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Constant pressure to join the union. She left the classroom several years ago to help teachers on literacy programs half-time and work one on one half days with students having reading problems. She is strictly apolitical (a good thing, I guess, as most of my family are moderate dems). Had a lot of criticism for Bushs’ no child left behind as she felt teachers were teaching for test results rather than responding to the child's need. She now faults Obama’s stimulus as she feels the admin is scrambling to get all the funds they can, with no thought as to where the need is greatest.

As for the old time teachers, they were the best. In my one room school, the teacher taught til the lessons for the day were finished. My over-protective mother would become very upset on the nights I trudged home in the winter after dark as the teacher got involved in a particular lesson and went way over closing time. You would think that my two sisters and I would be at a huge disadvantage when we went on to a bigger town to High School where our peers had the perks of music, art, gym, cafeterias and school buses. Despite this, all three of us graduated second in our class. Most of the credit is due this dedicated teacher.

Had a lot of criticism for Bushs’ no child left behind as she felt teachers were teaching for test results rather than responding to the child's need. She now faults Obama’s stimulus as she feels the admin is scrambling to get all the funds they can, with no thought as to where the need is greatest.

I saw teachers teaching to the state test as well, both in TX and CA. I think if a test is written well, teaching toward mastery of the material on it isn't necessarily a bad thing. However, the teachers I saw were not interesting in teaching mastery of, say, the quadratic equation. But on how to very quickly plug in numbers without having a clue as to what the formula meant or was used for. Many top-ranking nations on the TIMSS (Trends in International Math and Science Tests) have nationalized tests and it doesn't dumb down their students - or teachers. I don't blame NCLB, since these teachers I worked with hadn't a clue themselves on what math is used for and would likely not have been teaching for real understanding, test or no test. Then, they would've just been skimming the surface of the textbook! Or whatever else. I don't know if the problems started with administrators, but it certainly didn't get fixed with those overpaid union....I better stop now ;)

As for the old time teachers, they were the best.

your teacher sounded amazing. Can you imagine how much trouble someone like that would be in today for keeping kids late? I had an awesome English teacher that really made me understand Shakespeare. And I never liked English before that. I worked hard and enjoyed it. She was just about to retire, and I think those types of teachers were leaving the profession when she did. My physics teacher was amazing too - got me interesting in physics, which later led to majoring in engineering. Conversely, my son's physics teacher told stories and left the classroom a lot. His english teacher for 2 years showed a lot of movies. :(