Replies

I thank you for your comments.

It is very unsettling to share one's experience and perspective in an open forum. I don't think enough actual teachers participate in our democracy and join this national dialogue about education. Perhaps we should try harder. (As if we have the time...)

I teach in the Bronx. I often wonder if my life would be more enjoyable and rewarding if I got myself hired in a religious, private, or voucher funded school. Sure I'd make less money, but maybe the kids would be more like me, use more of the same social conventions (syntax, etiquette, values) that I was raised with. I mean, why should I have any compassion for children of immigrants and welfare parents? Why would I keep trying to inspire, motivate, and equip these other American citizens to succeed in their education?

All my flag waving, bible touting relatives tell me to get out of there. They say the public school system is doomed and they don't want a penny of their taxes going into it.

Well, that's why I'm there. I'm a dedicated teacher. Everyone who says these kids and their schools are a lost cause are the problem. Public schools are made up of a kid named (***) whose father is so determined to have him succeed that he practically beats him if he gets anything wrong on a test or hesitates for a second in solving a math problem. Inner city schools are also made up of a tiny girl named (*******) with learning disabilities whose father is in jail and whose mother speaks no English and maybe never will. What is that like? Move your family to China, see how much Chinese you're speaking in a year.

Everyone has an opinion about how to change education. Every politician has a slogan. Every school administrator has ten slogans. Every Houghton Mifflin or Harcourt Brace has a billion dollar solution. Every DOE has "a new push." Even the teacher's unions have millions of pages of forms and contracts. What has that got to do with the lives of these kids? What has it got to do with mine? None of that affects what I succeed at day after day.

I entered the education field because I believe in the power of education to improve an individual's life. The more young Americans we prepare for a productive life of service, innovation, and worthy contributions to society, the better our country will be for our own children--and for the children of disadvantaged, uneducated children.

I realize that an ignorant conservative is going to post in response to this. I'll be called a communist. According to the usual uneducated conservative rhetoric, I don't exist. The 30 struggling children I teach should give up their 28¢ and their caring teacher to an upstate school where the kids already speak the English of their white parents.

Since, according to these know-it-all conservatives who have never taught a single 4th grader, putting more money into education lowers test scores, so why not support legislation that forces me to spend even more of my own money in the classroom? My wife and kids would proudly make the sacrifice, we're white Christian Americans.

Why do you other professionals get to deduct thousands off of your taxes for unreimbursed job expenses (2106) and teachers get only a few hundred?

I realize that an ignorant conservative is going to post in response to this....Since, according to these know-it-all conservatives who have never taught a single 4th grader

Fascinating, which is it? Are we all ignorant or know-it-alls?

And why should anyone bother to post since you only signed up today to rant and insult - only to disengage and hide tomorrow?

Perhaps, being a worldly and wise Bronx 4th grade teacher, you can educate us how children with disabilties are being taught in Canada, Finland or Korea and why we are failing? Perhaps you can explain why school systems in the US and around the world perform better than your with less spent per pupil? Perhaps you can explain why others succeed where YOU fail, with much less money spent per child? Even better, perhaps you can explain why conservatives are ignorant know-it-alls when they attended the same public schools their smart open minded liberal peers attended?

You're not succeeding day after day, and it is long past time you took responsibility for that.

I entered the education field because I believe in the power of education to improve an individual's life. The more young Americans we prepare for a productive life of service, innovation, and worthy contributions to society, the better our country will be for our own children--and for the children of disadvantaged, uneducated children.

I agree with you totally on this, and most of the rest of what you said. You really should have toned down the 8th paragraph, however: it's bad form for the newbie on the block to start throwing mud at the old-timers.

You are correct that many conservatives (and many liberals as well, I'm sure) are insular. Perhaps it's human nature to prefer to only associate with people who are like us, and either pretend the "others" don't exist, or think the "others" are inherently inferior in some way (intellectually, morally, ethically) - but in a country like ours, the "others" will not go away.

Many people on this board have a hard time understanding that not all parents are caring, educated, moral people as they are.

I think the picture of father going to work and mother staying home and educating the children is a nice one, but what does it have to do with the 16 year old mentally retarded girl I taught, who had 2 children out of wedlock and an extended family on approximately her intellectual level? Do you think that girl, or anyone in her home, is capable of effectively homeschooling those children, if indeed they are capable of learning?

I could go on & on, but I don't have time this morning.