Very sad

[RWilson2526]

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 keep in mind that Superintendents in NJ used to be a tenured position. When they got rid of tenure is what led to high turnover and skyrocketing salaries because school districts were competing for the good ones.

[randlemanboater]

My wife is a teacher, she teaches 3rd grade.

She tells me all the time how she feels like she is failing the kids because she has to teach them the answers to the end of grade tests instead of actually teaching them life skills.

"No child left behind" is leaving us all behind.

[RidgeRunner]

Originally Posted by randlemanboater

My wife is a teacher, she teaches 3rd grade.

She tells me all the time how she feels like she is failing the kids because she has to teach them the answers to the end of grade tests instead of actually teaching them life skills.

"No child left behind" is leaving us all behind.

Nailed it with so few words. And I voted for it, who woulda thunk it to be such a bad idea. Last year to have the proper class size my daughters class was half first grade and half second grade. What??

[RidgeRunner]

Actually, I disagree with the handful of retard statement above. Lest them be some big hands. Leno goes walkabout asking grown-ups similar questions and the results are equally as stunning.
The admin. assistant to the Superintendant of Schools in Polk County, FL. starts off at a mere $125,000+ benefits. Supers make $140-150K/yr Teachers start at $36,000 + benefits. School Board members make $35,000. Why does a admin assistant make a six figure salary? Who is most important to the education of the children? Let me go at it from another angle, Mrs. $125,000 fails to show up Monday morning because she stayed up too late watching the Superbowl. Who does her job while she is away and does that interfere with the development of the children? A. Nobody needs do anything and the children have their regular lesson plan. Now, let the $36,000 teacher miss Monday morning and see what happens?

I know why the education system is in a constant state of chaos in Florida. Aside from using tax payer dollars to bus children all over the county to have the proper ratio of black,yellow,brown, and white. The teachers must base their lesson plan on the least advanced in the class while trying to focus on teaching the entire class enough book smarts to pass the FCAT. So we hamstring them with English as a Second Language students (Students of Migrant Workers and Illegal Immigrants) and then hold the teachers feet to the fire on test scores. At least one Charter School around here, weeds out the weak children to make their ranking look better. If it was up to me I would not allow any tax money to go to any school that:
1. I never had the opportunity to attend.
2. My child does not have the opportunity to attend.
3. Gives underperforming students the boot to maintain their ranking.

I can tell you that I absolutely love it when my daughters Title I school comes back with a higher ranking than the magnet schools and even some of the Charter Schools. It warms my heart and you can thank the parents and the teachers because it is obvious they care. Administrators? They may care but how would we know? How can anyone judge the performance of a glorified paper pusher.

[lumberslinger178]

Originally Posted by RWilson2526

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 keep in mind that Superintendents in NJ used to be a tenured position. When they got rid of tenure is what led to high turnover and skyrocketing salaries because school districts were competing for the good ones.

Rob this is the best explanation on this thread ... Both my daughters and son were in the top 20 to 25 percent of there graduating class ...out of an average of 700 kids per graduating class and I know theres a lot of kids shinning in SOUTHERN REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL and a hand full that brought stupidity upon themselves.....I know some probably cant answer some common history questions but could blow your mind on on others.

[phatdaddy]

gotta agree with ridge on the charter schools. public has to take anyone who crosses the doorstep and adjust learning to their level or language, charters can pick and choose and still take monies from the public section. if you want to start a charter school and teach what you think is important, that is fine, just don't expect the taxpayers to pay for it. the thing that is sad to me is the high performers and the special needs students are the ones getting all the attention, the average kids are the ones getting the fuzzy end of the lollipop.

[THEFERMANATOR]

Well my wife is also a teacher, so I see both sides of this arguement. No child left behind has turned into a monkey F$$KING A FOOTBALL as far as eductaion goes. The administration could care less about kids learning life skills so long as they can pass teh FCAT and get that gubment money. Schools now get there budget dictated by how well they do on the statewide standardized test(FCAT down here). If they do poorly they get less money, but if they do better than average, they get bonus's. It's all come down to test scores now down here. My wifes school she is at noww 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, and the kids now have the control in the classroom. Parents are mostly to blame, and my own mother is no exception to this(In hidsight I'm lucky my father was the one that brought the hammer down, but at the time I hated it).

Most parents now believe it is up to the teachers to motivate and educate to make the kids want to put down there phones and Playstations and learn. If the teacher doesn't motivate them properly, then why is it there responsibility to do anything(or at least this is how they see it). Our educational system has dropped off to but a glimmer of what it used to be even 15 years ago when I went. Now kids graduating high school barely know how to ad, and there are some who don't even know how to read and comprehend the English language. Why should a high school teacher need to be educated and certified in reading comprehension?

Wasn't elemenetary school around to teach kids the basics? Wasn't Middle school for teaching life skills? And wasn't high school to teach a person the basic skills to get through life and survive? Now elementary school is a large state funded day care where some kids learn letters. Middle school is where they get a basic understanding of letters and numbers, and High school is where you teach them how to comprehend the english language and pass the state mandated tests so that the school system acan get that gubment check. And yet many parents(at least down here) are screaming saying they are putting to much pressure on kids, and that the standards should be changed even more.

So it is a sad state of affairs all around that boils down to we the people, who most of anymore just don't seem to care. Theer are many good teachers out there, but for every good one there are 10 who just don't care and are working the system.

[RidgeRunner]

The first 3 to 4 weeks of a school year is spent determining how many new enrollments there were and adjusting the class size. FCAT don't get me started.

[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!!