Teachers-- Inspirational sayings in your classroom, what's on your walls? (high school, grade)

[bowlinggreenorbust]

Today I had a conference with my daughter's 4th grade teacher. These were the sayings I found in the classroom.

• TV is NOT real life; people actually have to leave the coffee shop and get REAL jobs
• Your School may have done away with winners and losers - live hasn't- We give you many chances to get it right... Life doesn't
• If you think your teacher is tough, wait til you get a BOSS!
• Be nice to nerds, chances are you'll end up working for one.
• The world won't care about your self esteem as the school does. The world will expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself!
• You will not make $40,000 a year right out of school. You will not be a vice president with a car phone until you earn BOTH!

I just want to cry. These are 9yo kids and that's what they're being told daily!? Whatever happened to "Knowledge is power"?

[hypocore]

I don't think those are appropriate for 4th graders....wonder if the principal has seen them?

[bowlinggreenorbust]

Originally Posted by hypocore

I don't think those are appropriate for 4th graders....wonder if the principal has seen them?

I can only assume he has, I think if I brought it up then they would have NO idea why I'm upset.

[hypocore]

You won't know until you ask....and I certainly would ask.

[Charles Wallace]

Originally Posted by bowlinggreenorbust

Today I had a conference with my daughter's 4th grade teacher. These were the sayings I found in the classroom.

• TV is NOT real life; people actually have to leave the coffee shop and get REAL jobs
• Your School may have done away with winners and losers - live hasn't- We give you many chances to get it right... Life doesn't
• If you think your teacher is tough, wait til you get a BOSS!
• Be nice to nerds, chances are you'll end up working for one.
• The world won't care about your self esteem as the school does. The world will expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself!
• You will not make $40,000 a year right out of school. You will not be a vice president with a car phone until you earn BOTH!

I just want to cry. These are 9yo kids and that's what they're being told daily!? Whatever happened to "Knowledge is power"?

Personally, although the sayings are harshly worded and could be worded more diplomatically, they at least have the virtue of truth. I prefer them to many "inspirational" posters I've seen in classrooms that encourage students to...well, basically be completely delusional. Some examples...

1. "You can be whatever you want!"
This simply is not true. If you're a man, you'll never bear a child. If you're a little person, a 400-pound old man, or a woman, you'll never play starting lineup for the Chicago Bulls. If you've got an I.Q. of forty, you'll never be a neurosurgeon.

By the way...there is nothing wrong with any of that. People are who they are, and instead of being lied to, they should learn to excel to the limits of their ability -- but understand that we ALL have some limits, like them or not.

As I said before, people are who they are and it is ultimately harmful to lie to them and fill them full of false, feel-good delusions -- and yeah, there are many kids who believe ideas and others like it and do have really unrealistic goals partly because of this kind of mentality, a mentality the media perpetuates. I've had kids who weren't even on the football team in high school tell me that they didn't need to learn English because they were going to play professional sports. This is harmful.

2. "Feel Good About Yourself!"
Why? Because a poster told me to? We've come to realize -- or I hope we have -- some of the genuinely damaging effects of the "self-esteem movement" in American education, a movement the FBI cited as an important contribution to the Columbine shootings when the shooters, who had been raised in a school system in which "We're all winners!" and had emphasized self-esteem, came to face a reality in which not everyone gets gold stars.

The only self-esteem that really matters is EARNED self-esteem, the kind you get when you accomplish a difficult task, usually after having failed at it a few times. The philosophy that one should feel good at all costs is ultimately a fantasy -- and it leaves kids with nothing accomplished and no sense of achievement. If everyone gets a blue ribbon, blue ribbons mean nothing.

So yes, I think the wording is unnecessarily harsh -- but the sentiments expressed are ones I wish more students would understand before they do major damage.

[J Arp]

Those should have been plastered around my school. I know of quite a few precious little snowflakes that have grown up and done nothing with their lives aside from clutter up their parents' basements a few more years.

[stepka]

Although I think they're more appropriate for high school, maybe they need to hear this stuff sooner rather than later. It's a little rough maybe, but certainly not abusive. I'm a baby boomer, and we didn't grow up with messages like this, but my mother's generation did and I think they were better off for it.

J Arp: I love your "precious little snowflakes" analogy--that describes a lot of kids I've met, both nowadays and some in my generation plus everywhere in between.

I met a lady a few years ago who had been ferociously spoiled as a child and she was a real piece of work. She weighed over 500 lbs and her husband had to do everything for her. Whenever she wanted someone to do something for her she'd talk to them in this really sickishly sweet voice. Ugh. Bring on the propaganda.

[HighlandsGal]

Originally Posted by bowlinggreenorbust

Today I had a conference with my daughter's 4th grade teacher. These were the sayings I found in the classroom.

• TV is NOT real life; people actually have to leave the coffee shop and get REAL jobs
• Your School may have done away with winners and losers - live hasn't- We give you many chances to get it right... Life doesn't
• If you think your teacher is tough, wait til you get a BOSS!
• Be nice to nerds, chances are you'll end up working for one.
• The world won't care about your self esteem as the school does. The world will expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself!
• You will not make $40,000 a year right out of school. You will not be a vice president with a car phone until you earn BOTH!

I just want to cry. These are 9yo kids and that's what they're being told daily!? Whatever happened to "Knowledge is power"?

Is the teacher "old"? I ask because one of them mentioned a "car phone" or did you mean cell phone??

[d'ann]

I teach third grade and those seem pretty harsh to me. Two new posters that I put up this year are "The best things in life aren't things" and "If you can't change it, change the way you look at it" with a half-full, half-empty glass. While I see the reality of those sayings that you listed, I think fourth grade is too early for that. At third grade, I want my students to feel safe and comfortable in the classroom. But that's just me.

[seattlenextyear]

I'm pretty sure that a lot of people make more than $40,000 right out of school. Sounds like the teacher might regret some of the choices s/he's made in life.