[Evans, Marv]

My wife is a first grade teacher. A little Filippino thing who is extremely inteligent, talented & artistic. On top of that, she knows how to manage a class, discipline the kids in a positive way, and educates her students beyone grade level. Part of this is because she went to school in the Phillippines where they don't take ***** from kids or parents, although her way is not at all intimidating. She is there at 7:30 and usually doesn't come home until 5:30 to 6:00. Then she spends the rest of the night preparing for the next day.
You are right. Lots of older teachers are crappy in every way. As a former teacher, I can tell you some of the frustrations: lack of administrative support, lack of communication (they put an autistic child in her class without telling her, and no support services for her or the kid either), administration taking the avenue of least resistance to not make waves & make it seem like everything is just going hunky dory), lack of teamwork and encouragement of working as a team, lack of accountability (teachers are not held accoutable for their actions), really bad teachers kept on every year to reak havoc - well, I'll stop here because I could go on forever.
Alfred has it right. Keep on top of what's happening & volunteer in class if you can. Althought a lot of teachers will put you in the copy room all day. If it were me & what I know, I wouldn't take anything from the administrators when it came to my kid. I'd demand another teacher, a change of class, bring it to their attention that the teacher is behind on things and unjustly demanding of the students and not take "no" or excuses for an answer. Plus, I'd monitor the teacher at the first of the year, & demand a change to another is the teacher isn't up to my standards. It's your kid & if he/she doesn't learn at the time, they won't be able to go back. And a bad teacher can really mess up a kid's attitude toward school & learning big time. I'll stop now.