Teacher Bashing

Teaching isn't brain surgery. You either have the desire and ability to teach or you don't and no amount of money or education will change either of those. How else can one explain the many old maid teachers of years gone by who started teaching as soon as they got out of school themselves and never had a day of college education? Most kids back then never went to high school and yet those uneducated teachers managed to teach them math that most kids will not be taught even in high school today. My dad, his brother, and 7 sisters only went to the 8th grade and were very well educated. Students were a problem in those days too. Some played hooky to go fishing or hunting and the boys were often absent for weeks at a time in farming season but yet they still managed to learn. It is a failure of the system by government meddling and control.

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Some people just need a high five.....right up side their heads.

Whenever this subject comes up "we" see where the problem is. R-E-S-P-E-C-T....not just from some students but some parents and some teachers. Don't point fingers. There are good teachers, good parents and good students. But....there are bad also. Always have been. If you bad mouth the teachers at home the children pick it up. If you home school great but don't disrespect the education system after all some people have no other choice and this country will be what we make of our children....James

I think you need to also understand that YOU might be a wonderful teacher, but there ARE BAAAAD teachers out there.

I had a 2nd grade teacher that used to beat the tar out of me every day--without reason, in front of witnesses/other teachers, and to this day is STILL teaching.

My son had a teacher who used to scream profanities (f words) at the entire 1st grade class-- in front of the principal-- and is still teaching.

I witnessed a teacher tell a student they must be retarted for not being able to learn, and they are still teaching. (and belive me, I made a stink about it!)

Out of my 3 boys, they had ONE-- JUST ONE-- "good" teacher. If I could have kidnapped her and kept her here at my house to teach my kids, I would have, I just loved her. the rest were horrible.

I guarantee you that I DO a BETTER job as a homeschooling mom than any of those teachers did. My kids are healthy, have their self-esteem back and are actually AHEAD of what the public school system is.

I remember back when I attended public school, that the principal had a paddle and if you misbehaved he was allowed to use it. If you misbehaved at school, your parent would punish you when you got home too.

Now kids get suspended and their parents leave them at home - often alone- all day long with their playstation and wii and tv and nobody imposing rules on them. Honestly, what teenager who is disenchanted with school would consider this a punishment?

One of the boys I counsel got suspended for fighting and his mother took advantage of his being out of school on one of her days off by taking him to the local amusement park - she was thrilled that he was "off" during the week so they didn't have to stand in long lines. THIS is supposed to deter him from misbehaving in the future?

Parents come to me with out-of-control kids and expect me to "talk" to them and fix in 60 minutes what it took them 16 years to screw up. Parents tell me "I don't want him to hate me, I want him to like me" (he's your kid, not your friend). I hear "Last time I spanked him was in 2nd grade and he went to school and reported me for abuse. CPS looked into my life with a microscope. Ever since then I haven't been able to control him - every time I threaten to even ground him he says he'll go report me again for abuse!"

Kids know the system and they have the upper hand. I blame this on the "time out" parenting that has taken over the nation (Thank you, Dr. Spock ). Used to be that a misbehaving kid would get a spanking, and he would think twice before doing that again. If he acted up in school he would get treated to an actual disciplinary measure at home, so students more or less knew better than to act up in school - the punishment outweighed the benefit of the misbehavior.

Try teaching to a classroom full of kids who have their parents eating out of their hands and think they can manipulate the teacher as well - "I'll have your job! I'll tell your principal and my parents that you hit me!" Good luck keeping those kids in line. Even if your class has 30 kids and 20 of them are good and 10 act up, those 10 can ruin the entire experience of everyone in the classroom.

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that is good advice, walk a mile in the shoes of those you would criticize!!
i think that a lot was lost when schools lost the right to discipline a student.
my grandmother taught on remote Indian reservations for close too 30 years, in all that time she had no problems with student nor parent and they visited her often after she retired back to her home town.

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àigeach carnaid
chaora dhubh
"Don't raise your voice, improve your argument."

cruachan

Public education is a failed, liberal experiment. Even good teachers are part of this failed system. Even if all the teachers were good teachers, the system would still fail.

Until the teacher's union is destroyed, social engineering is removed from the classroom, and the Dept of Education is defunded, the system will continue to fail. Teachers are neither the solution nor the problem.

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Rich

When someone gets a bad meal in a restaurant who gets the blame? The person closest to the diner, the waitress. The same thing goes for when something bad/stupid happens in a school.

For the most part I don't blame teachers as a group, most of the time. The group I blame are the administrators. They are the ones who set stupid rules the teachers have to follow. The teacher isn't the one who made the decision not to put kids with the same learning ability together in a class thereby requiring ALL the students to learn at the speed of the slowest learner. The teacher isn't the one who made the rule which equates the little plastic rifle on a toy soldier to a real firearm. The teacher isn't the one which makes in nearly impossible to have a disruptive student removed from the class.

But. . . I haven't seen the teacher's standing up en masse saying they think the rules are stupid and harmful to the kids therefore they must burden some of the responsibility.

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Remember, when seconds count. . .
the police are just MINUTES away!

Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. . .Davy Crockett

Excellent!!! If you ran for office, you'd have my vote.

I blame high taxes in New England on teachers unions.

I must be a rare "parent"
I NEVER disrespect the teachers or principal. I always back them. In fact when my grandson got into trouble, I ran to the office to sign a corporal punishment permission slip. Everyone involved knows I am going to b ack the school..UNLESS I have some very strong evidence they shouldn't be backed.
If my grands get in trouble at school..They get into worse trouble at home. And the school also knows..if mine don't learn what they are supposed to...I will oppose with every breath I have of passing them up, to be done with them.
Just as I don't hold every Doctor responsible for problems in our health care system, it is not the teachers I blame for all problems in the educational system.
I do know teachers work hard, but also know they know what wages are going in to it and I get tired of hearing how overworked they are. I worked for the school system and know a little about being employed there.
I have yet to see present problems as severe as I saw when I was a child. My third grade teacher wold routinely pull my hair, and in fact tipped a desk over on me on purpose resulting in a broken arm. She taught until retirement..MANY years later.

I am very fortunate that my kids go to an amazing school.

My son is in the first grade and is one of 8 students in his class. My daughter is in Kindergaden. They learned the Pledge of Allegiance at school, my has brought home childrens biblical stories and coloring pages from school.....this is not a private christian school, just a small town public school.

When we wanted to enroll my son in pre-k we called the school in our district. My son was very withdrawn, shy, didn't do well in social situations amoung other things, our pediatrician was toying with an Aspergers diagnosis.... He is a brilliant child, at 3 he could name 97 species of sharks, their tooth shape, diet and prefered depth of the ocean....but counting past 10 was a struggle that caused him to freeze up and literally be unresponsive to anything. He is obsessive and once things catch his interest its impossible to distract him from it until he knows all he can about it. Never hyperactive, no behavior issues ever, other than freezeing up in tense situations.....Our school district said to have him on riddlin before enrollment!!! So I looked elsewhere, no way am I medicating my child.

I called our current school, not in our district, explained what was going on and they agreed to set up a meeting with the pre-k teacher.....We talked, she observed him and agreed to try her best. We met 3x's a week, and she talked to her sister who teaches special needs children in the metroplex for ideas, she did her lessons and then gave my son a lesson in a different manner. Helped me come up with lessons to do at home to build on the progress made in class. We discovered that once a lesson was figured out, my son NEVER forgets....within 5 weeks he could do his ABC'S, spell his name (and some shark species he liked) count to 100 with no troubles and was a different child...very confident, social and I give 90% of the credit to his teacher who jump through hoops for him.

I don't think homeschool is a viable option for all..... A new girl is in my sons class who was homeschooled. She is so far behind she's been moved back to pre k just to learn the barest minimal basics, has no social skills....

We are one of the few people out there who are fortunate to have a good school for our kids.......Teachers up to 6th grade know my kids, their parents, our cars, where we live ect. ect. We've never had a problem in 3 years and keep an open communication with the teachers...
I hear stories about what goes on at my nieces school......if a school system like that was my only option, I would definately home school....but since I have a wonderful school I choose to send them to school....even though its a 19 mile one way trip

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Well said. I agree with you 100%.

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Chick with a gun.

Now kids get suspended and their parents leave them at home - often alone- all day long with their playstation and wii and tv and nobody imposing rules on them. Honestly, what teenager who is disenchanted with school would consider this a punishment?

I never understood suspension for that very reason. It is only a punishment for the working parent. In school suspension makes much more sense.

I taught high school for a number of years. My mother taught high school til retirement.

That said, I chose to homeschool my own dc. I chose to do so because of the legal requirements of what is taught to students now, because of our religious beliefs, because I knew that one on one attention would increase their learning when in the classroom due to sheer numbers, one on one attention would not happen.

I don't bash teachers just because. there are good ones out there and there are bad ones who are just biding their time til retirement.

Children and teachers are no different intrinsically than they were 30 years ago. But like a wad of spit out gum, they have a lot of debris stuck to them as they have rolled along over the years.
I can't remember ever having a half day off for in-service training or anything else. Thanksgiving Day holiday was just that- one day. Christmas was most of the week off but no spring break, Labor Day week off, early closing days, etc. No classroom assistants, one principal per school and one janitor/handiman/landscaper/bus driver.
I'm amazed at the flood of teachers exiting schools five minutes after the kids leave at 2:30 to 3:30 pm.
I suppose this varies from place to place but it's hard to have respect for the constant demands for more resources, bonds and property tax bills when less children are less educated by more people.
There is a problem that brought "teacher bashing" into existance. It's not all due to teachers but they certainly have their share of the blame.

it's the system that sucks, not necessarily the teachers...

I think you are missing the point.. When someone bashes teachers, for the most part it isn't the rank and file teachers they are bashing. It is the Unions

For example in today's Lancaster paper, Front Page news that there is an article that shows the ratings for Reading and Math.. Only one district has a rating for Reading that is acceptable and only about 3 of them for math..

Yet we continue to pay higher taxes and throw more money at the problem and have done so for well over 20 years..
The Unions won't let us get rid of bad teachers and even in a down economy they want and expect more money in wages and benefits..

So that makes them scum and criminals by extortion.. They only pay about 6% of their health care and retirement, yet their wages continue to go up when jobs and income for the local folks go down..

Why?

Is it because they are greedy?
Is it "For the children"?
So tell us why the Unions can do this?

If the teachers really cared they would do their jobs, but that isn't the case, because the Unions won't allow them..

So teachers are guilty by association!

If teachers don't like it, then work for a private/another school where there is no Union..

It seems that Private schools in our area are getting the job done better for less then half the costs... This includes buildings etc..

So why is that?

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Honestly, I wasn't even thinking about the union fiasco when I started this thread. I think the union does a huge disservice to children because they make it virtually impossible to fire teachers that are not performing.
I am not a fan of merit pay, but it does have its benefits. Personally, my goal is for each of my students to go up at least one level (there are 5 levels) on the state test, or if they are performing at the advanced level to keep them there.
Not all students will reach proficient or advanced, but if they come to me performing far below basic or below basic, it is my job to get them to basic and hopefully proficient.
That is how teachers should be evaluated...by student growth in their classroom, not by the number of students performing at grade level.

In other words, I take what students are assigned to me and work to move them higher up on the proficiency scale. If I do that, then I have done my job. If I don't, then I should be fired. Any other profession would fire me for not performing!

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Chick with a gun.

......

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A ship in the harbor may be safe, but that's not what ships are built for