Posted on 08/07/2005 3:18:14 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Yup, for 180 days of work, it's a pretty good deal.
...and for as little as three weeks training, we....
Sounds like a late night infomercial.
I would note that you couldn't pay me enough to spend 180 days with as many as 30 pubescent teenagers!
Salaries may not be the greatest, but you might do it for the bennies, especially the health care bennies. The bennies in our budgets are what's eating our district alive. And will the teachers deal with this fact with any reasonableness? No. They think they're entitled and have no problem believing you can get blood out of a stone. No wonder Johnny can't read, write or do arithmetic.
I note how defensive the education professors seem in this article. Apparently they are worried about losing control of the teaching pool.
I would let my child be taught math by a former corporate professional, but I don't think I'd let them do brain surgery on them.
Maybe she needs to break out a dictionary to understand the meaning of hyperbole.
There are more than a few NEA hacks who haven't learned it in a lifetime . . . as evidenced by their results.
Most business people are required to do presentations to clients, colleagues and prospects. The only way this differs from teaching is the audience. If schools routinely pushed detention, suspensions and expulsions for disruptive behavior, little Johnny would be forced to make a choice between listening (or at least pretending to) or something far more unpleasant.
The problem is the entitlement mentality places the "rights" of the few disrupters to get an education above the rights of the many to learn.
That would also make the teachers' jobs easier. But I don't see our local teachers clamoring for that. It's all money, money, money.
I don't know about all that, but I do know that if you don't know how to teach, it doesn't matter how well you know the subject.
IMO, the most valuable skill a teacher has is communication. I think ex-drill sergeants will be great teachers in the subject of their choice.
Some of that is controlled by the courts, at least in some states.
And I know I've had students in the past who were told by a judge to "go to school or go to jail." Of course, they chose school, but I never noticed anyone monitoring to make sure they were behaving or attempting to pass while at school.
That would be my guess too. I would take the opposite view. That someone with a solid background in sciences and some common sense could teach any high school science course after a two week course in teaching techniques
...most valuable skill a teacher has is communication. I think ex-drill sergeants will be great teachers in the subject of their choice.
I actually know a person like that. He is absolutely superb teaching either adults or kids at our church. He is well-qualified to teach anywhere. The local school district (AVERAGE salary $60K) will not hire him because he doesn't have the right connections. He commutes to Maryland (4 hours drive away, home on weekends) to teach in a "last chance" school-- basically disruptors who have been expelled from their local public schools and get a final chance to straighten out or go to reform school.
The greatest waste of time during my entire academic learning was teacher education courses.
teachers are ALWAYS complaining about disipline. The problem is that is is becoming harder and harder to kick a kid out of class for ANYTHING. If a teacher is too hard on discipline they might be chewed out by the Admin for bothering them. I've seen it again and again.
Oh, and teachers do NOT get paid vactions. We are paid for 190 days of work and thats it. Summer is without pay. Christmas, Thanksgiving, Spring break, any day that is not a student day or teacher work day those are UNPAID vactions.
Enstein would have trouble teaching math if he could not control the classroom. The hard part is learning how to deal with all these different personalities that walk into your room everyday with ALL the baggage they drag in with them. Teaching is hard work.
In today's society discipline is the first order of business for any public school. It is job one! Nothing can be taught with without classroom order and a calm learning environment. The troublemakers (disruptors) have to be exiled from the classroom.
That's pretty amusing. My wife is a teacher, and the health care stinks. The provider her school district chose is nothing more than a bunch of common thieves.
I plan to report them to the AG of my state, as well as Elliot Spitzer, for a pattern of racketeering this week. They've lied to me, cut me off of phone calls, stalled, and tap danced, everything to keep from paying a bill that they agreed to originally.
That's one reason so little is being taught in some schools. So many children have received no training or discipline at home, and the parents don't want the teachers disciplining their little darlings either. Often they are willing to go to court (or the media) to complain about teachers "mistreating" their children - remember that kindergartener last year?
The courts say that all children have the right to a free public education, so it's very hard to expel students, because it denies them that right.
Some children are considered behavior-disordered or even mentally ill. Both of those are special education designations, and both are considered disabilities. If a child's misbehavior is a result of his or her disability, he or she can't be expelled (or even in some cases, suspended) because of it.
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.