Actually, the problem is both - I am no fan of the teaching profession (trust me, I could fill a whole thread with my thoughts on teachers) but you have to recognize what teachers are facing in the classroom today. I did not graduate from high school all that long ago, but I was shocked at the way students today act in the classroom today. It is literally like a different planet.
These kids are typically discipline problems, and their poor attitude is often accompanied by some degree of learning disability, and that disability might be as simple as parentally-induced stupidity. In other words, they've been put in front of a TV, never read to, ignored, and not given adequate nutrition for cognitive development for their entire lives. I have dealt with kids whose single parent mom is in jail; I have dealt with kids that have been through a succession of foster homes for most of their lives; I have dealt with kids who live through abuse that you probably could not imagine in your worst nightmare. I have dealt with kids who have no food in their house, because whatever excuse for a parent they got stuck with pissed away the welfare check on alcohol or drugs. I have dealt with kids who have cognitive deficiences directly attributable to fetal alcohol syndrome, or maternal drug use. I have dealt with pregnant sixth graders. I have dealt with child sexual abuse victims. I have dealt with students who live with an endless succession of mom's boyfriends parading through their lives. And I'm just a sub who has been doing this for a few months.
These kids bring a whole lot of baggage to school with them, and someone needs to deal with it. If you leave it to the teacher, you take time away from teaching - and these kids already take a disproportionate share of the teachers time because of discipline or learning problems.
It is not as simple as you would like to believe. School social workers, in my experience, are not there to intrude on the personal lives of good parents, as some posters here would have you believe. They are there to help salvage the kids of people who are lousy parents - crackheads, alcoholics, criminals - Not exactly your typical PTA members, or poster parents for home schooling.
"I could fill a whole thread with my thoughts on teachers) but you have to recognize what teachers are facing in the classroom today. I did not graduate from high school all that long ago, but I was shocked at the way students today act in the classroom today. It is literally like a different planet."LD, I know "what teachers are facing in the classroom today." But, It was NOT parents that dictated the policies that made those conditions possible. Actually mandatory. Nor was it the teachers. It has been education "leaders" and union "leaders' who lobbied for the LAWS that made discipline in schools IMPOSSIBLE. Teachers WATCHED and acquiesced these policies handed down from "on high" that any scientient being would KNOW would lead to the chaos we have. As I wrote earlier, "home" life matters NOT a'tall when it comes to discipline.
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Children learn QUICKLY that when out of sight of "mom and dad", ANYTHING goes. And, since they ARE "mom and dad's little angels" they are believed by their parents. They DO "act right" at home. Bring back corporal punishment, and reform schools for those students who won't learn from a short period of stinging sensation that most times lasts for a lifetime. Of course, as a highly placed education counsellor told me, "We CAN'T call them "reform" schools. There is a bad connotation with that word."
THEN, get the administrations to BACK UP THE TEACHERS except in KNOWN cases of abuse. THIS STORY chronicles the adventures of a teacher who braved "inner city" schools. Note, too that "Josh" also puts some blame on the parents. But, again, which of the policies did the parents initiate? In their acceptance of the "violence {in ALL cases} begets violence", theory of morons, teachers have stood idly by and accepted the chaos creation policies handed down from "on high". In the beginning possibly from belief engendered by psychiatrists, but most probably later by fear of losing well paid jobs. It is a myth that teachers are "low paid". For the most part, their beginning salary is well above that of the parents of the students they teach. ESPECIALLY in "inner city" schools.
"It" is most certainly a MESS, but to blame parents is flat out wrong. When you and I went to school, there WAS discipline in the classroom! Most everywhere. Parents haven't changed. The system of education HAS. For the worse, DESPITE {because of??} the infusion of billions of dollars MORE to the education establishment. Peace and love, George.
That is why I am no longer a social worker, but a homeschooling mom. In a social worker's ideal world everyone will be a gay, black woman with three children to feed and no clue where the father is living. There is alot of practice for the "outer ear" and endless chances for "empathy" on the part of the social worker. Of course none of them know where the money comes from. Nor do they understand education, history or child development. These people ahve more influance over education and policy than is sane.