Education Myths

Our local editor wrote an interesting piece about public schools. A hypothetical $1,000,000 school could also represent ten $100,000 schools, one on every corner so to speak. I mentioned this to a teacher friend and immediately she allowed that this would cost too much, because ten times the number of teachers and related personnell would be required. Isn't this a rather odd thing for a teacher to say on its face? Anyway, what the educational elites have done is homogenized and mass-produced education - it is a commodity and no deviation from the desired outcome is wanted nor tolerated. Big, regional schools with a standardized product is the mandate.
In another ten years you will not recognize this country.

Now that's the sort of errant pedantry up with which we should not put. :)

huh? :)

bttt

It is just part of the Florida story. Together with the Texas results Florida A plus provided part of the rationale for No Child left behind, broadly called the standards movement. And yes, it has received wide coverage by the local press over the years. Teachers unions bitterly opposed and resisted the testing and grading with every specious objection imaginable. Things like teaching to the test were widely aired on local talk radio. But the proof is in the pudding, as the cliche goes. One year, a gratified local teacher actually said, " We were underestimating these children."

This is one of the biggest school districts in the country, and improving scores and competition have allowed educators to identify those who need improvement and incented them to find ways to make it happen. Next year they will actually pay teachers in the bad schools 20% more than others to get good teachers to stay and do the hardest jobs instead of transferring to the cushy jobs.

I went from college teaching to comission sales. There is absolutely no comparison between the hard work of teaching and real world performance based enviornments. That is partly because teaching, while very hard at first, gets to be easy after a while as you do the same thing year after year.

I think your observations are exactly right in every respect. I would just add that I tutored young women who came here for the equestrian season for a couple of years. That involved keeping up with the "work" sent by their fancy public and private high schools. We got that done every morning in three hours, so they could spend the afternoons riding and jumping their horses. It is almost criminal to incarcerate young people in schools and waste half of their days. Meanwhile, educators just want to extend the length of their sentences, as in the CA preschool initiative. In 1979 I found out that many can endure all of that and start college reading at the third grade level. They haven't learned anything from teachers who are driving Mercedes.

That is nonsense. There is a lot of research, and many students do learn very well. But children are different, and teaching is an art. What has been missing is that learning has not been the metric by which schools have been measured. Attendance was the basis for funding. Consequently, teaching sometimes declined to babysitting. The best proof of that is the concept of the substitute teacher who need not know the subject or the children.

No, you have a couple of misconceptions. I have experience with them all. Private schools are better because they are acountable for providing a high quality education for each child. Public schools are wrapped up in a lot of excuses and play the class warfare game. Most teachers come from low socioeconomic backgrounds and take that out on the kids in the classroom.

In this respect, the best enviornment is actually the Catholic school which is rigorously egaliltarian based on the belief that each child is made in the image and likeness of God. Schoolwork is a form of worship. Christian schools may be the same. I don't know as they do not consider me qualified to teach there.LOL

I have had numerous dealings with my local school administration. In fact, they have my picture up around their water cooler with a "Dead or Alive" stamp on it. Never have I seen a group of people who drone platitudes and yet do so little to live up to them. Everything is always "for the children." But when you ask them to deviate in any way from their standardized, one-size-fits-all, square peg programs, they just laugh at you. Your child is not supposed to be unique in any way, and if he is, they will either crush that difference or send him to Misfit Central (of course, it will be innocuously euphemized to something like "Alternate Scheduling" or "Challenge Environment").

Ironically enough, dealing with the Schoolosphere has forced me to learn vast amounts of chicanery, legal mumbo-jumbo, and bureaucratic procedure. I'm getting so good at it I could be a public servant.

bump

Well, I'm not sure about that-as I have 29 years teaching experience in public schools. The teachers that I work with do not come from low socioeconomic backgrounds or take anything out on the kids.
I teach in a conservative county in a conservative state-no unions. What I find to be most frustrating these days in the public arena is that my time is spent cutting through bureaucratic nonsense, filling out endless paperwork, writing the same information on 5 different forms that I'm not sure anyone even looks at or cares about instead of where it should be which is focused on student learning. Maybe this is end of the year steam letting-our last day was Friday-hooray!
You said that you taught at the college level? What do you do now?

But in reality, the average teacher in a departmentalized school (where students have different instructors for different subjects) taught fewer than 3.9 hours per day in 2000. This leaves plenty of time for grading and planning lessons during regular school hours. Nope, normal load is five or six hours. In some schools, it is like he imagines. In some, it is like wrestling alligators, except that alligators have more interst in the subject.

Understand that I take his point. Teachers are NOT underpaid, unless you are talking about the rare math or science teacher with a major in said field. Back in the '50s after Sputnik, I was at a high school which hired a physicist to teach a senior class in physics.

If the physicist was hired as a secondary teacher, he was probably not a very good physicist nor a very good teacher.

You know the old saw: If he can't do; he teaches. If he can't teach; he becomes an administrator. If he can't administer, he becomes a consultant. If he.............ad nauseum.

Your comments fit the title of the article very well. Myths. Educators perpetuate myths especially the ones that they can prepare chjildren for a real world they know nothing about, including sociology. I am retired.

HOMESCHOOL PING

This is a long article about public school, not homeschooling, but homeschooling is discussed on the thread.

And finally I'll just throw this out: If vouchers are implemented, don't you wonder what will happen to private school test results? Seems to me, private schools would lose their 'exclusiveness'-which is a huge point of private schools, isn't it?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Do you have children? (Just curious)

The reason people send their children to private schools isn't "exclusiveness" it is for the physical safety of their children, less exposure to drugs and early sex, and a better education. To ascribe the motive of seeking "exclusiveness" to parents with these motives is highly snobbish and grossly unfair on your part. Your own words condemn you and stand for all to see and judge for themselves.

I do KNOW that teachers get far more vacation time and have the shortest work day of any other worker that I know. I have many teachers in my family and I KNOW that they are not putting in the off-work hours of other professionals. They do NOT have 24/7 responsibilities, are NOT on call, do NOT wear beeper, if they are not at their top form of a day no one will die or be permanently injured.

You can bleat like sheep all you want about how hard teachers work but the rest of us KNOW better. Like me they too have teachers for relatives, friends, and acquaintances.

Also, thankfully we have the new media and the TRUTH about government schools and teaching is finally getting the press it deserves.

Well, good morning to you too! Wintertime, I was wondering when I'd hear from you-you are one angry human being! You guys make such sweeping generalizations (all teachers this and that). You don't know me or anything about the way I teach.
In my county, over $8,000 is spent per pupil. Is that a lot of money-you're damn right it is! Too much? In my opinion, you're damn right it is! We have everything you could want, book and supply wise. I do not have to go in my own pocket to provide anything for my students which is nice for me. I don't live in the county where I teach and wouldn't want to, tax wise.
Are teachers overpaid? In some places, yes they are! I make a good living and am compensated very well for it. We don't have unions here --just the chapters of NEA of which I am not a member and never have been.
Work load? I'm not going to get in a pissing match with you about how hard I work. All I will say Wintertime is, if the teachers you know don't put in the hours required to do their job, than they are probably crappy teachers. And are you as charming to them as you are to us on FR?
Certification: It doesn't matter a damn how many degrees or where they are from-a bad teacher is a bad teacher. We have teachers going through National Boards at my school right now. Do they represent the best of the best? No. In my opinion, they are doing it for the money! Around here, most teachers come in with a Masters-it's built into their college program. Does it make them a better teacher? No. In my opinion, good teachers become that way over time and with experience.
Vouchers: Didn't mean to come off as snobby. But come on-you can't tell me that some people don't put their kids into private schools for the exclusiveness of it. Families have been doing it for generations-it's just how it's done. I'm not talking about you personally! I think competiveness would be a good thing. In this world where everything is 'fair' and no one gets their feelings hurt-people and schools get lazy. Schools should not EVER be that way. I'm not against school vouchers. I was just posing a question about the impact on private schools. (And man I got my answer!)The article states there isn't one but they only did the study on K-2 (or was it 3?). I'd be interested to see what happens in the upper grades. (hold your fire-I'm just wondering)
Class size? I don't care what anybody says-it does have an impact. Period.
Do I have children? No I don't, but if I did, I would do a LOT of research before deciding where to put my child-would I choose private school? Well, Id try to get my kids into the school district where I teach-it's not bad! If I could afford private education, I would definitely consider it! And yes, I do pay some pretty hefty taxes where I live too.
We're not all the enemy. We all do not have blinders on as to the problems in public schools-we live with these problems day in and day out. After 29 years, I've had just about enough of it and look forward to getting out next year. Yes, I will get retirement benefits-believe me I am grateful. It's not enough to live on but it's more than a lot of folks get.
I'm not quite sure what you are soooo angry about. Do you just resent the fact that you pay our salaries? Are all the schools around you that bad? Are the test results low? Are stupid ignorant people being turned out of your public schools? Are teachers' salaries that exorbitant? Maybe they are where you live. Do you have unions where you live? If you have complaints, I'm sure they are founded--take it up with the folks where you live-but don't lump every one of us together-
Have a nice day.

In our county, of the five school districts, not one has negotiated a contract that has teachers helping to pay the cost of their health care premiums. NOT ONE. Our District has ~750 students. We've lost ~100 students over the last five years due to the aging of the district residents, students moving out of District, etc. The US Census projects that population will continue to drop.

Yet even though the assessed value of the property in the District has gone up ~8% in 5 years, the tax levy has gone up ~70%. That's incredible.

No, it's not all due to teacher health care. Costs such as the mandated state retirement system contribution have gone up, as well as fuel, special ed costs, etc. Our District is keeping more of the special ed students in District. We're trying to cut costs, yet provide a good education. But health care costs for both current teachers and retirees are going to cost the District plenty in the upcoming years.

I do KNOW that teachers get far more vacation time and have the shortest work day of any other worker that I know. I have many teachers in my family and I KNOW that they are not putting in the off-work hours of other professionals....You can bleat like sheep all you want about how hard teachers work but the rest of us KNOW better. Like me they too have teachers for relatives, friends, and acquaintances.

Is that your problem with teachers? Have some of the teachers in your family made you mad?