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You can't pin it all on the government alone. Our society has been steadily degrading for years. People make personal choices and decisions regarding their children. Unfortunately, the trend lately is for children to pretty get to say and do whatever they want without any consequences at home. You can't really blame that on the government. It's nobody else's responsibility but the parents to raise their children to be respectful, productive members of society. Parents need to hold their children accountable.
I respect that opinion but have another one. Human DNA does not appreciably change within a generation or two. What has changed is societal atttitudes, opinions, interests and mores. Everything trickles down from the top. Government is at the top.
I respect that opinion but have another one. Human DNA does not appreciably change within a generation or two. .
Behavior doesn't have a whole lot to do with DNA. It's learned and unlearned.
Kids exhibit sh*tty behavior primarily because it's tolerated, and in worst case scenarios, upheld and backed up. This starts at home. I'd look more toward crap parents than the ol' gub'ment.
There's already another thread about it, but a big problem with namecalling and discussing students in a public forum, with no protection of anonymity is that it's obvious, in this case, who you are, where you work, and, with that information, it can be easily found out what classes you teach, and even who the students are that you're talking about.
As an educator, this is not only unprofessional, it's usually against school policy, and typically puts you in violation of confidentiality policies, calls into question your ethics, and puts you in line for disciplinary action.
My employer has a VERY strict internet and media/social media usage policy that goes STRAIGHT to immediate termination, if there is tangible proof that you've discussed students or my employer online. There isn't a discliplinary action, you're just GONE. We had a guy escorted out of the building over lunch, because of something he posted to his facebook wall, which was within minutes brought to the attention of administration. It's well known, it's restated at nearly every weekly staff meeting. We absolutely do not mess around with student privacy, confidentiality, and ethics.
Behavior doesn't have a whole lot to do with DNA. It's learned and unlearned.
Kids exhibit sh*tty behavior primarily because it's tolerated, and in worst case scenarios, upheld and backed up. This starts at home. I'd look more toward crap parents than the ol' gub'ment.
The government made it illegal to discipline your children. My brother got in trouble for yelling at his kid.
Most animals discipline their young so their young doesn't do stupid things and die young. People used to discipline their young so they wouldn't do stupid things.
I respect that opinion but have another one. Human DNA does not appreciably change within a generation or two. What has changed is societal atttitudes, opinions, interests and mores. Everything trickles down from the top. Government is at the top.
The government made it illegal to discipline your children. My brother got in trouble for yelling at his kid.
Most animals discipline their young so their young doesn't do stupid things and die young. People used to discipline their young so they wouldn't do stupid things.
The government is a reflection of the society they represent. Crappy people elect crappy officials who institue crappy laws.
I can only think of my own experience. High school was hell for me b/c I was constantly doing things according to what other people wanted; I had absolutely no say in anything, and it showed in my behavior and grades.
I excelled in college b/c I left home and was able to dictate my own terms, which were in accordance with my wants and needs rather than those of the adults around me.
I think the rant posted by this teacher is indicative of this mindset. Teachers seem to think that students are at school to please teachers rather than themselves. IMHO, the whole point of education is to find out who you are rather than to just learn how to follow orders to make someone else happy. This is why you get the complaining and the lack of motivation: the kids have nothing of themselves invested in their work.
And while I understand that teachers need to rant (I think that ranting is very important; emotions and frustrations should not be bottled up, and yes, teaching can be very frustrating), it really should be kept private. It is SO damaging to someone's self-esteem to have someone publicly complain about his/her deficiencies. And while I know that this teacher's rant was not directed at any one student, by not targeting one student she did direct it at all students at her school, which is just as bad in my book.
Moreover, she did not have to do this publicly. When you do something like this publicly, the intent is usually to shame. Even when it is not directed at one student, shaming/humiliating an entire group of students publicly is very demoralizing. Clearly, this teacher does not know how to ellicit the responses from her students that she is seeking. How exactly does she expect to improve her students' performance by running them down?
And while I'm at it, if teachers want their students behavior to change, maybe they should become better role models? It is difficult for me (or for students, for that matter) to take someone seriously when they complain about people who complain.
This difference is- highschool students are children and college students are adults. If we were still living in the 1800's, your argument would make more sense (but we wouldn't be having this online discussion would we?).
I can only think of my own experience. High school was hell for me b/c I was constantly doing things according to what other people wanted; I had absolutely no say in anything, and it showed in my behavior and grades.
I excelled in college b/c I left home and was able to dictate my own terms, which were in accordance with my wants and needs rather than those of the adults around me.
I think the rant posted by this teacher is indicative of this mindset. Teachers seem to think that students are at school to please teachers rather than themselves. IMHO, the whole point of education is to find out who you are rather than to just learn how to follow orders to make someone else happy. This is why you get the complaining and the lack of motivation: the kids have nothing of themselves invested in their work.
And while I understand that teachers need to rant (I think that ranting is very important; emotions and frustrations should not be bottled up, and yes, teaching can be very frustrating), it really should be kept private. It is SO damaging to someone's self-esteem to have someone publicly complain about his/her deficiencies. And while I know that this teacher's rant was not directed at any one student, by not targeting one student she did direct it at all students at her school, which is just as bad in my book.
Moreover, she did not have to do this publicly. When you do something like this publicly, the intent is usually to shame. Even when it is not directed at one student, shaming/humiliating an entire group of students publicly is very demoralizing. Clearly, this teacher does not know how to ellicit the responses from her students that she is seeking. How exactly does she expect to improve her students' performance by running them down?
And while I'm at it, if teachers want their students behavior to change, maybe they should become better role models? It is difficult for me (or for students, for that matter) to take someone seriously when they complain about people who complain.
Ok, I'm going to attempt to forgive you for your generalized statement about "teachers". You cannot lump a person into a group like that anymore than you can say, "All blacks... All Jews... All women... etc."
Also, there are situations where it doesn't matter how awesome of a teacher you are, the community will fight you tooth and nail just because that is what they do. I know personally. I came from one district where I was adored and everyone's favorite teacher, to a district where kids have told me I'm a f****** b**** and parents have questioned every decision I've made. I didn't change, but my geography did. It's cultural. Kids pick up on the generational behaviors and culture they have been immersed into.
As far as your statement about students having ownership- most teachers strive to do that everyday. It's at the core of what we do. Here's new knowledge... how can I help this kid make it a part of their life? The problem with your free-thinking, hippie-like, feel-good highschool scenario is that we have certain objectives to meet throughout the year. Students are required to know a particular set of facts or processes and show that proficiency on a standardized test at the end of the year. Student choice can only so far, but when it comes right down to it, the teacher MUST dictate what is done in the classroom because that is what they are expected to do and what they are trained for.
I'm sorry you had a sh*tty experience in school. But, hey, we can't please all the people all the time. It's public education. You teach to the middle. Anyone on the far left, far right, higher, or lower tends to get left out... even under NCLB. It's the best we can do with what we've got.
Oh no, this teacher calls I suppose some/many(can't possibly be ALL, can it?) students "disengaged, lazy whiners"...yeah, that's wrong , it should probably be something more like, "disengaged, lazy steaming piles of "beep"," or "disengaged, lazy m%$^$f*!(!!(#ers." instead..
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