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Taught in public school system for 3 years. Don't ever plan to go back into the classroom as a teacher. Not enough vacation days in the world to put myself through that much stress.
Children are lazy.
Parents are uninvolved.
Teachers/Administrators are tired.
Blame those that created the system.
Everyone knows this, it's just easier to blame teachers.
My wife started teaching in Arizona... and stopped teaching in Arizona.
My wife quit because she spent 80% of the time babysitting idiot brat children who had no interest in learning.
Arizona is especially bad because those kids were 9 times out of 10 the kids of illegals or 2nd generation that had no interest in integrating into society. My wife quickly found out that ESL was pointless because it worked off the premise that a child of a certain age would be as fluent in Spanish as an American kid would be at English. That was rarely the case she found that many 3-5th graders had the ability to speak Spanish at about a kindergarten or first grade level. So the lesson plans were worthless. The other issue is that Spanish is not standard and many children that come here were never taught Spanish. They come from Spanish speaking countries but they spoke whatever native language they spoke where they were from and only learned enough Spanish to get by.
So how do you teach English to someone who doesn't speak a language that is even recognized. My wife brought it up to administration and instead of showing concern they accused her of being racist. "Well maybe you just can't identify with the children." "Maybe ESL is not for you." One Hispanic administrator said "well maybe I can find someone more like the children they can identify with." then said something to the effect of "I did it for 26 years and you haven't been able to hack it for a year."
My wife said "you don't offer us flexibility to teach." "You don't allow us to say or do anything meaningful to misbehaving children."
My wife had a particularly bad parent teacher conference where many Mexican parents accused her of being racist and being an ineffective teacher, one woman threatened to beat her ass if she ever said anything bad about her son again and threw water at her. She had a Mexican guy tell her that his son didn't need to learn this other crap, just teach him how to speak English. He started shouting some real choice words in Spanish.
My wife is super nice and never says anything bad about anyone, the parents took any polite constructive criticism as "talking **** about their kid." On my wife's third parent teacher conference I was in the room with my son and we were just walking around in the back of the room. I can not believe the things parents were saying to my wife, and I always knew when it was coming because they would switch to Spanish. The one that really got me was an Air Force Sgt. came in uniform and cussed my wife out in Spanish for no reason. The parents can't take any criticism of their kids, none. After that PTC we decided it wasn't in her best interest to work.
Arizona just has this terrible eff you recalcitrant thug culture that is just so pervasive and it is finally reaching a point where normal intelligent people say adios Arizona. If you aren't getting mad dogged by a Mexican thug gangster then you are getting cussed out by one of those Gadsden flag waving, gun toting loonies bitching about the government 24/7 even though they work for the government, a government contractor, or the military.
Screw Arizona. The only thing Arizona cares about education wise is whether the wildcats or sun devils win their football game. They get what they deserve.
Everyone knows this, it's just easier to blame teachers.
My wife started teaching in Arizona... and stopped teaching in Arizona.
My wife quit because she spent 80% of the time babysitting idiot brat children who had no interest in learning.
Arizona is especially bad because those kids were 9 times out of 10 the kids of illegals or 2nd generation that had no interest in integrating into society. My wife quickly found out that ESL was pointless because it worked off the premise that a child of a certain age would be as fluent in Spanish as an American kid would be at English. That was rarely the case she found that many 3-5th graders had the ability to speak Spanish at about a kindergarten or first grade level. So the lesson plans were worthless. The other issue is that Spanish is not standard and many children that come here were never taught Spanish. They come from Spanish speaking countries but they spoke whatever native language they spoke where they were from and only learned enough Spanish to get by.
So how do you teach English to someone who doesn't speak a language that is even recognized. My wife brought it up to administration and instead of showing concern they accused her of being racist. "Well maybe you just can't identify with the children." "Maybe ESL is not for you." One Hispanic administrator said "well maybe I can find someone more like the children they can identify with." then said something to the effect of "I did it for 26 years and you haven't been able to hack it for a year."
My wife said "you don't offer us flexibility to teach." "You don't allow us to say or do anything meaningful to misbehaving children."
My wife had a particularly bad parent teacher conference where many Mexican parents accused her of being racist and being an ineffective teacher, one woman threatened to beat her ass if she ever said anything bad about her son again and threw water at her. She had a Mexican guy tell her that his son didn't need to learn this other crap, just teach him how to speak English. He started shouting some real choice words in Spanish.
My wife is super nice and never says anything bad about anyone, the parents took any polite constructive criticism as "talking **** about their kid." On my wife's third parent teacher conference I was in the room with my son and we were just walking around in the back of the room. I can not believe the things parents were saying to my wife, and I always knew when it was coming because they would switch to Spanish. The one that really got me was an Air Force Sgt. came in uniform and cussed my wife out in Spanish for no reason. The parents can't take any criticism of their kids, none. After that PTC we decided it wasn't in her best interest to work.
Arizona just has this terrible eff you recalcitrant thug culture that is just so pervasive and it is finally reaching a point where normal intelligent people say adios Arizona. If you aren't getting mad dogged by a Mexican thug gangster then you are getting cussed out by one of those Gadsden flag waving, gun toting loonies bitching about the government 24/7 even though they work for the government, a government contractor, or the military.
Screw Arizona. The only thing Arizona cares about education wise is whether the wildcats or sun devils win their football game. They get what they deserve.
Quite a post. I don't doubt a word you said.
My son taught for 2 years in a packing house town with his classroom being maybe 85% immigrants. Many of the kids were gangster wannabees with several being the real deal. The level educationally that most were at were well below what he was supposed to be teaching at. As you know, no child can be left behind so you end up teaching to the bottom of the class (hoping to get them to do better on all the standardized tests) while the better students suffer. He couldn't wait to leave this place and was really serious about getting out of teaching.
The one thing he didn't experience that your wife did was parental problems. The parents, many of which couldn't speak any English, were for the most part very respectful. The difference being in comparison to your wife's situation, is all of these adults were holding down jobs and for the most part working their tails off in the packing house. The freeloader situation that's so prevalent with immigrants in the south weren't necessarily the issue in this small town.
We're staring down the gun in this country as to a real shortage of qualified teachers. All that might be left a decade or so down the road will be the "Teach America" candidates working for low wages just long enough to get their college loans paid off.
I think there will always be idealistic people that want to go into teaching. A large portion of children I work with say they want to teach. It doesn't look that hard from the outside.
It's not the hardest degree to get, the pay is somewhat decent, people wrongly think the hours are great, and everyone that is not a teacher thinks it's not that hard.
We will continue to have teachers that come into the workforce and work 1-5 years, just like we do now.
I think there will always be idealistic people that want to go into teaching. A large portion of children I work with say they want to teach. It doesn't look that hard from the outside.
It's not the hardest degree to get, the pay is somewhat decent, people wrongly think the hours are great, and everyone that is not a teacher thinks it's not that hard.
We will continue to have teachers that come into the workforce and work 1-5 years, just like we do now.
Yep. Going in is not staying. I've gone in and come out twice now.
I think there will always be idealistic people that want to go into teaching. A large portion of children I work with say they want to teach. It doesn't look that hard from the outside.
It's not the hardest degree to get, the pay is somewhat decent, people wrongly think the hours are great, and everyone that is not a teacher thinks it's not that hard.
We will continue to have teachers that come into the workforce and work 1-5 years, just like we do now.
It is the hardest job there is, bar none, and it is the foundation for all other occupations. The hardest part of it is the filthy politics rampant in so many school districts, the fact that teachers can have their careers easily sidetracked or ruined by an administrator. That is the biggest reason teachers typically don't last long. The stress is tremendous, especially if a principal is out to get them.
It is the hardest job there is, bar none, and it is the foundation for all other occupations. The hardest part of it is the filthy politics rampant in so many school districts, the fact that teachers can have their careers easily sidetracked or ruined by an administrator. That is the biggest reason teachers typically don't last long. The stress is tremendous, especially if a principal is out to get them.
I don't know if it's the hardest job, but it is difficult. I stay home now. About half of all new teachers I mentored quit after 1-5 years.
Having to get a Master's degree to get paid as much as a Wal Mart cashier, not my idea of fun but at least you get the summers off. I would love to be a college or HS football coach thou in a rabid town, I grew up playing football and love the game but I would never leave my job and career, I love working in the health care field. I have a lot of respect for all the great teachers in America doing what they love for so little pay.
Having to get a Master's degree to get paid as much as a Wal Mart cashier, not my idea of fun but at least you get the summers off. I would love to be a college or HSfootball coach thou in a rabid town, I grew up playing football and love the game but I would never leave my job and career, I love working in the health care field. I have a lot of respect for all the great teachers in America doing what they love for so little pay.
My son's a HS assistant football coach as well as being a teacher at a medium sized school. At approx. $ 3,800.00 pay for coaching football, I can assure you based on the hours he puts in, it's a minimum wage job. This job is not seasonal, it's year around. He DOES love it though.
I doubt very much that any more than 20% of people realize what the wages are versus the commitment.
My son's a HS assistant football coach as well as being a teacher at a medium sized school. At approx. $ 3,800.00 pay for coaching football, I can assure you based on the hours he puts in, it's a minimum wage job. This job is not seasonal, it's year around. He DOES love it though.
I doubt very much that any more than 20% of people realize what the wages are versus the commitment.
I have a lot of respect for teachers, I agree their pay is dismal for the hours they put in agreed on that point.
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