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I am a licensed teacher in Las Vegas, taught the last 5 years high school freshman (Algebra and fundamental math) and this year I am subbing due to a lot of medical appointments. In those 5 years of teaching, I never once had a textbook, was yelled at if I made too many copies, had to beg just to get a dozen pencils (and since this was a school with over 90% free and reduced lunch, none of the students had pencils) and had 45 to 50 students in my classroom each class with 6 classes each day.
I did all of this for less than 40K a year for my first two years. Admin is only concerned about one thing, how much money can they get. They don't see our son or daughter as someone who is struggling with solving a system of linear equations because they never were taught how to multiply correctly and no one at home can help since everyone is at work and they are baby sitting their younger brothers and sisters, they see $5,000 dollars added to their budget.
Our education system has failed, on every level and I honestly don't think we can fix it unless we just pick a year, and start from scratch for that year. It will never happen, there is far to much money being made (not by the teachers or support staff) for the current system to be changed.
Well said! Our granddaughter lived with us for a year when we lived in Reno, and I found out a little bit about why some schools are so good in Reno and others are awful. We lived in a rather "toney" neighborhood so she went to a highly rated public school. I'm assuming it got the same stingy funding as every other elementary school in the district but the difference was that the parents of kids who attended this school were upper middle class if not filthy rich. This particular school generated tens of thousands of dollars several times a year by having "art auctions" and "wine tastings", and there were several benefactors to the school who didn't even have kids. In the poor schools the kids shared desks and textbooks and had parents who were working two jobs and had their 4th graders babysitting younger siblings.
None of these problems will be solved unless we can at least acknowledge that parental income is probably the biggest determinant in academic success. Maybe we need to start bussing again, only this time it would involve integrating schools according to wealth rather than race.
None of these problems will be solved unless we can at least acknowledge that parental income is probably the biggest determinant in academic success.
How do you know that? That seems like a correlation vs. causation type of argument to me. I would be willing to bet that IQ is a a determinant in parental income and therefore it is also likely that parents with high income therefore have high IQ children. Busing in some poor kids whose parents have zero involvement in academics is going to do diddly squat to improve their academic achievement and probably decrease the overall performance of the school.
Just look at historical Asian or Jewish immigrants that came here with no parental income. They were able to be enormously academically successful despite having little money. Would you care to venture a guess as to why that is?
How do you know that? That seems like a correlation vs. causation type of argument to me. I would be willing to bet that IQ is a a determinant in parental income and therefore it is also likely that parents with high income therefore have high IQ children. Busing in some poor kids whose parents have zero involvement in academics is going to do diddly squat to improve their academic achievement and probably decrease the overall performance of the school.
Just look at historical Asian or Jewish immigrants that came here with no parental income. They were able to be enormously academically successful despite having little money. Would you care to venture a guess as to why that is?
Historical meaning what exactly? 100 years ago, a decade ago, what?
Not only that, but there's MORE money to be made in education. Rumor is that Austin Beutner (LAUSD Superintendent) wants to push more online educational learning into the classroom. This would cut down on teacher costs dramatically and you can just higher a facilitator that'll check in on kids 1-3 times per week on their progress. The technology is out there and China already uses some of it. It's unfortunate that this is what's happening.
How well do you think a child learns by sitting in front of a TV watching a video on how to read? That's just stupid. Beutner was an investment banker, I don't think he knows anything about education, his specialty seems to be pushing crap like online education and charter schools.
And my grandson uses a tablet with three apps that are recommended by his teacher, it augments classroom education, it does not replace it.
OP seems very simplistic thinking about issues related to this particular school system.
Any place IMO that has over 20 kids per class, the teachers should be well compensated. The fact that they are pushing nearly 50 students in a class is ridiculous. They need to compensate these teachers.
We don't treat our teachers well enough which is why so many good educators leave the field within 5 years (average amount of time people stay teachers) or get burned out.
I looked into becoming a teacher a few years ago and I have a Master's degree and could get a certification pretty easily due to programs our school district has; however, I saw that with a masters a teacher where I live only makes $39k to start, which is nearly half of what I make now. I teach in a volunteer position and enjoy it and so was thinking of transitioning to education, but it is not worth it.
And regardless of what you all think, teachers do not get "free" healthcare and other benefits. I have many relatives who work as educators and/or for our school district and they pay monthly for their healthcare and other insurance/benefit plans.
Historical meaning when those immigrant groups first moved to the US and were poor.
That would be around 100 years ago or more, In the 19th and early 20th century there were many poor immigrants that came to the US, but I don't think that jewish people or asians fared better than any other ethnic group. Honestly this is a silly argument to have since you are doing nothing more than offering your opinion
They get summers off, lots of paid-holidays and long breaks also. It ends up being about
,
When I was in middle school (70s), teachers were paid a mere 30k per year and they had 28-32 students per classroom. TAs were one of the favored students.
NOW, they are paid 80-110k per year, have 80% retirement packages after 29 years, and classrooms with 20-22 student including a TA which is paid 50k a year.
OMG, so abused!!!
THE MEME of underpaid teachers is long gone! They are now overpaid by a mile!
There is no reason to have 40-45 students in a class. The money is there it is just completely mismanaged.
That said there are plenty of people teaching on autopilot in the classroom. If you teach the same grade year after year it is easy to set up a system where you can do this.
The selling point of the job is the paid vacation time. Yes, teachers come and go but many return to teaching after working a 9 to 5 gig for a few years. Having done both I would much rather deal with 30 fourth graders than have someone constantly looking over my shoulder in an office.
And again the paid vacation time is tough to beat. You know when the end is near. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Working day to day with a couple of weeks off a year? Horrible. Granted the district supervisors can be a bummer as well as the principle at your school. But after learning how to play the game you can navigate around them fairly easy.
The LA teachers have a legitimate beef with the classroom size but more money isn`t the answer. The problem is the way the funds are spent.
What about the kids?
Well, if education isn`t valued in the home there is little a teacher can do. Often inner city kids won`t do homework or worse constantly misbehave in class. Unfortunately you really can`t discipline or fail them. Remember there are no bad students. Only bad teachers.
If you can`t handle your classroom the school will find someone who can.
Ultimately a teachers job is to keep their job.
Last edited by john3232; 01-16-2019 at 07:29 PM..
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