and for far too many years, far far too many “conservatives” have gone along hook line and sinker with all the “raise teacher pay” scams...not realizing that probably 20 years ago, we crossed the rubicon into over pay under perform.
So I guess that means they need more money, right?
Maybe we should pay students instead.................
Overpaid teachers tuning out illiterate students
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Yep. I know one that just retired. He is 52. I have known some that retire as young as 47.
Nice reward for a subpar performance.
Its amazing to think that there were better education outcomes in decades past.
For example, Dunbar High School in Washington DC was a prominent black high school back in the days when DC had legally segregated schools. Today its just another ghetto school.
At one time, people wanted to live in New York City because of the reputation and quality of the NY public school system.
In rural America, some places had the proverbial one room schoolhouse. Yet students learned to read and write.
And has the state of public education improved since Jimmy Carter created the Department of Education???
Something to consider. According to deToqueville America’s literacy rate was higher BEFORE we had public schools.
In home schooling our 8 kids we discovered that it is much easier to teach a child to read that to teach one to wash the dishes correctly.
But for now I'll limit myself to just one item. For most of my career, I've taught physics. Now, as any engineer or physicist will tell you, “torque” is a pretty important topic in physics.
But I'm not permitted to teach torque! Why? It's for the simple reason that torque is not in the detailed syllabus that I must follow. Oh, I teach it anyway. But should a supervisor walk in while I'm doing so, I'd have some serious explaining to do. And I could be fired for repeat “offenses” of this nature.
In a similar vein, we went through a period of years (thankfully over) when we were not allowed to correct a student's mistake until the next day. That was the bright idea of some outside consultant.
So, for example, if a student said "E=mc^3", I was supposed stop teaching and form discussion groups on that topic, but not mention it was E=mc^2 until the next day. That would have been an enormous time-waster, and I never did it. lucky I was never caught.
So yep, public schools are full of problems. But don't underestimate the constant interference good teachers must endure from outside consultants, supervisors who are looking to make a name for themselves, undisciplined students, etc.
(sorry for the long rant)
Recently I sent a gift to a graduating, college-bound high school student.
His mother insisted on thank you notes (a good thing), but they looked as if they were written by a second grader who could not spell (not so good). This boy should be going to trade school, but, no, college material, the family thinks.
Here are some more big Massie words:
http://conwebwatch.tripod.com/outthere/otmassiethesaurus.html
The reason the students seem to be illiterate is that the administration will not allow anyone held back even though they are not passing or doing grade level work.You can’t teach a stone !
“tuning out” or “turning out”?
But are they being socialized? I am told that is the most important thing.
My 14 year old granddaughter, a freshman in high school, called the other night for help with her math. The assignment on the second day of school was to graph inequalities in one and two variables.
My gd is smart so I asked her if she forgot the rules for inequalities that shhe learned in class. She said the teacher did not teach that day, she just broke the class into groups and told them to figure it out collectively. Seriously.
So I taught her inequalities and wrote a note on the one problem that was so incoherent Einstein could not have solved it indicating just that to the “ teacher”.
I worked at a Hallmark store some years ago. Some young girl was trying to pay for something with change; and, honestly, she didn't seem to know the difference between the actual coins. When I put together the coins that would add up to the cost of the item, she just looked totally blank, as if she could not figure out how I did that.
I remember having sheets of paper printed with the coins and their denominations, when I was in grade school (just turned 61), to help teach us what coins are worth how much and how to put them together to get certain amounts.
Do the public schools no longer even do such basic preparation for living in the world?
Fill the classroom with Einsteins and money won't be a factor. But what if the classroom is filed with kids that can't compute? That's the problem educators have when the public expects Einsteins.
