Very sad

[Destroyer]

There's a lot of truth in what a lot of people said, so I'm going to pick and choose a few lines from some of the remarks. Ferm said " My wifes school she is at now gives her timelines on when everything has to be done so that every student in the whole district is at the same place every day now. It pretty much comes down to the district as to how the teachers can teach." That reflects back exactly to what I was saying earlier about Teachers needing a certain amount of time to transfer knowledge to a student. Not every student learns at the same pace. Government's role in running our kids education is ruining it. They are the ones that now make the rules that everyone else has to follow. RW said "You cant tell me its a teachers fault that a kid doesnt know how many states there are or that the Revolutionary war gave us our independence.....How come the rest of the population gets out knowing these things? You cant take a video of a handful of retards and paint an ENTIRE system a failure". And for the most part he's right, but I would draw your attention to the fact that the subject called "History", that teachers are supposed to be teaching, tells us that the Revolotionary War gave us our independance, and the subject called "Geography" teaches that there are 50 states (not 57 like our esteemed president said). So yes, it is the teachers responsibility to teach those things, and if they see a student that is having a problem learning them it's also thier responsibility to throw up flags and see that the student gets the additional help they need. I'd also point out that my son was considered a "retard" by the public school system. (He's 22, is ADHD and has Aspergers Syndrome) Yet I asked him all the questions on the video and he answered all of them correctly. So it's not "retards" ( a name that I hate btw) that are painting the entire system as a failure. So what can it be? Well, to be sure, part of it is what Lumber pointed out "hold the parents responsible" And to a point, he's correct. As I said before, "it's their responsibilty to control and guide their children" But just blaming the parents is the easy way out. It's the same thing as just blaming the teachers, or blaming just the government, or, in fact, blaming just any one group, which is also wrong. The fact is that as I said earlier, "There is more then enough blame to go around for everyone". So, if everyone is to blame, what can we, as parents, as citizens, do to help correct the situation?

Hmmm...lets see.....

How many of you joined the PTO (or PTA) when your child was or is in school?
How many of you called and scheduled regular meetings with your kids school principal or their teachers?
How many of you have attended even one Parent-Teachers night?
How many of you took an active participation in your childs homework assignments, EVERY day?
How many of you even tried to infulence your kids education by running for the school board or the board of ed or whatever it's called where you live?
How many of you took an active participation in your towns government by attending town meetings, or better still, by running for councilmen or mayor or whatever your town uses as a form of government?
How many of you looked at or contacted your state Congressman or Senator or even looked at their records on how they voted on matters of education?
How many of you tried to vote out those people whose views you thought to be wrong, instead of just voting the party line?

Don't tell me that you don't have time, or that your wife did it, or any other excuse, because that dog won't hunt. It's YOUR responsibility!

Until you can say that you've done at least some of these things, and you want to see who's to blame for our kids getting a sh!tty education, just look in the mirror.

I wish to God I could write as well or as eloquently as Willy. His answer was by far the best of all, even mine. He nailed it in his first few sentences when he said "I hold all of us responsible. We have allowed a Teacher's Union and a Liberal Agenda to alter the intelligence of our children. We have allowed an educational system which has altered those things that made America exceptional and the greatest nation in the history of the world to be corrupted by a progressive agenda which views the U.S as an evil empire. You have an agenda based Educational Hierarchy that hires teachers with an absolutely left wing agenda to be hired and any teachers that express a truthful thought in these matters are not allowed to gain tenure therefore controlling thought and critical thinking in our education system. This entire system is breeding children without the ability to think critically, have no clue as to how great a nation they have been given, or what separates us from all the other nations in the world. This is our fault".

I underlined the last 4 words, because really that is the answer as to who is at fault.

Think about it.

[lumberslinger178]

The world needs ditch diggers too!!

[THEFERMANATOR]

The educational system as a whole has become a HUGE failure. Years back kids with learning disabilties went to a seperate class or school to learn what life skills many of them could comprehend. Now these same kids are mainstreamed so that every kid in teh class has to learn at the slowest ones rate. I'm not trying to be mean here, but many kids NEED to be taught differrently, and no child left behind has stopped this. There ARE some good teachers left out there, but most of them are fired or let go since they don't toe the gubment line. There is just so much wrong in education today it is hard to say where to start. I think we should start by going back to teaching life skills and holding teh kids responsible for there actions. Today if a kid acts out it is the teachers fault for not controlling there classroom better. To many today don't give the kids credit for there abilities, and I believe is a large problem with education today.

[lumberslinger178]

Originally Posted by THEFERMANATOR

The educational system as a whole has become a HUGE failure. Years back kids with learning disabilties went to a seperate class or school to learn what life skills many of them could comprehend. Now these same kids are mainstreamed so that every kid in teh class has to learn at the slowest ones rate. I'm not trying to be mean here, but many kids NEED to be taught differrently, and no child left behind has stopped this. There ARE some good teachers left out there, but most of them are fired or let go since they don't toe the gubment line. There is just so much wrong in education today it is hard to say where to start. I think we should start by going back to teaching life skills and holding teh kids responsible for there actions. Today if a kid acts out it is the teachers fault for not controlling there classroom better. To many today don't give the kids credit for there abilities, and I believe is a large problem with education today.

Years ago the majority of teachers were male ..... when I went through school now its mostly a females and with older grades in the inner cities where the problems exist the females have no control over these animals.
And even most males cant control them either.

[Destroyer]

Originally Posted by lumberslinger178

The world needs ditch diggers too!!

huh????

[reelapeelin]

My wife has been a teacher for 30+ years....and the answer is obvious...get big government the hell out of education...these people don't know anything about education, yet they sit up in an office somewhere and hand down stupid-@$$ policies like No Student Left Behind and dump meaningless tests on the schools that do nothing more develop a bunch of statistics and kill time for everybody....then they point at all the money they spend on education...$$ per student...which includes the money they pay themselves anf like Ridge says, all the top-heavy administrators...

When my girls were in school, ALL their teachers and principals knew me personally...I was on the school advisory council in every school they attended and instrumental in all their sports endeavors...too many parents see school as just a place to send their kids for the day....parents gotta be INVOLVED, and they just aren't doin' it...parents IN...govt OUT of education and it'll turn around quickly...but of course that ain't gonna happen...

[Destroyer]

Originally Posted by reelapeelin

My wife has been a teacher for 30+ years....and the answer is obvious...get big government the hell out of education...these people don't know anything about education, yet they sit up in an office somewhere and hand down stupid-@$$ policies like No Student Left Behind and dump meaningless tests on the schools that do nothing more develop a bunch of statistics and kill time for everybody....then they point at all the money they spend on education...$$ per student...which includes the money they pay themselves anf like Ridge says, all the top-heavy administrators...

When my girls were in school, ALL their teachers and principals knew me personally...I was on the school advisory council in every school they attended and instrumental in all their sports endeavors...too many parents see school as just a place to send their kids for the day....parents gotta be INVOLVED, and they just aren't doin' it...parents IN...govt OUT of education and it'll turn around quickly...but of course that ain't gonna happen...

100% agreement. As I said before, I was a member of the PTO (Parent-Teachers Org.) for all the years my son was in school. I might add that most of the parents in my town are involved and we do take an active role in our kids ed. Maybe that's one of the reasons we are ranked as one of the top 10 school systems in the state and one of the top 100 in the nation. But it comes at a price...a large one. Our property taxes are some of the highest in the nation. We recruit the best and we pay our teachers a lot of money. But even with all of that working for us, it's almost impossible for the teachers to actually teach. They are required to fill out form after form for each child and do endless paperwork to satisfy the requirements of some lame politician that has to justify his or her job by makeing the schools and the teschers jump thru needless hoops. Admittly this is just one of the needed solutions to the overall problem, but I think it's one of the major ones. There are others for sure, like getting rid of tenure so you can dismiss sup standard teachers. Paying the teachers you do have a decent rate of pay. Requireing parents to play an active role in their childs ed. Allow parents to send their child to whatever school they want...and that includes private schools. Giving parents that do send their children to private schools tax breaks since they do not use the public school system. Lots of other things that I'm sure others here can come up with.

[phatdaddy]

also have a wife in education, classroom teacher 17 years, assistant principal 5 years, principal 6 years and now county level administrator for 3 years.
what is it about V-20's that attracts education majors?

[lumberslinger178]

Originally Posted by phatdaddy

also have a wife in education, classroom teacher 17 years, assistant principal 5 years, principal 6 years and now county level administrator for 3 years.
What is it about v-20's that attracts education majors?

there cute!!!!