Very sad

[lumberslinger178]

It would take me all day to type whats I'd like to say as I only use two fingers...lol

But all in all I have 3 kids all students of our public school system .. and I couldn't be more proud of them and what they have accomplished in the way of education ... they're up standing citizens smart polite and caring...
Ones an Occupational therapist ones going to school to be a physical therapist and the other is one hell of a Carpenter and a Gentleman......And my best friend.

[Destroyer]

Originally Posted by lumberslinger178

It would take me all day to type whats I'd like to say as I only use two fingers...lol

But all in all I have 3 kids all students of our public school system .. and I couldn't be more proud of them and what they have accomplished in the way of education ... they're up standing citizens smart polite and caring...
Ones an Occupational therapist ones going to school to be a physical therapist and the other is one hell of a Carpenter and a Gentleman......And my best friend.

And it's all because they have a mom and dad that cared for them, coached them and took the time to work with them when they needed help in their schooling. Well done Lumber

[RidgeRunner]

I wrote- "You cannot use Japanese education at 60 plus per class as a benchmark as to what works in American children."

Destroyer said "Sure I can the rest of the world does"

I can assure you that the Japanese education system is neither a model nor consideration to anyone in the Polk County School system. Maybe the rest of the world uses it as a shining example of how it "Could be done" so a benchmark it is, but then reality sets in. It wouldn't work in the typical American classroom and doesn't work in any other society.
We are miles apart in parental obligation. They start the children young and stay on top of them. The entire family focus there is to educate their children. Non-conforming students live in shame in their society and are considered a disgrace. Here, it is acceptable and we go out of the way to study the WHY? We come up with all sorts of labels and excuses to justify the behavior and categorize. Some excuses are legitimate to be sure, medical conditions and the like, but behavioral issues should not be tolerated to the extent they are.

[Destroyer]

Originally Posted by RidgeRunner

I wrote- "You cannot use Japanese education at 60 plus per class as a benchmark as to what works in American children."

Destroyer said "Sure I can the rest of the world does"

I can assure you that the Japanese education system is neither a model nor consideration to anyone in the Polk County School system. Maybe the rest of the world uses it as a shining example of how it "Could be done" so a benchmark it is, but then reality sets in. It wouldn't work in the typical American classroom and doesn't work in any other society.
We are miles apart in parental obligation. They start the children young and stay on top of them. The entire family focus there is to educate their children. Non-conforming students live in shame in their society and are considered a disgrace. Here, it is acceptable and we go out of the way to study the WHY? We come up with all sorts of labels and excuses to justify the behavior and categorize. Some excuses are legitimate to be sure, medical conditions and the like, but behavioral issues should not be tolerated to the extent they are.

Ridge, I completely agree with everything you said. You are 100% correct that the Japanese system would not work here, but I was not using that system as a model of how to do it, only the fact that they do, indeed, have classes filled with students. I'm afraid that you missed my point. My point was that class size has nothing to do with learning, rather it's how the class is motivated to learn. That's where parents, teachers, and indeed, society itself, comes into play. You can have a class of 100 students and if they are all motivated, they will learn. And conversely, you can have a class of 1 student, and if that child isn't properly motivated, he or she will learn nothing. See?

[RWilson2526]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012...t-always-fair/

All said I believe that NJ's teachers union is good for the employees and good for the school system. This though is the only thing that I find disagreeable with our NJ teachers union.....do the head honchos really need to make 300K plus for the work they do??

[THEFERMANATOR]

Originally Posted by RWilson2526

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012...t-always-fair/

All said I believe that NJ's teachers union is good for the employees and good for the school system. This though is the only thing that I find disagreeable with our NJ teachers union.....do the head honchos really need to make 300K plus for the work they do??

Anothe good question is why do teachers in NJ start off at $46-70K a year whereas most any other state starts off at 30-35K a year? I realize teh cost of living in Jersey is high, but alot of this I feel is brought on by the unions demanding higher pay for everybody(the whole trickle down economics).

As for the origanal discussion, I personally feel that political correctness is destroying our educational system. Since this post has started, I have questioned my wife a bit(without her knowing why) on some of the things she has to deal with as well as classroom size. I know this will come off mean and heartless to many, but why are we mainstreaming children who have actual severe learning disabilities? There are kids in her classes that can't hardly read, and will probably never be able to hold a job other than a bag boy at a grocery store. Yet these kids are in the mainstream population, so EVERY kid in the district must learn at the slowest kids rate. This in turn causes the entire state to slow down, and then rewrite the tests and how they do things so they can keep the numbers showing that the educational system is working. I know that this isn't the only issue by a long shot, and lazy parents of the nintendo generation are largely to blame for much of this as well(if the nintendo generation is this bad, imagine how bad the latest ones will be that don't socialize except for facebook).

There is much blame to go around, but I feel that alot of it can be blamed on political correctness and the whole liberal agenda.

[RWilson2526]

I don't think its true that a whole class is brought down to the level of the least abled student. This is my wife's area of expertise as she is a School Pyschologist and is responsible for designing a classified students IEP. (Individualized Education Plan). Special needs children have any combination of aids, in class support, pull out support (go into a separate class room for their studies) and greatly modified curriculum and goals set to suit their needs and abilities. And the severely disabled ones are sent out of district to a school more geared towards special needs children. (at an expense of t) At least here the mainstreaming is more for the social benefits of the child and as far as I can tell the other students don't suffer from the presence of these children. You may be right that that is how it works in Florida but it certainly is not that way here.

And yes the pay scale in NJ is one of the best for teachers although we have never seen a NJ district with a starting salary of 70K it is the norm to be in the low to mid 40's. (all the pay scales are public information and my wife looks them up frequently) But the way I look at it is the problem lies with the states that pay $32000 for a person with 6 years of college like Phatdaddy's daughter.

[lumberslinger178]

Originally Posted by THEFERMANATOR

Anothe good question is why do teachers in NJ start off at $46-70K a year whereas most any other state starts off at 30-35K a year? I realize teh cost of living in Jersey is high, but alot of this I feel is brought on by the unions demanding higher pay for everybody(the whole trickle down economics).

As for the origanal discussion, I personally feel that political correctness is destroying our educational system. Since this post has started, I have questioned my wife a bit(without her knowing why) on some of the things she has to deal with as well as classroom size. I know this will come off mean and heartless to many, but why are we mainstreaming children who have actual severe learning disabilities? There are kids in her classes that can't hardly read, and will probably never be able to hold a job other than a bag boy at a grocery store. Yet these kids are in the mainstream population, so EVERY kid in the district must learn at the slowest kids rate. This in turn causes the entire state to slow down, and then rewrite the tests and how they do things so they can keep the numbers showing that the educational system is working. I know that this isn't the only issue by a long shot, and lazy parents of the nintendo generation are largely to blame for much of this as well(if the nintendo generation is this bad, imagine how bad the latest ones will be that don't socialize except for facebook).

There is much blame to go around, but I feel that alot of it can be blamed on political correctness and the whole liberal agenda.

Ferm the starting salary for teachers in our district is 34-36K other towns pay a lot more ...and the closer you get to the getto the higher that salary
.... It sounds like a high starting salary but its not.... I'm not living in the lap of luxury were living week to week.