Teachers deserve unswerving support

I'll give teachers support when they take politics out of the classroom. It's not 8hrs a day to indoctrinate kids, it's 8hrs a day to teach kids the three "R's" and life skills to be self-sufficient and productive citizens. Until then, I'll treat teachers like every other partisan on the money grab and wanting to dictate how kids are taught (this science fair fiasco is showing it's not even about science. It's being pushed even on the parents -- those without 2 parents or parents that aren't computer literate, let alone rich enough to afford Microsoft software are punished. Brilliant school systems push $$$ business software even on a damn science project. Bill Gates thanks you from the bottom of his 10 billion dollar wide wallet, while that kid being eaten by the toxic mosquitoes out in May Park contracting God knows what, is also so unfortunate (fortunate?) to get bit by Mr. Gate's Malaria).

All teachers need support just as most other people need support. However, as noble professions go, this is certainly one high on the list. I think the most noteworthy surprise for me is the difference in a school that has very involved parents compared to a school that has almost no parental involvement. The quality of teaching, what is taught and how it is taught will be influenced by someone. Be an involved parent and have a positive influence on your school.

It obvious if anyone thinks that all a teacher has to do all day is indoctrinate students that they have not spent much time in the classroom. Since schools are moving to standards based instruction then the parents need to be inquiring of the who and where the standards are being created if they are unhappy with what is being taught. We have a lot of arm-chair parents who have all the answers without much experience in the game. There are all sorts of entities regulating what a teacher does, but so far there has been nothing to hold parents accountable for their end of the job.

"Since schools are moving to standards based instruction" ---- Rote education. Mindless bots for the company store. They're taught "teamwork" and all the skills to be corporate tools, too. Apparently you've been in class too long and can't see reality: we're human, we're not robots.

Sandy, if you were a robot, your programmer should be slapped. What is taught in schools varies, within certain parameters, directly with the amount of parental involvement. Those that sit back and complain are as much of the problem as the rest that don't get involved. Don't just whine, act.

Sandy, have you ever heard of a thing called the "State Dept. of Education"? Do you really think it was all these teachers ideas to do all these Science projects?! I can assure you it wasn't - how do I know, you may ask - because I "ASKED" them! These issues you complain about are coming from the government - (example: No Child Left Behind). If you want to complain to & blame someone you need to contact the government - they have become the ruination of the public school system. Teachers are being worked to death (10-12 hours a day) & forced to ram education down the throats of kids who don't want to learn because if they don't & their test scores reflect every child not learning on the same level (that is impossible!) then they could lose their job. You can't "force" a child to learn - the desire to learn has to be taught at home & alot of these kids aren't getting it. So instead of complaining about your childs teacher, why don't you go to the school & see for yourself what all they have to deal with these days. And why don't you volunteer in the classroom & help them out, instead of complaining about something you haven't taken the time to educate yourself about?

What I found disheartening as an educator in the past was kids just wanted to memorize for a grade and not really learn and apply critical thinking to explore this wonderful universe. We want to give the kids skills to continue the search for knowledge and inspire them to want to learn and not what to think but how to think. An education doesn't stop once you've received a degree but just begins. I never even tried in grade school till my 5th teacher who just set me on fire to read and learn with her inspirational message. I've always wished I could thank her for setting me on my path. It wasn't what she taught me but she started a fire that has never been put out.

If a child is having a difficult time in school, it is not the child's fault. The fault rests with the uninvolved parent or parents. It is the responsibility of the parent to KNOW what is going on with their child and the progress that they are making. Inevitably, the LOUDEST voice of criticism comes from the parent(s) who consider school to be a babysitter for the day so that the parent(s) can do their thing. So, before the parent(s) moan and groan about their child being underserved by the school system, the parent(s) should work with the child in order to make sure that all homework is finished. In that way, the parent(s) may just learn the lessons that they should have learned when they were students.

As with any profession education is not without those employees that fall short in there field and then there are those who epitmize the best that there is to offer. Standards based instruction is not rote instruction, but then if the person who thought it was had actually been in a classroom they would know the difference. The bottom line is that there are always three parties in the equation, the parents, the student, and the educators. The system will never be "fixed" while there are those who only point fingers. The old saying still holds true "If you are not part of the solution then you are part of the problem."

A big problem with the current education system is that the system pushes everyone towards college education. Not only does this undervalue the multiple productive vocational fields (many of which will provide a greater income than college education), it sets up for the failure of students who would have excelled in such fields. This disconnect often leads to apathy and behavior problems within the classroom. Conversely, the higher academic achievers are held back due to the "wait for everyone" (aka NCLB) act.

I fear for the well being of my children in a public schools system. From my experience in the public school system where most parents use it only as daycare. It wasn't the classes or the teachers that I had issue with, it was all the time they spent moving from class to class or at lunch without direct supervision. When I was in school it was a 45 minute class with 15 minutes in between to get to the next class. I can't help but think that it would be more productive to go back to a single teacher for a class for the entire day. This would actually give a 30 seat class the ability to really develope a relationship with the teacher and a teacher to clearly identify learning challenges between students. Right now they are cycled to so many different classes so fast how can anyone keep up? Is it designed for maximum exposure and how does one teacher prevent from overloading a student with homework when they don't know what other classes the child may have? Then there are the teachers who don't get it and are there just to get a check. I think the whole system needs to be overhauled. I worked with a large school system in the past and left because i was sickened by the mismanagement.

I agree that an overhaul of the system is needed, though I am strongly against vouchers, as it simply moves the problem around. For an example, a few years ago, only 1 Richmond County High School (magnet schools aside) was not on the Needs Improvement List. Therefore, this became the only choice school, and received over 100 transfer students from the other Needs Improvement Schools. The following year, that one choice school also failed, with many of the problems being traced back to the transfer students. For better or worse, a school takes on the culture of its students. If you simply swapped the students of high achieving private schools and low achieving public schools, then the scores would fall and rise accordingly. The problem is not a lack of competition or effort, as a voucher would allude to. NCLB has taught us that at least. Teachers and administrators are taking (ridiculously) drastic measures to try to keep up with these absurd standards. Saying we need to add competition, (I guess as some sort of extra incentive), does not instill fear in me as an educator - it is insulting.

My hope is that we gravitate towards certain European education models. In such models, students receive basic academic instruction through the middle grades. At that point, the academically inclined students go on to further academic training while those who are more technically inclined learn a trade. I don't believe a single test or grade should determine that student's destination (as is the case in some places), and I would be in favor of opportunities to branch back into academic training if a student realized he or she had made the wrong choice. Academic classes would become serious places of high-level learning, while other students would be gaining skills that would lead them to high earning careers.

I am the nana who wrote this editorial piece. I help in grades 2 & 3 . These kids are not being indoctrinated, they are being taught with as much as the teachers can give. It is VERY apparent which ones have parents - socioeconomic factors aside - who spend time with them. The kids in countries spoken of go to school & directly to tutoring for several hours. How do I know? My granddaughter's teacher taught in an international school. She loved that there was actual discipline in the classroom. But she hated that the kids had NO childhood at all. It was all school. Also, she hesitated to ever send a bad discipline report home because, no matter the infraction, the child was beaten. Is that what we want - no childhood for our kids? NCLB is a waste of money, as is changing curriculums too often. Teaching to standards means little creativity in the classroom. But BY FAR the biggest problem is lack of involvement & discipline from parents. It is very obvious which kids have that. And some who don't are from well to do families. They are starved for attention, discipline, time. ALSO, until you have spent hours in the classroom helping or teaching, you can't know the situation.

Thank you, a nana. I agree with 99% of what you stated above. I do believe that one can teach the standards and still do it creatively. It just takes changing the mindset of how things have always been done in the past. Yes, it requires a lot of work. I am still working at creating new lesson plans based on standards. As long as they are taught thoroughly, supplemental activities or lessons can be used to enrich the basic content.

a nana says: "My granddaughter's teacher taught in an international school. She loved that there was actual discipline in the classroom. But she hated that the kids had NO childhood at all. It was all school." I hope we're not getting to that mindset here. Teachers are expecting children to already know their numbers, colors and how to write their names before they start Kindergarten. It used to be first grade. I dare say there are probably Pre-K's expecting that and more, too. It's a shame that too much homework and increased curriculum demands are taking childhood away from children and making a nervous, defensive wreck of teachers, especially ones with dual careers of teaching and trying to raise their own children. Of all people, they should understand the demands working parents have on their time, although, unless they did shift work, they might not be able to comprehend the toll that takes on family time and attention to children. Good teachers deserve our support, but don't hold them in such high-esteem that your support is unswerving. They should be held accountable just like parents and their expectations do not have to go unexamined.

I would like to know who all of these teachers are who are "nevous, defensive wrecks"?? I certainly do not know of any.

I know several teachers that are complaining all the time any number or combination of these things: that they are underpaid, overworked, claim students don't come well-prepared to school (even in kindergarten!) and blame parents for the bulk of their problems with the students. That kind of attitude certainly puts a damper on a good working relationship with parents, especially those struggling along at half a teacher's salary and/or more hours working two jobs in this depressed economy.

Calling teachers names can't have a positive influence on the way educators view parents either.

I said: "It's a shame that too much homework and increased curriculum demands are taking childhood away from children and making a nervous, defensive wreck of teachers, especially ones with dual careers of teaching and trying to raise their own children." That's not quite the same as calling them names. It's a description of the stress they are going through. Sorry, didn't mean for you to get defensive about it. Apparently I hit a nerve. It must be rough for you to be both parent and teacher since you have such a hard time with OTHER parents. I just know one parent/teacher who was so stressed out, she slapped her daughter in the mouth in the hall right outside the inner doors of the church and right in the mouth again at a restaurant. I hope she doesn't use that teaching method in school. That certainly didn't have a positive influence on her "image" as a teacher or mother. All those teaching awards mean nothing if she would do this to her own child. If she can't handle the stress after 20 years of experience, maybe she should retire.

Teachers deserve our support, but no, not unswerving support. They are human, too and they make mistakes. Even the most experienced are not always right. This makes me appreciate the humble, quietly confident, "servant leader" (as described in another recent article) types of teachers even more.

I did not get defensive about what you said. I just don't agree with teachers who work and have families being described with such strong descriptors as "nervous, defensive wrecks". To me, that would be an insult to any parent who works outside the home. It can be difficult to juggle schedules and assignments after school but people do it all the time. That is part of being a parent. I enjoy what I do; at home and at work. It's part of who I am and there are many who do the same. I actually think being an educator has helped me be a better parent in many ways. At least I can understand what is going on in the classroom. I was only trying to make some sense of your comments since they were so far off target from what I was trying to convey. Just for the record, I do not have difficulty communicating with OTHER parents, thank goodness.

No, it's not an insult to any parent that works outside the home. It's not meant to be an insult at all and it certainly wasn't meant to mean all parent/teachers, just the ones that have too much on their plates. I suppose someone on the defensive might take it the other way. Your responses don't seem to fit my comments either. I haven't ever had this much difficulty communicating with other teachers, thank goodness, or parents for that matter, maybe it's more to do with the format we are communicating in. I'm sure being an educator has helped you be a better parent. I'm sure you're a better one than that one I saw in church and Golden Corral slap her daughter in the mouth. As a matter of fact, I hope SHE's a better parent and teacher than she used to be. Also, when an elementary student begs to be transferred out of a teacher's class because she is so mean, when she's already taught for over a decade, you have to wonder what's really going on there.

The student that transferred out met a young lady years later, was having a nice conversation and getting along fine until a friend called her by last name and the young man backed up while turning pale and excused himself. Friends checked out the odd reaction and discovered that the young lady had the same last name (it's unusual) as the young man's elementary school teacher, whose class he had transferred out of. After all these years, that teacher's name simply being mentioned brought back some bad memories apparently. They'd never seen anything like that reaction before. Makes me wonder what her teaching methods were. Or were not. Anyway, I don't take it for granted a teacher is good at what they do, just because they or anyone else says so. No unswerving (blind) support from me, but I do support good teachers and I have always been an engaged parent.

The only name-calling in regard to teacher/parent I've noticed is what the daughters of that mouth-slapping teacher call her behind her back. If she only knew the harm she was doing with her "discipline" method.