Article Source: msnbc.com
from:msnbc.comWhen all the teachers were fired from Central Falls High School last week in a sweeping effort at school reform, their superintendent gave them a taste of the accountability President Barack Obama says is necessary.
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If you hire a plumber and they can't fix a leak - you fire them. If you hire a mechanic and they can't fix your car - you fire them. Teachers are hired to impart knowledge to students - If they can't do it - Fire them.
Oh yeah - others are going to say it's the students fault for not wanting to learn, or its the parents fault or lack of parents. That's life. There have always been hard cases in our society, but that shouldn't be used as an excuse for substandard performance. But that's exactly what the NEA wants to do. It's never the teachers fault and always everyone else's. So teachers sit their in their union protected civil jobs safe in the knowledge that they don't have to produce and won't be fired for it.
If the students aren't getting the knowledge, get new teachers.
Give the teachers tasers, cattle prods, and shackles, and they can begin to teach these animals.
bloggit,
I agree, then let's stop with the liberal nonsense of mainstreaming problem students with bad home lifes with hard working students with supporting home lifes. Separate them out and let them achieve their individual potential. After a good teacher, the second step to enable learning is a safe and sane learning environment.
Oh and you as a taxpayer are only allowed to have an opinion about hiring a teacher. You have no legal rights and must hand over your wallet when it comes to supporting bad teachers. Unions rule, because they give lots and lots of money to lawmakers (which you didn't do).
I have a better idea rather than fire the educator let's fire the deadbeat parents who refuse to accept responsibility for kids that couldn't be taught by a drill instructor because they have no discipline, morals, or belief in the importance of education. Now granted this is not all of the kids but it is becoming more and more important. The students of today have no fear of discipline by the school because the parents will whine and complain that their child did not wrong it must be the teacher. Kids refuse to give up cell phones even though they are caught text in class rather than do the assignments what is worse is that parents don't back the system they back the student. YOU WANT YOU STUDENTS TO PASS; THEN BE AN INVOLVED PARENT WHO ACTUALLY BACKS THE TEACHER INSTEAD OF ONE WHO CALLS THE TEACHER NAMES ON FACEBOOK! TELL YOUR KIDS NO ABOUT SOMETHING AND THAT A FAILING GRADE OR EVEN A "D" IS NOT ACCEPTABLE TO YOU AND UNTIL THEY PULL UP THAT GRADE THEY DON'T HAVE PRIVILEGES. BE A PARENT; NOT A FRIEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We fight to reach the students who still want to learn but it becomes more difficult due to the criminals who are already on probation at ages as low as 12, or the pregnant girls who can't bother coming to school because they evidently didn't pay attention in health class enough to know how not to get pregnant, of the best of all the ones who have no concept that a diploma is even needed in life.
Parents need to wake up and realize that they kids are not going in the right direction to get an education. I do my job but when a student fails it's my fault even though they missed 30 of 90 days, or they were high when they go to school, or they didn't care enough to do more than scrape by because as long as they pass it doesn't matter. Until parents begin to take charge of their children's lives there will be no change. You can fire me and put someone better in that room but until the attitude of the students change their will be no improvement. Parents the kids you are raising aren't like you were in school; remember who much your parents expected from you and expect no less from your own children....remember they are going to take care of you when you are old and they can't if they lack the knowledge to do more than take an order for a burger and fries at the drive-thru because you didn't require this of them.
Ok.... an educator, while I read your post I read passion as well as frustration. As a parent of a 16 year old that can barely write a page story at a 7th grade level, I share these emotions with you. We don't live in a bad area, my husband has a Master's, I have a Phd, our two sons are doing well ( 10 and 11 y/o). Then why is it that when we have meeting after meeting we are told she is fine. She can't use a dictionary. She can't use a phone book. I choose to pull her and homeschool her for 1 year. To catch her up and do it myself. We made up 1 1/2 years as well as stayed on top of everything else for the current year. She got a license, into philharmonic, etc. Meanwhile, her school has a "no F, ok to play" policy for sports!!! SERIOUSLY!! She is now back in public school.... where she is being told that she is ADVANCED!!!!. She doesn't even know what the hell a verb is. She can't even do my 5th graders basic algebra... why, exactly, are these teachers getting raises and keeping their jobs based on the CSAP scores. Oh there is a GREAT topic. I love that my kids get half days on CSAP days and that they pump them full of candy and juice and junk to "motivate" them. Did I miss it or don't we have a problem with obesity in this country? I thought we were supposed to be all on the same page with trying to teach good habits on that one at a bare minimum!!!! Now my 5th grader is being guided on test days by candy bars!!!! WTF!!!!!
Sorry... I have no soda in my house, no chips, we don't do that. We go to the YMCA, my kids play sports, we are a good family. I just want the school to do what they say they are going to .... and not be driven my some damn CSAP score but by MY CHILD.
Important Facts about Central Falls
Central Falls has had 7 principals in 6 years
22% of the kids at Central Falls are not native English speakers. The rate for the state of RI is 3%
23% of the kids at central falls are special education students. The rate for the state is 17%
85% of the kids at Central Falls are classified as economically disadvantaged. The State average is 35%
The number of college applications by Central Falls seniors has tripled during the past 5 years
Reading proficiency at Central Falls has gone up 22% in 2 years
Wrinting proficiency at Central Falls has gone up 14% in 2 years
A state audit last year praised the school for its improvements and.
The dropout rate for Central Falls includes students whose parents were deported after an
immigration raid in New Bedford, Mass. It also includes students who transferred when the honors program at central falls was eliminated.
voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/education
Apparently the author doesn't see the bigger picture. The answer for many is Charter school or vouchers. Is this really the answer. The govt wants to privatize education. Public schools must take everybody reagardless of their abilities. Private schools , charter schools are not required to do that. Nor are they required to do the same testing. No Child Left Behind has failed the children miserabley.
Whereas you may be an expert in hiring plumbers or mechanics, it would appear that you have precious little understanding in the role teachers play in the educational system. Children are not pipes, drains, engines, or faulty floor mats. The process of educating a child is a very complicated thing. Hey, if it were easy Dave, even you could do it. We as outsiders do not know why so many students were failing. However, we as an educated society need to be asking the right questions. If a school (elementary or secondary) had a population of non-readers, where was the paper trail for each troubled student? I would think that these students were non-readers in elementary school. Why were these students not tracked at an earlier age for intervention? These high school teachers are not to blame for the low literacy level of these students who are towards the end of their academic journey. The educational system (how students are educated, Dave) for this school district in Rhode Island needs a major overhaul in how students’ needs are met. Dave, I bet that once these teachers are fired, and the actual system for this district goes on as usual, students will continue to fail. I hope you are hanging in there, Dave. There is much to say. I think this school district needs a major shift in its leadership. It may mean the principal, but it may mean those administrators who occupy the district office and who have rarely visited this ill-fated high school. You can be the best plumber in world, but if your boss keeps using inferior parts, how in the world are you going to keep your customers happy and dry?
The Los Angeles Unified School District, one of the nation's largest, is filled with over-paid incompetent teachers for years. The school district has one of the highest ration of administrator to teacher in the nation, and naturally, they, too, are over-paid for producing a legacy of failures. All these wonderful jobs are guaranteed by their labor unions at the expense of student and state taxpayers. The corrupt politicians, quietly on-the-take or seeking re-election, are always eager to support the status quo as proposed by the labor unions. In the inner city of LA, the number of high school (HS) drop-outs exceeds the number of HS graduates even where the HS curriculum is watered-down to almost meaningless level. Many of these drop-outs not only can't do basic math, science, and English composition, but can't even speak Spanish properly, their family-home language. Evidently, there is much success for bilingual programs. As to teaching students how to read, write and speak standardized English, a Tasmanian can do better. Still, LA Unified pumps out these illiterates by the thousands whose bleak future employment ranks somewhere between a free-lance-unlicensed pharmaceutical distributor and fast food clerks. In Southern California, ubiquitous gang warfares and their related homicide are passe. Last year a veteran who just returned from the dangerous Iraqi war was fatally shot in his own gang infested neighborhood. Uncontrolled illegal immigration into Southern California; persistent and incureable high unemployment rate; a corrupt school system exploited by labor unions; a corrupt political system that feeds off the corrupt school system; and a morally and financially bankrupt California all contribute to the new failed rogue state: California.
Everyone
Teachers are part of the blame,but where most of the blame should go is to the ones who decide on the curiculum. Kids these days no what is taught is useless. What needs to be done is to revamp the entire school system and start teaching things that will be useful in the real world. The real world is not run by books. Kids need to see that school will help them do thier jobs better,and that goes for colleges as well. I went to school to be a Chemist,work for a Chemical company and still had to be trained to do what i was getting paid to do.Ive been with the company for 16 years and not once have i ever used what was taught in school. So when my kids ask me i tell them that the curriculum is useless,and all you should strive for is that usless piece of paper that gets you in the doors of a company.I told them i dont care how you get it just get.
I have read and heard of several educators, both here and abroad, that have developed innovative ways to stimulate troubled students. I'm embarrassed to admit I haven't done any research on this, however, one name I recall is a Mr. Clark. I believe he taught in the California system. My point is that unique , yet proven, ideas are out there.
I realize that no single concept is likely to work in all, or even most, cases. Is it reasonable, however, that grouped together and studied, one or two ideas from several of the concepts could be used to create different concepts?
For you educators out there. I wish to explain that I'm not. I hope you can judge my post on it's merits, or lack of same, as opposed to my sentence structure, or spelling.
Hey Joe, it's obvious you don't use anything you were taught in school. For example, "no" vs. "know". OK, knit picking aside, High School education is meant to instill a knowledge base into the student, not specialized information. Basic reading, writing, math, history, social studies, science, etc. Not industrial chemistry. Any company you go work for will require additional training. School teaches other things too, like social interaction, responsibility, time management, and discipline. All those things are vitally important to a developing mind. The subjects studied in school also help students decide what type of career or direction their life will take. Don't think for an instant that school is a waste of time and the only reason you should graduate is to get a job.
Todd
Society is based on having an education to get a good paying job. Why do i need a spell check when i have pompous asses like you to correct them for me. I make 80 grand a year so yes you can make fun of me all you want,i was still able to graduate from a University. Those sudents in high schools are taught the same mundane stuff over and over,how bout teaching how to balance a check book,how to spend only the amount you have,how to plant tomatos or any other fruits and veggies.,that is not alot to ask of administrators.Again at any level of schooling when you complete it you will still have to be trained on the job. Lawyers,doctors,Politicians etc,etc,etc. Kids also see people like G.W. Bush graduate from college when everyone knows there are house plants smarter than he is that say he must have had some special privledges.
School subjects should be what is interesting to all kids,and the teacher should teach how to find info ont hose topics.Math should only be basic,and everyone should know how to manipulate basic matmatics,not taking the square root of your grocery bill or Integrating and differntiating your Mortagage bill.
Good Point, we should let the kids decide what is important. Lets try skateboarding 101 and video gaming. You mention balancing the checkbook, I agree, but lets start with basic math. You have to build the foundation before you can build the house. If you want your kids to learn job skills, send them to Vocational School, if you want your kids to get a balanced education and get into a decent college, keep them in standardized schools.
Oh, I'm not a pompous ass, I'm far too low on the totem pole of life to be considered pompous. Most people just consider me and ass.
Fire the fricking administration.
If they were firing the teachers for lack of performance, it would be the height of lunacy to take them back just because they agree to negotiate.
If they were not firing them for lack of performance, why were they being fired?
I have a headache.
What's the administration got to do with it. Unions stop them from firing bad teachers. In fact they even stop them from documenting bad teachers.
The administration fired the teachers. Then they agreed to "talk" and consider taking them back.
Either there was a good reason to fire them, or there wasn't.
There were talks going on before the firings. The administration wanted the teachers to provide an extra 30 min/day for tutoring and 90 min/wk for teacher workshops to help improve their teaching skills. The union said no deal. Working from 8-3 (including lunch break) was enough. So the admin gave notice of the firings. The union said they didn't try "in good faith" to talk to the teachers.
I find it rather humorous that the union now wants to negotiate since there has been precedents set in other cities. New Orleans did the same thing with the aid of Katrina. The hurricane busted up the union that the school admin couldn't. Without students, no need for lousy teachers. They were only going to rehire the better teachers as the students returned.
While I lean toward your argument, it is usually a perfect storm of issues that contribute to failing schools. Most failing schools are in impoverished neighborhoods correct? The reason for this is usually a lack of community cohesion and a general lack of parents interest in their child's educational success. Or the force of community peer pressure outside of the control of a parent that is concerned with not repeating the vicious cycle of poverty with their own children.
Teachers are also at fault, because lets admit it everybody becomes complacent at a point. If you are consistently faced with uncaring parents, uncaring administrators, uncaring community etc, you will eventually become complacent and or uncaring.
There should be a two pronged approach to turning around failing schools and that starts with the home and the school. I don't see why we can't ask house holds receiving government assistance to attend monthly meetings concerning their child's academic success. As we hold teachers to a set standard I believe we should also hold these parents on the dole to a certain standard.
And we should shake teachers up with mass firings, thereby showing the community that those teachers represent that hey we are not going to accept minimal performance and neither should you. So lets work together to see how we can best serve our future generations.
I don't see why we can't ask house holds receiving government assistance to attend monthly meetings concerning their child's academic success. As we hold teachers to a set standard I believe we should also hold these parents on the dole to a certain standard.
You want to single out only the parents who are receiving public assistance. That's discrimination and says that only the children of parents on "welfare" make failing grades or are disruptive in school.
If you want to have every parent of every student attend these meetings, ok. If not, forget it.
Don't worry the children of every socio-economic group make the failing grade in today's time.
Apathy is not limited to the poor of a community.
Because failing schools are usually situated in impoverished area's where government assistance is received by 90% of the population then why not ask these people with children in the schools to contribute a solution to the problem.
Of course all those involved should attend but we cannot motivate those people not on the dole to attend. But you can motivate a person receiving assistance to attend by sanctioning for non compliance. I know its social darwinism, but do you want to be supporting their children as well in a decade or two?
Government assistance should be uncomfortable and should come with strings attached. Welfare creates no value.
An educator - you are correct all children everywhere are failing and we are failing them.
Even the article states that this school is in an impoverished area. That's because failing schools are disproportionately in impoverished areas, where most homes with school age children receive assistance.
I own and live in a home in downtown Cleveland, OH. Our school system is notoriously dysfunctional, and we have tried so many different approaches in the last 25 years to raise standards for our inner city schools that we are now trying to close schools down and make others charters to see what that does.
The only thing that my city hasn't done is reach out to family's actively to see how they can improve their children's success at receiving an education. Education starts at home, so why don't we start there too? That seems to be the biggest roadblock to improving these schools by not asking parents to step up too.
Erocka
What needs to happen is that parents need to have say in what is taught at schools. These administrators never lived in the real world. The education we get now is only relevant on game shows like jeopardy and kids these days know it. To obtain skill you need to work,school is nothing more than a babysitting tool so parents can go out to work. College is no different again they teach usless facts.
It is not the teachers or the administors at fault. The the problem is the enviroment the kids have to live in while trying to go to schools. Clean up the neighbor hoods and the school will improve.
Get rid of the illegals and then watch the test scores soar! It's stupid to blame the teachers for their failing students because of the other factors involved such as a huge percentage of non-English speaking students (which would be a neat trick, teaching subjects to students that can't understand a word you say or read a textbook!). Plus the economic and crime factors, as well.
Maybe they should fire the school board for trying to find an innocent scapegoat instead of calling it for what it is--a losing battle.
Funny, when my family from Italy came over, I don't recall reading or hearing anything about the school system doing a damn thing out of their way for them, never mind thinking about firing all the teachers. It's all bs.
No wonder why our test scores suck when compared to other nation's students in the OECD! Piss poor leadership from top to bottom because nobody wants to call it the way it is and then make a plan to constructively address the problems.
What am I thinking, we're talking about America here
Geogia-Jim
i agree somewhat but i think kids can learn things they like and it still will be beneficial to them. Not this boring mundane usless crap they learn in schools.
I differ. It seems to always be the teacher. It is never the curriculum. It is never the administration. It is never the student. It is never the parent. It is never the community. It is always the teacher. That kind of thinking is laughable. When the proper attention is brought to a school, when the proper support and structure is there, when ALL parties (superintendents, teachers, students, principals, parents, etc) are held accountable, then positive change occurs. Visit a school. Volunteer for a significant time in a classroom. You will then begin to get a taste of the difficulties and challenges teachers face each day. Then make an assessment.
I always find it funny that everyone who has attended school seems to know so much about them. That is the equivalent of thinking that you know all there is know about an automobile because you have driven one. The educational process is difficult. Add to that the responsibilities that schools have that seem to go beyond educating. Mix in poverty, gangs, and unsupported mandates. Sprinkle in the changing learning methods of students that simply do not match teacher education. You now have a difficult and combustible mixture. Firing teachers en masse is not the answer.
This sounds like a plan to keep good teachers away from teaching in at risk schools. It's one thing to try to make things better with hard cases, it's something else if taking that chance means you may end up unable to feed your own kids. Why would any good teacher not make the call to go to a well performing school with already successful children if their career is on the line?
Unless you're willing to hold accountable the school administration, the parents and the students too, firing bunches of teachers will do nothing but harm. If you were a teacher, would you accept a job for the same pay in a school where the students performed at the level where the previous teachers all were fired? Would you think yourself such a great teacher that you would bet your job on being able to turn those kids around? Sounds like a sucker's bet to me.
Would you settle for the same pay check that others who are poor performers get? The bad teachers can be getting the same paycheck and doing far less at producing knowledgeable students.
And how can you fairly compare the teachers? If a teacher from another community teaches in an middle-class, English speaking environment where the students test very well, how can you compare it with a teacher that teaches in a sh*thole, deals with high absenteeism, lack of caring parents, and a has a large percentage of non-English speaking students. C'mon, get real.
If you were in a Mexican school and couldn't speak any Spanish, are you going to get outstanding grades?
Doubtful, unless you just happen to have extrodinary language adaptation skills.
So, how can you honestly compare that these teachers are bad? Are there multiple complaints from parents? Are the teachers themselves screwing off when they should be in their classroom? Are they just sitting in their seats saying nothing during class and the whole classrooms is going wild?
If so, blame the teachers by all means and fire them. If not, don't look for scapegoats to blame-- address and fix the problem(s) seriously!
Sorry but this is the wrong course then again it always has been. That's right blaming the teachers isn't new it's the oldest practice to excuse bad overall grades. My father was a teacher for over 20 years from middle school to college(he taught himself out of a job there educated so many students the school had to close down the program). He was a great teacher as are the majority of teachers. There hard working people trying to help growing minds.
The simple fact is teacher are over worked and for the most part underpaid, they also make great scapegoats. The simple truth is some kids don't want to learn, and many parent see school as nothing more then free daycare. Case in point my Father had more then one time where a student would come up to him and tell him he doesn't matter, that at 16 the kid is going to drop out and go be a brick layer, landscaper, so on and make more then my father. Not every child wants to learn and not every parent is there to back up the teacher, and that trend increases the lower the income for a variety of reasons like it or not.
Policy and administration this is were the real problem lies where I live and my dad taught there is a code word "knighted" named so after a certain principle that was promoted to a higher paying yet powerless position to stop him from doing any more damage. Why wasn't he fired he was black and threatened to file a lawsuit and that's all it takes for a school system to bow down. Another time my father and the whole school staff was told byan assistant prinicable that if a kid tells you "F$%# You" he isn't being disrespectful and don't send them to the office. He was Latino and was "knighted" a year later. How about the sweeping of violence and disciplinary reports under the rug. When the students know they can get away with just about anything because the school administration is scared of losing funding they do anything and the teacher are stuck dealing with kids that treat them like dirt. The dirty truth is the administration does everything they can to cut supplies and funds, make teacher do more work then humanly possible, and hide violence reports.
My father died after a 4 year battle with cancer it killed him to stop teaching. No seriously that's one of the things that finished him off he couldn't work and lost a reason to continue fighting. I have no problem exposing the truth of the school systems. Like how new teachers are tricked into positions by "recruiters" leading to many year one teachers quiting the profession. Or how teacher were barred from giving 0s you had to give a 55. Yes the student could of written "f$%# you" on every answer but the teacher has to give a 55 because it can been brought up. A Zero was seen as too hard to work up from.
It 9/10 times isn't the teachers it's the parents and/or the kids or the administration and/or policy that's the problem, But hey it's easier to just blame the teachers who have in reality little to no power.
Teachers believe they are overworked only because the vast majority of them have never held a salaried professional job in the private sector. If they had, they'd be laughing about those teachers who claim they are overworked.
Whatever you need to tell yourself. A teachers paperwork alone would make your salaried professtional fall down into a fetal position.
Thank you! I would love to trade places with a salaried "professional" because last time I checked I too was a salaried profession and used to work in the private sector and did way less for more money and less stress but changed to education to make a difference. Perhaps those salaried professionals should spend a week in our job and they would run crying back to their little corner office and might be more grateful for the teachers who try to educate their children.
Last time I checked I was a salaried professional. I have colleagues whose wives are teachers and we got into discussions about the lives of teachers. The bottom line is that the teachers made better pay and worked less hours and less days in a year than we did.
The real point is that if someone is displeased with their profession - change. Becoming a teacher wasn't by accident. It was a conscious decision and took years of training to achieve.
I have a novel idea. If the quality of the teaching staff at this school is the question and the focus of the blame, then reassign the whole lot to the 'best schools' in the area, but more importantly, reassign the 'best teaching staff' in this State to this problem school. It is high time for 'educators' to prove their worth. If the 'best teachers' can turn this problem school around, then we will know conclusively that the issue is 'quality staff'. But, if the 'Best Teaching Staff' can't make it happen, then we will have conclusive evidence that issues beyond the classroom have clear negative influence -- poor parental influence in education, for example.
I think we have teaching compensation backwards. It should be easy street for the 'Best Teachers' to teach and motivate the 'Brightest Student', so the teacher compensation should be less, not higher. A 'Best Teacher' should be able to make it happen in any educational environment, so the 'Best' must go to where the Challenges are - the problem schools. And, they ought to get the highest compensation for tackling the hardest problems.
Education needs to be more like military service. You sign up and get trained, but it is the military who determines where and when you go to do your duty. After all, teaching compensation comes from the taxpayer - so let the 'elected' Superintendent decide who goes to what school to teach. And, if the taxpayers don't like the eductional results, then vote/elect a new Superintendent the next time.
Don't get me wrong -- I know very well that this issue is not just the quality of the teaching staff. But, in every 'successful' environment, you put the brightest and the test on the toughest challenges. Makes you wonder why Eduction consistently avoids this approach!!!!!
Steve =
What a novel and great idea.
I agree Steve, that is a really great idea!
In that case there should be no decisions about anybody ever being able to decide their position of employment. Extending that to every job opening in every career field means there would be millions of disgruntled employees.
Just imagine - you hired on with Walmart and the regional supervisor told you because you were such a great greeter and people enjoyed your smiling face as they entered the store. Because you have such a positive impact on the shoppers that he is going to reward you by reassigning you to a store far from where you want to live and also going to cut your pay because you are doing such a great job. His rationale is they need to use more money to entice other greeters to perform better.
All teacher should use this as learning experience. If you don't do your job you may be next.
I worked for the/a school district for years, there's so much internal bickering such as staff vs administration and money that education always came second seriously jeopardizing the students education.
Yup.. Time to hold them all accountable!!!! Randi should be held accountable to these garbage teachers..
I heard of this story a couple of weeks ago and was astounded at the actions of the superintendent. Apparently the superintendent can have a "mass" firing based on the rules/regulations with the No Child Left Behind Act. What the article does not discuss nor reflect is the demographics of where this school is located, the lack of public support, and the current level of dedication from the teachers. The administration, excluding the arrogant superintendent, is working overtime as it is to achieve the results they show today. Bottomline is that there are not enough teachers and not enough funding. But, plenty of finger pointing and idiocy. If you want the children to learn, get into their enviornment by putting funding into projects that involve the students and have more teachers available to them. It's apparent that they do not meet the high school standards based on their graduation rate. You have to show the students and parents that the administration cares and will work to cultivate a positive enviornment. Fire the superintendent and put the teachers back in charge!
Yes, get rid of those lousy teachers that don't care! It's about time we get rid of tenure...can never get fired!!! I had some horrible teachers growing up....and it is about time we do something about it!!!
rrobeson wrote... Teachers believe they are overworked only because the vast majority of them have never held a salaried professional job in the private sector. If they had, they'd be laughing about those teachers who claim they are overworked.
Look here rrobeson, I was an engineer with a master's degree for many years before becoming a teacher. And let me tell you, teaching is FAR more difficult than a 'salaried professional job in the private sector'. There are days I dream of being back in my cubicle, away from these kids who's parents don't give a damn, don't send them to school with lunch or lunch money, who play them against their spouse in cases of divorce, who NEVER make sure their homework is done, who will get in your face and call you every name in the book if you fail their child when their children don't do crap. I'd love to go back to my 'salaried professional job in the private sector' ... I'm sick of parents and administrators who blame the teacher for doing the best job they can do, who won't do crap to discipline the children. And now that our fat assed Wall Street bankers who so deservedly are living high off the hog for doing such a good job (via subsidized bailouts from YOU AND I, THE TAXPAYER)... and education funding is being slashed at TAXPAYER EXPENSE... I'm outta here. I used to care, but not anymore. Godbless the teachers who are staying behind. I love the children too, but I'm tired of being beat up for doing the best job I can do. I'm going back to my cushy 'salaried professional job in the private sector'. All the best to you.
One correction....God Bless the good ones staying behind. That is exactly the problem...good ones like you were leave and the bad ones stay.
Get rid of the public sector unions. The private sector can compensate for unions through good old competition. Ie.. provide the same level of, or better service for a lower price.
The public sector cannot or will not do the same. After all a tax dollar is just a dollar. Especially when you can just take that dollar from somebody else.
FIRE Congress
Competition!!!. Al Shanker: "For the most part what you are getting are illiterate and incompetent people". That was the President of the American Teachers Association.
The USA is now 25th in the World. Who wants to send their kids to schools that are 25th in the world? No one that I know of.
Who cares really, so wat if Jonhnny ca nat spell som of em words. he cold geet a workk for em china tpye capomy, see good wark, pay som betteer. loook caat foosd som better.
I agree fire the teachers who screw up. But I think teachers should be able to throw the dirt out of their classroom. No teacher should be made to teach monkeys! Let's move the unteachable kids to another zone. Teachers must be allowed to identify inhuman subjects and move them to a classroom setting for imbeciles. After the teachers have dumped the crap, we can evaluate them with hard rules.
Firing all the teachers in a failing school is a good start. But they should pick out a couple of the worst teachers in the bunch and hang them in front of the school. That might get the attention of the remaining teachers in the school system.
Yep....fire the lousy teachers and hire good ones....too bad you can't fire some parents too!
Guys
I dont believe in soley blaming the teachers,the admistrators are mostly to blame. Parents should never be blamed.Kids are forced to go to school by law even if they dont desire to. It should be if they want to. I know you will say that they would be uneducated,but trust me you dont need any of the usless crap taught in schools to do 99% of the jobs in the US.
Kids do better if parents act like parents and get involved! Many turn their kids over to the school and abandon their responsibility as parents. They are a huge opart of the problem. You owe it to your children to be an inspiration and role model.
Isn't that what a Business does closes a plant and let's everyone go? A business closes down they don't keep the staff @ full pay nope close and fired Keep the teachers/ fire the students low grades ?YOUR FIRED
Will they fire the next batch of teachers the next year?
The kids and their families don't value education. Fix that first before you fire teachers.
peteMT
You are right,but an education is usless in the job force.When you graduate college you still have to be trained to do any job,now tell me what school was used for again.? Kids are forced to go to school by law and if they dont parents are held accountable.School should be a choice and it also should have no bearing in a persons career since you can be taught to work by the company that hires you.
I have always been a big fan vouchers if your current school is not working for you for whatever reasons you can send them away to a better school. The teachers who do well will be kept by the school and maybe even earn more money, teachers who don't will be fired, and yes parents will also have a role in there kids education so it will help out in that end to.
Also we need to eleminate any union that beleives rubber rooms are necessary.
" We believe the teachers are being scapegoated (here) " How about I believe the students are the ones being scapegoated, so the union teachers can get a monthly paycheck and not earn it. Blame the parents, blame the neighborhood, blame poverty, blame anything you want. Blame the fire department for all I care. Teachers are supposed to be licensed professionals, who have attained through schooling of their own, the skills and education to impart basic knowledge skills to students, and by doing so receive a paycheck. If the requirement is to teach math, teach math. If the requirement is to teach language skills and reading, teach language skills and reading, and so on.
The fact that the children's folks can't read, or have poor math skills, is the problem for teachers in adult education. I don't think the criticism here can be in any way construed that the expectation for a child entering high school is supposed to be able to give a disertation on quantum chromodynamics and the bag theory of quark confinement. What's expected in math skills is they have an understanding of enough math, that the concept of a math formula is not a foreign idea. And that is precisely the case... not only with the students... but with the teachers as well!
This idea that schools are a social gathering place to hand out a free lunch... and that's for the teachers, has got to go. Teacher pay should be tied directly to performance. That means that if 90% of their students don't meet up to their grade's test standards, the teachers shouldn't get 100% of their pay. If 80% of their students don't meet up to their grade's test standards, the teacher's should get less than 90% of their pay grade. Once teachers are at 75% of their pay grade, their contracts are invalid and they are fired. It wouldn't take too long at this level of incentive to teach teachers math, and the significance of performance. If 20% of the teachers get fired at one school, the principal of that school gets fired too! This way allows for administrative performance as well.
And no sports participation until certain educational levels of the overall student body of a school is met. Physical education is not sports. If the kids want to learn social skills and team work, they can team up on an algebra problem.
If a certain portion of the student population is not performing well, send them to a mental health or physical health professional, and find out if their diet is heavy in lead based paint, and tackle that special population separate for their neurological disorders or what is ailing them, but 90% of any student body should be healthy enough to meet some minimum educational level for graduation. Kids for the most part are quite capable of learning, and if teachers are licensed because they have demonstrated they have the ablity to teach, then teach the required subject matter, and if the kids don't pick up on it, teach it again. And if they still don't pick up on it... well maybe there is something wrong with the teacher.
Remind the teachers that their students might be the ones who are the medical professionals caring for them in their old age...because they will be!