Teachers

carnation · #14 06-03-2003, 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by kateshort

In still other cases, the parents think their kids shit gold, and *you* must be the reason that Johnny is misbehaving and stuffing erasers up his nose instead of doing his homework.

Silver Turtle, sorry--I just now saw your question to me! The main reason that education is going to hell in a handbasket is the one quoted above by kateshort. Many principals refuse to support the teachers because they're afraid that the parents will sue the school. A kid makes bad grades? The principal blames the teacher. Low standardized scores, bad behavior? The teacher's fault.

I would rather teach in a school in a poor neighborhood where you never see the parents than one like my kids go to where the parents are always up the teachers' noses, ready to tell them how and what to teach-- and scream at them for disciplining their little darlings. The teachers really do get a lot of grief when students make less than an A because you need a 3.0 to get a HOPE grant to get free college tuition in this state. I think that anyone who can't pull a 3.0 in high school doesn't need to go to college just yet.

One school where I taught had many students who had severe psychological disorders (for instance, obsessive-compulsive disorder that interfered with their and other students' ability to learn) or obvious learning disorders and the principal would order us to ignore it because the parents didn't want it in their kids' file. You can not ignore some behaviors, especially when they stop you from teaching.

I like teaching. I like kids. I can't stand principals and parents who are self-absorbed jerks and that's why I teach at a college...professors rarely have to deal with that kind of crap. Campus political shenanigans are nothing compared to what teachers have to endure in secondary schools.

Right now, there's a secondary school that has offered me an incredible salary to come teach there in the fall. If I go, I'll keep teaching at the college at night so I'll have something to return to in case "crap happens".