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My wife has resigned after 39 years of teaching in the same school. She did it largely because of the attitudes of a large majority of kids which you can see so much of in this link.
This lady took a chance and exposed kids and their parents went to the school superintendent to get her out of the school. I saw all this stuff happening in the 80s when I was removed for speaking out and it wasn't nearly as bad then as it is now.
Pa. teacher strikes nerve with 'lazy whiners' blog - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110216/ap_on_hi_te/us_teacher_suspended_blog - broken link)
If she doesn't have any more respect for the kids under her charge than that, she doesn't need to be teaching anyhow. It seems that instead of educating them and teaching them to think for themselves, her primary focus is on control and her authority.
And, if her kids are "out of control," whose fault is that?
What happens online stays online? Did this story stay there? I think not and I also think that although my wife does speak out to parents she can't be as forceful, knowing what they could do to her, she does tell them. She didn't do this kind of thing 30 years ago because she knew what the results would be.
From what I have been hearing from my wife and other teachers the last few years I am sure that the woman is 100% right. Of course, most of the younger teachers like that woman don't really give a damn about anything more than their paychecks and this is a large part of why my wife is giving it up, too.
Obviously you didn't understand what I meant by "what happens online stays online. It means it is there for anyone and everyone to read. It never goes away. Therefore, this teacher's blog, her words about her students, and everything that follows as far as reprecussions, will follow her to any future job to which she applies.
On the otherhand, had this teacher chosen only school administrators and her students parents as her audience, were she fired for voicing her opinion, it would have done her much less damage in the short and long term.
I've not suggested the teacher did not have legitimate complaints regarding her students, only that she chose the wrong audience and medium through which to express her opion and concerns.
The main reason is that none of them can be employed because of age and any kind of babysitting is considered important. I have seen all of this coming ever since I left the NEA in the mid 70s when the union was pushing for all this. In the late 50s when I began teaching we, the teachers and administrators, were in control of the schools. By the 80s that control had been shifted to the hands of parents and look where we are today. The words that woman used to describe kids of today are the very same ones that my wife uses talking about the majority of them today and we live a long way away from Philadelphia.
What, exactly, is "all this"? Roy, I was also teaching back in the 70s and do not recall the union (AFT) pushing for anything that resulted in what OP's link describes.
As for your wife "resigning" after 39 years, I think the correct word would be "retiring." We all get, to some degree, hardening of the attitudes as we age. I don't think anyone should be in the classroom for 39 years, no matter how good they think they are.
I will take your words as seriously spoken. However, I know what most parents are saying these days and it isn't good concerning what their kids are becoming.
In the early 60s I had fathers come to me and ask me to hit their kid again since the kids had become larger than the fathers and they were afraid of them physically. Today you aren't even allowed to touch a kid because you may be trying for "free feels" and we all know where that kind of thinking came from.
Schools no longer "hit kids" because of the possibility of "free feels"??? You are seriously out of touch with the 20th - much less, the 21st - century.
I have thiough that school are for the people wanting to learn. Why should we be wasting time babysitting the kids that do not want to make the effort?
I am a Liberal and I think wasting effort on the stupid, insane and sociopathic is a complete waste.
You can be a good parent without being a abusive bully. I have seen the results of both good, bad, spoiled and bullied.
To a point I agree but the main problem is why try and teach all kids the same way. Some learn very differently than the way they are taught so it is easy for them to lose interest.
I will take your words as seriously spoken. However, I know what most parents are saying these days and it isn't good concerning what their kids are becoming.
In the early 60s I had fathers come to me and ask me to hit their kid again since the kids had become larger than the fathers and they were afraid of them physically. Today you aren't even allowed to touch a kid because you may be trying for "free feels" and we all know where that kind of thinking came from.
That's not what's happening though.
Example:
This is not: "Hey roysoldboy, you're screwing up. You work is poor quality and we need to improve it"
This is (example):
"Hey (insert CD forum member(s) here)! Do you know what? I've had it to here with roysoldboy and company. They are all lazy good-for-nuttins'. I hate them with a passion. Screw them all "
Kids these days are WAY too coddled. But they only react based on what they have been taught/experienced in their short lives. Hurling insults is NOT how you teach them better. See the difference?
For the teacher, I say can her ass. She's no hero, she's a failure.
To a point I agree but the main problem is why try and teach all kids the same way. Some learn very differently than the way they are taught so it is easy for them to lose interest.
If schools were free to target teaching methods it would be a lot better for all.
The truth of the matter is, we are teaching 21st century children/young people with 19th century techniques. There has been need for a paradigm shift in education for the past 30 years - since the advent of the Information Revolution.
Classrooms of 2011 are little different from classrooms of 1911, or, for that matter, 1811. In most, the teacher stands in the front of 25 - 30 desks, where students sit quietly () and listen. This model completely ignores the way 21st century American students acquire information, which is through - like it or not - various sources of almost instant information.
I attended conferences back in the 80s that predicted the need for new methods of transmitting information that utilized the new technologies. My colleagues and I did our best to integrate these new technologies into our lesson plans, but, on limited funds, that was not easy to do.
I retired in 2003 and keeping students engaged in traditional classroom instruction was tough then - and that was before smart phones, iPads, and other sources of instant info with which today's students have grown up.
The great majority of children/young people today have shorter attention spans and the need for more visual stimulation than their parents/grandparents did back in the 50s and 60s. Couple that with families that spend more time in front of TVs and video games, than they do in conversation or family activities, and we end up with students who are easily bored in the average classroom and behave accordingly.
Edit: All that being said, the teacher in the OP link, IMO, seems to be extraordinarily disgusted with her students and, given that attitude, is probably no longer effective in the classroom. The article states that she is 8 months pregnant, so will, no doubt, be on maternity leave shortly. Maybe she'll feel differently when she returns from her leave. If she doesn't, she should probably think about changing professions.
I really don't blame these students. They are FORCED to go to school more often by the government than by their parents. That is SLAVERY. And on top of that many public schools are just incredibly bad.
Education should be a private matter
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Obviously you didn't understand what I meant by "what happens online stays online. It means it is there for anyone and everyone to read. It never goes away. Therefore, this teacher's blog, her words about her students, and everything that follows as far as reprecussions, will follow her to any future job to which she applies. 
) and listen. This model completely ignores the way 21st century American students acquire information, which is through - like it or not - various sources of almost instant information. 
