Posted on 03/16/2010 5:20:14 AM PDT by suspects
Which news story did you find more shocking: A 41-year-old New Hampshire teacher texting nude photos of herself to students, or 93 Rhode Island teachers and staff getting fired for doing such a lousy job?
“Touchy” teachers with 14-year-old Facebook friends? Been there, done that. But educators fired, merely for failing to educate? Now that’s new.
Not only did the superintendent of Central Falls High fire everyone from the principal to the parking lot attendant, but she got a shout-out from President Obama himself. A Democrat praising the mass firing of unionized teachers? That’s like Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad cheering on the Israeli Gay Men’s Chorus.
Something unprecedented is slowly beginning to happen in public schools, and it’s called “accountability.”
In Boston, some 200 teachers are being removed from underperforming schools - though they’re not actually being fired (more on that in a moment).
Meanwhile, infamously English-challenged Wilfredo Laboy’s career as Lawrence’s king of low-rent scammers is finally coming to an end. He’s facing prosecution and firing.
Just a few towns over, Whittier Regional High Principal Deborah DePaolo is in trouble for not showing up for work. And this is Massachusetts, where no-show public jobs are considered a fundamental human right!
According to the Eagle-Tribune, DePaolo has been collecting her $120,869 annual salary since December without doing a lick of work. When first asked about DePaolo’s absence, her boss, Whittier Superintendent William DeRosa, claimed she had a “paid leave” benefit in her contract. Once he was forced to make the contract public, however, the clause wasn’t there.
The School Committee’s new answer? “No comment.” But political pressure on the school is growing.
There is no profession less tolerant of criticism than public education. One negative comment about teachers on my radio show, and the phone lines...
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonherald.com ...
I’m hopeful that the NJ teacher’s unions will be brought down - or at least back into ‘reality’ with our new Gov. and people sick of their protected class status.
At face value it all ‘sounds’ great, terrific etc. I’m so cynical though.....anything that the Marxist applauds makes me extremely suspicious.
bump
My high school AP English teacher called us uneducated worms, illiterate clods, he ridiculed us on a daily basis for ONE error in spelling or grammar or an incomplete thought.
He was like a terrorist, you were always afraid going into class.
And, he was the best teacher I ever had, including the “illiterate clods” that taught at college.
He forced us to think before we opened our mouths or typed a paper.
I wish I could go back and tell him how his mean, arrogant, condescending, drill sergeant teaching style was the best way to teach…at least for the AP students it was
I chuckled at this line. I think if more Americans were put through this type of teaching method, we would have fewer liberals.
I also think that the unions enable (overtly support) the teaching styles of today that take our focus off of rational thinking and place it on a "what if" mentality.
I went to a trade school for high school, and my drafting teacher was the same way...it really does a lot for a young person to have that mentality drilled into them. It helped give me the motivation and focus to go onto college and earn every red cent that went to pay for it...
Something unprecedented is slowly beginning to happen in public schools, and it’s called “accountability.”
Or something else is going on. I say: Beware.
ML/NJ
Ah, the bad, bad teachers and the (utterly) predictable teacher-bashing responses. Is there a “Let’s get back at teachers” resentment gene out there in the population? You self-righteous clods out there calling for teachers’ blood would not even be able to frame your histrionic replies had you not attended school and received English lessons from that accursed lot, teachers.
What most of the articles about the Rhode Island teachers neglect to include is that the students in that district are mostly below the poverty line, mostly non-English-speaking, and do not get much encouragement or support for learning at home. Students like this usually also have spotty attendance at school because they are unsupervised at home, and often do not complete readings or assignments for the same reason. They have a higher percentage of being in foster care as well, and a much higher incidence of discipline problems in school.
These types of students do not exactly rush eagerly to school to acquire knowledge. Rather, they grudgingly attend school on threat of truancy charges. Even while in the classroom, they busy themselves with cell phones, texting, talking, drawing graffiti on desks, etc. Not paying attention, not taking notes. Calls to home from teachers usually results in about a 25% chance of reaching a parent or guardian, and they often don’t even know that report cards were even given out, let alone how their child did. Is it any surprise then that the kids do not attain academic excellence?
Teachers can only work with what enters their classrooms. They are not magicians. For the most part, they are highly dedicated people who teach because they have a calling to do so. In most communities, they earn a lot less than comparable people in professional or business occupations, even for having expensive Masters degrees as required in most districts. And their salaries do not reflect the NIGHTS they spend writing new lessons and grading papers, or the things they buy for their cash-strapped classrooms with their own money, never reimbursed. It’s not a job you leave at the door when you teach your last class if you’re doing it right.
It’s so incredibly easy to teacher-bash. All you need is a high level of ignorance and a lack of information about what teachers really face in the classroom.
Some of us have also had to deal with non-English speaking and difficult employees as well, without the fringe benefits of those in the educational/public sector. I agree with you that knee jerk teacher bashing is wrong, but understand that much of the resentment is based on the facts that us taxpayers have to face, especially as teacher and public employee pensions are bankrupting the states.
What most of the articles about the Rhode Island teachers neglect to include is that the students in that district are mostly below the poverty line, mostly non-English-speaking, and do not get much encouragement or support for learning at home. Students like this usually also have spotty attendance at school because they are unsupervised at home, and often do not complete readings or assignments for the same reason. They have a higher percentage of being in foster care as well, and a much higher incidence of discipline problems in school.
These types of students do not exactly rush eagerly to school to acquire knowledge. Rather, they grudgingly attend school on threat of truancy charges. Even while in the classroom, they busy themselves with cell phones, texting, talking, drawing graffiti on desks, etc. Not paying attention, not taking notes. Calls to home from teachers usually results in about a 25% chance of reaching a parent or guardian, and they often don’t even know that report cards were even given out, let alone how their child did. Is it any surprise then that the kids do not attain academic excellence?
Teachers can only work with what enters their classrooms. They are not magicians. For the most part, they are highly dedicated people who teach because they have a calling to do so. In most communities, they earn a lot less than comparable people in professional or business occupations, even for having expensive Masters degrees as required in most districts. And their salaries do not reflect the NIGHTS they spend writing new lessons and grading papers, or the things they buy for their cash-strapped classrooms with their own money, never reimbursed. It’s not a job you leave at the door when you teach your last class if you’re doing it right.
It’s so incredibly easy to teacher-bash. All you need is a high level of ignorance and a lack of information about what teachers really face in the classroom."
I concur wholeheartedly! Being a teacher myself, I am appalled at our society's gross lack of common sense. Blaming teachers for all of society's educational ills is pure, unadulterated IGNORANCE.
They were asked to work extra each day (less than an hour) and to work for 1 or 2 weeks (with struggling students) at less than $60 an hour. I think they were to be paid $30 an hour for the extra time. The unions refused and the teachers were fired.
See post # 14 for more info on this story.
“Most teachers are great.”
10% great
40% OK
50% Meh.
The union gives the bottom 50% job security and a way to hold the great 10% down.
Just out of curiosity, why is everybody’s first response to say teachers are great. Like every group, most are average.
Perhaps I am an optimist. I believe most people I meet and hang with are great. (Some are misguided, however.)
I happen to believe the problem with education is with the system and unions, not with the teachers, per se.
“Blaming teachers for all of society’s educational ills is pure, unadulterated IGNORANCE.”
Here, here! I’m just waiting for the home school nazis to find this and proceed to write lengthy screeds on how evil public school teachers are.
They, like some, won’t look at the whole picture. It isn’t the teachers not doing their jobs, it’s the students and their PARENTS not doing theirs.
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