Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Teachers are constantly fighting three battles. One with the student, another with their parents and lastly their own administration.
If one of those entities actually work with the teacher the result is a good education. That was my experience during a short 4 year stint.
AMEN!
I agree. In most cases it takes only one working with the teacher. The student always works. The parents and administrators usually works. Give me kids who want to learn or are at least willing to learn and understand that that means they need to work at learning and the sky is the limit. Parents and admins can often turn a child around if they work with the teacher.
sure you would failing schools. just because the teacher is excellent does not mean the student is motivated. that is like saying if cops practiced good customer service skills-- bank robbers would stop robbing banks.
My opinion? Its not the teachers' fault. I know there are horrible teachers out there (I've had one - lol), but teachers have been teaching the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic since time immemorial.... so in other words, why is that kids could learn for decades and decades in generations past, but now suddenly they cannot learn? Its the family structure. I hate to say it, because it puts an awful lot of pressure on women to either not have children if they cannot be a supportive (mentally, emotionally, educationally) presence to their children OR it would guilt them into being stay at home moms (if they can afford to be) or work part time instead of full time.
Parenting is a full time job... which I had heard, but had no real idea about until I had my child. When you have parents (whether single or 2 parent households) working two full time jobs it doesn't give them much time or energy to put into their children's development. And no... DayCare is not the same thing. Kids need oversight! Bigtime. They also need constant guidance. They need to know Mom and/or Dad is going to be home when they come home so they cannot goof off and so Mom and/or Dad can help them with their homework. They also need parents that are mentally tuned into them. Many people now work jobs that require 2-3 people... by the time they get home they are exhausted and barely have time to do anything with their kids, let alone help them with homework. All many folks have the energy to do now is either go get fast food or a quick boxed meal to make for dinner then plop down on the sofa to watch tv. Kids have been effectively left to raise themselves except for the basics like a roof over their heads, food (usually it isn't healthy, freshly prepared food, though), clothes and transportation. To teach a child something you have to interact with them for a meaningful amount of time. Who has time to do that anymore?
We cannot expect teachers to become miracle workers to pick up the slack of a changing culture of overworked, tired, drugged up (prescription), emotionally absent parents who don't have the time or money to raise their children. Policies must change. Now... that's gonna take forever because we live in such a politically divided nation! We can't agree on what would make children's lives better in this country.
What would make children's lives better?
Unfettered access to free birth control (all forms) so people can stop having children they cannot or refuse to care for properly, living wage pay for all adults in this country whether they work in a fast food joint or as a maid to clean a hotel room (people must be able to afford places to live for themselves and their children with as little government help as possible), updated public school facilities and equipment, access to solid and informative health care (including child rearing classes and mental health access), access to healthy AND affordable food choices in public schools and in rural and urban communities (there was a study of a juvenile detention facility a few years ago that tracked children's behavior and learning skills to how processed their diets were with freshly prepared foods giving them the highest/best results) and finally a more informative - more public - more direct national campaign on how to raise physically, mentally and emotionally healthy kids who will then turn into more educated adults.
Can teachers help with these initiatives? Sure... some of it... But the responsibility rests with parents and if parents need the above help to be pushed into making better choices for their offspring, then so be it. Teachers can only do so much.
Research actually disagrees with you on SAH here. When all is said and done there are only two long term differences in our kids because of mom's working status and they are that the daughters of working moms have higher educational goals and attainment while the sons of working moms view women as more equal to men.
Honestly, I can't tell the difference between kids who have working moms and kids who don't in the classroom. It's not mom's working status that is the issue though over tired parents unwilling to put in the effort to parent would be a problem. SAH, however, isn't a panacea. I have kids whose parents are doctors and lawyers and work all kinds of hours who are excellent students because mom and dad have conveyed to their children that education is valuable. One of my best students lives with her nanny during the week because both parents travel for work and are home only on the weekends. The real problem with education today is our attitude about education and our failure to convey to our children that education is valuable and learning is their job. I find that the children of successful parents are themselves successful in education because they see what education has bought for their parents and their parents have conveyed that they are expected to put in the effort to learn.
My mom worked full time with six kids and we all knew that learning was our job. We also knew if our grades weren't up to snuff, we wouldn't sit down for a month. She did not make us do our homework, she did not hover over us, she just expected us to do what we were supposed to do and, for the most part, we did. The attitude parents teach their children about education trumps just about everything else. I knew it was my job to learn and I knew that there would be hell to pay if I didn't do that job so I did it. I wasn't a stellar student but I knew I'd better not bring home a D unless that was my absolute best.
When it comes to family structure, if I had to pick one thing that almost always has a negative impact on children and school it would be divorce and the number of children of divorce has skyrocketed in the last half a century. I guess right more often than wrong about whether or not a student's parents are still together. I see a lot of negative behaviors and attitudes in children of divorced parents.
Last edited by Ivorytickler; 12-15-2013 at 05:36 PM..
sure you would failing schools. just because the teacher is excellent does not mean the student is motivated. that is like saying if cops practiced good customer service skills-- bank robbers would stop robbing banks.
But if they were EXCELLENT cops, the criminals would listen to them and they'd stop committing crimes...
The one I had years back would never get hired today.
He started every school year off with an assembly of all students and sternly said............" I can't make you behave or study. But I darn sure can make you wish you had. "
The one I had years back would never get hired today.
He started every school year off with an assembly of all students and sternly said............" I can't make you behave or study. But I darn sure can make you wish you had. "
Those were the days before the self esteem movement. Now we don't care if our kids behave or study as long as they feel good about themselves.
I think that in general most teachers are good. That being said, I'm dealing with my daughter's third grade teacher now because she can't seem to understand that children aren't robots. I've gotten note after detailed note that my daughter is using the restroom outside of the "approved" times (the class gets two restroom breaks per day, one at 10:30 am and one at 12:30 pm), yet on my daughter's behavior I get notes such as "She was off task today" or "She was disruptive today". By the way, my daughter's record for going to the restroom was 4 times in one day, one before class started, the two regular breaks, and one in the afternoon. Apparently the teacher considers using the restroom every 2 hours to be abnormal.
I've had 3 conferences with the teacher and sent several emails, and tomorrow I'm sending in a 2 page printed letter that addresses the supposed issues that the teacher has. I'm sure she won't enjoy the letter, but quite frankly I'm tired of getting detailed notes about my daughter's biology and sketchy notes about her behavior. Telling me that my daughter was "off task" without giving me any idea what was going on at the time is like asking me to solve a math equation but only giving me one of the numbers.
The one I had years back would never get hired today.
He started every school year off with an assembly of all students and sternly said............" I can't make you behave or study. But I darn sure can make you wish you had. "
That would be the sign of a good principal. He was honest with the students and made it clear that there would be consequences if they didn't behave themselves. You're right, though, no way he could get hired in today's world.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ivorytickler
Those were the days before the self esteem movement. Now we don't care if our kids behave or study as long as they feel good about themselves.
I think you've diagnosed the problem correctly. The social experiment of not having winners or losers has come back to bite us in the behind.
To which you can add the absurd practice of many schools having lots of valedictorians, another boneheaded piece of PC feel good nonsense, with the absurd threat of a lawsuit hovering over the selection process.
you need to be willing to compensate them accordingly
Bulldinkies! Any educator who is in it for the $$$ needs to get out! The call of an educator should be to educate and feel the reward of light bulbs turning on. They get paid, just like the rest of America who collective keep our country running.
Problem, too many of our educators the light bulb hasnt turned on for them yet either! Too often we have the uneducated educating our little sponges.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
