended class and did what was required, nothing more. She was still a crappy teacher, but thankfully my daughter did not have her for homeroom.
The other 5th grade teacher taught science and has a great passion for it-top teacher.
So for elementary 4 great, 2 good, 3 adequate and 4 crappy.
6th grade-
Great - Science and Math
Good - Art, ELA and Social studies
Adequate - Theater, computer tech and PE
7th grade
Great - Art, Science, ,
Good - Texas History, ELA, Technology (intro to woodshop etc+)
Adequate - PE
Crappy - Math-it was her last year to teach and she taught my daughter absolutely nothing. She basically 'phoned it all in'.
So for middle school so far
Great - 4
Good - 6
Adequate - 4
Crappy - 1
so total of
Great -8
Good - 8
Adequate - 7
Crappy - 5
which amounts to 18% crappy so far. That doesn't even add in the various music, PE and computer teachers in elementary just yet either.
Hmmm, for my 13 yr old going into 8th grade.....she's been a top academic student from before she began school. She loves school and was willing to try most anything offered. Until 4th grade.
K - teacher was one of the best ever in all ways. She was actually voted Teacher of the Year too.
1st - teacher for 1st semester was very good, teacher for second semester was crappy. She was moved from 3rd to 1st against her desires and it showed not only in her attitude but also in her ability to relate to the younger students.
2nd - was ok but not great.
3rd - had been teaching that same grade for years and had it down to a science. Very good.
We moved schools at this time and in many ways it turned out to be a wrong move.
4th grade there were 4 teachers.
Social studies was an excellent teacher, he loves history (especially Texas history) and it showed. Math teacher was in a rut and found it difficult to do anything but what was required, so I'd say adequate.
Reading teacher was either burnt out to the max or feeling stressed to the max. She was crappy with a capital C.
Writing teacher, and homeroom teacher, was one of the worst she's had. She belittled and yelled at the students, refused to believe that anyone was gifted (which included my daughter, or I wouldn't have mentioned it) and rarely held a conversation with parents. She was the root cause for my daughter withdrawing and refusing to participate in anything other than what was required.
The math teacher rotated up to 5th. She was refreshed and a much, much better teacher.
The reading teacher also rotated up to 5th, but taught social studies and was a completely different teacher. Not top notch still, but adequate.
The writing teacher also rotated up teaching reading and my daughter simply attended class and did what was required, nothing more. She was still a crappy teacher, but thankfully my daughter did not have her for homeroom.
The other 5th grade teacher taught science and has a great passion for it-top teacher.
So for elementary 4 great, 2 good, 3 adequate and 4 crappy.
6th grade-
Great - Science and Math
Good - Art, ELA and Social studies
Adequate - Theater, computer tech and PE
7th grade
Great - Art, Science, ,
Good - Texas History, ELA, Technology (intro to woodshop etc+)
Adequate - PE
Crappy - Math-it was her last year to teach and she taught my daughter absolutely nothing. She basically 'phoned it all in'.
So for middle school so far
Great - 4
Good - 6
Adequate - 4
Crappy - 1
so total of
Great -8
Good - 8
Adequate - 7
Crappy - 5
which amounts to 18% crappy so far. That doesn't even add in the various music, PE and computer teachers in elementary just yet either.
Why do you consider the crappy teachers crappy? What did they do?
Did your daughter's math teacher really teach her nothing all year or are you exaggerating? I never know how to take claims like this. I don't know how a teacher gets away with teaching nothing all year without someone noticing they aren't teaching....
A former math teacher thought the best way to learn was to split us into groups and have us give presentations on each formula that we were going to use that semester. The entire process took several weeks and we got completely behind schedule (compared to the other classes).
Unfortuntely, there is a push towards group work. One of the things I was criticized for was not enough group work and presentations. I've been instructed to have my students discover chemistry as opposed to my teaching it. There are those who believe that students learn more when they teach each other.
I can see where this can get you behind schedule. I did this with periodic trends this year and it took three times as long to get through the material and I still ended up teaching it when we were done because presentations were not thorough enough.
Lol the teacher who must have been "crappy" for those three had to have included their statistics teacher. Even a basic understanding of distribution puts the lie to the idea that more than 41% of teachers are "crappy".
Really? Would you apply the same logic to the percentage of people in prison who are criminals? All distributions are not gaussians centered around 80%.
Throughout my primary and secondary education, most of my teachers were quite average, but a solid 50% of the teachers I have interacted with in outreach programs since then have been truly awful. Most of the science teachers I have met have no background in the field they are teaching, and therefore cannot provide any context beyond what is in the book. A few examples of teachers I considered awful include:
A teacher who made up answers when students asked questions she couldn't answer. When corrected in private, she paid no attention, and proceeded to give the same incorrect answer throughout the day.
A teacher who assigned a final project for a junior level physics class of building a paper towel roller coaster that could launch a ping pong ball into a cup. When I tried to explain conservation of energy to some of the groups, she pulled me aside and said "these kids aren't like you and me...they're from the inner-city...stuff like that doesn't make sense to them." What in the world is the point of a high school physics class if you can't even talk about conservation of energy?
A teacher who spent all of her time running a real-estate business instead of actually doing any work.
A teacher who felt that putting on a subject specific movie every day constituted teaching.
A teacher who felt that putting on a pop-culture movie at least half of the time constituted teaching.
Really? Would you apply the same logic to the percentage of people in prison who are criminals? All distributions are not gaussians centered around 80%.
Throughout my primary and secondary education, most of my teachers were quite average, but a solid 50% of the teachers I have interacted with in outreach programs since then have been truly awful. Most of the science teachers I have met have no background in the field they are teaching, and therefore cannot provide any context beyond what is in the book. A few examples of teachers I considered awful include:
A teacher who made up answers when students asked questions she couldn't answer. When corrected in private, she paid no attention, and proceeded to give the same incorrect answer throughout the day.
A teacher who assigned a final project for a junior level physics class of building a paper towel roller coaster that could launch a ping pong ball into a cup. When I tried to explain conservation of energy to some of the groups, she pulled me aside and said "these kids aren't like you and me...they're from the inner-city...stuff like that doesn't make sense to them." What in the world is the point of a high school physics class if you can't even talk about conservation of energy?
A teacher who spent all of her time running a real-estate business instead of actually doing any work.
A teacher who felt that putting on a subject specific movie every day constituted teaching.
A teacher who felt that putting on a pop-culture movie at least half of the time constituted teaching.
etc.
What is your basis for assuming that teaching, as a career, does not have a normal distribution of ability?
Oh, and there are plenty of normal distributions having to do with criminals and any other group you'd want to name for that matter. The distribution is simply normal to the group. That criminals don't represent a cross section of the population (I assume this is what you were getting at) is irrlevent. Neither do engineers, doctors or janitors but there are norms within the groups. Teachers are somewhat above average if you look at statistics.
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