First Year Teacher - Why US public schools are failing

D

Don Palmer

#11
Re: First Year Teacher

morgand said:
My mother and 2 cousins are teachers in 3 separate districts. Between them and my mothers teacher-friends, I could tell you similar stories that would make you cringe; not including what was going on when I was in school myself.
Do tell...:eek: anything that would be edifying to the group.:notme:
 
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Jen Kirley

Quality and Auditing Expert
Staff member
Admin
#12
Jim Wynne said:
I want to share something I came across in my web travels. ...if you read nothing else in the blog, it alone will tell you a lot about why our public schools are failing.

Oh, I know there are a lot of reasons, from incompetent teachers and administrators, to clueless elected school boards, to intractable students, to uninvolved parents. Like most complex problems, there are no simple and direct answers. But I think that one of the biggest problems is that we don't do enough to support and promote the best and the brightest, because they're the ones who can have the greatest impact on the less fortunate. Read it and weep.
Yes, there are lots of reasons why schools are failing and poor leadership is certainly among them.

This week's BusinessWeek has a feature about how Bill & Melinda Gates are trying to have an impact on education. It has not been a singing success, certainly not to the tune (from Annie Get Your Gun) "Anything you can do, I can do better!" Bill and Melinda will have a hard time undoing the effects of poor nutrition, fractured families and social ecology (which some economists define as downward presure among peers, family and social circles). They will be challenged to undo the perception that public education is an entitlement, a for-fee service that requires no personal investment and at best tepid public and business support.

As for the letter, given it is possible to get stung by such a blog, and indeed a lower level worker can suffer from speaking too loudly--even if it's the truth--I felt that letter was likely what she would have wished to send. If it was real, she would have been taking quite a risk in sending it.
 

Jim Wynne

Staff member
Admin
#13
Jennifer Kirley said:
As for the letter, given it is possible to get stung by such a blog, and indeed a lower level worker can suffer from speaking too loudly--even if it's the truth--I felt that letter was likely what she would have wished to send. If it was real, she would have been taking quite a risk in sending it.
I'm not sure that the "resignation letter" posted represents her actual parting shot that was sent to the principal to notify him of her resignation. When I said earlier that I thought what I had read there was genuine, I wasn't extending that to include taking metaphors literally. Whether it is a copy of an actual letter sent to a principal is irrelevant, however, as there is no reason to believe the incidents she wrote about were anything but genuine. Note that she repeatedly refers to the fact that she has notified the principal of various bits of outrageous conduct to no avail, so if it were her actual letter, it wouldn't represent anything the principal hadn't already been told.
 
J

JerryStem

#14
My mother is a near-retirement age teacher. She left her last school after one of the students exposed himself to her in his seat, then later tried to say it was a piece of food or something...:mg:

Now she's w/ elementary school kids, having much more fun. I keep wondering if she will really retire when eligible (I think she has 1-3 years left). And if she did, I could see her going back as some kind of volunteer. She did years of volunteer work when I was in school until the principal convinced her to take a paying job!

Jerry
 
M

morgand - 2006

#15
Re: First Year Teacher

Don Palmer said:
Do tell...:eek: anything that would be edifying to the group.:notme:
Just for starters...

1 female high school teacher who has a habit of dating her students and the marrying a month after their graduation (she's on number 5 now and still teaching).

Male gym coach caught with holes drilled in the wall to the girls locker room (he still teaches)

Teachers caught fixing grades for students, but still teaching and fixing grades.

Administrators changing parental requests for teachers so that their favorite teachers get the good students. This was a huge scandel 2 years ago.

Teacher slamming student against the lockers in the hallway while saying, "You little s$%@. Don't you ever do that in my class again." in front of a class of witnesses. He just retired a few years ago.

Teachers caught in the boiler room with students, and no they were not smoking. Still teaching. One of them married the girl they were caught with.

Student and 1st year teachers in high schools dating/ and sometimes eventually marrying students.

Teachers getting high school girls pregnate, but still teaching.

Female teacher arrested for exposure (sex in a car with former student, classes ended the day before)- still teaching, while homosexual teacher arrested while skinny dipping was fired.

Male teacher caught showing the Caligula movie to a class- still teaching- no leave, while female teacher who showed "Splash" was susspended.

Administrators and teachers forcing prayer in public schools.

Hispanic, Latio, and Black-American students segregated, punished more harshly for offences, or just plain left out or ignored.

Comments from male teachers about girls in gym class. Including male teachers making excuses to be in the gym area when it was pretty much segregated from the rest of the school (at a dead end) and there was no reason what-so-ever for them to be there.
 

Jim Wynne

Staff member
Admin
#16
Re: First Year Teacher

morgand said:
Just for starters...

1 female high school teacher who has a habit of dating her students and the marrying a month after their graduation (she's on number 5 now and still teaching).

Male gym coach caught with holes drilled in the wall to the girls locker room (he still teaches)

Teachers caught fixing grades for students, but still teaching and fixing grades.

Administrators changing parental requests for teachers so that their favorite teachers get the good students. This was a huge scandel 2 years ago.

Teacher slamming student against the lockers in the hallway while saying, "You little s$%@. Don't you ever do that in my class again." in front of a class of witnesses. He just retired a few years ago.

Teachers caught in the boiler room with students, and no they were not smoking. Still teaching. One of them married the girl they were caught with.

Student and 1st year teachers in high schools dating/ and sometimes eventually marrying students.

Teachers getting high school girls pregnate, but still teaching.

Female teacher arrested for exposure (sex in a car with former student, classes ended the day before)- still teaching, while homosexual teacher arrested while skinny dipping was fired.

Male teacher caught showing the Caligula movie to a class- still teaching- no leave, while female teacher who showed "Splash" was susspended.

Administrators and teachers forcing prayer in public schools.

Hispanic, Latio, and Black-American students segregated, punished more harshly for offences, or just plain left out or ignored.

Comments from male teachers about girls in gym class. Including male teachers making excuses to be in the gym area when it was pretty much segregated from the rest of the school (at a dead end) and there was no reason what-so-ever for them to be there.
Yes, but other than this, there really isn't anything, is there? :lmao:

I know it's not funny, but it just gets so absurd...
 

SteelMaiden

Super Moderator
Super Moderator
#18
I just read fyt's resignation blog, and being in NC I have seen evidence of each and every complaint and more in our school district. We parents are told that we need to be involved and bring our concerns to the administration, but the administration just pooh-poohs concerns unless you fit into a "certain" group. The school board makes it nearly impossible to voice a concern, mostly because they don't want to address problems.

I've met some good teachers, and some bad teachers. Unfortunately the good ones leave because of the reasons stated in the letter, while the bad ones stay because they can. Consequently, the teaching gets worse, the administration gets worse and the students suffer because of it. I'm ready to pull my youngest out of school and take him to the tech college to get him a GED just to get him out of the system.
 
R

ralphsulser

#19
Re: First Year Teacher

Jim Wynne said:
Yes, but other than this, there really isn't anything, is there? :lmao:

I know it's not funny, but it just gets so absurd...
Sounds like excerpts from Porkys movies, :mg: good greif, life is stranger than fiction:eek:
 
M

morgand - 2006

#20
Re: Are we as a nation...?

Don Palmer said:
Can it be defined?:caution:

I didn't even want to look at the other stuff. Parents, curriculum (did you know that the freshmen and sophomore texts used by many private college and universities are the same one seniors are using in many public colleges and univerities), finger pointing so as not to be responsible, that the curriculim in most schools is based on requirements for Texas, Florida, and California- which is a bit wacky, but true- because publishers cater to those states with large populations for profit reasons.

[Moderator note: Links deleted due to potentially inflammatory political/religious content. (Jim Wynne)]
 
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