The Pretense of Education during this pandemic

[DGS49]

An informal polling of local school teachers reveals an appalling abandonment of any semblance of academic rigor in the coming academic year - not to mention or address the one recently passed.

Specifically, teachers are being told to "pass" students who score at least a "50" on their exams in the coming year. And even this minimal standard will surely be breached and abandoned when parents are confronted with their little darlings being "asked" to repeat a grade. In summary, this coming academic year will be a joke, but will be counted as a legitimate academic year of learning. Then, when things get back to normal, they will sit in classrooms one September in the future without having learned what they were required to learn in the previous academic year. They will either be lost - as in math and sciences - or otherwise unprepared. Their education will be like a jigsaw puzzle with a couple pieces missing.

Certainly, there will be some kids who will studiously keep up with their academics during the coming school year, but at least half will be sitting at home playing video games and will learn nothing. Do you teach to the level of the former group or the latter? It is a true conundrum.

To any teacher who happens to read this, please explain why i am wrong.

 

[Montrovant]

Do you have a source for this claim about teachers passing students with grades of 50?

 

[beautress]

I think some parents, who got a taste of educating their children may realize home schooling is a good thing. Once in a while, home schooling heralds in a Thomas Alva Edison, whose mother took him in as a student when a teacher at school decided he was no good in her class.

He became a prolific inventor who invented the incandescent light, phonograph, mimeograph machine, movie (motion picture) camera, film, automatic telegraph, electric power distribution, nickel iron batteries, kinetophone sound film (talkies) and many other things.

Florence Nightengale was home-schooled, as are many other famous people.

Parents who home school their own children bring us very special people in their fields. Twelve American Presidents were home-schooled.

 

[DGS49]

"informal poll" = my daughter-in-law, a HS French teacher, my wife's golf partner, a special ed teacher in a nearby school district (not referring to her own students, whose grades are merely made-up in any event), my son's friend, a teacher at a third district. All believe that serious grading will be non-existent for the duration.

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

An informal polling of local school teachers reveals an appalling abandonment of any semblance of academic rigor in the coming academic year - not to mention or address the one recently passed.

Specifically, teachers are being told to "pass" students who score at least a "50" on their exams in the coming year. And even this minimal standard will surely be breached and abandoned when parents are confronted with their little darlings being "asked" to repeat a grade. In summary, this coming academic year will be a joke, but will be counted as a legitimate academic year of learning. Then, when things get back to normal, they will sit in classrooms one September in the future without having learned what they were required to learn in the previous academic year. They will either be lost - as in math and sciences - or otherwise unprepared. Their education will be like a jigsaw puzzle with a couple pieces missing.

Certainly, there will be some kids who will studiously keep up with their academics during the coming school year, but at least half will be sitting at home playing video games and will learn nothing. Do you teach to the level of the former group or the latter? It is a true conundrum.

To any teacher who happens to read this, please explain why i am wrong.

You live in a fucked up school district. You elected the school board. Blame yourself, not teachers who did not come up with this BS!

End of story.

[/thread]

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

I think some parents, who got a taste of educating their children may realize home schooling is a good thing. Once in a while, home schooling heralds in a Thomas Alva Edison, whose mother took him in as a student when a teacher at school decided he was no good in her class.

He became a prolific inventor who invented the incandescent light, phonograph, mimeograph machine, movie (motion picture) camera, film, automatic telegraph, electric power distribution, nickel iron batteries, kinetophone sound film (talkies) and many other things.

Florence Nightengale was home-schooled, as are many other famous people.

Parents who home school their own children bring us very special people in their fields. Twelve American Presidents were home-schooled.

Edison did NOT invent the incandescent light. So much for your education.

Who Invented the Light Bulb?

Though Thomas Edison is credited as the man who invented the lightbulb, several inventors paved the way for him.

www.livescience.com

 

[DGS49]

Three different school districts represented in my "informal poll." My school district has the second highest teacher salaries in the state and is rated one of the top five academically in the state. Yeah, it's fucked up. That's why they can't build housing fast enough to satisfy the demand.

You moron.

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

Three different school districts represented in my "informal poll." My school district has the second highest teacher salaries in the state and is rated one of the top five academically in the state. Yeah, it's fucked up. That's why they can't build housing fast enough to satisfy the demand.

You moron.

Again, you seem to be blaming teachers when nothing could be further fro the truth. Those type of directions originate with your local school boards, and you elected them. You only have yourselves to blame.

 

[wamose]

The teachers union is showing their true colors in this debacle. They want hazard pay, charter schools to be outlawed and mail in voting if you can believe that. The teachers unions are so far up Democrats asses, they will do anything they're told, much like the MSM. This country would be much better without teachers unions and rigged media. In fact, we'd be better off without any government unions.

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

The teachers union is showing their true colors in this debacle. They want hazard pay, charter schools to be outlawed and mail in voting if you can believe that. The teachers unions are so far up Democrats asses, they will do anything they're told, much like the MSM. This country would be much better without teachers unions and rigged media. In fact, we'd be better off without any government unions.

I am sure they think they could do a lot better without you. California is one of the extreme examples. As I have posted many times, teachers are barred from striking by law. What are they going to do to negotiate these issues? You want the to threaten to hold their breath until they get what they want?

 

[wamose]

The teachers union is showing their true colors in this debacle. They want hazard pay, charter schools to be outlawed and mail in voting if you can believe that. The teachers unions are so far up Democrats asses, they will do anything they're told, much like the MSM. This country would be much better without teachers unions and rigged media. In fact, we'd be better off without any government unions.

I am sure they think they could do a lot better without you. California is one of the extreme examples. As I have posted many times, teachers are barred from striking by law. What are they going to do to negotiate these issues? You want the to threaten to hold their breath until they get what they want?

Put all teaching jobs up for bid for, let's say, three year periods. Anyone with a certification will be able to bid. Give the new kids an equal shot. That protects the taxpayer and also encourages excellence. Do the same thing for cops and government service unions.

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

The teachers union is showing their true colors in this debacle. They want hazard pay, charter schools to be outlawed and mail in voting if you can believe that. The teachers unions are so far up Democrats asses, they will do anything they're told, much like the MSM. This country would be much better without teachers unions and rigged media. In fact, we'd be better off without any government unions.

I am sure they think they could do a lot better without you. California is one of the extreme examples. As I have posted many times, teachers are barred from striking by law. What are they going to do to negotiate these issues? You want the to threaten to hold their breath until they get what they want?

Put all teaching jobs up for bid for, let's say, three year periods. Anyone with a certification will be able to bid. Give the new kids an equal shot. That protects the taxpayer and also encourages excellence. Do the same thing for cops and government service unions.

There is just a few problems with your plan:

1) It is illegal.
2) Why wouldn't less qualified people take a lower salary and then the jobs?
3) How does the lowest bidder encourage excellence?

Teachers are already evaluated to much stricter standards than you realize. I received outstanding evaluations, yet the district could hire two college grads for what they were paying me, which goes to show you how badly the pay sucked! As a teacher, I lost numerous positions due to budget cuts.

 

[DGS49]

I'm not blaming the teachers. Or their unions. What ever gave you that idea?

What I'm pointing out is that it will be IMPOSSIBLE to provide an acceptable level of education under the CV-19 constraints, and the teachers WILL BE DIRECTED by the administrators and the school boards to PRETEND that education is actually happening, when it isn't.

And consistent with this concern, I believe that the justifications for closing down the schools are anti-scientific...the kids themselves are in NO DANGER from CV-19, and the teachers, parents, and others who deal with them are in only slightly more jeopardy - similar to what they are exposed to with other common childhood diseases. Indeed, we know who is threatened by this disease and THOSE PEOPLE can take whatever precautions they deem necessary, but closing down the schools because some kid's great grandmother, or a medically-compromised teacher might be made to feel uncomfortable, is fcuking insane! And the TRUE COST of this decision is being either denied or ignored.

 

[initforme]

So then go in and teach in the middle of a pandemic. I'm sure there will be no covid in a classroom full of kids. Step up DG, show the country how it's done. Your life is worth sacrifice correct?

 

[DGS49]

Fortunately, I am not a statistical ignoramous, and I would not hesitate to teach in a public school classroom, if I were healthy and under the age of 54 (which more than 90% of such teachers are). If I were physically impaired I would take appropriate precautions up to and including working from home - which is entirely feasible.

The fact of the matter is that for children from K-12, the death rates FOR THOSE WHO ARE INFECTED are in the hundredths of one percent; as a percentage of the entire population (infected and otherwise) it is in the thousandths of one percent. That is, in a school district with 2,000 students and 400 teachers, it is unlikely that even a single student would succumb to the disease, and damned few would even get sick.

If that level of neurotic fear would keep me out of the classroom - refusing to do what I am handsomely compensated for doing - then I should be SUMMARILY FIRED.

Actually, I voluntarily take even greater risks at least three times per week when I go to the gym. I am one of those bastards who only wears a mask when I enter and leave. Otherwise, not so much. And of course I'm 70 years old, which puts me at Ground Zero for this disease.

Anyone with a scintilla of intelligence knows that the REAL reason why the nation's two major teachers' unions are refusing to work ("...Its for the CHEEEEEEEELDRUN!") is because they believe it will harm the President's chances to be re-elected. The children and the microscopic medical risks are not even factors.

 

[initforme]

Out teachers here are going back. They can wear a mask, gown, face shield, and gloves if they wish. I would encourage them to use all of those.

 

[DGS49]

I personally recommend the full-body prophylactic, with oxygen tank. That should be safe enough.

 

[Unkotare]

...I would not hesitate to teach in a public school classroom...

Talk is cheap, especially on the internet.

 

[Moonglow]

Specifically, teachers are being told to "pass" students who score at least a "50" on their exams

Unsubstantiated claim made with zero proof of the statement which means it is fake news.

 

[Moonglow]

I think some parents, who got a taste of educating their children may realize home schooling is a good thing. Once in a while, home schooling heralds in a Thomas Alva Edison, whose mother took him in as a student when a teacher at school decided he was no good in her class.

He became a prolific inventor who invented the incandescent light, phonograph, mimeograph machine, movie (motion picture) camera, film, automatic telegraph, electric power distribution, nickel iron batteries, kinetophone sound film (talkies) and many other things.

Florence Nightengale was home-schooled, as are many other famous people.

Parents who home school their own children bring us very special people in their fields. Twelve American Presidents were home-schooled.

Oh, it's okay until you pay the bill.