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Anyhow, If you are referring to my comment about people not getting smarter generation after generation, well then I'm talking about aggregates here. Obviously, there will be some individuals that do much better than their parents, there will be some that do worse. In the aggregate I see no evidence to suggest that people are getting "smarter" generation after generation.
You seem to have a problem noting the difference between aggregates and universal generalizations. Saying "People in general are not getting smarter generation after generation" is not the same statement as "Every child is less or just as smart as his/her parents".
I saw this since I am trying to be non debating about it, you made the comment about rich kids having more resources than kids who are not rich, and that the middle class begets kids who end up middle class, and using your logic one could say poor begats poor kids, and my point to you was that we can't make those kinds of GENRALIZATIONS, which you accused me of making in earlier posts just for the sake of proving your point.
Same here. I've already spent more than I can write off on my taxes next year and I haven't bought a thing for September yet.
#445 Today, 06:52 PM [SIZE=5]sterlinggirl[/SIZE]
Senior Member friend of CoastalMaine - befriend
Join Date: Jan 2008
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Accountant Q&A
Q. What is the difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion?
A. Jail.
Q. What's the definition of an accountant?
A. Someone who solves a problem you didn't know you had in a way you don't understand.
Q. What's the definition of a good tax accountant?
A. Someone who has a loophole named after him.
Q. When does a person decide to become an accountant?
A. When he realizes he doesn't have the charisma to succeed as an undertaker.
Q. What's an extroverted accountant?
A. One who looks at your shoes while he's talking to you instead of his own.
Q. What's an auditor?
A. Someone who arrives after the battle and bayonets all the wounded.
Q. What's an accountant's idea of trashing his hotel room?
A. Refusing to fill out the guest comment card.
Q. How do you drive an accountant completely insane?
A. Tie him to a chair, stand in front of him and fold up a road map the wrong way.
Q. What do accountants suffer from that ordinary people don't?
A. Depreciation.
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With the lack of funds, the temptation for teachers to take on what should be funded is not a good thing to do. If you as a teacher find a way to cover what should be budget items it will never stop. Same with parents being asked to cover things that are basics of a classroom. BTW...I am not a teacher and my kids are grown and gone.
You are absolutely right about the amount of time teachers put in and not compensated for it. What about the supplies and materials we buy out of own money. Yes, we can write it off on our taxs, but that's only a fraction of what I actually spend for my classroom.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ivorytickler
Same here. I've already spent more than I can write off on my taxes next year and I haven't bought a thing for September yet.
You two need to organize some fund-raisers at your schools.
Good for you, yet the fact remains. Teachers are not required to get to school early or be there after school ends.
By the way, new teachers tend to put in more hours because they have not figured out how to manage their time well and also do not have well developed lesson plans.
Don't be so condescending. For the record, I graduated college Summa *** Laude and Phi Beta Kappa. I knew how to manage time before I even started college.
Schools start at different times. And don't forget faculty meetings and department meetings. Even though I was an intern teacher, I had the same responsibilities and expectations as the ones that had been there for 20 years.
Also, how do you expect teachers to give make up tests? I lived in the suburbs and these kids didn't.
Quote:
Originally Posted by user_id
Well, if they want to spend their summer working that's their choice. Its not a requirement. Whatever conferences and things of that nature are required are relatively mirror.
You can't say it's a choice and in the same breath say required conferences are minor. Pick one and stick with it. I don't recall my AP conferences as being minor, but if you say so.
Quote:
Originally Posted by user_id
I'm just stating facts, what I do for a living is irrelevant. But I have quite a bit of experience in secondary and college level education. Primary not so much.
No data supports what you are saying, even if you take teachers at face value they do not work nearly as much as you are trying to suggest.
We'll just have to agree to disagree, but I know a whole lot more about education than you do. That, my friend, is definitely a fact.
Major pet peeve alert: I can't stand fundraisers. School taxes should cover all school needs. Instead, because many school boards know teachers will spend their own money to supply their classrooms, materials that were once necessities are now called options. Now those options are needed for the classroom so what happens? The teacher buys them or a list is sent home with supplies the student is to supply. A sampling from my 4 kids when they were in elementary: kleenex, toilet paper, crayons, staples, pencils, cheap pens, erasers, chalk, paper clips. All of these went into a communal box. For the record my County is the 3rd wealthiest in the state of MD. I still have students at the high school level ask me if they can write on their tests or study guides or if they should copy the work onto their own paper (another pet peeve).
Yes, its ridiculous even in other professions. How hard someone works is not necessarily correlated with how good they are at something. You want to suggest that the teachers that do not work over the summer, etc are the bad ones. I suggest the ones that have to continuously work are ineffective and can't figure out how to manage their time well.
.
You obviously don't have a clue about teaching. A GOOD teacher should spend their summer studying, improving and learning. A teacher who sits by the pool all summer, in my opinion, is not the kind of teacher I want for my kids. At our school, a private independent school, all our teachers spend their summers researching and learning. They report back at back to school night all the cool things they did over the summer.
Major pet peeve alert: I can't stand fundraisers. School taxes should cover all school needs. Instead, because many school boards know teachers will spend their own money to supply their classrooms, materials that were once necessities are now called options. Now those options are needed for the classroom so what happens? The teacher buys them or a list is sent home with supplies the student is to supply. A sampling from my 4 kids when they were in elementary: kleenex, toilet paper, crayons, staples, pencils, cheap pens, erasers, chalk, paper clips. All of these went into a communal box. For the record my County is the 3rd wealthiest in the state of MD. I still have students at the high school level ask me if they can write on their tests or study guides or if they should copy the work onto their own paper (another pet peeve).
In theory, I agree with you. My kids had to buy these supplies, too, including, one year, a ream of copy paper. I wrote a letter of protest to the principal about that one. After all, we had to pay prime retail (even at Wal Mart) for one ream, whereas the school could buy in bulk and not pay sales tax. They dropped that from the supply list the next year.
OTOH, if fund-raising is the only way to get some needed goods, I'll go for it. I just didn't like the over-priced, useless junk that we had to buy. Craft fairs and the like were more my style.
Don't be so condescending. For the record, I graduated college Summa *** Laude and Phi Beta Kappa. I knew how to manage time before I even started college.
I really don't care what your grades were in school, that sort of thing does not impress me. The issue is not time management in general, its learning how to manage your time as a teacher. Its learning what are the best ways to spend your time as a teacher, etc. This has nothing to do with how smart you are, these are the sorts of things you get better and better at the longer you are a teacher.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pennquaker09
Also, how do you expect teachers to give make up tests? I lived in the suburbs and these kids didn't.
These kids did not what? Giving make up tests does not take much time, its the students responsibility to come when you are available in such cases.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pennquaker09
You can't say it's a choice and in the same breath say required conferences are minor. Pick one and stick with it. I don't recall my AP conferences as being minor, but if you say so.
Your just playing games. I have already acknowledged that there are some things teachers have to do outside of school hours, both in terms of actual requirements and in terms of out of the class room work. The requirements are relatively minor time wise, teachers in no sense spend the majority of their summer on such things. In terms of class related work, the teachers have a great deal of latitude on how they handle it and that is what I as speaking about.
Lastly, I would also like to point out that most people in private industry do not get paid to keep their skill set current. For example a programmer is going to have to keep up with new technologies. Nobody is going to pay him for this and he does not get any time off to do it.
Teachers get far more time off than other people, there is nothing to really debate. This is easily demonstrated. That is one of the perks of being a teacher and its also why one should not expect teachers pay to be necessarily equivalent to someone with the same education etc else where.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pennquaker09
... but I know a whole lot more about education than you do. That, my friend, is definitely a fact.
This is just drivel, you have no idea what I do or what I know. The fact that you guys can't even support yourselves without insulting others speaks volumes.
Last edited by user_id; 05-02-2009 at 10:52 PM..
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Today, 06:52 PM 
Accountant Q&A 
