Is school for children way too easy these days?

[Jill]

Even if they get paid low it shouldnt matter. When people pick careers typically its picked because its enjoyed and its not about the money. Also most know the pay range of a job before they decided to get in the field. I dont by pay as a reason to suck.

Right on, Ashley!

 

[disneyhorse]

Right on, Ashley!

I totally agree!

 

[Miniv]

Even if they get paid low it shouldnt matter. When people pick careers typically its picked because its enjoyed and its not about the money. Also most know the pay range of a job before they decided to get in the field. I dont by pay as a reason to suck.

EXACTLY.

And, by the way, private school teachers are almost always paid less than public school, however, their students (in general) test higher in all the basic subjects.

 

[Katiean]

School...Don't get me started!!! :arg!

My brother pulled his kids and opted for an "ON LINE SCHOOL". I do not think it makes any difference in Nevada. We have less than a 50% graduation rate. Is it the parents fault or the teachers? A couple of teachers at one High School say " you won't do the homework we are not going to give homework". Does this help the students? NO!!! The teachers are just tired of the bull from kids that do not want to be there. Anyway, the kids do their on line work in about 15 min each day. You can not learn anything in 15 Min's a day. Then checking the grades they have all "A's" all quarter long and then when grades come out it is an "F". Then the kid doesn't even want to try. How can you go from an A to an F over night? The oldest one is the only one that has gotten an academic warning. The other 2 have gotten no warnings and still gotten an F at the end of the quarter. What gives? What are they grading them on? Schools suck lately. I am so glad that I do not have to deal with it.

 

[jayne]

Well, I've found it interesting to follow this discussion because I am a high school teacher and have been involved in public education for almost 20 years, either as a teacher or administrator. I am currently teaching English (American Literature to mostly Juniors) for an on-line public high school. I taught in a 'brick and mortar' school for 15 years prior to teaching on-line, and I can, without hesitation, tell you that the curriculum for my current class is as rigorous, if not moreso, than anything I have ever taught in a regular school. My students have probably 3 hours of reading a week, plus at least two quizzes and a writing assignment. From the very beginning the whole course is laid out for them...each assignment, when it's due, and how many points it's worth. There is no mystery about what it takes to pass or get any grade. For example, if there are 1000 points available all semester, you must have 600 (60%) to pass, and an A is 900+ points which is 90%.

I didn't choose this occupation because of the pay and have always been happy with what I have made. What I have objected to, however, is ridiculous changes that the state and country have put into place because of 'no child left behind' that if anything, leaves kids behind. If you have time, please read the following article. This woman is much more articulate than I am:

I don't want to be a teacher any more

I want every child that crosses my path to be successful in my class and work very hard to make sure that they have every resource they need to learn, and that includes required reading and homework. I guess I don't know how to do it any other way. With this age group, however, some of the motivation has to come from them. That is where things get tricky.

Jayne

 

[Marty]

Normally I would defend teachers. I think they are over worked and under paid and a lot of their supplies come from their own pocketbook. But not in my county! The school system here is HORRIBLE! They do not care about teaching! And they use "no child left behind" I think as an excuse for them not to be teaching. We have plenty of kids here that cannot read or write, end up quitting school and that seems to be ok and acceptable. NOT WITH ME.

It is so bad here that I took my kids out of this county school system and moved them over to the next county where they did get a good education. To do this we had to buy property there and establish another residence just to get my kids in that school system. We had to provide their own tranportation back and forth every day by driving them 60 miles round trip and boy that was a pain and a half but we got our education and diploma in hand.

 

[CharlesFamily]

EXACTLY.

And, by the way, private school teachers are almost always paid less than public school, however, their students (in general) test higher in all the basic subjects.

I do have to take exception to this - comparing public schools with private is like comparing apples and oranges. Public schools educate EVERYONE regardless of what language they speak, what handicap they have, or any other issues. Private schools are not required to do so. If a child is disruptive in class and takes the teacher's attention away from teaching the other students repeatedly, they can be asked to leave. They also do not have to provide special education services. Some do, but it is not required.

Also, typically, private schools have much lower class sizes. I know some of our private schools around here have a class size of 10. That's smaller than my special education class! And typically, if you have parents who are willing and able to pay for private school, then you are dealing with parents who value education for their children and are supportive of their children and the teachers trying to do their job. Sadly, that is not always the case in public schools.

I will not blindly sit here and defend all teachers. Just like any occupation - there are good and bad. And I suspect that the OP's children do not have some of the best out there. But, you cannot imply that private school teachers must be better because their students perform better even if they make less money. There are too many other factors to make that judgment.

Barbara

 

[wade3504]

Well, my son got his diagnostic test scores back today. These are practice FCATS. Anyway, on his reading he got a 4 out of a possible 5. We don't really have problems with his reading teacher. On his math he got a 2 out of 5. The lowest you can get is a 1. I wrote a letter to the teacher about him not understanding the homework and we tried explaining it to him but he wasn't understanding us and was it possible for her to explain it again. We also asked if tutoring through the school was available. She told us that he did well on the quiz on angles that they had the day I sent her the letter and that was what his homework was on, but, get this, hee only missed several because he didn't name the angles right. THAT WAS WHAT THE HOMEWORK WAS! How do you do well on a quiz if you missed several? She then tells us that he doesn't qualify for tutoring through the school and we need to hire a private tutor. Well, how low does the diganostic score have to be to qualify for a tutor? Also, if you'd stop letting him take tests over multiple times (more than twice), he would qualify. They don't plan on doing anything for him untl after FCATS. That test is in the beginning of April and school ends mid June. Nothing like putting it off so they don't have to deal with it.

With what is going on about private schools I have worked at quite a few. Yes, the class sizes are smaller but we had just as many discipline problems as any public school and we also had special needs. Actually, some of the parents pulled their kids from the public schools and put them in private as the kids kept cauaing so many problems at the public schools and of course blamed the school for their child's behaviour. Well, it didn't get any better when they moved to private.