Let's talk about teachers

[jillian]

Ok, I get where you're comming from:

The Public is jealous of GOOD teachers' pay, benefits, and job security in a BAD economy.

You think teachers should be immune: Why?

personally, i think teachers are being used as a facile means of union busting. villianize them enough and you can do whatever you want to them... take away their benefits; take away their tenure, etc.

Well, Texas Law forbids teachers from collective bargaining, and or course, striking, and there is no tenure.

Teachers around Houston have starting salaries at $40,000.

Here is the Texas teacher retirement income formula:

A simple formula for computing your retirement salary is to average your best three years' salaries. Take this average and multiply it by the number of years you have worked in' public schools times 2.3%. For example, the average of 3 years' salaries of $30,000, $31,000, and $32,000 would be $31,000. A teacher who has taught for 30 years would get 69% of that amount (30 years multiplied by 2.3% equals 69%) or $2139 a month.

This is a MUCH better retirement plan than most companies offer (which is usually, nothing).

and my husband works for the only federal agency that doesn't have collective bargaining...

and that shows in how they're treated

there is a reason people take less money to work for the government... and that's the benefits.

 

[xotoxi]

"ESPECIALLY a Male teacher?"

Why, because you've never heard of female teachers "sexually abusing" male students?

When Ms. Teacher Goes After Male Pupil - U.S. & World - FOXNews.com

I'm sorry for my inappropriate gender-biased comments, Sam.

I did not mean to offend anyone.

What? I don't even get a tissue.............

I was going to get you a tissue, but then you said...

You Bitch!

 

[Samson]

personally, i think teachers are being used as a facile means of union busting. villianize them enough and you can do whatever you want to them... take away their benefits; take away their tenure, etc.

Well, Texas Law forbids teachers from collective bargaining, and or course, striking, and there is no tenure.

Teachers around Houston have starting salaries at $40,000.

Here is the Texas teacher retirement income formula:

A simple formula for computing your retirement salary is to average your best three years' salaries. Take this average and multiply it by the number of years you have worked in' public schools times 2.3%. For example, the average of 3 years' salaries of $30,000, $31,000, and $32,000 would be $31,000. A teacher who has taught for 30 years would get 69% of that amount (30 years multiplied by 2.3% equals 69%) or $2139 a month.

This is a MUCH better retirement plan than most companies offer (which is usually, nothing).

and my husband works for the only federal agency that doesn't have collective bargaining...

and that shows in how they're treated

there is a reason people take less money to work for the government... and that's the benefits.

I think $40,000/yr for an inexperienced college grad is pretty decent pay for a government worker.

You don't?

 

[editec]

Madeline - we are talking about other peoples children. You know as well as I that many parents think their babies can do no wrong. And some are willing to hurt someone who they perceive has hurt their child. When I have more time, I'll highlight some of the bogus charges that myself and others have had to defend. No other profession compares ex for maybe the PD. And a simple accusation, no matter how bizarre, can destroy a person.

You get no argument from me, chanel. I have teacher friends.....I dun know why anyone would do this job. I don't dispute, teachers need protection from arbitrary job loss. But tenure? Cops don't get that, chanel. Prison guards don't. Social workers don't. Do teachers face a higher risk than some of these employees?

Nonsense.

Cops and prison guards have far better protection from firing than most teachers have.

READ THE CONTRACTS and stop depending on talking heads for your misinformation.

 

[Bfgrn]

Good post chanel. I agree with you, and so does Diane Ravitch, former United States Assistant Secretary of Education under George W. Bush.

Testing, school choice undermining education
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 02:51 AM

The Columbus Dispatch

For almost 10 years, our leaders have aimed at the wrong targets and used the wrong tools while trying to improve public schooling.

Diane Ravitch, an early pioneer of President George W. Bush's education plan No Child Left Behind, admits as much in her newly released book The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education.

A noted education historian, Ravitch joined President George H. W. Bush's administration as assistant secretary of education in 1991. By the time she left in 1993, she was a rabid advocate for national standards, school choice and charter schools. As a founding board member of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and the Koret Task Force at the right-wing Hoover Institute, she became a loud and persistent advocate for the younger Bush's No Child initiative.

She now realizes that school choice and test-based accountability are damaging public schools. In her book, she identifies some of the fault lines that underlie these misguided notions. "Accountability turned into a nightmare for American schools," she writes, and blames that on what, early on, was obvious to No Child's critics: the need to teach to tests.

Her disillusionment with charters is no less profound. She acknowledges that years of research done by its advocates show occasional advantages but, more often, disadvantages of charter compared with public schools.

The greatest disaster, however, is that during the two decades that Ravitch and her colleagues promoted No Child, they severely undermined Americans' confidence in public education. The misuse of standardized tests and incessant pounding of classroom-teacher-preparation programs by politicians, corporate interests and their tax-free foundations, along with misguided reformers, increased cynicism toward public education, particularly about poor urban schools.

They ignored trade and fiscal policies that are unraveling the social-safety network, hollowing out the middle class and causing the loss of good jobs and increasing poverty for children and their families. Instead, they place blame for our economic slide on the backs of schoolchildren and their dispirited teachers. Thus, much of the public believes the unsubstantiated claim that America competes badly in the global economy because of poorly achieving public-school students.

The Race to the Top education-funding competition between states is no less a sham than was No Child. Poor children and their teachers can make incremental progress for years on tests and graduation rates and still not reach the required goals; meanwhile, their schools are losing money that could make a difference. These mandates falsely assume that academic achievement is divorced from the rest of students' lives.

Do these policymakers really believe that drill-and-practice teaching of inner-city children, raised in impoverished neighborhoods by poorly educated parents, will be sufficient for them to catch up with students whose environments are rich in educational resources and whose parents are themselves well-educated? Is this not akin to a smoke-and-mirrors pitch?

No matter how hard teachers and students try and how good the instruction, the impact on poor children's school achievement often will fall short of better-off peers.

Those who speak glibly of national standards for all students ignore the varied learning needs of our youth, a need that Ravitch has come to understand. Our public-schools population, perhaps the most diverse on Earth, requires options and goals based upon the real-life needs of students.

Ravitch looked at the results of what she and her cohorts have been peddling and, to her credit, admits gullibility. But the admission comes after billions were spent and countless lives damaged. Meanwhile, President Barack Obama seems as blind to these realities as Bush and Ravitch were.

Thomas M. Stephens is professor emeritus in the College of Education and Human Ecology at Ohio State University and is executive director emeritus of the School Study Council of Ohio.

Thomas M. Stephens: Testing, school choice undermining education | The Columbus Dispatch

 

[psikeyhackr]

There are tons of suggested reading lists for students, my favorite would be Great Books, I think an emphasis on the classics helps build better vocabulary and thinking skills, but that's just my opinion. There are good lists put out by organizations, such as ALA.

Yeah, we have lots of traditionalists that want to propagate their concept of tradition.

What will computers do to society over the next 1000 years? Reading literature from before 1900 will give us lots of ideas about that. Before 1940 the word computer meant a PERSON that did computations. How many people even knew that by 1980?

William Bennet suggested this in the 80s

Part 2 : Cultural Literacy; What Every American Needs to Know

I bought it. I think it is junk. Tradition is obsolete. Alvin Toffler was telling us in 1970.

Future Shock - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

We have all of these problems now because people weren't changing fast enough but traditionalists think turning to the past is the answer.

Here take a trip to 1952 and see if it looks familiar.

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Cost of Living, by Robert Sheckley

psik

 

[jillian]

Well, Texas Law forbids teachers from collective bargaining, and or course, striking, and there is no tenure.

Teachers around Houston have starting salaries at $40,000.

Here is the Texas teacher retirement income formula:



This is a MUCH better retirement plan than most companies offer (which is usually, nothing).

and my husband works for the only federal agency that doesn't have collective bargaining...

and that shows in how they're treated

there is a reason people take less money to work for the government... and that's the benefits.

I think $40,000/yr for an inexperienced college grad is pretty decent pay for a government worker.

You don't?

I'd say it depends upon what one is being asked to do. You have to ask, as well, what is the top earning level attainable.

 

[Charles_Main]

Well, Texas Law forbids teachers from collective bargaining, and or course, striking, and there is no tenure.

Teachers around Houston have starting salaries at $40,000.

Here is the Texas teacher retirement income formula:



This is a MUCH better retirement plan than most companies offer (which is usually, nothing).

and my husband works for the only federal agency that doesn't have collective bargaining...

and that shows in how they're treated

there is a reason people take less money to work for the government... and that's the benefits.

I think $40,000/yr for an inexperienced college grad is pretty decent pay for a government worker.

You don't?

I think if I went through college and could not make at least 40k a year. I might off myself.

 

[Samson]

and my husband works for the only federal agency that doesn't have collective bargaining...

and that shows in how they're treated

there is a reason people take less money to work for the government... and that's the benefits.

I think $40,000/yr for an inexperienced college grad is pretty decent pay for a government worker.

You don't?

I'd say it depends upon what one is being asked to do. You have to ask, as well, what is the top earning level attainable.

Public Service.

Certainly one isn't asked to be sent on a tour to Afghanistan, and 2nd Lt's don't make $40K/yr.

 

[Unkotare]

Waiting for Superman is in theaters now. I have not seen it yet, but there's been a lot of buzz.

Waiting For "Superman" | Trailer & Clips | Official Movie Site

I've been reading a lot of teacher bashing in the news lately, and as many of you know, here in NJ, Chris Christie has been at war with the NJEA. NJ has some of the top public schools in the country and some of the worst in our inner cities. Blaming teachers for school failure (without the kudos for success) seems self-defeating. What I mean by that, is an "us vs. them" mentality can cause horrible morale, which can affect teacher performance and students' attitudes toward education.

I attended public schools in NY, PA, and NJ. Out of about 40 teachers from K-12, I can say I had about three that I did not "like". However, in hindsight, I probably still learned a lot in their classes. I cannot recall one teacher who did not teach.

I'm curious to see how many others believe that teachers are not doing their jobs. What percentage do you feel are truly incompetent?

I do believe that tenure can protect unstable and ineffective teachers. But I also believe that percentage is very, very low. What say you?

.

 

[Unkotare]

Waiting for Superman is in theaters now. I have not seen it yet, but there's been a lot of buzz.

Waiting For "Superman" | Trailer & Clips | Official Movie Site

I've been reading a lot of teacher bashing in the news lately, and as many of you know, here in NJ, Chris Christie has been at war with the NJEA. NJ has some of the top public schools in the country and some of the worst in our inner cities. Blaming teachers for school failure (without the kudos for success) seems self-defeating. What I mean by that, is an "us vs. them" mentality can cause horrible morale, which can affect teacher performance and students' attitudes toward education.

I attended public schools in NY, PA, and NJ. Out of about 40 teachers from K-12, I can say I had about three that I did not "like". However, in hindsight, I probably still learned a lot in their classes. I cannot recall one teacher who did not teach.

I'm curious to see how many others believe that teachers are not doing their jobs. What percentage do you feel are truly incompetent?

I do believe that tenure can protect unstable and ineffective teachers. But I also believe that percentage is very, very low. What say you?

.