Alate_One
Well-known member
Yes, very much so. There are certainly bad teachers out there, but it can be hard to tell the good from the bad. And today parents tend to blame the teacher first rather than the child.
Who does the Bible say is responsible for teaching children, especially in a city, especially in a city where both parents work?
Why? :idunno:
This is ever the cry of the taxpayer. I was reading where tax collectors ran into farmers with guns before or just after the Revolution. The end of the story is the tax collectors got him. He didn't have to worry about taxes after that.Considering people should not be forced to pay for somebody else's education, especially a grossly perverted and intentionaly misinformed one, they are over paid.
I'm not sure about everywhere, but here in WA its tough getting into the MA teaching program (must have a 3.0, have 5 letters of recommendation, must maintain a 3.2 or 3.4, etc.).I say: raise the pay and with it the standards for admission into a teaching curriculum. We think it's important? Then make it as difficult to get into as a Master's program. And cross compare/track student performance between classes to get an idea of the effectiveness of the teachers. Let that control raises or firings.
Unions - I'm not sure their agenda was/is to help teachers. I think they have larger more sinister motives. I just don't trust them any more either - I kept hearing rumors that some of their funds went to organizations that promoted things in which I did not agree... after 11 years don't want to quote exactly what the rumors were due to being unsure ... but thinking that the pro-choice agenda was part of it.
There are a number of groups along with the teacher unions that provide platforms of influence for the more liberal people among them to push their agenda upon our public schools... like three other groups, which I won't mention, because they even scare me! I personally watched representatives from all 4 of these groups stand before a state school board to exert their subtle pressure upon the school board members. They were so sly ... each professing to only be giving their opinion without making demands ... but each of them also reminding the board members of the money their organizations have provided for schools in the past, or of the law suits that had been brought against other school systems in similar instances, or of the unrest that a disagreeable decision would bring among their members which would affect education.
While mere parents showed up with only the power of their words. I will say this. Home schooling began to grow in my state after this. I wonder if people seeing how weak the State School board system was ... and even our legislators were in this situation as they faced off against these liberal lobbying groups with clout had some influence on its growth.
The State school board punted the ball to the state legislature ... and a legislative committee then just tried to solve things with vague verbiage... but the intent of all this maneuvering, in my opinion, was not done to help teachers, students, or parents... but rather was done to further the ideology of liberal minority groups within public schools.
Well, this is off the topic ...but was prompted by Chrysostom's comment in post 31.
I say protect our schools in some way from these types of outside pressures... which are more political than helpful. Our school board members are elected and can be voted out ... but not these power groups. I, personally, don't know how to protect our schools from them, but surely there are minds better than mine to ponder it.
A teacher once told me that she believed she was very well paid for only having to work 9 months out of the year
Where do teachers only work 9 months out of the year? Sounds great. But the school year in Texas runs over 9 months, and we have to stay current in our discipline on our own time in the summer.
Yeah, it's low-paying. Traditionally women did it, and that's still affecting the pay. I always wanted to teach, but couldn't afford it until my kids were grown.
But yesterday, I got an e-mail from the mother of a troubled kid, who was very pleased about the work I was doing to make him successful.
You can't buy a feeling like that.
do you have to belong to the union?
and
what portion of your pay goes to the union?
The pay sorta sucks, and the government doesn't exactly want thinking people.
That's why education quality is abysmal.
The system would be streamlined a whole lot if public schools were turned into worker-owned, democratic cooperatives, and they were subsidized (if at all) according to the quality of the education they offer.
People tend to think that education is all the educators doing. It is not. We have a great deal of opportunity for education in this country, but it isn't a given. That is what we need to protect - the opportunity. If you make it so that good schools are expensive, only rich people's children will attend. It is that simple. This will turn "poor" schools into holding pens specializing in damage control. The opportunity is gone - and children will have even greater difficulty doing better than their parents did.
California has started many charter schools and it has been a good thing. It puts standards on the teachers and the students. The dismal state of public education can be directly linked to the lack of standards on teachers & students. Good students should not be held hostage in these "holding pens" just to be fair to the children that are poor students, disengaged, uninterested, et al. Nor should I as a taxpayer be forced to educate my children in a substandard school with substandard teachers and curriculum. Vouchers allow competition,and competition breeds excellence.
thank you for that
did you have to join the union?
and
how much did it cost you?