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When you point the finger at others don't be surprised to see one aimed at you.
THE FINGER HAS BEEN POINTED AT ME THE DAY I accepted a teaching position. I can't do every thing, but I can surely try and do some of the things my job requires of me. And by today's standards, IT'S IMPOSSIBLE FOR A TEACHER TO teach all of the learning standards, WELL TO HIS STUDENTS. At my school, we call it a flash by teaching standard. We teach it, and gotta move on to the next standard, even when the students didn't get it or master it yet, because the school districts, think that teachers are too dumb to keep pace. So that's part of the problem right there. I have no longitude at all with what I teach in the classroom as someone tried to argue me down on. My princial looks at the test data ever eight weeks of instruction, and I have to meet with her every 90 days to tell her what I am doing to help my non proficient kids become proficient, mind you, I teach 4th grade, and some of my students come to me at 2nd grade reading levels, no worse, not even speaking English so that I can teach them how to read on grade level.
I am a school teacher and the sad reality is that our country seems to be on a demise simply from bad parenting and its increasing secularization. Since the 1960s we have been on a demise because, as the at home mom became employed, that took away time she had for PROPERLY rearing her children. I don't want anyone to think that I am against mothers working, especially in a day and age where we need two incomes for a family to make it. But when more moms went into the work force that took away time for seeing how well their children were doing in school.
I don't think mom working is causing the problem as much as many parents are believing that they need to be their child's friend. Many parents view discipline as the enemy.
Also, we forget that we have a lot of baby mama drama going on, and it seems as if it's a badge of honor for people to have children out of wedlock. Again, the family is not the traditional family that it once was with both parents living in the household together. Some people are choosing to be single parents complicating the family structure even further.
Good point. I have had many boys in my classroom who have suffered if their dad has walked out.
Many of our American youth, don't value education the way other youth from other country's value education. Just look at our test scores. Here in CA all high school students have to take a high school exit exam, which assesses students up to 8 or 9th grade curriculum. Yet we have a large number of students who aren't passing because some of them don't pay attention in class, aren't FLUENT in English, and don't give a rat's booty about that exam.
Yes. Many kids are taught not to care because their parents don't care.
If you walk on any high school campus, be it in Watts, CA or some upper middle class high school in Virginia, you will see some similarities, the kids appear uninterested in school. They would rather be texting each other, smoking blunt, or planning for the next weekend party. ARe teachers responsible for teaching morality? It sure seems like it when we tend to be blamed also for the reason kids are overweight for not getting enough Physical Education.
I haven't heard that teachers are being blamed for kids not getting enough P.E. I think it would be the district's fault. A parent can also do their job to make sure their child can get enough exercise.
So what is a teacher to do in an age where NO CHILD IS SUPPOSED TO BE LEFT BEHIND, when schools that aren't performing, are not performing because those schools aren't getting the necessary resources that they need to help improve those test scores, and some parents who aren't educated themselves can't help their own children do the homework?
Good question.
As far as the teacher's union, the union's main goal is to protect teachers jobs, salaries, and benefits. Many times I think people tend to forget what the unions' job is. I pay $70 a month to ensure that I get my COLA raise and help keep the cost of my benefits to a level where it will still be worth to come to work every day.
I wish I got a COLA.
The bad thing about the teacher's union is when they become so political that the union is willing to endorse primarily democratic candidates as if all teachers are democrats, and I strongly feel that our republican teachers are left with no choice but to grin and bear those endorsements or be labelled a trouble maker.
Yes.
I think a lot of time people get mad at the teachers for some of the things that the unions suggest that we do, so that we can be fairly compensated for the many things that we do and have to deal with. There are teachers who work under some of the worst conditions that our great and rich nation allows to go on. Let's not forget that some of these neighborhoods and schools that teachers are working at are not your safest places to live and work. So how can a teacher do an effective job if he or she is scared of being shot or beaten up by a student?
Good question. That is why I am looking into going back to school.
Also, We have to look at how some school districts are mishandling tax payers money by letting ADMINISTRATORS drive in fancy district cars, have cell phone expenses paid, all expense paid Administrator's retreat, and have a clause written in their contracts that says if they are dismissed for any reason, they can still earn their six figure salary, which no teacher has written in his or her contract, while the district has to pay the replacement administrator's salary. I never hear anyone complain about what the administrators do. It's almost as if the administrators can get away with making six figures, and teachers who are meat of the school district are supposed to just accept what's left over.
I know, my superintendent drives a Lexus while teachers are being laid off.
I don't see a long line of people who want to go into teaching. YOU WANNA KNOW WHY? Most people know that it's a very tough job, and that you have to be a special person to deal with the little Johnnys or Sues who aren't motivated to learn, who's parents aren't working with you to help their child do their homework, and blame you for not letting their child go to the bathroom for the 8th time that school day.
I see a long line of people wanting to be teachers. Have you checked out the teaching job market in places like New York state, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Ohio, Minnesota, or Indiana. Those places get hundreds and sometimes even thousands of applicants.
Teachers can't be hired because of nepotism. In California and depending on the age group a teacher wants to teach, the teacher has to have at least a BA or BS degree, passed the CBEST Test which is a basic skills test, passed the CSET and RICA Tests for teaching reading in elementary school, or single subject test for secondary teachers, as well as go through a criminal background check and interview by a panel of teachers, administrators, and parents. Then after the teacher is hired, he or she has to go through a two year induction program for beginning teachers so that they can get the necessary help to remain in the profession. My father can be the superintendent of the district I want to work for, and if I don't have all of those things done, I can't be legally hired or become tenured.
I know teachers who have been hired because they know someone. Especially in some of the states I mentioned above.
As far as bad teachers who are there for their check, it amazes me when a doctor won't see a patient because he or she doesn't have medical insurance, that's ok. I wonder why? Isn't the doctor supposed to care and be willing to help all sick who comes to his office? If not, then is he being a doctor who is just there thinking about his bottom line? I don't think it's fair to expect a teacher to work for pennies on the dollar and feel that if their union is doing its job by fighting for higher pay and benefits, that should make the teacher a bad person. Teachers have families and want to EARN a LIVIABLE wage, and depending on what part of the country that teacher lives in, he or she isn't making a livable wage by a long shot.
Good point.
All most teachers ask for is to make an attractive salary to keep the revolving door from constantly ocurring. In the first 2 years of teaching, 50% of the teachers leave the profession all together once they realize that the little money they do make isn't worth the stress, the politics, and the bs that most school districts put all teachers under because of the accountablity in place as a result of NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND.
Good point.
I feel very blessed and fortunate to have a union who is looking out for my best interest in terms of salaries, health care, and job protection. We live in a day and age where if you don't get a decent education, you are at a severe disadvantage because the youth from Asia are taking our high tech and medical jobs by storm, simply because we live in a nation where our youth would rather play XBOX 360 instead of cracking open a book and doing their homework that their teachers have told them to do.
Another good point.
So how can we put a price tag on our future? We can't. How can we ensure that we have the best teachers in the classroom, who are WELL educated, motivated to teach, and have a true calling to teach? YOU PAY THEM WELL AND GIVE THEM THE NECESSARY RESOURCES TO DO THEIR JOBS WELL. It takes a village to raise a child, and teachers can't do it alone.
Thanks for posting. I appreciate your comments, and I agree with all of them as well. I stand corrected on there not being a long line of teachers wanting to teach.
While I don't agree with many of your sub-points, I do agree that it's a disgrace that so many people in society seem happy to point fingers at teachers and blame them for not being "accountable" for students' failures. Teachers, and schools in general, can't be expected to be the magic cure for the broader problems of society.
While I don't agree with many of your sub-points, I do agree that it's a disgrace that so many people in society seem happy to point fingers at teachers and blame them for not being "accountable" for students' failures. Teachers, and schools in general, can't be expected to be the magic cure for the broader problems of society.
That's what I have been trying to say, but long winded at it . Very succinct and right on point. Thank you.
THE FINGER HAS BEEN POINTED AT ME THE DAY I accepted a teaching position. I can't do every thing, but I can surely try and do some of the things my job requires of me. And by today's standards, IT'S IMPOSSIBLE FOR A TEACHER TO teach all of the learning standards, WELL TO HIS STUDENTS. At my school, we call it a flash by teaching standard. We teach it, and gotta move on to the next standard, even when the students didn't get it or master it yet, because the school districts, think that teachers are too dumb to keep pace. So that's part of the problem right there. I have no longitude at all with what I teach in the classroom as someone tried to argue me down on. My princial looks at the test data ever eight weeks of instruction, and I have to meet with her every 90 days to tell her what I am doing to help my non proficient kids become proficient, mind you, I teach 4th grade, and some of my students come to me at 2nd grade reading levels, no worse, not even speaking English so that I can teach them how to read on grade level.
Thank you for sharing your struggles. I'm related to many educators and I have heard some of their struggles through the years.
I think teachers are underrated, disrespected and not appreciated. They have the second hardest job, the first being a parent.
I do agree with your opinion about working moms. My mom always worked. She came home tired and burned out from working a long day. Her first priority was to please her boss. Her children came second. My mom stepped on my high school campus for the first time on the day I graduated. My brother ended up dropping out in 11th grade.
I chose to stay home with my children. I wanted to be involved and get to know their friends and teachers. I volunteered, found tutors when I could no longer help them in math (haha) and they benefitted from my involvment. Their teachers generally liked them as people which made me happy.
The lack of morailty in the home has made your job more difficult.
Thank you for sharing your struggles. I'm related to many educators and I have heard some of their struggles through the years.
I think teachers are underrated, disrespected and not appreciated. They have the second hardest job, the first being a parent.
I do agree with your opinion about working moms. My mom always worked. She came home tired and burned out from working a long day. Her first priority was to please her boss. Her children came second. My mom stepped on my high school campus for the first time on the day I graduated. My brother ended up dropping out in 11th grade.
I chose to stay home with my children. I wanted to be involved and get to know their friends and teachers. I volunteered, found tutors when I could no longer help them in math (haha) and they benefitted from my involvment. Their teachers generally liked them as people which made me happy.
The lack of morailty in the home has made your job more difficult.
I commend you for staying home. My wife was at home w ith my kids not by choice but by disability, but we were blessed from it, and learned to live basically off of my one income. I am sure you kids will love you even more for being home with them and providing for them the love, security, and nuturing our kids so desperately need from our moms. Dad's just don't or biologically can't nurture the way a mom does--at least in my opinion--and I felt so good to come home to my wife and kids, instead of home to an empty house with wife still at work since being a teacher, I usually go off and home before her when she was working.
Well said. But I don't think the doctor and teacher analogy fit. Practicing medicine is a business in which one needs compensation. Bad teachers should be given warnings, assistance and then fired if they can't do the job. I have seen a teacher who cannot teach a lesson, is completely dishonest and fabricates stories, cannot complete many aspects of the job, and is totally irresponsible and unreliable play the school system and keep a job for years. Sometimes they just get transferred elsewhere to be someone else's problem. It's reprehensible and a complete waste of taxpayer money.
I am a school teacher and the sad reality is that our country seems to be on a demise simply from bad parenting and its increasing secularization.
Pick up a history book and you'll find that this nation was created a secular nation. There is not one mention of god or religion in the US constitution and it was rather explicitly intended to be secular by all the founding fathers, even those that happen to be religious.
"Secularization" has nothing to do with Americans problems.
I do agree with a number of things you mentioned though. I think two income families do not work well, one of the parents should stay home. Although, I don't think it matters which one. In American culture, for whatever reason a kids behavior is not suppose to reflect on the parents. But, this is rather unsound from a child development point of view. On the other hand Asian culture is the opposite, having a problem child reflects horribly on the parents even if the parents are doing everything they can.
But when more moms went into the work force that took away time for seeing how well their children were doing in school.
I don't know about the other States, but (Nassau County NY) if I wasn't paying 12K in School Taxes a year, maybe our wives or father could afford to stay home and bring up children correctly like we did before Teacher saleries became out of the tax payers control. Add my 8k a year in General Taxes,.mainly for our Police Union Policies also.
Last edited by thepokerdepot; 06-06-2009 at 03:41 PM..
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. Very succinct and right on point. Thank you.
Won't buy ur dime for a quarter
