Bad teachers or the system

[SWTXBelle]

I may have an interesting perspective. I taught college for 12 years, and then AP English at a private school for 7. I currently homeschool my 17 year old and am on the board of a private school. When I graduated with a B.A. in English, I had twice as many English courses as someone who graduated with his/her education certificate. I never planned to teach, but God had other plans . . . and when I looked into 1.) going to graduate school to get my M.A. and education certificate or 2.) getting a M.A. in English and teaching college - it would have taken twice as long to be certified to teach, and the courses included a 3 hour course in making bulletin boards. No lie. I worked at a public high school whilst in graduate school, which made it easy to chose.
I was fortunate to work at a private school where the headmaster believed in hiring the best possible teachers and LETTING THEM TEACH. I was able to be creative and adjust my plans to suit individual students and classes. Many people are surprised to learn that private school teachers get paid LESS than public school teachers. But my sanity is worth something. As for measures of success - I have a file of Thank You letters from students who went on to be successful students at Yale, Harvard, U of Chicago, Westpoint, Stanford, . . .just about any top school you can name. My Scholastic Writing Award participants have won national Gold and Silver awards. Our school academic team was the state champion for the three years I coached it. We had an exceptional number of National Merit scholars and award winners. You get the picture. The biggest measure of success of course is students re-enrolling. If the parents don't think it is worth the money, they will not support a private school.
My sister-in-law works at a public school in Texas. She has to spend so much time prepping for tests in the spring that she sometimes doesn't get to teach science. Think about that for a minute.
I homeschool my daughter because I know that it is impossible for a teacher with over 20 students in a class to meet all their needs. I knew I couldn't when I was teaching college. If I pitched my class to the top 10%, I'd lose the other 90%. If I gave the bottom 10% what they needed, everyone else would be bored to death. And if I pitched to the middle, I'd lose the bottom and the top. In college it is possible to ignore the bottom 10 - 25% - they are ill-equipped for higher education, and will drop. Because I taught English, I was able to let the top 10% distinguish themselves with their writing. Some of the middle students were stunned to discover that they would not get a B for breathing. Many received their first Cs and Ds from me. I'd point out that C is average - so the majority of my students should, in theory, receive a C. I graded each paper on its individual merits, so it was possible there would be more Bs or Ds than Cs. Many of these students -who couldn't even write a grammatically correct sentence - had been receiving passing grades in high school.
But a teacher in a public school does not have the luxury of ignoring the students who need him/her most. I do not envy them the administrative hoops they have to jump through, the burdens placed on them by the educational theory du jour, and the often antagonistic attitude parents display. Read Teachers Have It Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America's Teachers a really good, through assesment of the problems, and an exploration of some possible solutions, associated with public education today.
My daughter has been tested with the Stanford Achievement Tests every year until this year - she's a junior, and she took the ACT today. She has consistently been in the 95 - 98 percentile. She is a solid writer, and has read an amazing amount of literature. Because she has been able to work at her own pace, she has really finished a standard high school curriculum already. She did not want to go to college as a 17 year old, so we will spend the next year doing college-level work and visiting colleges.
I am not alone - literally thousands of parents are opting out of a system that is unable, or unwilling, to change. I could go on, but instead recommend An Underground History of American Education to anyone who wants to know how we ended up in this mess. I wish I knew the magic wand to wave and make it better. I don't, but I do believe the first thing we must do is admit what we are doing now IS NOT WORKING.