Boo Hoo...

The schools are failing to educate thus the teachers are failing as well...
Time for a re-boot on the whole system...
WE WASTE/SPEND MORE PER STUDENT THAN ANY OTHER NATION ON EDUCATION.
Teachers are required to work 180 DAYS per year and are well paid.In many cases overpaid for the results they produce.
The education system here has a standard of the lowest common denominator thus reducing standards and expectations.All caused by the Teachers ,Administrators and Unions,

I know of what I speak.Both of my parents are retired educators.

wheelrite wrote:

see post #69

for some reason I think you own a car dealership (or more). How many accumulated hours per day do the sales people work actually selling cars? If they get two or three "ups" a day each it might add up to a half day of work each day, or 150 days working even if they are on location 300 days. teachers have "ups" constantly every hour at work every day and do all the pre and post work during unpaid overtime...way way beyond 180 days. The pay ends up prorated much closer to what critics like yourself would like to see.

teachers "are required to work 180 days per year". All the extra time ain't spent talking about boobies or scanning the internet (I am not above those vices). Bus duty, playground break duty, extra help sessions, parent meetings, in-service training and on and on.

Somhow someone was able to teach you to think critically, but you were probably inherently easy to teach. Today is a different challenge, born out by the small sampling in this very thread.

Go back and read closer and you will see how the US stats are unfairly skewed. Most children in many other countries are simply "left behind". Figures lie and this is a classic example.

Boo Hoo is a huge part of the problem, not the solution.

frankj1 wrote:

4. In 1960, the student-teacher ratio in public schools was 25.8; it’s now at a historic low of 15.

wheelrite wrote:

Dude - my daughter goes to a PRIVATE school, and we have 25 kids per teacher. WHERE in the U.S. are they finding a PUBLIC school with only 15?????

If you cut out the teachers, who are you intending to replace them with? Are the kids supposed to teach themselves? Most of the parents can't be bothered with checking homework, so THEY arent' going to do it. Do you think that replacing one set of teachers with a different set will solve the problem? That's unlikely. The new teachers will be just as hogtied with red tape as the old ones. Seriously - you almost need a law degree to write a lesson plan, these days. The teachers don't choose the district curriculum - that comes from higher up. They have (in public schools) limited input on the subject, but beyond that, they have to find a way to plan within some pretty severe limitations. They are given 30-40 students of varying ability levels and usually NO at-home discipline, and told that they are ALL supposed to perform at the SAME level - from SPED to G & T. In "the good old days," those G&T kids were moved up and the SPED kids were not mainstreamed into regular classrooms.

DaQueenBeez wrote:

Frankj - My princess went through an obstinate phase last year. She doesn't have a "hurry up" bone in her body to begin with, but this year she hit a spell where NOTHING... and I do mean NOTHING was being completed in class. Her AMAZING teacher asked if she could stay after school to finish her work.... EVERY DAY, until she decided it was easier to finish in class. This woman sat in that classroom with my girl till after 5pm some nights. She routinely takes her lunch back to the classroom to be with kiddos who need to finish work at lunch or who need extra help. This is not an uncommon occurrence at our school. Our teachers are phenomenal.

DaQueenBeez wrote:

I consider this scenario routine. Above and beyond the 180 days required by law...and happening every single day in almost every single class in almost every single school because teachers know their kids better than the parents do. They should, they spend more time with them than the parents do from the age of 6 til 17 or so. If your kids turn out to be fine adults, teachers likely had as much or more to do with that than we did as parents.

I love hearing stories like yours. I know my wife (senior speech and langauge pathologist elementary school level) and daughter (high school english teacher) go in early and stay late every day to make sure that they have exhausted every possible method to get these fuggers what they need. I'm not even talking about what I see at home in the hours of preparation spent honing their craft. Unlike most jobs, ya can't wake up and just show up to deal with what gets shoved in front of you. The classroom time is what people consider work for pay time, but evidently many people do not understand what goes into being successful while "on the clock".

Possibly the toughest, most important and most thankless chore in the work world. Like McBryde said, it ain't for the money, and it sure ain't for the appreciation.

frankj1 wrote:

Wheel -
The big advantage that a private school teacher has is that private school is an OPTION. If a parent thinks "it's not fair" that their child can't keep up with the program, they can either suck it up, make junior work harder or leave. In public schools, they sue the district, and the teachers are told that they have to modify their teaching to make it "fair" for the SPED child who can't perform at the same level as a gifted, or even mediocre student. If a child is a discipline problem in a private school, the parents either deal with the problem, or the child is kicked out. Unless they want to be sued, a public school has to keep them until they harm someone badly enough to get sent to the "Alternate school. They are not allowed to enforce any kind of discipline or "unfair" restrictions on their behavior. It might damage poor junior's self-esteem... Public schools are not ALLOWED to have higher standards, because someone, somewhere decided that it was "unfair" to some students... and now we have No Child Left Behind.

yippee

DaQueenBeez wrote:

Wheel -
The big advantage that a private school teacher has is that private school is an OPTION. If a parent thinks "it's not fair" that their child can't keep up with the program, they can either suck it up, make junior work harder or leave. In public schools, they sue the district, and the teachers are told that they have to modify their teaching to make it "fair" for the SPED child who can't perform at the same level as a gifted, or even mediocre student. If a child is a discipline problem in a private school, the parents either deal with the problem, or the child is kicked out. Unless they want to be sued, a public school has to keep them until they harm someone badly enough to get sent to the "Alternate school. They are not allowed to enforce any kind of discipline or "unfair" restrictions on their behavior. It might damage poor junior's self-esteem... Public schools are not ALLOWED to have higher standards, because someone, somewhere decided that it was "unfair" to some students... and now we have No Child Left Behind.

yippee

DaQueenBeez wrote:

DQB,,
The majority of the people who do choose the subject matter have been teachers,And ,yes I do believe poorly performing teachers should be replaced.
It should be run as a business,which it really is..

Btw,
I too went to Private Schools and there were 40+ students in each class. It's not the quantity of students it's the quality of the Teacher that matters ultimately..

wheelrite wrote:

Now it makes sense. Surely you are keenly aware that the schools you attended were not encumbered by those inconvenient standards set by government for public schools. And students who were difficult to educate in your school probably weren't born with disabilities, they were likely brats. 40 kids with one lesson plan!!!...the teachers I know could have taught your class in half the time and headed for the beach after lunch!

My wife spends more time at home completing paperwork required by legislation than she spends in school being phenomenal. Your teachers did not have to deal with that so teaching seems like a breeze to you. She couldn't help any kids if she did that work during the school day. Your teachers spent those hours antiquing. My friends that attended private school (other than boarding schools) had less hours per day and less days per year than their public school counterparts. Every teacher I know would love to be working for public schools under private school demands!

frankj1 wrote:

No,,

In other countries they teach math ,science ,history and other practical subjects.Not, liberal propaganda..

wheelrite wrote:

I admire your dedication ,really..

But being a succeesful educator is no different than being a success in any other business,It all requires hard work. Appreciation is a myth .You speak of affirmation and adulation neither of which count for much,sadly.

wheelrite wrote:

That's a little unfair to private school teachers. They're paid less - we've lost several teachers to public school because they needed the money - and most of them work just as hard. They ARE blessed in they don't have to deal with all of the government CRAP that their public counterparts are beaten down with. Not having to deal with the suffocating red-tape lightens their load TREMENDOUSLY. However, teachers at our private school get to work at 7:00 and don't leave till 4:00-4:30. Most of them spend their lunch half-hour working with students at least 3 times a week, and they are all in the rotation for recess and bus duty. They are also in mandatory training and and miscellaneous other curriculum development and planning meetings for most of the summer. They're at the school for 2 weeks after the students leave, and go back 2 weeks before it resumes.

DaQueenBeez wrote:

And back then a D was NOT a passing grade. 70 or above or you repeated the class, no exceptions.

MACS wrote: