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I have to be honest. I really don’t have many bad things to say about the teachers that I had pre-college. Even though I lived in a poorly funded school system, I found that all the teachers who counted (teachers in classes like math and science) for me did a great job. Some of them I know went above and beyond their teaching duties, and that includes my grade school teachers. Maybe my story is a little different since I was an EASL student, so they might have helped me a bit more, or I was just a learning sponge. Who knows, but most teachers I know (or have known) appear to be in it because they love to teach.
Stevepaa: I know how tough Jr. High can be on teachers, heck even HS. I was not a bad student in Jr. HS or HS, but I was witness to a lot more hassling of the teachers which I would never think kids can get away with. My father was a teacher before we came to the US, and a teacher back home was a much respected position, and some of the antics I saw in school in the US would have never ever been tolerated back home.
We now have kids in elementary and Jr. HS, and I see some of the stuff they bring home, and I do question some of the thinking behind the lessons. Sometimes I get the impression that the teachers write their year’s lesson plan from the same “central” lesson plan, and they use canned teaching material. I wonder if some of the teachers are smart enough to teach our kids, but then I guess you don’t have to be an engineer or college professor to teach grade school level lessons. Now, that does not mean the kids are not learning nor that the school system is a bad one, but I don’t see some of the creativity that I saw when I was in grade school. I also see the school trying to cram an awful lot into a school year that now has shorter school days than when I was a kid. I see the kids learning things that I didn’t have to learn when I was their age, and I see a lack of concentration on the basics, penmanship and grammar. There are some advanced teaching principles used that were not used when I was in school, and in general, I think the kids are learning a lot more than I did when I was their age. BUT! Teaching appears to be more systematic these days in order to cram more into a school year….does that mean the teachers are less involved? Maybe. Does it hurt our kids? Maybe.
Could the teachers in general be better teachers? Yes of course! Could there be some bad teachers that might have lost their job if it were not for tenure. I’m sure there are. I think the mere mention of “tenure” strikes a bad chord in some folks, because it alludes to the fact that someone is protected from being easily let go for poor performance. Does it happen? Sure. Do we think that most teachers fall under that protection? I hope not. It’s a debate (is it really) that may never make anyone happy, but the story linked to in this thread is interesting, if not simply a reminder that we should be concerned with the quality of the teachers in our schools.
I don’t think we’re ever have a perfect school system….but we can’t rest.
In engineering, I see too many inadequate engineers that may be better in a different job, but the talent pool is shallow. In teaching, there appears to always be a lack of teachers…..so maybe we just have to live with the small percentage of teachers who are sub-par, and hope that there are exceptional teachers to help make up for some of the short comings at school. In our house, I hope we are also helping with the things we do. Helping our kids with their home work, dedicating reading time beyond what their teachers require or time toward creative thinking …all should count for something.
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