Teachers getting crapped on

[McDreidel09]

I am really sick of this attitude that people have towards teachers. I am tired of people saying that teachers are to blame for students being dumb, that they don't do their job, that they don't care. I expect this kind of bullshit being spewed by a high schooler, but not adults.

It is not the teachers' faults that kids refuse to learn. The teachers do their job (which is 60 hours a week, being paid for less than that because about 20 hours a week is done at home). It's up to the student to do well. Some students are not good test takers. Some need extra help. Some however, don't do their work. You can hound them all you want, but they will not do their work and refuse to try. Should the teachers be blamed for the last set of kids? They are really restricted on what they can do.

As some of you are already aware, I hate NCLB with a passion. I think it's the worst thing to happen to the education system. It's taking away from the time that could be used for actually teaching. Instead, teachers are forced to stress the importance of taking the tests and how to do well on them. Yet, you still have the kids who just fill out any old circle. If test scores are too low, nothing is done to help. Funding is taken away, which then takes away resources from that school. If the school is on the shit list, then they get shut down and the kids get sent to neighboring schools, which then get over crowded.

But really. While there are some bad teachers, not all of them are. Teachers bust their butts off for their job and are given shit for it. It is an important job that will always be there. Teacher put up with a lot of crap not only from the students, but from the parents and the government.

Why would I want to go into this job? It is because it is my passion. I have always loved English (specifically literature) and I always loved teaching people.

Seriously, what is this "teh teachers are teh ebil" attitude from adults?

[jackfaire]

Seriously, what is this "teh teachers are teh ebil" attitude from adults?

I had both good and bad teachers in highschool. Some coaches who did the teaching did so as a way to ensure their athletes got a good grade, other coaches did so to ensure they got a good education.

I do not say teachers are evil but I also don't say they are good. For me everyone is a case by case basis. In my opinion your job title does not define you as a person.

I don't assume because someone is a doctor, firefighter, cop, teacher etc that they are this great wonderful self sacrificing person. Nor do I assume that makes them a bad person.

If I see a teacher that is clearly doing everything they can not to teach then yes I will call that teacher on it. I don't look down my nose at high school students that bash their teachers I find out why they do.

Most students will tell you exactly why they don't like their teacher and if it is something like, "Well they refuse to let us learn anything insisting we study the dewey decimal system like we are still in 2nd grade instead of Shakespeare" (an actual teacher I had in high school)

I think people need to be judged as people and not their jobs or lack thereof.

[AdminAssistant]

There are good and bad teachers. I, personally, have more empathy for teacher's aides and other classified staff that are paid even worse than teachers and still have to put up with all the same crap. (My mom was an IMPAC lab manager, got paid much less than the teachers, and had to deal with every single child in that school.)

I'll tell you one thing. No way in hell am I ever teaching K-12. Ever.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I don't say all teachers are bad. However, there are some very bad teachers out there, who are effectively destroying the reputation of all teachers. Wouldn't it be better to direct your anger towards these losers?

[Greenday]

In my experience, I've dealt with more bad teachers than good. And oddly enough, despite my math teachers generally being the worst, it was the subject I excelled at the most.

TA's are another story though. I see good TA's that are usually the ones who want to teach. Then there are TA's that just have to do it because it's part of getting a masters or doctorate. Those are the ones that generally suck.

Screwing teachers over with standardized testing? I don't get removing funding if kids are doing bad. Wouldn't that just mean the school has even less to help the kids with? I'm in college and I've met plenty of education majors who are really enthusiastic and probably would be amazing teachers. Then I look back at a lot of my teachers and I wonder where the hell these kids go. I mean, I had some great teachers that didn't teach to the tests and we didn't have trouble passing them.

I just wish that we could get rid of the kids who didn't give a crap and just went to school to cause trouble. Then teachers could do their job efficiently. They are the reason I'd never want to teach or if I did teach, college would be the only level I'd teach at.

[AdminAssistant]

TA's are another story though. I see good TA's that are usually the ones who want to teach. Then there are TA's that just have to do it because it's part of getting a masters or doctorate. Those are the ones that generally suck.

I know both kinds of TA's. Most of my friends, and myself, fall into the first category. It can get very frustrating sometimes, but it's usually very rewarding.

The thing that I wished my students would remember is that...I'm a student, too. So, yeah, it might take me a bit longer to get the tests graded because I've got a paper to write! *sigh*

[KabeRinnaul]

I'm in college and I've met plenty of education majors who are really enthusiastic and probably would be amazing teachers. Then I look back at a lot of my teachers and I wonder where the hell these kids go.

New teachers are assigned the classrooms that none of the people who outrank them want. A lot of those enthusiastic, brilliant people either get burned out or scared off by dealing with an overcrowded room of "resource" students whose parents do little if anything to help the situation. Or they never get hired in the first place because getting a teaching position usually means taking over for someone who died or retired. That goes double when hiring freezes go into place due to education budgets being cut, and again whenever the economy takes a hit and all those experienced teachers aren't retiring and opening up new spots because they don't think they'll be able to support themselves after a few years.

As for the rest? Anyone who sees children doing poorly in school and demands explanation from the teachers is very misguided. The parents are always the greater influence. No matter what the school or teacher tries to do, without the support of the parents, the student won't improve. Education starts at home, and when the home environment is dysfunctional or just anti-intellectual, you're pulling the foundation out from under it.

And yes, there are bad teachers. I've had plenty of experience there. But their influence, except on public opinion, is vastly overrated.

[powerboy]

One of my brothers teachers was a History teacher in high school. All he did was show the classes Reality TV. WTF is that crap? And my brother really hates reality tv.

[Boozy]

It is not the teachers' faults that kids refuse to learn. The teachers do their job (which is 60 hours a week, being paid for less than that because about 20 hours a week is done at home).

I'm not saying that their job isn't difficult, but I question the "60 hours a week" number. I know several teachers at both the high school and elementary school level, and they don't work anywhere near that much. They work about 40-50 hours a week when they're busy, 30 when they're not, and they get at least 5 weeks of vacation time a year.

I think time off is a necessary perk to attract qualified people to this sometimes thankless profession.

[KitterCat]

I am really sick of this attitude that people have towards teachers. I am tired of people saying that teachers are to blame for students being dumb, that they don't do their job, that they don't care.

I don’t blame them for students being dumb, I blame the Teachers Unions for
A) allowing incompetent teachers to stay in the classroom. This is one of the biggest problems, this is why you get to hear people complain that teachers don’t do their jobs.
B) to have teachers, who want to teach, forced to teach to the lowest denominator.
C) Who constantly whine and moan that they don’t get enough money, when in reality the public school system gets far far more than the private sector. Strange that generally as a rule private schools do better than public.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics at “http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos318.htm” puts the “Median annual wages of kindergarten, elementary, middle, and secondary school teachers ranged from $47,100 to $51,180 in May 2008; the lowest 10 percent earned $30,970 to $34,280; the top 10 percent earned $75,190 to $80,970. “
Dame I’m in the wrong line of work, give me a job that makes $47,000 a year.
D) Who will fight tooth and nail to keep competition out, such as charter schools, private schools, non-union schools.
E) Get ride of the requirement in many states that all jobs be done by union paying employees, often times at a higher cost than the private sector. Most people don’t care if the classrooms are cleaned by a janitor in a union or not. Imagine, more of that money that is suppose to go to the classroom could actually go there.
F) Remove all tenor or at the very least make it longer than 2 years. Guess what if you’ve burned out after 5 years, sorry for you, but students shouldn’t be the ones who get punished because you lost that spark that made you effective as a teacher.
G) Stop caving in to wild demands that some people make about their special snowflake. Start actually backing the teachers who do teach and enfore a high standard. If your going to go down the lawsuit road it might as well be to back up that the special snowflakes don’t all deserve “A”. A lot of them earned that “F”.
H) Stop putting kids who haven’t past the grade before in to the next one simply because they need to be kept in their per group.
I)Stop taking away children’s rights and making up idiotic “no tolerance” rules. If a child gets into a fight because they are defending themselves don’t punish them because the rules say you cant fight on school property. If a kid comes into the class room with an inhaler because they’re asthmatic, don’t suspend them because they have drugs on them. Learn the difference between an Advil and heroin.


Do you really want me to go on? There are many many problems with our education system k-12. A lot of them are caused by the TU’s. The reason why you get to hear the general public complain about the teachers is because those are the people they see every day.

For example,
Currently I’m working with a lady who works at a head start school. She doesn’t know the difference between volume and weight.

One of my cousins had been home schooled. His mother insisted putting him in elementary school so he could get more interaction with kids his own age. They received a note from his English teacher to please stop reading to him and teaching him such big words. My uncle took the note, fixed all of the spelling and grammar errors in read pen with an accompanying note stating that when she (the teacher) could form a correct sentence he would start to consider her position, but until then how he taught his child was none of her concern. My Aunt and Uncle pulled my cousin out after a semester because he was board to death and kept falling asleep. The school wouldn’t even consider advancing him to the next grade.

And people wonder why I refuse to put my children into public schools.

[AdminAssistant]

F) Remove all tenor or at the very least make it longer than 2 years. Guess what if you’ve burned out after 5 years, sorry for you, but students shouldn’t be the ones who get punished because you lost that spark that made you effective as a teacher.

There's tenure for K-12 teachers? I didn't know that. In a college environment, tenure is a great thing, since it provides job security, the ability to take sabbaticals to do research, and protects the professor from spiteful student evaluations.

[Greenday]

There's tenure for K-12 teachers? I didn't know that. In a college environment, tenure is a great thing, since it provides job security, the ability to take sabbaticals to do research, and protects the professor from spiteful student evaluations.

It also means you basically can't get fired for doing a crappy job once you get it. For some reason, tenure brings out the laziness in people since they don't have to worry about losing their jobs.

[shroo]

It also means you basically can't get fired for doing a crappy job once you get it. For some reason, tenure brings out the laziness in people since they don't have to worry about losing their jobs.

It's not that you can't fire a teacher with tenure, but it's a hell of a lot harder.
On the flip side, if you don't have tenure you can be laid off for anything. I'm not sure about other states but in MA you get tenure after three years and a day at the same school and for those first three years you pretty much have to watch your ass. That's not necesarrily a bad thing but if you happen to have a crazy department head who just doesn't like that you make poetry interactive rather than stuffy...
Whew, did it just get bitter in here?

[RootedPhoenix]

I really hate that schools seem to be the only ones held accountable for what their students do or do not learn. If little Sally sleeps through class and uses homework time to go out and party, why should it be the school's fault? Nobody can open up a students head and cram the knowledge in, so why blame a school for the slackers? Shouldn't the slackers get the blame for what they do?

[jackfaire]

I really hate that schools seem to be the only ones held accountable for what their students do or do not learn. If little Sally sleeps through class and uses homework time to go out and party, why should it be the school's fault? Nobody can open up a students head and cram the knowledge in, so why blame a school for the slackers? Shouldn't the slackers get the blame for what they do?

*stands up proudly* I took full 100% of the blame for being a slacker.

*kicks younger self* idiot.