Posted on 04/18/2006 5:23:39 AM PDT by 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.
Have I been to a publich school recently?
Yes, and this is what I saw...
Clean hallways that are decorated in red, white and blue with American revolution murals. The hallways are named after founding fathers;
Kids that habitually say 'sir' and 'ma'am';
Programs that compete at the state and national level in academisc, athletics, and JROTC;
Teachers and staff that are neighbors and people you're likely to see at church;
High school kids who are involved in mentoring programs for the elementary and middle school children;
Kids that make me proud and confident in the future.
And that school is a reflection of the community.
However, I've often said that if a local school sux then it then it, too, is a reflection on the community.
GIGO Garbage In, Garbage Out.
Like it or not, FR is not a judged "writing" contest. If it's a strain on your little brain to read something not in paragraphs, then I'd say you have a problem, and probably a victim of PS's:) especially given the fact that you seem to only feel better about yourself running someone else down.
Like it or not, on FR or anywhere else, people are more likely to read what you say if the formatting, spelling, grammar, and so on don't distract from the content.
IMO, those of us who self-identify as public school teachers have a special obligation to use at least decent writing skills, lest we feed on certain prejudices about how stupid and incompetent "publik skool teechurs" are. That's not to say that we don't all make typos and errors from time to time....
(And am I the only one who finds something ironic about one poster complaining that another "seem[s] to only feel better about yourself running someone else down" after the first poster makes sarcastic comments about the other's "little brain"?)
"Interesting here that you say destroy him."
It could have been a freudian slip, I guess. I was implying that the lockstep education he hated didn't destroy his love of learning. If education is supposed to destroy or corral something, like military bootcamp does to individualism,then it needs to put something in its place like esprit de corps developed in the military. I'm not sure it does that except it seems to concentrate on socialist notions of common good over individual good, without the justification of battle exigencies which animate military training.
What education does is try to fit all pegs into preshaped holes and it tends to be painful for pegs shaped different than the hole educators have in mind. The results vary: (1) Some persons are just shaped like the peg and enjoy school. (2) Some persons are able to adapt and at least temporarily mold themselves to the hole. (3) Some adapt, seem successful but are miserable. (4) Some fight it all the way and get bitter. (5) Some fight it, survive and get along all right but with bad memories of education. I fit the second category. My husband the fifth.
I certainly don't mean to imply that educators set out to destroy people. It's a byproduct of one-size-fits-all education.
My own story is similar to your husband's. I was terrible in high school and hated the school, teachers and the kids. I was small for my age and I got picked on all the time so I understand the current obsession with bullying.
I graduated but just barely making the graduation list in 1965. After HS I went in the Army and did very well and made the max in rank, pay and awards. When I got out of the Army serving in Vietnam from 1966 to 1969 I worked for 3 years. At the ripe age of 25 married and with a career going nowhere I started college against my will.
I graduated going full-time in 3 years on the GI Bill and began a career in the computer industry in 1976.
As you point out that there are pegs that fit and in the Army I fit pretty well.
If I were to be in high school today I'd need prozac or some other drug. I need a lot of structure in my life and without dicipline I fall apart. The kids today who are like me will fail. That is why I feel so strongly about this subject. The system doesn't work for people like me.
Thank you. I don't know about the kids loving me, but I sure do love those kids.
I completely agree with you. You look for a way to solve the problem. Often, I find that many (not all) things can be solved rather simply and in not so much time. Of course, there are always difficult things, but it's looking to solve problems and improve things that counts.
I wasn't placing blame, but saying these kids have done well because of their own merits, not because of their lousy teacher. Yes, there are multiple factors on things and that pertains to problems in all sectors of life. I just am trying to do the best I can to be to be an asset rather than just the first three letters of that word.
Phonics are the bedrock of my reading program. Each year I discover new phonics rules and implement them. Of course, the fact that they get a kids' meal every time they advance a grade level in reading seems to help out a little bit too. :)
Right, and we can put a man on the moon but we can't structure education to fit more people's style. How I wish educators could be more flexible and allow kids to learn in the best manner for them. It seems that recognizing differences in people is seen as discriminatory, rather than discriminating, and therefore verboten. When education stops being one-size-fits-all, we will have a real advance.
For educators out there, I know it's very difficult to achieve that when you are teaching 25-30 students per class period. But people like me didn't need prozac. I needed quiet privacy and a computer that could teach me as fast as I was willing to learn, and let me concentrate for long periods on subjects I had trouble comprehending. I think then I could have learned more with one-tenth the teacher and student interaction I had in school. Would I have sacrificed people skills? I doubt it. I had plenty at home and church and among my friends. A few oral reports, a couple of joint projects with other students is all I think I would have required. What I needed was benign neglect from teachers, and then my teachers could have spent their time with students who needed that one-on-one instruction.
Here is an expert of some of the scholarships won by these students.
100% of the members of the Class of 1999, the Class of 2000, and the Class of 2001 received Florida's Bright Future Scholarships.
The 27 students in our first graduating class earned a total of $640,000 in scholarships.
The second graduating class (35 students) earned a total of $1.8 million in scholarships.
The third class of 36 students earned $1.1 million in scholarships.
Our fourth graduating class of 41 students earned $1.5 million in scholarships.
Last year, they had 2 perfect SATs, 2 perfect ACTs and placed at the top of the state in Florida's FCATs. These IB programs are truly the "Honors" classes you desire to see and I hope you research this program for a future career choice.
FReegards,
DocRock
Yes we Freepers are all that.
But we still know to how create paragraphs. ;^)
Where is the school you beautifully describe?
I have friends who drive their daughter across the state line every single day so she can attend Catholic school rather than let the animals (yes, I said it) in the local public school at her. God only knows what language, habits, or "culture" she might pick up there, let alone the fact that one can't learn in anarchy. It's not that there aren't any Catholic schools in their state, it's just that they're full. Gee, I wonder why...
"There's multiple things to consider and we shouldn't be making excuses and such.
Exactly. There is a difference between saying, "There are two students in my class that are disruptive" and "Our "children" are beasts."
One is a statement of fact that allows for ideas to flow about what should be done to fix the situation. The other is simply an excuse about why I am not doing my job"
Yeah? Iz'at reallly what you think? I defy you to spend a few days in a local PS as a teacher. Let's just see you try to "teach" these little savages. Let's see you try to control a classroom full of "gangsta" wannabee's and future rap stars. Let's watch you try to maintain order when the boys tell the young girls that all they want is to "get laid"- make a comment to the boy about respect for the "young ladies" and listen to the bunch of them- girls included- giggle at such a silly notion. I would love to be a fly on the wall when the kids are so out of control you call an administrator- a young woman with 4 inch fingernails and spike heels- only to have her come waltzing in when she feels like it and laughingly tell the kids they are "disappointing her", giggling like the girls. After this precious left, I had to face a class that were, then, absolutely sure there was not a thing I could do about them.
Go ahead, Toots- give it a try.
Sefton,
Thank you for your post. There have been times when I truly knew what I wanted to do, and I expect to feel that way again. I don't have the strength or the YOUTH to take on the public school system, so it is my intention to find a nice little private school somewhere or a quiet little college and there I will stay. I teach history because I love it. I love the kids who care about themselves enough to learn. I'm a long way from quitting completely. I just have learned to "pick my fights".
You are a bitter failure who is making excuses for not doing her job.
I taught for three years under condition that you could not begin to imagine and I continue to teach adult literacy on a volunteer basis.
Sorry you aren't up to the challenge Toots. Go make noise somewhere else. I am sick of you.
Some of the (very) young teachers coming into the system now worry me a bit...spelling, writing and grammar seem to be an issue they do not regard with much importance. Perhaps the emphasis on computer skills IS more important for some now. I know of a young teacher in geography who's classes are all about how "evil" WalMart is. Perhaps geography isn't important either...
HAHA!!
I, too, found myself in need of a breather while reading the passage.
Hrumph!
Why did you only teach under those conditions for three years? Is your volunteer gig any better?
In other words, future liberals - just as planned.
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