Teachers: have a great school year.

The rest of us have been hard at work all Summer so that you f***heads can keep turning out another illiterate generation.

Yup, its our fault. Absolutely none of the blame should be placed elsewhere. Thanks for clearing this complex problem up with such an astute and succinct observation.

The Mayor

Try it for a year. You may like it.

i started three weeks ago!

f*** teachers

soul sucker

My wife left teaching after nine years. It is such a demanding job for those who actually care about the kids.

Did she have co-workers that did the minimum? Absolutely.

In Virginia, they have these things called the SOL Tests (Standards of Learning). My wife got into the job for the creativity and the teaching aspect. As the SOL and NCLB (No Child Left Behind) requirements increased every year, she was left with no creativity and honestly, had to teach to the tests. As she explained "everyone doesn't learn the same but the government wants everyone to learn the same". Absolutely no "outside the box" teaching or thinking.

Her big problem was a lack of discipline at the school. Kids would act up and it was like the administration didn't do anything. Kids that 10-15 years ago would get in-school suspension (or outside--but that is like a free day off to kids these days), get sent back to the class after a "talking to".

The sole reason? The administration didn't want the kid to miss "valuable" class time. Translation....We don't want the kid to be suspended because he wouldn't be in class to learn what would be on the tests. When it came time to take the test, if the kid didn't learn that (because he/she wasn't there that day), then they wouldn't do that well on the test and it would make the school and the administrators at that school look bad.

When I was in 5th grade, I was locked in a box with no lights, no nothing, for three hours by the assistant principal. I was a hellraiser!

if the minimum wasn't good enough, it wouldn't be the minimum.

I like how teachers and others blame NCLB for the education woes in the US, as if our education was top rate BEFORE NCLB.

Bite me!

Here is my take on NCLB....

You can take a stupid kid out of a failing school and it's not going to make the kid any smarter.

Haji wrote:

I like how teachers and others blame NCLB for the education woes in the US, as if our education was top rate BEFORE NCLB.

NCLB is not to blame, but it has done nothing to improve anything. lots of time and effort bringing about zero change.

i'm not a teacher but this thread has migrated towards education problems. i have always thought that the solution to the our failing education system is to extend the school day to coincide with the parents' work day.

If kids went to school from 8-5, there would be time to cover the core subjects and also have music, PE (or sports practice), art, and actual time during the day to do homework when a teacher is there to help.

sending kids home with homework that they don't understand and expecting the parents to help, many of who don't understand it, is perpetuating stuipidity among the generations. it's also just crazy. when i come home from work, the last thing i want to do is more work...it's pretty unrealistic to have the expectation that little kids should do homework.

a longer school day would also help with transportation problems where parents have to be at work before kids go to school and don't get off of work until they are out.