Posted on 09/04/2007 6:11:12 PM PDT by A_perfect_lady
Awesome.
Would you be allowed to play a Books for the Ears story? If you subscribe to the newsletter, you will receive about one a week. I have a hugh collection. Somewhere.
I used to get a book on tape, play it until the big climax, and then make the kids read the book to find out what happened. Worked every time.
Pretty simplistic and ridiculous, I was the jock goofball drunk above average student. If you told me I could just not go to school, I would have left. I would have had more time to work on my street rods, but I would be a far less productive member of society. The education I got in an upper class suburban Boston atmosphere has done me well. I was always an avid reader, but I generally disdained formal education. What I needed for the future was forced upon me, and that was not a bad thing in retrospect.How much disipline would a child tearn if it was not forced upon them? My brothers and sisters were brought up in a strict household, I came later and was let to do as I pleased after about 16 yrs old. It is not a wonder that my older siblings got over their adolesence by the time they graduated college. I got over mine around 30 yrs old. Kids, like puppies need to be coerced into the right way of living.
Pretty simplistic and ridiculous, I was the jock goofball drunk above average student. If you told me I could just not go to school, I would have left. I would have had more time to work on my street rods, but I would be a far less productive member of society. The education I got in an upper class suburban Boston atmosphere has done me well. I was always an avid reader, but I generally disdained formal education. What I needed for the future was forced upon me, and that was not a bad thing in retrospect.How much disipline would a child tearn if it was not forced upon them? My brothers and sisters were brought up in a strict household, I came later and was let to do as I pleased after about 16 yrs old. It is not a wonder that my older siblings got over their adolesence by the time they graduated college. I got over mine around 30 yrs old. Kids, like puppies need to be coerced into the right way of living.
I would go even further than what I said before -- and suggest that the very idea of "public education" is completely incompatible with a free country.
Books for the Ears sounds great. I’ll check it out!
Then there's the thing that if you're in a government school, once hired, you can't be fired and are guaranteed a raise whenever the union gets its back up.
Other than that, it's a tough job.
“It’s absurd and anti-life to be part of a system that compels you to sit in confinement with people of exactly the same age and social class. That system effectively cuts you off from the immense diversity of life and the synergy of variety; indeed it cuts you off from your own past and future, sealing you in a continuous present much the same way television does...”
– John Taylor Gatto
Yes, those vacations are what keep me alive. I think this next one I’ll spend job-hunting. There has to be something better than this.
Wow...this is what my daughters have to look forward to, isn’t it? They’re both teachers in OC...but our “climate” is changing here, too, rapidly.
I have no wonderful ideas for you...I like what al baby said about your having 8 kids who WANT to learn. Give THEM what they need and want!
You have my utmost respect for what you’re doing...
You have every reason to vent.
I once asked an experienced teacher what was the most important quality that a middle-school teacher could possess.
Without a moment's hesitation, she replied, "A bad memory."
When I asked why, she said, "If you remember tomorrow what the little monsters did to you today, you are likely to kill them."
Good idea.
Please don’t stop teaching...perhaps a DIFFERENT school district...but please stay.
If you cared enough to vent today, you care about those kids and the impact you can have on their lives.
Move out of state perhaps (easy said, not always easy to do...).
I don't know whether to laugh or cry!
I know I couldn’t do it (even with my own kids who are generally well-behaved!). Thanks go out to you.
And if you do end up finding another job - you’ll never really quit being a teacher. You’ll just lose your class and forget your principals. ;)
Now the "Mayor" is butting in, and I doubt that he will have any valuable input, except to try to provide even more baby sitting services and freebies for "his" people, adding to the nanny state mentality.
“Don’t forget the part about taking off 3 months in the Summer, 2 weeks around Christmas, and a week each around Thanksgiving and “Spring Break”
Obviously you don’t teach.
“you can’t be fired and are guaranteed a raise whenever the union gets its back up.”
Does happen and since when?
Don’t worry. Genghis teaches math. ;^)
Think about a career change.
If it makes you feel better...
I subbed for a gym teacher last week. The teacher explained that she normally has very structured activities for the students, but she'd decided to just let them play Capture The Flag. I ended up sending so many kids to the nurse's office they practically wore a path in the floor!
During my last class, one student grabbed another and was dragging him across the floor, just as I opened my mouth, the boy let go and the other kid's head bounced off the gym floor.
Sent the sobbing kid to the nurse with a buddy, gave the first kid a warning. The buddy comes back with an incident report for me to fill out. I'm filling out the paper and trying to keep an eye on the game, when the same creepy kid grabs another student and throws him to the floor.
Ok, hurt child #2 to the nurse accompanied by buddy with the first incident report, violent little creep is banished to the office. Buddy quickly returns with incident report number two.
That class leaves, and the next class was ordered to SIT and DO NOTHING while I fill out this paper! Then, I found some bean bags and allowed them to play catch with the additional order that NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO TOUCH ANYONE ELSE!
I've never felt so incompetent in my life! I kept expecting the nurse to come in to find out who the idiot teaching gym was.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.