Been in a public school lately?

Apr.19,2006 | 13Sisters76

[13Sisters76]

I'm wondering how many have been in a public school lately, to see the awful mess they have become. Or to see, first hand, what kind of children we have coming up who will be running things one day. I teach at a public high school in a large south-central metro area. I started here this year. Before this, I had been teaching in the military system, which I now realize is very different from the regular public schools. The difference being that where parents actually have something to lose, they WILL control their children. I want you to know something of what it is like. Our "children" are beasts. They are rude, disrespectful, full of themselves, pretentious, out of control, sex obsessed and stupid. They know they don't have to behave because there isn't a thing on God's earth we can do to them. The teachers cannot control the classrooms and we can't MAKE them learn anything. These little savages breeze through the system learning as little as possible. It isn't a stretch to realize that if a few of them can write their name, play ball or recite the words to the latest rap song, that is enough to graduate them. I WISH everyone could see an example of their reading, comprehension and writing "skills". I can promise you, you would be outraged. What's even worse, they DON'T care. They don't want to hear about the future. They don't want to hear about excellence. They are stupid and proud. We spend a fortune on Special Education- would you like to know how most of that money is being spent? The resources of special education are being spent on kids who are too disruptive for a regular classroom. These kids aren't "differently-abled" for the most part. I had one little darling tell me that he was there because he didn't want to do the work. That's all. I would love to bring you all in for an afternoon with an "honors class". I MUST wonder what, exactly, are the standards for "honors". There are a precious few kids in these classes who actually ARE brighter than the rest and, for them, I feel a great deal of sympathy. The atmosphere in these classes, as well, is not the least bit conducive to learning. One cannot teach when one cannot control the classrom. One cannot control the classroom when one if faced with parents who view discipline for their children as a lawsuit better than winning the lottery. One cannot teach or control the classroom when one is faced with parents as stupid and worthless as their kids. I will be leaving the public school system at the end of this year. The very people who have allowed this state of affairs to continue will remain in place until the people of this country learn to stand up to the left wing education establishment who have helped to create this abysmal "black hole" and until parents are forced to take responsibility for their horrible kids. Until then, I urge the parents of young kids to get them OUT of it- private school, home school. There are other,FAR better, choices. I'm heading for some OTHER type of job. I wanted to teach; I wanted to make a difference. Now, I am just bitter and angry. And more conservative than ever.

[khnyny]

Welcome to Free Republic and thank you for your heartfelt post. In answer to your question, yes, some of us care very much about the current state of the public school system. The US public educational system (in a lot of cases, not all) has turned into an abysmal failure.

[AppyPappy]

I know a bunch of teachers and they would disagree with your assessment. It all depends on where you live.

[13Sisters76]

Oh, of COURSE! That makes perfect sense! You don't like my "venom" so pick at my paragraphs! tell me- do you walk to work, or take a lunch?
My post hasn't NEARLY the venom I felt yesterday after school. I'll give you some now. Are there, as I said, "precious few" kids in that school who actually want to learn? Yes. Do I feel bad for them? Absolutely. But there isn't one damn thing I can do. In case you missed it somewhere along the way, the public school system is a monolith. An entrenched bureaucracy with tenured and dug in socialists with an agenda. And while those of you with your rosey view of life have been painting a nice little world for yourself, these demons have been usurping your rights as parents and taxpayers. They live off you like parasites and work against you to turn your kids into exactly what they are right now- uneducated little "individuals" with rights that superseed your own.
You wish to paint me as "uneducated", question whether I am actually a teacher or not? Go right on with it if it makes you feel better. Your opinion of me makes absolutely no difference. I refuse to live with the world YOU have allowed. I CHOOSE to remove myself FROM it. The situations of my life make it possible for me to NOT have to live with it. I am better off without people who make excuses, shoot the messenger, choose to do nothing.

I'll tell you what I CAN do- I vote. It is the best I can do and I will continue to do that, at least as my little part.

[Republican Babe]

You would see corporations lining up to create centers for learning. Parents would spend school vouchers at this market place where excellence would be expected/guaranteed. There have been some experiments with vouchers but only to prove the idea unworkable and/or unAmerican. Both excuses only further the NEA's protection of their hold on the public school system. When taxpayer's demand that at least half of education money is spent to give family's this choice, vouchers will work.
I can see a place for the excellent teacher in this system. Those teachers who are wholly depending on the protection of the NEA will be left behind.....realize now that the public school system commands that: NO TEACHER is LEFT BEHIND.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Preach on Sister:) Rather you're a teacher or not, (and I believe you are), you've nailed it. And I wlll add, ALL PS's are equally bad, some may just be better at hiding it, especially to those that want so bad to believe their school is OK.

Becky

[FReepaholic]

...I'm your GRANDMOTHER'S age....

You're 100??

...I don't know much about formatting- or computers in general...

HTML Sandbox

[freemama]

I'm sorry that your teacing experience this year was so terrible. I completely understand. I taught public school for seven years before we started our family. My first school was in a small town in a northern state away from any large metro area. The children were great because, for the most part, the parents were backing up the teachers.

Then I moved to a suburban school in a metro area where city kids are still bused out to. It was terrible! Teachers quickly identified the students who had parents who would work with us and those families were our joy. We did what we could with the other students, but if they didn't want to learn, there was precious little we could do for them.

Look at your students. Who are the ones that want to learn from you? There has to be at least one! To get yourself through the next month and a half, those students are the ones who you try to teach. The rest is just crowd control. If they pick up anything along the way, great.

You probably shouldn't teach next year. It takes time to get past the situation you found yourself in. Please don't give up teaching if you love it, though. Shop carefully for your next teaching job. Public, private or parochial doesn't matter as much as attitude of the students and staff. Get a job at WalMart if you have to until you can ferret the right school for you.

Look for the small schools. They may not have all the things a large public school has and they may not be able to pay you as well, but they may be a much better fit for you.

[tcostell]

Like most social policy issues, this is an issue of incentives. We give schools more money per student to teach special education so ...SUPRISE....now there are a more special education children than ever.

We pay good teachers and bad teachers the same based upon their experience and their unionized contract so ... SUPRISE... the good teachers are unmotivated and the bad ones that can't be fired.

We have unmotivated good teachers and bad teachers that can't be fired so ...SUPRISE... the standards begin to fall and the costs begin to rise. They produce less education per dollar than they used to.

We need to find a way to put some rational incentives back into the process. we need to make it FAR easier to fire bad teachers and promote good ones. the simplest way to get that would be to implement universal vouchers. Then all the incentives will be put in place by market forces.

[jude24]

Then you need to learn to read. I had no problem at all reading it.

Wrong. Like it or not, people judge your writing - and bad writing gets in the way of even very good points.

I shouldn't have to work hard to understand someone's argument. I should be able to readily focus on the content.

[moog]

phonics leads to reading leads to correct spelling,
reading leads to anywhere you want to go.

As a first grade teacher, I couldn't agree more. That's why I place such importance on it because it IS. Every year I discover new phonics rules. Two of my first graders this year got up to a 6th grade reading level and all except one are above grade level. NO thanks to me, but to their parents, themselves, and PHONICS.

[MissAmericanPie]

I have taken my son out of public school and I am home schooling him. It's all you say it is, but it's also more.
Our school system has been on national television as the worse in the nation as far as being run like concentration camps.

The racism against white kids is rampant, while the entire school year can be bad, the first of the school year is most treacherous, if your child is attacked and puts up his arms to defend himself, or pushes his attacker away, he is considered as guilty as his attacker and faces in school suspension and a $250.00 to a $400.00 fine.

There are, of course, the usual Muslim prayer rooms, while Christian prayer is not allowed. There are drug and weapon searches with the students sitting at their desks while drug sniffing dogs and cops make their way around the class room sniffing book bags.

Near the midterm break the trouble makers will often drop out or do what that sort usually do, transfer around a lot, thankfully, leaving the rest of the kids in some kind of peace.

I'm sure many have seen the pictures of the riot at Parks Mall when high schoolers were let out of school early one day. What many do not know is that this same scene plays out at the mall every weekend. Parents use to take their kids to the mall on the weekend and leave them to meet up with friends and shop, it's become too dangerous to do that on some days.

My son was at the mall with a date on the way to the movies, being pushed and shoved, and called honkey, as they waded through a crowd of about twelve hundred "shoppers", when gunfire erupted between two gangs in the food court. Parents were dragging their terrified children under tables. The police showed up and put a curfew in place and began to chase the thugs out. Many jumped in the movie line, as if they were really going to see a movie, the cops figured that out and pulled them out of line. My son won't go near the mall now on certain days.

While some days I may allow my son to meet up with old school chums at a local eatery during school lunch hour, I generally keep him as far away from that insane asylum as possible.

[bonfire]

Thanks for being a GOOD teacher! I'll bet your kids love you.

[DocRock]

Have you had any exposure to the International Baccalaureate program located inside of many public high schools? If not, then I highly recommend researching them and if you qualify, you may want to teach these children.

International Baccalaureate

Last year, my daughter's IB program ranked as the top high school in the world in English Comp and World History.



These programs are not everywhere, but they are FREE!

[BeAllYouCanBe]

I can fully understand why American business farm out to other countries. Our educational system is grinding out wannabe rap stars with skills that barley let them say "you want fries with that"?

This is an important point to remember -- we are moving our high tech business to India -- we are using the best of their youth and making India stronger. As you point out our best kids can't fill all the jobs in medical, engineering and computer science so we go overseas.

My wife WAS A TEACHER but had to quit because of the out-of-control situation in Dallas schools. Most parents are in denial about how bad schools are and when faced with the facts of how bad it is, still believe their little darlings are not fazed by the chaos.

The special programs for disruptive children, lack of dicipline and poor standards all contribute to the problem.

My wife has had parents bring their lawyer to a parent teacher conference so that kind of shows that the parents don't want an education for their kids.

Very few administrators are committed to education anymore. Don't believe me? Go look at the mission statements most schools have today. They usually say, "To provide a safe and hospitable environment for our children." There is almost nothing about learning or education. The code word is "safe" which comes out of the self-esteem movement of the 80's.

Make kids feel good about themselves -- forget about education.

[khnyny]

I think Jeb Bush tried to get school vouchers approved in Florida recently, but the measure got defeated.

IMHO, vouchers are a good idea, but the teachers' union is a very powerful lobby who are hanging on to their tenure, benefits and anything else they can grab onto for dear life.

[Old Professer]

Lighten up; the writer is probably unfamiliar with the editor.

[LadyNavyVet]

You're right on. I have a very good friend who did the "troops to teaching" thing, i.e., went from the military into a classroom. He hated every second of it and quit after one year. The problems were numerous, but most began with the kids he was teaching who had never had a moment's discipline in their lives. The parents didn't care. He would call the kids' homes and beg the parents to take an interest in their children's educations, only to be told that they weren't getting to paid to teach, he was.

Most of the kids he taught had never actually passed a grade; they'd been "socially promoted" all the way to seventh grade. But the school system expected him to teach Algebra to kids who literally couldn't add two and two.

The kids didn't care that they were tragically ignorant. Many of them told him they were just waiting to turn 16 so they could drop out and sell drugs. They all thought they were going to be rich and famous.

My teacher friend was told point blank by his principal to pass all the kids on, regardless of whether they'd shone up to class, done any homework or passed a single test. No child was to fail, period. They argued bitterly and he gave the kids the grades they'd earned on his grading sheet; the principal changed all the grades to passing.

I could go on, but you get the idea. You've been there. I do believe there are good public schools in this country, but they are few and far between. The parents who can't be bothered to raise their kids coupled with a liberal education establishment have largely ruined public education in this country, and all the money in the world isn't going to fix it.

BTW, this was not an urban school. It was the only middle school in a county of 30,000 total population.

P.S. I homeschool.

[PLK]

Recent Experience: Our school district is one of the very few that does not have 5-day per week band/orchestra/vocal music class. Right now, they meet 3 days/week. Administration, in an effort to bring our music department "up to snuff" in this area, took the planned curriculum change to the Board of Education.

Long story short: the Board, in their wisdom, charged the Administration with getting feedback from the kids on what their "thoughts and feelings" were about this. So, in effect, the kids "voted with their feet" by refusing to pre-register for the music classes, and voicing their "disapproval" when the principal and vice-principal asked their "feelings."

The Board patted themselves on the back for making "data-based decisions." What a joke. The inmates are running the asylum! Can you imagine getting the kids' feedback about a change in math requirements? Ridiculous. But, that's the place we are in education. The kids rule supreme.

[bonfire]

"The mission of the xxx Local School District is to provide educational opportunities with expectations for students to achieve and realize their full potential. Accordingly, the xxx Local Board of Education is committed to providing an exemplary program of education in which students expect, believe and achieve"

This is our PS's mission statement.

[Shimmer128]

"I go to a public high school every day."

Are you bragging or complaining??