Teacher's view on public education system's problems

[Samson]

^ Another form of avoidance...

By golly, I think you're actually getting smarter.

Would you like a cookie?

The different colors should be good stimuli for your mind.

Best of Luck.

 

[BobPlumb]

^ Another form of avoidance...

By golly, I think you're actually getting smarter.

Would you like a cookie?

The different colors should be good stimuli for your mind.

Best of Luck.

Cookies do more to motivate some students that grades.

 

[Samson]

^ Another form of avoidance...

By golly, I think you're actually getting smarter.

Would you like a cookie?

The different colors should be good stimuli for your mind.

Best of Luck.

Cookies do more to motivate some students that grades.

Maybe. Unktore's "special."




He may not take the cookie if we make a big deal about it....

 

[psikeyhackr]

(I teach at a public high school for the record):
(I teach a requirement for graduation btw).

Aren't teachers proud of what subject they teach?

What is required?

psik

 

[Unkotare]

By golly, I think you're actually getting smarter.

Would you like a cookie?

The different colors should be good stimuli for your mind.

Best of Luck.

Cookies do more to motivate some students that grades.

Maybe. Unktore's "special."




He may not take the cookie if we make a big deal about it....

Maybe you've never taught anyone anything a day in your life.

 

[JT8691]

(I teach at a public high school for the record):
(I teach a requirement for graduation btw).

Aren't teachers proud of what subject they teach?

What is required?

psik

I teach English which is a requirement for graduation (therefore every student has to take it all four years).

And this thread has been derailed by a few people who have still never said what specifically in my OP they disagree with AND why. The thread is full of deflection.

 

[psikeyhackr]

I teach English which is a requirement for graduation (therefore every student has to take it all four years).

And this thread has been derailed by a few people who have still never said what specifically in my OP they disagree with AND why. The thread is full of deflection.

When my mother came to my high school I took her to the physics lab. I don't think I took her to meet any English teachers. 4 years of English Lit was required. Physics was optional though. Weird.

psik

 

[squeeze berry]

Well, I've already admitted that I did an internet search for phrases in the OP that might indicate it was some cut-n-paste or a bot. You can try the same and perhaps be more successful, I found nothing. Obviously I found the OP somewhat suspicious.

Also suspicious is the greater concern the OP has demonstreated defending your accusations, and the focus on more global issues (like unions), rather than those that actually effect the classroom teacher's POV: I spent 6 years as a teacher and administrator, and the fact that I was or was not unionized never crossed my mind as something that effected my job or the system that employed me.

However, real or not; what is the relevance?

There are MANY teachers who, despite whatever training they may have, were unable to grasp basic concepts or implement them effectively. As evidence, one simply needs to access attrition rates. Few teach more than five (5) years. The OP has only taught since February, so I would not expect him to be terribly organized, or for students to be on their best behaviour. If he continues to be "frustrated," then I doubt he'll last more than a year or two.

out of curiosity, what basic concepts?

[MENTION=25837]squeeze berry[/MENTION]

For example, to motivate students teachers often employ some sort of Punishment/Reward system. Call it Carrot and Stick, or whatever. It is amazing how many teachers do not have any system, and many that do, only employ punishment, with no rewards.

Of course, the systematic basis is that the punishments and rewards are MEANINGFUL to whoever is receiving them. Many teachers feel good grades are a reward, and bad grades are a punishment. This is because theachers are all academic creatures, where the relationship between punishment and bad grades is very natural: You may as well threaten teachers with 100lashes with a cat-o-nine-tails as give them a "zero" as a grade. The vast majority of students want a "C." Motivating poor students with grades is a rookie mistake.

fear is a powerful motivator. It has motivated me all my life......

 

[Samson]

out of curiosity, what basic concepts?

[MENTION=25837]squeeze berry[/MENTION]

For example, to motivate students teachers often employ some sort of Punishment/Reward system. Call it Carrot and Stick, or whatever. It is amazing how many teachers do not have any system, and many that do, only employ punishment, with no rewards.

Of course, the systematic basis is that the punishments and rewards are MEANINGFUL to whoever is receiving them. Many teachers feel good grades are a reward, and bad grades are a punishment. This is because theachers are all academic creatures, where the relationship between punishment and bad grades is very natural: You may as well threaten teachers with 100lashes with a cat-o-nine-tails as give them a "zero" as a grade. The vast majority of students want a "C." Motivating poor students with grades is a rookie mistake.

fear is a powerful motivator. It has motivated me all my life......

Yes it is; However, I'm talking about the public school system, not the HMS Bounty during 1789.

 

[Jackson]

^^^You are nuts.

I'm done with you, psycho.

Teachers are required to continue their education beyond their bachelors and even the masters to keep their certification current. Then have to have additional hours upgrade the certification as well.

School systems also have continuing education classes for educators that will increase their salaries.

 

[Jackson]

Well I don't think that there's a quick fix, it's going to take generation(s) to fix. But in an ideal world the following changes I think could be done realistically either immediately or within the end of the decade:

-End tenure of teachers. Not every teacher on tenure sucks. In fact most teachers at my schools are very good at what they do. There are a handful of ones who shouldn't be teachers though

-Pay teachers based on performance. Where I live we kind of have this. If we meet certain criteria (student test grades improvements, in-class evaluations of us, etc.) we get bonuses at the end of the semester.

-Don't just pass students through just because they completed their work. Many kids do a half-butted job on their work and hand it in and get A's. They then expect that to happen in EVERY class they take, and in the "real world" after school. The easy A's are given for 2 main reasons: A)school/county encourages it, OR B)the teacher is too lazy to grade the work for content, and just grades on completion (this is more rare, but I have heard a few teachers actually say this).

-Give teachers more control of their classrooms. Recently it's becoming more and more rigid on what teachers can and cannot teach in their classrooms and HOW they do so. Basically we're given books that tell us all of the lessons that we have to teach. The exact lessons/work. The problem with this obviously is that a class may not be on that level yet, or be above that level and the work isn't right for that classroom. The book cannot make that decision based on the class, but the teacher can.

-The parent situation obviously can't be addressed by the school system/teachers. I can't make parents care about their student's educational success/future. This has to be done through society as a whole.

The problem with the bolded part is, how do you get teachers to teach the low end students then....?

IMO, we need to bring back tracking, vocational school, and school choice FOR the school. Not make the schools want to retain the dirtballs because of the money they get.

I agree with tracking and vocational schools. Probably 50% of the students in American public schools are not academically inclined and have no desire to attend academic programs in colleges and universities. Of course they are unhappy, don't perform well, and see no value in what they are studying.

BTW, are you sure public school teachers get tenure? I've never heard of that. University professors get tenure, not public school teachers. And the professors have to become full professors before they get tenure; they cannot be just instructors. It takes a few years to earn tenure as a univerisity professor.

I taught in the public school system and had tenure.

 

[Jackson]

How would you fix the problem? What would you do? What do you suggest should be done? Or are you just venting? Certainly, your frustration is understandable.

I think we have created this problem by being more than a place of learning. We tried to be too much. We were the social engineers, the place for "feeling good", the place that picked up the pieces when the parents neglected their job. When we started to be more than what we were originally intended, we lost our way and became baby sitters, pseudo psychologists and forgot that there were lessons that we expected our students to learn. Instead, we just hoped they would learn them. And God forbid if we label a child "slow", or failed and student and made him or his parents feel bad......

We have to go back to the expectations that the students will learn the lessons or they will fail the grade! If parents get used to the idea there is a grading system in place and their child must score appropriately within that system to pass, they just may sow up for conferences! If we start in elementary, keep it strong in middle school and we might find the attitude difference in high school.

But, that means no more Healthy Bear in elementary, no more time for puppet shows and dance shows from the Fine Arts Division, no more days of Healthy Touch and Unhealthy Touch. Or Fireman Freddie Or Officer Jones on "How to cross the street" Parents have to do their jobs or the day will be lengthened to accommodate these times. And the unending candy sales and programs!

Let's just tack another hour on to the day. But let's make homework mandatory as well.
Teachers who do not assign homework are lazy teachers.

 

[squeeze berry]

[MENTION=25837]squeeze berry[/MENTION]

For example, to motivate students teachers often employ some sort of Punishment/Reward system. Call it Carrot and Stick, or whatever. It is amazing how many teachers do not have any system, and many that do, only employ punishment, with no rewards.

Of course, the systematic basis is that the punishments and rewards are MEANINGFUL to whoever is receiving them. Many teachers feel good grades are a reward, and bad grades are a punishment. This is because theachers are all academic creatures, where the relationship between punishment and bad grades is very natural: You may as well threaten teachers with 100lashes with a cat-o-nine-tails as give them a "zero" as a grade. The vast majority of students want a "C." Motivating poor students with grades is a rookie mistake.

fear is a powerful motivator. It has motivated me all my life......

Yes it is; However, I'm talking about the public school system, not the HMS Bounty during 1789.

I'm glad you have plenty of funds so that you have no fear of losing an income.

You have yet to inform us about your successful motivational tools

 

[initforme]

"Let's just tack another hour on to the day. But let's make homework mandatory as well.
Teachers who do not assign homework are lazy teachers."

I see your point. However, let's assume a person is teaching in a socio economically deprived area and kids don't complete the in class work. They assuredly aren't going to do a lick of homework and frankly don't care if they learn or not. A teacher is going to assign homework and watch them never do it. WHat is the counter to that? And there are a lot of these scenarios. The teacher can't go home with them at night and make sure they are doing their homework.

 

[squeeze berry]

"Let's just tack another hour on to the day. But let's make homework mandatory as well.
Teachers who do not assign homework are lazy teachers."

I see your point. However, let's assume a person is teaching in a socio economically deprived area and kids don't complete the in class work. They assuredly aren't going to do a lick of homework and frankly don't care if they learn or not. A teacher is going to assign homework and watch them never do it. WHat is the counter to that? And there are a lot of these scenarios. The teacher can't go home with them at night and make sure they are doing their homework.

shouldn't homework be a small % of the total grade like 2 to 5 percent?

 

[TheJedi]

I run my own business, and after years and years of hard work I got it to the point where I can get a job AND run my business....so I decided to become a teacher. I've been teaching since February and what I've found STUNS me. Here's a list of the main problems I've encountered (I teach at a public high school for the record):

-Parents lack of interest/involvement with students. I had roughly 150 students and on teacher conference night where parents come in and meet with their teachers I had a total of THREE parents come in. THREE. (I teach a requirement for graduation btw).

-When I call home to parents about students misbehaving or not doing their work most (not all) of the parents don't care, they say it's my job and problem to deal with. So when I address it with the students their response is that their parents don't care, so they don't care.

-Points for trying. This drives me CRAZY. We're encouraged to give students points for simply trying! I have students asking me why they have C's or D's-and they point out that they do all of their work. I tell them that if they give me "C work", they're going to get a "C". MANY students complain at this and expect an "A" just for doing all of their work. The (obvious) problem is that this doesn't exist in the "real world".

-Extra time. Some students who're struggling get granted extra time (under law), where I have to give them as much time as they need to complete work/tests/etc. This may be PC, but once again the problem is that this will NEVER happen for them in the "real world"

-One standard for everybody. Different classes have different personalities and different students learn at different paces/in different ways. But virtually everything has to be taught at a specific pace and in a specific way--the problem is that you can't expect 25 kids to learn at the same pace AND in the same way (let alone 150).

-The teacher's union. Luckily I live in a right to work state. I haven't had any real interaction with the actual union so I wont comment on that, BUT there are a few teachers in my department who (literally) carry around their contracts form the teacher's union and if they're asked to do something that's not on there-they'll refuse to do it. Such as putting books away at the end of the school year, or showing up 15 mins to work early for a duty (bus ramp/something similar). And you'd think that they were asked to run a marathon. The complaining blows me away. And then they wonder why teachers will less "experience" (in terms of years) get promoted to APs or Principals.

-Lack of control over situations. As a teacher I was told to NEVER touch a student. Which to me makes 100% sense. I'll give students a high five-but that's IT. The obvious problem comes about during fights, what do we do? I was instructed that even if one student is on top of the other kid and have them pinned against the ground and beating the kid to a bloody pulp that I am NOT to pull the kid off of the other. I have to call down to the main office and wait for our officer (we have a LEO on campus) or an AP/someone else to resolve the situation. Basically we're not allowed to grab a student by the shoulders and pull them off of another student who's getting the crap kicked out of them....because of fear of a lawsuit. Luckily I have complete control over my classroom, but this can (and has) happened to other teachers before.

-Teachers just clocking in. I think this bothers me the most. I'm usually at my school an extra hour or so (depending on the day) after we can leave. And I'm usually there about a half hour before we have to be. Some teachers book and just bolt. Teaching isn't a career where you should be doing this in my opinion.

-Students refusing to do work, and who fail without caring. I've had students with a 5.6% and 11.4% in class and BRAG about it. They think it's cool to get bad grades. And yet many out there are ready to subsidize them when they're out of highschool. They'll tell you that somehow "we" (society, teachers, school, etc). have let them down....because they wont admit that they brought it upon themselves. There's no accountability. I've seen quite a few kids drop-out and there's always 2 reasons (I've spoken with more seasoned teachers and they agree): 1) They don't show up to school. 2) They don't care about their grades.

I know I've done nothing but complain in this thread, but it's just very disheartening to see all of these obvious problems in my very limited experience and to see that the "solution" is by throwing more money at schools (it's not), or coddling the students. The coddling of kids is going to be a huge downfall for them. It's a crutch.

Here are some of my suggestions to fix this:

As far as standards go, Common Core goes way too far. In my opinion, standards should should be set in terms of curriculum:

• Science - Biology/evolution, Chemistry, Physics, Climate science, Scientific method/experimentation
• Math - Basic Math, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Calculus, Statistics and Probability
• Literature - Classic Lit, Contemporary Lit, Poetry, Creative writing, Argumentative Essays, Journalism, Philospohy
• History - American History (real history, not watered down, revisionist history), Early Western Civilization, Far East History, African and Middle Eastern history
• Technical Education - Computer Science, Programming, Electrical/Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, Architecture
• Civics (this needs to make a comeback) - The Constitution, Judicial process, Criminal Justice, the electoral process, the legislative process
• Health and Fitness - Physical Education, Nutrition, Basic health, Sex Ed
• Creative Arts - Art, design, theater, music
• Practical Applications (putting what you learn to work in the real world): Tax Prep, Banking/household budgets, Organizational skills, Debating, Critical thinking, Information filtering, Advertising/Marketing

In 12 years of schooling kids should be able to get exposure to all of this—adjusted for age of course—with specialization beginning at the high school level to allow students to follow what they are most passionate about.

After this, we need to establish a universal grading system because right now they are not ALL the same. An A in one school can be equivalent to a C in another so this should be standardized with the exceptions being schools designed specifically for gifted and talented students (read: geniuses) and special education (kids with behavioral and/or mental deficiencies).

Now we get to the controversial part: Testing.

As it is now, constant testing and stat tracking is killing the quality of education and puts a tremendous amount of pressure on young children, parents and teachers alike.

Quizzes should be a tool used by a teacher to determine the progress of his or her students as far as retention goes and not be used a measure of a teachers performance by outside agencies. If a teacher notices a kid is falling behind then he/she just needs to contact the parents and explain it to them and help the parents make decisions as to whether or not to place a child in remedial education to help them grasp the basics.

Mid-Terms and Finals should be the only two real tests kids take during each marking period. These will determine if the kids are really grasping the material or not and should be a better reflection of teacher performance.

Aptitude testing should be used to gauge a child's potential and help with class placement so they get an education that is on-par with their potential along with other kids at the same level. The kids should not even know what these tests are for to alleviate any potential stress. Tests like these should be given every two or three years or at a teacher's discretion if they feel a child is either outgrowing their current level or falling behind. These tests should not be placed on a student's record but rather used as tool, that through a collaboration of parents and educators, will help to insure that a child is getting education on par with their current abilities. This is important because kids develop and mature at different levels so they are far from equal and forcing them into a rigid structure which they may or may not be ready for is only doing them an injustice.

Thee are also social issues that need to be addressed:

Behavioral issues are also very important. Some kids have behavioral problems that cannot be fixed by a teacher and kids like this tend to take a disproportionate amount of a teacher's time. This not only puts undo pressure on a teacher to discipline a child in an environment where the slightest thing said can be blown out of proportion and cause overly sensitive parents to complain and/or sue, but it also has a negative impact on the rest of the class because their teacher is spending 25% of class time dealing with an unruly child. These kids need to be identified and placed into classes with teachers who specialize in educating kids with behavioral problems. All teachers should have some background in basic psychology to help identify these issues and get these kids into a program that will help them adjust to the school's social environment.

These are the kinds of standards I would like to see in public education. Privatization of public services had proven time and time again to increase costs and degrade the quality service. It will not work for education but I think there is room for compromise such as mandating that any private institution that contracts with a state or local government must adhere to the basic standards (what I mentioned above) and work in a non-profit capacity. IF that kind of compromise is reached, I can get on-board with that. Profit and education do not mix.

Teacher's Unions

This part gets messy. Unions are great for insuring fair pay and ideal working conditions but they can also be problematic when dealing with teachers who are not doing their job well. The union itself needs to reform and find an internal way of weeding out the bad seeds but I doubt this will happen. This is common in all forms of organizational structures as they seem to adhere to this "Our people, right or wrong" method without holding anyone accountable. I think getting rid of tenure is a good idea. One should not suddenly become un-fireable because they put the time in. It's effort and ability that counts.

Flexible teaching methods

The system I envision give teachers more latitude in how they conduct their classes so long as they teach the material in the basic curriculum. This can allow schools to see what works and what doesn't for their student base and give them the flexibility to shuffle kids around until they get them in a class structure that is on par with their learning curve. Education needs to be organic, not rigidly defined and have the latitude to evolve and change as needs and technology changes.

It isn't perfect, but I think it is a start.

 

[Jackson]

"Let's just tack another hour on to the day. But let's make homework mandatory as well.
Teachers who do not assign homework are lazy teachers."

I see your point. However, let's assume a person is teaching in a socio economically deprived area and kids don't complete the in class work. They assuredly aren't going to do a lick of homework and frankly don't care if they learn or not. A teacher is going to assign homework and watch them never do it. WHat is the counter to that? And there are a lot of these scenarios. The teacher can't go home with them at night and make sure they are doing their homework.

Alright, if most of the students are not completing the in-class assignments, the teacher should be altering these assignments so half are being completed in the time allotted with her assistance if necessary. Then the rest of the classroom assignment should be assigned for homework after the teacher feels confident the majority of the students have the knowledge to complete it.

(If and when the homework assignments are not being completed, a form letter should be going home to the parents letting them know that homework is an expected assignment and will be graded as such. That will affect their grade average and have an affect of passing or failing the course. This should be signed by the principal as well.)

For those who are still not understanding the material, the teacher can be accessible for an hour after school for those who need the additional help. The teacher can inform the parents that she plans to be available and the parents should make arrangements to get the students there and pick them up after 1/2 hour sessions.

We cannot just throw up our hands and say they won't do the work. Try everything.

 

[Jackson]

I run my own business, and after years and years of hard work I got it to the point where I can get a job AND run my business....so I decided to become a teacher. I've been teaching since February and what I've found STUNS me. Here's a list of the main problems I've encountered (I teach at a public high school for the record):

-Parents lack of interest/involvement with students. I had roughly 150 students and on teacher conference night where parents come in and meet with their teachers I had a total of THREE parents come in. THREE. (I teach a requirement for graduation btw).

-When I call home to parents about students misbehaving or not doing their work most (not all) of the parents don't care, they say it's my job and problem to deal with. So when I address it with the students their response is that their parents don't care, so they don't care.

-Points for trying. This drives me CRAZY. We're encouraged to give students points for simply trying! I have students asking me why they have C's or D's-and they point out that they do all of their work. I tell them that if they give me "C work", they're going to get a "C". MANY students complain at this and expect an "A" just for doing all of their work. The (obvious) problem is that this doesn't exist in the "real world".

-Extra time. Some students who're struggling get granted extra time (under law), where I have to give them as much time as they need to complete work/tests/etc. This may be PC, but once again the problem is that this will NEVER happen for them in the "real world"

-One standard for everybody. Different classes have different personalities and different students learn at different paces/in different ways. But virtually everything has to be taught at a specific pace and in a specific way--the problem is that you can't expect 25 kids to learn at the same pace AND in the same way (let alone 150).

-The teacher's union. Luckily I live in a right to work state. I haven't had any real interaction with the actual union so I wont comment on that, BUT there are a few teachers in my department who (literally) carry around their contracts form the teacher's union and if they're asked to do something that's not on there-they'll refuse to do it. Such as putting books away at the end of the school year, or showing up 15 mins to work early for a duty (bus ramp/something similar). And you'd think that they were asked to run a marathon. The complaining blows me away. And then they wonder why teachers will less "experience" (in terms of years) get promoted to APs or Principals.

-Lack of control over situations. As a teacher I was told to NEVER touch a student. Which to me makes 100% sense. I'll give students a high five-but that's IT. The obvious problem comes about during fights, what do we do? I was instructed that even if one student is on top of the other kid and have them pinned against the ground and beating the kid to a bloody pulp that I am NOT to pull the kid off of the other. I have to call down to the main office and wait for our officer (we have a LEO on campus) or an AP/someone else to resolve the situation. Basically we're not allowed to grab a student by the shoulders and pull them off of another student who's getting the crap kicked out of them....because of fear of a lawsuit. Luckily I have complete control over my classroom, but this can (and has) happened to other teachers before.

-Teachers just clocking in. I think this bothers me the most. I'm usually at my school an extra hour or so (depending on the day) after we can leave. And I'm usually there about a half hour before we have to be. Some teachers book and just bolt. Teaching isn't a career where you should be doing this in my opinion.

-Students refusing to do work, and who fail without caring. I've had students with a 5.6% and 11.4% in class and BRAG about it. They think it's cool to get bad grades. And yet many out there are ready to subsidize them when they're out of highschool. They'll tell you that somehow "we" (society, teachers, school, etc). have let them down....because they wont admit that they brought it upon themselves. There's no accountability. I've seen quite a few kids drop-out and there's always 2 reasons (I've spoken with more seasoned teachers and they agree): 1) They don't show up to school. 2) They don't care about their grades.

I know I've done nothing but complain in this thread, but it's just very disheartening to see all of these obvious problems in my very limited experience and to see that the "solution" is by throwing more money at schools (it's not), or coddling the students. The coddling of kids is going to be a huge downfall for them. It's a crutch.

Here are some of my suggestions to fix this:

As far as standards go, Common Core goes way too far. In my opinion, standards should should be set in terms of curriculum:

• Science - Biology/evolution, Chemistry, Physics, Climate science, Scientific method/experimentation
• Math - Basic Math, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Calculus, Statistics and Probability
• Literature - Classic Lit, Contemporary Lit, Poetry, Creative writing, Argumentative Essays, Journalism, Philospohy
• History - American History (real history, not watered down, revisionist history), Early Western Civilization, Far East History, African and Middle Eastern history
• Technical Education - Computer Science, Programming, Electrical/Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, Architecture
• Civics (this needs to make a comeback) - The Constitution, Judicial process, Criminal Justice, the electoral process, the legislative process
• Health and Fitness - Physical Education, Nutrition, Basic health, Sex Ed
• Creative Arts - Art, design, theater, music
• Practical Applications (putting what you learn to work in the real world): Tax Prep, Banking/household budgets, Organizational skills, Debating, Critical thinking, Information filtering, Advertising/Marketing

In 12 years of schooling kids should be able to get exposure to all of this—adjusted for age of course—with specialization beginning at the high school level to allow students to follow what they are most passionate about.

After this, we need to establish a universal grading system because right now they are not ALL the same. An A in one school can be equivalent to a C in another so this should be standardized with the exceptions being schools designed specifically for gifted and talented students (read: geniuses) and special education (kids with behavioral and/or mental deficiencies).

Now we get to the controversial part: Testing.

As it is now, constant testing and stat tracking is killing the quality of education and puts a tremendous amount of pressure on young children, parents and teachers alike.

Quizzes should be a tool used by a teacher to determine the progress of his or her students as far as retention goes and not be used a measure of a teachers performance by outside agencies. If a teacher notices a kid is falling behind then he/she just needs to contact the parents and explain it to them and help the parents make decisions as to whether or not to place a child in remedial education to help them grasp the basics.

Mid-Terms and Finals should be the only two real tests kids take during each marking period. These will determine if the kids are really grasping the material or not and should be a better reflection of teacher performance.

Aptitude testing should be used to gauge a child's potential and help with class placement so they get an education that is on-par with their potential along with other kids at the same level. The kids should not even know what these tests are for to alleviate any potential stress. Tests like these should be given every two or three years or at a teacher's discretion if they feel a child is either outgrowing their current level or falling behind. These tests should not be placed on a student's record but rather used as tool, that through a collaboration of parents and educators, will help to insure that a child is getting education on par with their current abilities. This is important because kids develop and mature at different levels so they are far from equal and forcing them into a rigid structure which they may or may not be ready for is only doing them an injustice.

Thee are also social issues that need to be addressed:

Behavioral issues are also very important. Some kids have behavioral problems that cannot be fixed by a teacher and kids like this tend to take a disproportionate amount of a teacher's time. This not only puts undo pressure on a teacher to discipline a child in an environment where the slightest thing said can be blown out of proportion and cause overly sensitive parents to complain and/or sue, but it also has a negative impact on the rest of the class because their teacher is spending 25% of class time dealing with an unruly child. These kids need to be identified and placed into classes with teachers who specialize in educating kids with behavioral problems. All teachers should have some background in basic psychology to help identify these issues and get these kids into a program that will help them adjust to the school's social environment.

These are the kinds of standards I would like to see in public education. Privatization of public services had proven time and time again to increase costs and degrade the quality service. It will not work for education but I think there is room for compromise such as mandating that any private institution that contracts with a state or local government must adhere to the basic standards (what I mentioned above) and work in a non-profit capacity. IF that kind of compromise is reached, I can get on-board with that. Profit and education do not mix.

Teacher's Unions

This part gets messy. Unions are great for insuring fair pay and ideal working conditions but they can also be problematic when dealing with teachers who are not doing their job well. The union itself needs to reform and find an internal way of weeding out the bad seeds but I doubt this will happen. This is common in all forms of organizational structures as they seem to adhere to this "Our people, right or wrong" method without holding anyone accountable. I think getting rid of tenure is a good idea. One should not suddenly become un-fireable because they put the time in. It's effort and ability that counts.

Flexible teaching methods

The system I envision give teachers more latitude in how they conduct their classes so long as they teach the material in the basic curriculum. This can allow schools to see what works and what doesn't for their student base and give them the flexibility to shuffle kids around until they get them in a class structure that is on par with their learning curve. Education needs to be organic, not rigidly defined and have the latitude to evolve and change as needs and technology changes.

It isn't perfect, but I think it is a start.

Jedi, I really liked your post and could identify with much of it. Here's some of my thoughts...

Parents lack of interest... Big Problem. Probably number one. My answer to that has had some success and it comes with rapport. It starts early in the year where I keep contact with all of my parents about almost everything. They usually get a note from me weekly if I am on top of my game (elementary). That is hard to for with 150 students, so , aim high at once a month. The personal note should be something positive that the student did in class, asked a great question answered a question well, improvement in class behavior, grades, etc. Even how alert they always are, SOMETHING. Well behaved but lacking skills, say something about the great job in parenting they did.

Then when assignments are not coming in, get that note out fast, "I knew you would want to know....) And Thank you for your help at home! I so appreciate it!


Remind all parents in the middle of quarters the all assignments make up their grade...they are earned...not given.

Points for trying...what a joke! When I took my drivers test 3 times, I wish I had gotten points for trying! LOL Tell them points are earned for mastery of a skill not just showing up.

Extra time? - Sure. We can give them another full year. If they need an adjusted curriculum, that should be worked out with an IEP.

Teacher's Union - A union does not have anything to do with children and that is what we are about. If we want to be considered professionals, we should handle ourselves as professionals and rise above the blue collar job. The president of the AFT once said "I'll start thinking of the students when they pay my dues." We can be better than that. We should have professional organizations that do not play politics with the future of our children. Professional organizations do studies on how to make education work.

Touching students - Who doesn't need an arm around them telling the "Good job," or Tomorrow we'll get it.?" Things can be carried too far. We have to be reasonable.

Flexible teaching methods - I agree with you 100% Whatever works!

I can tell you are a good and thoughtful teacher!

 

[Samson]

fear is a powerful motivator. It has motivated me all my life......

Yes it is; However, I'm talking about the public school system, not the HMS Bounty during 1789.

I'm glad you have plenty of funds so that you have no fear of losing an income.

You have yet to inform us about your successful motivational tools

You've yet to demonstrate the capacity to be informed.

 

[Samson]

^^^You are nuts.

I'm done with you, psycho.

Teachers are required to continue their education beyond their bachelors and even the masters to keep their certification current. Then have to have additional hours upgrade the certification as well.

School systems also have continuing education classes for educators that will increase their salaries.

Not sure which state about which you are referring, but it would be interesting to hear the particulars: "Continuing Education" as applied to teaching could mean anything from a hour, to a day workshop, but the term should not be misconscrued to mean even 3 semester hours of college credit every year.

Upgrading certification may be a different matter, but certainly not a manditory issue: MAINTAINING certification is the crtical issue.