Posted on 09/10/2011 6:51:05 AM PDT by erkyl
Ron Clark is an award-winning teacher who started his own academy in Atlanta He wants parents to trust teachers and their advice about their students Clark says some teachers hand out A grades so parents won't bother them It's OK for kids to get in trouble sometimes; it teaches life lessons, Clark says
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
This year at 'back to school night' I saw 2 parents out of about 30 I teach. But that's okay, I'll do my best with what I have (6 non readers this year with incomplete alphabet knowledge!) and then next year get a whole new batch.
I'm good at this....smile and nod...smile and nod
Wow. Let’s see... out of about 100 kids I’ll usually see... 25 parents? That’s about right, yes. And they are invariably nice. Their kids are generally the nice kids, too. The little knuckleheads don’t usually let their folks know anything about parent/teacher night. LOL... we send notices but the kids intercept them. Maybe one little troublemaker shows up looking guilty, with mom and a handful of little brothers and sisters running around...
While I admire your high principles I also know it is easy to state such beliefs not many would risk their lively hood for a set of principles that most people of this country don’t hold to as being that important . I witnessed to my students almost every day, my theory was I would do so until someone in authoriy told me to stop, no one ever did. But make no mistake if told to stop I would have. Who do you think replaces the teacher that falls on his/her sword!!!The schools are what they are because parents don’t care enogh to end it!!!
I believe the king of England must have thought that these dumb Americans would run like scared rabbits too, but it turned out that the American chickens was also ready to die for the cause of freedom.
But inspite of all the killing the Gospel of Jesus has been preached to all the world, Jesus said, You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. we should tell the truth also, not that i am anybody who knows anything but i have done enough wrongs that i can not help but know what wrong is, and we can do enough wrong on our own with out it being taught in our schools.
I just do my best with what walks through the door.
Well, it’s not what one says but the way one says it.
If he was looking to cry on other teachers shoulders, get attaboys, hugs and kisses, I’m sure he got them.
If he wanted to get through to parents, epic fail.
Sorry, none of us want to be patronized. And while I do think there are parents that are lacking, I also feel that there are administrators that are lacking and teachers who are as well.
It’s very different from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, I understand that. A teacher friend retired in NYS around age 67. Hopefully yours is a school district that will be enjoyable until you can retire.
My experience and sketchy memory relate to Fairfax County, VA. It’s not a bad life for teachers here, or it used to be not a bad life. Pay, benes and retirement were decent, parents and teachers got along well. Kids were generally well prepared for school and respectful to the teachers. That wasn’t too long ago.
Bearing in mind that this is one of the largest school districts in the country, I think it speaks volumes about that relationship that when 2 of my now adult children got married within the past 2+ years, their wedding guests included a few teachers and the elementary school nurse.
My kids went through when there wasn’t a cop at every high school as is the case now. And when, if one of my kids acted up or was struggling, *I* got a call. In fact, when my kids were going thru FCPS, half their friends’ moms taught at other nearby districts. Those moms may have chosen to work in even higher paying districts, but there was no way THEIR kids would go there.
I think years ago I read a study that actual academics was about 2 hours during the day even though most kids go 8-330 even in kindergarten.
We see this expression often: “Good” teachers.
Well?...I do have a problem with that. I suppose you and others are referring to teachers who convey some information and the children somehow retain it, but what about morally good?
Since every government owned and run school in this nation is godless, how can a “good” teacher cooperate with that? Children must learn to think and reason godlessly in these government schools if they even minimally cooperative with the curriculum. Do “good” teachers agree to teach children to think godlessly? Would a good teachers undermine the religious worldview taught in the home?
Personally....I don't think a “good” teacher would do that.
And then there is the socialism aspect of government schooling. Often a child's first contact with socialism is their pre-k or kindergarten teachers. How long is it before they learn that government schools use the threat of force to get money from a neighbor to pay for their socialist-funded and tuition free schooling? Well! Gee Whiz! If the voting mob can get government to give the child tuition-free school why not thousands of other free socialist services and goods?
Would “good” teachers agree to support a system of indoctrination that would teach children to be comfortable with socialism or submitting their hearts, minds, reason, and inner thoughts, to the will of the voting mob.
I retired a few years ago and could do it. In fact, given my strong background in the sciences and mathematics, I have been asked on occasion why I don't do it.
I refuse!
I refuse to go into the godless government schools to assist, uphold, and establish a compulsory government schooling that teaches children to think and reason godlessly. The children **must** think and reason godlessly merely to cooperate with the curriculum.
I refuse to cooperate with, establish, or uphold a godless government school that is influential in helping children become comfortable with socialism. ALL government owned and run schools in this nation are socialist-funded. If a children attends they will very likely become accustomed to taking money from a neighbor for a socialist service their parents want for tuition-free. If a child can casually accept tuition-free schooling from the voting mob why not demand a few thousand other voter mob provided “free” goods and services.
Government schooling? No thanks! I want no part of destroying the hearts, minds, and souls of children. I want nothing to do with any school that promotes socialism. The consequences for doing that would be eternal both for the children and for me.
Ain’t that the truth. But ya’ gotta figure it’s a union mentality thing, and only so much can be taught within the 7 hour school day.
My youngest was having trouble learning to read. Actually, he had regressed from sounding out the letters to guess reading. He was not a good guesser.
I observed the classroom and was amazed. They were doing group learning. My son was being “helped” by others so the work I was seeing every day was not even his own. He was lazy...he’d always charm someone else into doing his work if he could. The noise was unbearable to me. Anyway, I concluded the classroom resembled a zoo for children and after a lot of research, I pulled him out and took a break from work to teach him at home.
At first he hated it and me. He said I was the meanest mother in the whole town because he had to do his own work and I marked things wrong when they were wrong. But soon he adjusted and figured out if he got his work done right, he was free for the day. So he learned to focus and then learning everything else blossomed. It was remarkable to witness.
At one point he told me he felt more like himself - more like a person.
Wow! Thanks for sharing the personal anecdote.
>> He said I was the meanest mother in the whole town
Oh, LOL, kids... they eventually understand, as did yours :)
That is part of the problem, and one I wish could get fixed.
The problem isn’t parents, teachers or kids. It is government, forced monopoly and unions. Privatize all schools. You won’t find salaries going up, but you will find most teachers will be happier.
Totally on board with that idea. Allow education to run on the business model, so successful schools become in demand and unsuccessful schools get shuttered, successful teachers get rewarded appropriately, and failures get kicked to the curb.
Of course, then it enters the same arena as health care -- can the government require people to purchase a service?
The only way it could work would be to take government off the hook for people's failure to ensure their children are educated. Since for certain, if government didn't take the money for education in taxes and only mandated that people invest in kids' education, then the kids would come in second place to that new car, in many people's priorities.
As I pointed out in another post -- I know people who teach, not because of the pay, since they are financially comfortable otherwise, but out of choosing to serve their community where they see a need. Jealous of mechanics? I'd have to ask them, but I don't think they are. In a couple of dozen years the car will have been recycled, while the kids my friends teach will be parents themselves.
Back to the BLS -- the median annualized wage for college graduates is $57,200, compared to the $49k-$51K overall you cite for teachers (man, I know a lot of people who'd like to know where the $49k teachers' salaries are -- they sure aren't around here. Most of the teachers I know are taking home $40k/year, which comes out to $22/hour just for school hours, but more like $19-$20/hour for time actually spent.
Re the salaries of mechs vs. teachers -- when it becomes necessary for mechs to get a college education, your car repairs will get a lot pricier. And if you can find a garage that only charges you for the mech's time -- good luck.
Sorry to throw context into the discussion -- I know it can be inconvenient to compare apples to apples, but one gets a clearer picture that way.
By way of clearer picture, since you want to cite BLS, according to them, a nurse's annual salary was $62k in 2008. That comes out to $31/hour. But you say your wife only makes $27? Maybe the numbers aren't the be-all, end-all you want them to be. Especially when comparing numbers from different sources (BLS vs AFT). My apologies for injecting numbers into a discussion about teachers. Very few teachers understand them.
No apologies necessary. I was happy to help you understand them in context. And most of the teacher's I know have learned to overlook children's little insults.
What would Thoreau say?
And that is the main gist of the article -- if parents would accept that they should be a dynamic part of their child's education, most teachers would be considerably happier. Sure, there would be a few that would leave (which would probably be a good thing). But in general, most good teachers welcome parents in the classrooms.
http://www.seethroughny.net
You can see the actually salaries of individual teachers by last name. I went in and just put in some common last names, Jones, Brown, Anderson, etc and pulled up salaries in the 6 figures quite often.
NY is a big state with a lot of teachers, get a couple of more states like it and the average numbers start skewing up and up.
And am I jealous of mechanics? Oh no, my BIL is one and I wouldn't do his job for twice my pay - of course, he wouldn't do mine either, so everything works out in the long run...
Behind every godless and socialist school teaching godlessness and socialism stands the voting mob and armed policeman who **will** kill the citizen if sufficiently resistant.
Behind every government teacher forcing godlessness and socialism on innocent children stands the voting mob and armed policemen who **will** kill the citizen if sufficiently resistant.
There is a better way!
Fundamentally, government schools are a First Amendment and freedom of conscience abominations.
Also....I hope that you are NOT advocating or promoting the idea that those opposing government schools should organize a tax revolt or civil war. If so, it will be YOU who have armed agents at your door.
Finally...Ideas are the most powerful things in the universe. That we and universe exists at all began as a glimmer of an idea in the mind of God. In the 1950s when Milton Friedman proposed vouchers people thought that was a idea that would never get any traction.
Yeah, whatever.
Didn't advocate violence -- wipe off your screen.
Have you seen KhanAcademy.org?Khan has the lectures available gratis, online - just add "homework" feedback. There's a school which uses his lectures as homework, and has the students interacting with the teacher and with each other to do the examples necessary to get the student up to speed. So the teacher isn't giving the same lecture over and over to different classes, and the student can listen to the lecture at his own pace. He can pause, and rewind, as needed.
Very interesting approach.
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