[wintertime]

The government teachers on this board are, in my opinion, intelligent.

So?....If the FR government teachers posting on this board are intelligent, and on average teachers aren't too bright, there must be some very stupid teachers on the lower end of that bell curve. I hope your kid doesn't have one.

[Hardastarboard]

The fact that Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell aren’t lauded as national treasures from every rooftop morning, noon and night is a national disgrace. The fact that they are invisible to the MSM is a crime.

[goodwithagun]

Thanks, i m a pulik scewl teechur. Before I receive too many blasts from my Freeper peers, it is currently my planning period and I have completed all of my work.

I have mentioned studies about teacher ACT and SAT scores to my fellow teechurz. They are not too happy when they hear this. Of course, I’m just the token conservative in the teechurz lounge. Sadly I see many teechurz in my own publik scewl that are only here because they attended scewl here and now want to COACH here.

[fweingart]

That problem is the overall quality of people teaching our children.

Many of these blockheaded bozos can't find Cuber on a map, or name any state and they'll gaze at the map forever.

Yet, they continually are granted 'contract' raises every contract expiration time and wonder why their salaries buy so much less ignoring the fact that their undeserved increases cause inflated prices.

People are voting down school levies with increased regularity.

[mysterio]

If the FR government teachers posting on this board are intelligent, and on average teachers aren't too bright, there must be some very stupid teachers on the lower end of that bell curve. I hope your kid doesn't have one.

Most likely your kid does and doesn't. Just like any profession, there are good and bad teachers. In my experience, I have encountered a lot more good ones than bad ones. My parents have dedicated their lives to educating kids. I find the "worst schools in the world" to be complete and utter BS vomited on us by a sensationalist media that survives by selling fear.

[dinoparty]

Yes, there is much, much room for improvement ...

I am in a demanding profession, and many of my colleagues constantly criticize teachers, with their summers off, easy jobs, benefits, etc.

But the one thing I never understand is: if the life of a public school teacher were as easy as people say it is, why don’t smarter people become teachers? Is it the money? Yet, I don’t hear more calls for increased pay.

[Bob]

The government teachers on this board are, in my opinion, intelligent.

I'd suspect that the attitudes, core beliefs, and intelligence of teachers on this forum are in no way comparable to the average NEA-loving, leftist indoctrinationists that make up a huge proportion of the teaching profession.

[org.whodat]

The problem is a lot of teachers wind up teaching by default. my ex was a teacher, and had a brilliant mind, but she had zero common sense.

[Deut28]

public school ping

[txzman]

I went to college to become a teacher, putting myself through all the way - working 8 hours a day on top of it.

What I saw horrified me then - teaching future teachers how to cut out paper figures to paste on boards instead of filling their minds with the knowledge to impart to their students. After watching higher level student teachers get shocked in their internships, I changed my major to business and never looked back.

I thought it interesting that as an Air Force brat, everytime I went out of country and attended Catholic schools, I came home 1-2 grade levels ahead of my new public school. And when I went back overseas, my grades always went down as I caught back up. They made me learn, and taught me right.

[DFG]

In the late 80’s, I worked part time as a file clerk in the education department at my college. I looked at a lot of high school and college transcripts of education majors. A majority of these transcripts were filled with C’s and D’s. Dr Williams column is spot on.

[ladyjane]

There is a tremendous disparity among the children who come into our public schools. The average child comes into kindergarten with a working vocabulary of approximately 2500 words. The average inner-city child arrives at school with a working vocabulary of 400 to 500 words.

And the teachers are supposed to remedy that problem? Impossible.

[metmom]

Public Education Ping

This list is for articles relating to public education. mcvey and republican professor have asked me to take over the list. If you want on or off this ping list, please FReepmail me.

[metmom]

ANOTHER REASON TO HOMESCHOOL

This ping list is for the “other” articles of interest to homeschoolers about education and public school. If you want on/off this list, please freepmail me. The main Homeschool Ping List by DaveLoneRanger handles the homeschool-specific articles. This is becoming a fairly high volume list.

[DeLaine]

Thinking critically is a necessity for a teacher. Hmmmm.

[VOA]

bump for Walter Williams...
my favorite fill-in host for Rush!

[TruthConquers]

“...one of the first things we would do is eliminate schools of education. “

This is the crux of the problem.

Eliminate the schools of education, because the last thing they actually teach has nothing to do with a real education. Period.

[eleni121]

bump!

[Teacher317]

My SAT scores were in the highest 1% nationally, including a perfect math section. I left the public schools because I was never allowed to teach the best way I knew. I was written up for daring to challenge the kids even though, year after year, my kids were always in the top two in the district. (That darn woman at our rival school almost always my number, dagnabbit! But still, 2nd out of 16 ain't bad, either.)

NOTE: Write-ups including teaching mnemonic devices, even though we were encouraged to prepare them for the state test, and there was a memory section on that test... giving extra credit assignments that (horrors!) seemed related more to science than to math... posting a modified version of the Ten Commandments (which paraphrased each and eliminated religious references: Don't steal, don't lie, don't envy others, appreciate your parents, etc)... the very liberal principal was tired of my questions during faculty meetings too, so he was happy to see me go.

[JamesP81]

Were we serious about efforts to improve public education, one of the first things we would do is eliminate schools of education.

Agree in the strongest possible terms. Best teacher I ever had was one of my computer science professors. He didn't have a degree in education. He did, however, have degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science. In short, he was thoroughly familiar with the material he was teaching.

[Polonius]

As a history undergrad, I didn’t pursue a secondary-ed oriented degree because those students seemed to have as many required hours taking classes about theories of education as hours studying actual history. I think an over-emphasis on educational theory rather than the subject matter they will eventually teach could be part of the reason for this problem.