Do you feel teachers should be held to a higher standard than what they are?

Are you willing to pay higher taxes for teachers to be paid more so that we (as parents) can hold them to to higher standards?

If you do feel they need to be held to a higher standard how would you go about making this an actual law?


Most nurses and doctors can be fired or worse for 'abuseing' patients...examples would be grabbing a patients arm, yelling at a patient, or forceing them to take meds/a bath.

But yet we send our kids to school for 6-7 hours a day with teachers who do the same things to our children. And our children do not have the rights, knowledge, or power to defend themselves against these teachers let alone the communication skills to inform us that these awful things are happening to them daily.

I know the only time I have ever heard of a teacher losing her liscense to teach was due to molestation of a child. To me that standard is to low, way to low.

Nanny cams have become a common thing but when our children become school age we just send them off and think nothing of it....to me that's not right.


I truely am not saying all teachers are horrible, I know there are a few good ones out there. I just have found that they are becoming harder and harder to find. I deeply feel that teachers need to be held more accountable for there actions toward our kids though. I am looking for your thoughts about this and ways to raise the standards that teachers are held to.

yes. they sure should. how about that crazy teacher that had sex with the underage boy, she was married with 4 kids. went to jail, had his baby. continued somesort of contact, got prego with his 2nd baby. got divorced, husband moved - was it to alaska? than she got married to him....villi something was the boys name???

SHE WAS HIS TEACHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Vili Fualaau

Most teachers are not bad just like ANY career there are a few bad apples. I think teachers SHOULD be held to a higher standard. However I also feel parents need to also be held to that SAME standard. (if not even HIGHER)

Many parents are not involved with their children's school lives. If you send your child off to school, and fail to make certain that the school is doing its job that is a failure on the parents fault. It is easy to blame the majority of the teacher's many of whom are over worked and underpaid (also the over crowding that so many public school's have to struggle with, not to mention the BS of the no child left behind act) I think more parents need to be looking at themselves and evaluating why they are sending their children off to school yet not getting to know the other parents in the class, the teacher/s, and the administration team.

If parents want things to change then go to the parent council meetings, volunteer, visit your child's classroom, go to the school board meetings, etc. Only through active involvement in our children's schools can we better their education.

All of this I say AS a future Waldorf kindergarten teacher, and a parent that just spent from 8:30 am - 7 pm at her child's school and that is extremely active in both my child's class and the school as a whole. Can my child's school improve YES (because there is ALWAYS room to improve when it comes to education). However it takes parents working with the teachers & administration as a TEAM to get it done.

As a parent I can not afford to have a passive role in my children's education, it must be an active one. If you are doing nothing to solve the problem then you become part of the problem.

All of this is a general response in no way directed at any one person. Simply a response to the OP question's.

Also the good teachers are not getting harder to find the NCLBA ties their hands, 99% of the teachers I have spoken with HATE what that act is doing to our education system. They have children as young as the 3rd grade that are so stressed when it comes time to start testing for the year getting ill, and suffering from tension headaches, etc. In the 3rd grade that is just unacceptable, (I find it to be unacceptable in any grammer school level). Many teachers find they are having to teach to the test rather then being able to reach the children it all has to be verbatim. Instead of fill in the bubble they should look to the multiple intelligence surveys and find out HOW each child learns. Not all children can take tests in this method so the results are far from accurate and the school with high test scores are the schools that are literally coaching the children how to just pass the test all year rather then actually learning a variety of things.

I'm going to leave my 2 cents out of this for now seeing as I am a teacher, but I am very interested in seeing everyone's point of views.

I agree with Green~Mammy, she said it very well.

yes. they sure should. how about that crazy teacher that had sex with the underage boy, she was married with 4 kids. went to jail, had his baby. continued somesort of contact, got prego with his 2nd baby. got divorced, husband moved - was it to alaska? than she got married to him....villi something was the boys name???

SHE WAS HIS TEACHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yea, Mary Kay Letourneau and Villi Fualaau

I know it was wrong in that particular situation, and she should have known better, and they should have waited until he was older... but HE will openly admit he wanted her, he pursued her, he was more mature than his peers, and he wouldn't have stopped until he got her.

The day he could he went to court himself to get all the court ordered restrictions lifted so they could be together...

They are now together, still happily married, and looking for a way to have some degree of normalcy.


That was a unique situation though, being the "first bombshell" and it also had unique circumstances, as above... does it make it right? Hell no... and like I said she SHOULD HAVE known better, but it shows her weakness.

I absolutely think teachers need to be paid better and trained better... and parents need to be more vigilant. This kind of thing repeatedly happening is absolutely disgusting... and whether between a male student and female teacher, or male teacher and female student, it is a no no, and everyone needs to have better clear cut boundaries...

Green~Mammy,

:hail

As someone who comes from a family of educators, has seen both sides more than I care to admit, and is considering going the Waldorf route... you are absolutely right... :salute :giggle

Most teachers are not bad just like ANY career there are a few bad apples. I think teachers SHOULD be held to a higher standard. However I also feel parents need to also be held to that SAME standard. (if not even HIGHER)

Many parents are not involved with their children's school lives. If you send your child off to school, and fail to make certain that the school is doing its job that is a failure on the parents fault. It is easy to blame the majority of the teacher's many of whom are over worked and underpaid (also the over crowding that so many public school's have to struggle with, not to mention the BS of the no child left behind act) I think more parents need to be looking at themselves and evaluating why they are sending their children off to school yet not getting to know the other parents in the class, the teacher/s, and the administration team.

If parents want things to change then go to the parent council meetings, volunteer, visit your child's classroom, go to the school board meetings, etc. Only through active involvement in our children's schools can we better their education.

All of this I say AS a future Waldorf kindergarten teacher, and a parent that just spent from 8:30 am - 7 pm at her child's school and that is extremely active in both my child's class and the school as a whole. Can my child's school improve YES (because there is ALWAYS room to improve when it comes to education). However it takes parents working with the teachers & administration as a TEAM to get it done.

As a parent I can not afford to have a passive role in my children's education, it must be an active one. If you are doing nothing to solve the problem then you become part of the problem.

All of this is a general response in no way directed at any one person. Simply a response to the OP question's.

Once again, green~mammy shows her intelligence.

how can you expect things to get better if you (general you to parents) do not get yourself as involved as you can? (knowing how some schedules are)
the teachers can only take things so far, but if the parents dont step in and help, the child is being failed by ALL involved.
Teachers truly are overworked what with ridiculous crowding and insanely high test score expectations (fucking no child left behind!) and then add on children's tendency to be rambunctious and cause more problems through disrupting class and harassment of each other and it becomes a VERY high stress job.
It is one thing to expect teachers to do their absolute best, it is a completely different issue to expect them to be 'mommy' or 'daddy' when mommy and daddy "cant" be there.

I do also agree that the parent has to be involved in their childs education.

You mention going to the school to volunteer and getting to know the teacher & other parents...so my question is then what about those parents who both have to work or single parents who have to work to be able to live. This is a very common thing now...the majority of families have to have both parents working and those parents are not always able to go sit at the school all day or do the volunteer activities like they want to. I feel that the parents who are able to be at the school with their kids should also be standing up for the kids whose parents can't be there.

Teachers truly are overworked what with ridiculous crowding and insanely high test score expectations (fucking no child left behind!) and then add on children's tendency to be rambunctious and cause more problems through disrupting class and harassment of each other and it becomes a VERY high stress job.
It is one thing to expect teachers to do their absolute best, it is a completely different issue to expect them to be 'mommy' or 'daddy' when mommy and daddy "cant" be there.

I get that being a teacher is a stressful job that's why I am for raising taxes to build more schools and give teachers a better salary.

When you say "children's tendency to be rambunctious and cause more problems" don't you feel that as a teacher you should be able to handle this in a reasonable manner...with out yelling at the child or hitting the child? or should this child just be druged so that he/she is disrupting the class? all kids are gonna get antsy after being made to sit still and not talk for an entire day.

I have sat at my kids elementary school many a time all day long and most of the time the kids are given a 15 minute recess and the rest of the day they are not to talk, not to touch anything (besides their desk and its contents) and they are expected to sit most of the day. They are in school for 6.5 hours a day. I know for my kids that's a long day and even I get antsy after about 5 hours of being there. The teachers get irritated with the kids and then the kids feed off that. I just feel that teachers need to be trained better or not chose teaching as a profession if they don't feel they can handle it. My kids are both in elementary school so pre-k thru 5th grade is what age range I'm talking about mainly.

I do also agree that the parent has to be involved in their child's education.

You mention going to the school to volunteer and getting to know the teacher & other parents...so my question is then what about those parents who both have to work or single parents who have to work to be able to live. This is a very common thing now...the majority of families have to have both parents working and those parents are not always able to go sit at the school all day or do the volunteer activities like they want to. I feel that the parents who are able to be at the school with their kids should also be standing up for the kids whose parents can't be there.

If I was a single parent I would STIIL be on the parent council I would STILL make an effort to get to know my child's teacher, the other parents, and the school admin. There is no way I would send my child to school ALL DAY with out knowing what was going on in the class. If my son tells me something and I question it I talk to his teacher.

If I worked full time I STILL would of been at the school again today for the second day of our fall festival / rummage sale. If I could not be there I would of had my Mom or dad be there, or my DH if he was here. Between the four of us someone would be there. I am not passive about my kids when it comes to their education.

I will be working full time in just four short years when I have my degree in my hot little hands and will STILL be there when ever I can. Being a "single" mom (DH is away for this year and next) and a full time student I will still be there as much as I can. See the theme I have going on. :)

If a teacher HIT your child or any other child that is UNACCEPTABLE and needs to be brought to the schools attention. If the teacher is yelling, NOT just speaking in harsh tone but actual YELLING then THAT needs to be brought to the admins attention as well. Now days most classes have 30 students on average. That is entirely to high of a ratio for the teacher to do the job in the BEST way. This can only be changed if parents fight for it to be changed BELIEVE me teachers do not like the way things are either. Talk with the teachers in your school you will find out A LOT.

If you are unhappy with the public school system find a charter school that teaches in ways that go with your parenting methods. My ODS goes to a Waldorf charter I love it. It fits my family and it fits my child. Public school would not.

I have worked full time, I have been a single parent, I am now sort of a single parent again thanks to the military. It is hard but my child's education is one of the most important things to me outside my DH & my children themselves.

Right now I seriously dislike my son's teacher, so I have no desire to contribute to any increase in her income, LOL. In general, yes teachers should get paid more, but should also be held to high expectations.

I get that being a teacher is a stressful job that's why I am for raising taxes to build more schools and give teachers a better salary.

When you say "children's tendency to be rambunctious and cause more problems" don't you feel that as a teacher you should be able to handle this in a reasonable manner...with out yelling at the child or hitting the child? or should this child just be druged so that he/she is disrupting the class? all kids are gonna get antsy after being made to sit still and not talk for an entire day.

I have sat at my kids elementary school many a time all day long and most of the time the kids are given a 15 minute recess and the rest of the day they are not to talk, not to touch anything (besides their desk and its contents) and they are expected to sit most of the day. They are in school for 6.5 hours a day. I know for my kids that's a long day and even I get antsy after about 5 hours of being there. The teachers get irritated with the kids and then the kids feed off that. I just feel that teachers need to be trained better or not chose teaching as a profession if they don't feel they can handle it. My kids are both in elementary school so pre-k thru 5th grade is what age range I'm talking about mainly.


In reference to the bolded part - I walked in to my son's classroom one day to overhear his teacher apologizing to the class for "losing her temper" . That is absolutely unacceptable to me. I never reported her, and now I wish I would have because her and I are having other issues to which I believe are going to end up being taken up with the principal. It doesn't help that my son's teacher is retiring after this year, so I think she just doesn't give a damn what the parents feel about her and what she does in the class, because she will be gone at the end of the school year.

I'm trying to put a letter together to give to his teacher, before I take my issues to the principal. But a situation occured on Friday to which I'm very unhappy about, so I've lost any capability to give a crap about maintaining peace between his teacher and I. I have not addressed these issues any further in the past because I don't want her treating my son any differently than the rest of the students because her and I don't get along.

Anyways, sorry for the threadjack.

I get that being a teacher is a stressful job that's why I am for raising taxes to build more schools and give teachers a better salary.

When you say "children's tendency to be rambunctious and cause more problems" don't you feel that as a teacher you should be able to handle this in a reasonable manner...with out yelling at the child or hitting the child? or should this child just be druged so that he/she is disrupting the class? all kids are gonna get antsy after being made to sit still and not talk for an entire day.

I have sat at my kids elementary school many a time all day long and most of the time the kids are given a 15 minute recess and the rest of the day they are not to talk, not to touch anything (besides their desk and its contents) and they are expected to sit most of the day. They are in school for 6.5 hours a day. I know for my kids that's a long day and even I get antsy after about 5 hours of being there. The teachers get irritated with the kids and then the kids feed off that. I just feel that teachers need to be trained better or not chose teaching as a profession if they don't feel they can handle it. My kids are both in elementary school so pre-k thru 5th grade is what age range I'm talking about mainly.

Yes, children get antsy and harder for ONE teacher to control with a class of about 30... this is why they need parent volunteers. It is the parents duty to come in and help so the teacher can TEACH. of course kids shouldnt be drugged, and of course teachers shouldnt yell or lay a hand on children but parents need to get organized, call each other and set up times to come in and help the teacher.
parents also need to raise new ideas for ways of teaching.. more hands on. school isnt how it used to be. you DONT have to just sit there quietly and learn, LOTS of teachers incorporate movement and games with learning. its all in how you teach... and its hard for teachers to continue doing that alone with so many kids in class. THEY NEED PARENT VOLUNTEERS. even just an hour a day is GREAT for a teacher.
yes, i am sure it would be helpful to ensure training for education includes how to handle stressful problems, but a lot of the stress is having to do it alone and parents saying so often that i CANT come in EVER. my mom, being a single parent with two kids working on deadlines for the NEWSPAPER still managed to talk to our teachers and even come in once in a while (much to both our dismays haha) it IS possible. its just a matter of working out a schedule.

Green~Mammy: I agree completely with everything you said!! My son is a 3rd grader who will be taking the Texas TAKS this Spring. He was already worried about it last year. Daily he brings home homework titled "TAKS test Drops in a bucket" which is a math worksheet. I've already spent many hours at his school helping out in the classroom as well as being a substitute teacher. These kids & teachers have so much stress placed on them! Our neighbor is a 3rd grade teacher in another distrcit. She will start tutoring DS on Monday & helping to prepair him for the TAKS test. She is going to do some minor "testing" with him so that she can get a feel on how much he knows & understands & what exactly he needs help with.


how can you expect things to get better if you (general you to parents) do not get yourself as involved as you can? (knowing how some schedules are)
the teachers can only take things so far, but if the parents dont step in and help, the child is being failed by ALL involved.
Teachers truly are overworked what with ridiculous crowding and insanely high test score expectations (fucking no child left behind!) and then add on children's tendency to be rambunctious and cause more problems through disrupting class and harassment of each other and it becomes a VERY high stress job.
It is one thing to expect teachers to do their absolute best, it is a completely different issue to expect them to be 'mommy' or 'daddy' when mommy and daddy "cant" be there.

I agree with you completely! And what I think is beyond ridiculous is the parents who feel the teachers need to do everything with the parents not involved at all! I have seen a few parents like at my kids schools & even more so with me being a substitute teacher. Granted I am not in the same classroom every single day but there are times where I am there for an extended amount of time. It blows my mind what some parents expect from me even during the times when I am only in that particular classroom for 1 day!

I do also agree that the parent has to be involved in their childs education.

You mention going to the school to volunteer and getting to know the teacher & other parents...so my question is then what about those parents who both have to work or single parents who have to work to be able to live. This is a very common thing now...the majority of families have to have both parents working and those parents are not always able to go sit at the school all day or do the volunteer activities like they want to. I feel that the parents who are able to be at the school with their kids should also be standing up for the kids whose parents can't be there.

I will answer this based on me being a "single" parent. I will say single because DH does not live with us. He is stationed in CA while we are in TX & I do not have any family in my area that help me out with my 2 children.

I think every parent should help out in some form! I would never expect a single or working parent to be at the school every single school day during school hours. However there are simple tasks that are just as important to a teacher & the classroom such as sending out emails about class parties, cutting out things for projects, etc. Even something as simple as sharpening pencils at home is a HUGE help! And you don't even have to do any of these things on a daily or weekly basis. Once a month is still helping!

As far as the parents who are able to be at the school & standing up for the kids whose parents can't be there. Could you clarify that a little more? What exactly do you mean there? I don't want to reply to that before I know exactly what you mean! I am not quite sure on what they should be standing up for.

When you say "children's tendency to be rambunctious and cause more problems" don't you feel that as a teacher you should be able to handle this in a reasonable manner...with out yelling at the child or hitting the child? or should this child just be druged so that he/she is disrupting the class? all kids are gonna get antsy after being made to sit still and not talk for an entire day.

But being able to control a classroom can sometimes be a very difficult thing to do! Take DS's classroom. His teacher is the most wonderful person & I adore her very much but she does have a hard time controlling the class. I swear she got all of the talkers in her class except for a few children. She spends a lot of time trying to get them to settle down. A guarantee that every single day at recess there are kids walking laps for misbehavior & atleast once a week the whole class is doing because the majority can't stop talking. I myself have gotten frustrated being in there when I am volunteering.

I think my son & daughter's school district is different than your kids school because my kids are not required to be quiet all day long. They are allowed to talk as long as the teacher isn't as long as they maintain their "inside voices." They are allowed to move about the room as needed as long as they are not getting too wild. If my kids teacher or school expected them to be quiet & sit still ALL day long besides recess, I'd be switching classes or schools in a heartbeat! That is ridiculous!

The past 7 school days were exhausting for me because I was the substitute for the PE teacher. Let me tell you, how that coach does not yell constantly is beyond me! I've been told that they have had subs in the past who have literally walked out after only being in there for a few hours. That is a hard job & I have the utmost respect for the coach! It got so bad on Thursday that the assistant coach & I made everyone sit down gave them a long discussion on how to behave in gym. We went down each row & had them count in order how many students we had in there. For kindergarten alone, we had 103 students in there for 2 teachers as well as the music teacher from time to time. YIKES!



If a teacher HIT your child or any other child that is UNACCEPTABLE and needs to be brought to the schools attention. If the teacher is yelling, NOT just speaking in harsh tone but actual YELLING then THAT needs to be brought to the admins attention as well. Now days most classes have 30 students on average. That is entirely to high of a ratio for the teacher to do the job in the BEST way. This can only be changed if parents fight for it to be changed BELIEVE me teachers do not like the way things are either. Talk with the teachers in your school you will find out A LOT.

:yes

I agree that teachers are underpaid and over worked.

I feel too many parents use public education as a free babysitter wether they work or not.

I agree that you can volunteer in many ways to help out your child's class.

I also feel that the testing is becoming ridiculous and that children really do need more outside time. My 6 year old has PE once a week. In my opinion that is not enough. I remember going to school and the teacher taught PE plus we had morning recess, lunch, and afternoon recess. PE might have only been 3 days a week but we burned off our energy and sat in our chairs ready to listen.

I do not feel that there is enough variety in my child's school during the day. It seems like 80% of her day is reading and math. There are so many other things that are important to learn too.

This is all why I have been supplementing my dd's education. I feel that her school is holding her back in certain areas and neglecting other areas. Is there anything I can do about it on a shool level? Not really. So I am taking care of that at home.

I feel that society and our nation needs to be held to a higher standard. We need a national standard of what each grade learns when. And then we need to expect people (teachers and parents) to keep children to that standard. Until we demand that all children get an equal eduacation across the board our schools are going to keep suffering and our children are going to keep getting less of and education and only learn how to take tests.

I agree that teachers are underpaid and over worked.

I feel too many parents use public education as a free babysitter wether they work or not.

I agree that you can volunteer in many ways to help out your child's class.

I also feel that the testing is becoming ridiculous and that children really do need more outside time. My 6 year old has PE once a week. In my opinion that is not enough. I remember going to school and the teacher taught PE plus we had morning recess, lunch, and afternoon recess. PE might have only been 3 days a week but we burned off our energy and sat in our chairs ready to listen.

I do not feel that there is enough variety in my child's school during the day. It seems like 80% of her day is reading and math. There are so many other things that are important to learn too.

This is all why I have been supplementing my dd's education. I feel that her school is holding her back in certain areas and neglecting other areas. Is there anything I can do about it on a shool level? Not really. So I am taking care of that at home.

I feel that society and our nation needs to be held to a higher standard. We need a national standard of what each grade learns when. And then we need to expect people (teachers and parents) to keep children to that standard. Until we demand that all children get an equal eduacation across the board our schools are going to keep suffering and our children are going to keep getting less of and education and only learn how to take tests.

:agree i really don't have anything to add but i do agree w/ everything that's been said...:agree

I think tenure should be abolished. There are too many teachers who have tenure and then stop caring about doing the right thing. They get tenure way too early, and then even if they do something major wrong it's ridiculously hard to get rid of them. My sister is a special needs teacher in a school for autistic kids and it's crazy some of the stuff she sees.

I think getting rid of tenure would make it easier to fire bad teachers.

it is not just no child left behind because prior to that all the teachers i talked to say that the testing regulations on them were insane. alot of the public school system is all test test test. my MIL flat out says there is no point in teaching beyond the TAKS test (she teaches in texas).

i absolutely think parents need to be more involved and that teachers need to be paid more. i think also that it's not so much of the fact that the teachers are bad teachers they just don't have the motivation--they do it as a job and that's it

I agree with much of what Jamie (Green~Mammy) has said, not only do teachers need to be more proactive but so do parents. I'm currently in school to become a teacher and the few classes that I've been to for my student teaching have bordered on ridiculous. Because of the FCAT (the standardized bullshit test), the teachers have to concentrate on teaching those subjects required on the test. The last class with which I worked was 5th grade, the kids spent the bulk of their time on math and English with one or two lessons in either science or social studies (and usually the social studies lesson was the kids reading a Weekly Reader at home and having a quiz on it in class on Friday). They had a 15 minute recess after lunch every day (if they were lucky) and a 1 hour PE every week.

And we wonder why our school systems are failing so miserably and kids are getting obese (with only 1 PE per week, it's no wonder). If the teachers don't concentrate on the test and the kids do poorly, the school gets a bad grade and their funding is cut (when it's pretty low already). I've done a lot of research on the NCLBA and most of it is bullshit. I may be going to school to be a public school teacher, but DH and I will probably try to scrape the money together for our kids to go to private school. I did a semester of teacher shadowing at a private school and I really liked what I saw there. They aren't held to the same standards as public schools (i.e. they give the FCAT but it doesn't count because they are privately funded) and their learning standards were MUCH higher than the public schools at which I've worked. Mind you, this was only one private school, but I really liked what I saw there.

I'm hoping when we get someone else in office, the NCLBA will be thrown out and some more concern and work put into our rather lackluster school systems.

wow. ok.

i used to be a teacher. used to be. you have to remember that education is controled by the state and what i've found is that standards vary from state to state and have alot to do with the economy of the school district. some states will allow anyone with x number of college credits to obtain an emergency certification to teach. yes, i think this is too low a standard. others will bypass the law simply because they can't get enough qualified teachers. that is terrible yes, and the worse part is these low standards usually happen in low economic areas where kids need the best teachers. but you knwo where the good teachers go? to the suburbs where the pay is good, parents are involved, schools support them, and standards are held high because they know qualified teachers want to work there. it's supply and demand and right now it's very skewed. i worked in a wonderful, wealthy district. all the teachers had masters+ and were certified in multiple areas. they did NOT tolerate any kind of yelling or grabbing of kids. these teachers, in my oppinion were probably some of the best in the country because that district had it's pick. i also worked in a different state, lower income area and can say that school had much lower standards. it was sad.

i understand your point, but please understand that there are differences from state to state and school to school.

I think that as parents we need to hold our KIDS to a higher standard, if your kids behave in school and in class then the teacher won't have have to be mean to them. I feel that teachers are under paid and over worked, esspecially in the inner cities, with very little help. and many students, students throw papers at them, they have to seperate fights, my sister is a teacher in a very small school, and has had to pull students apart. risking injury to herself. where are the parents and students accountable for what goes on in the schools? i think as parents we need to be grateful for every lesson our kids get good or bad. and what about the teachers that have kids coming in and out of their classes due to military moves? my son moved into the district in March down here, from an awful school in IL, different state different standards! regardless of the age of the student they need to be held accountable for their actions either a 5 year old or an 18 year old. i don't think teachers need to be held to a higher standard i think there is enough pressure on them as it is. i haven't read any of the post so sorry if i am just repeating something already said. i feel that parents if anything need to be held to higher standards. doctors and nurses can't abuse patients because they took an oath to care for them. as a CMA with patients that have frustrated me you need to learn to walk away. teachers don't get to just walk away and come back because they have 25 other kids that need their attention. and the standard to what we hold the teacher to is how well their students do on the test. i think that its not about how well my kid does on a standarized test that matters its what he has learned through out the year that is important. they have to focus so much time on what is going to be on these test that they don't get to really teach anything else. i know that when my work day was done, i didn't bring home charts to work on. it was done, i didn't have to bring home 3 more hours of work to do at home, taking time away from my family.

My 6 year old has PE once a week.

Yikes! I agree with you! I can't believe it's only once a week. Here it is every day for 50 minutes & then recess is 20 minutes or longer if the weather is not too hot or too cold. The only ones that have PE once a week is pre-k. They only come once a week for about 20 minutes. But they also only go to school for 3 hours & still have recess for 20 minutes everyday plus a 30 minute lunch in there. If they did PE every day, they'd lose a lot of classroom time!

Amber, I also agree with everything else you wrote!

I agree with much of what Jamie (Green~Mammy) has said, not only do teachers need to be more proactive but so do parents. I'm currently in school to become a teacher and the few classes that I've been to for my student teaching have bordered on ridiculous. Because of the FCAT (the standardized bullshit test), the teachers have to concentrate on teaching those subjects required on the test. The last class with which I worked was 5th grade, the kids spent the bulk of their time on math and English with one or two lessons in either science or social studies (and usually the social studies lesson was the kids reading a Weekly Reader at home and having a quiz on it in class on Friday). They had a 15 minute recess after lunch every day (if they were lucky) and a 1 hour PE every week.

And we wonder why our school systems are failing so miserably and kids are getting obese (with only 1 PE per week, it's no wonder). If the teachers don't concentrate on the test and the kids do poorly, the school gets a bad grade and their funding is cut (when it's pretty low already). I've done a lot of research on the NCLBA and most of it is bullshit. I may be going to school to be a public school teacher, but DH and I will probably try to scrape the money together for our kids to go to private school. I did a semester of teacher shadowing at a private school and I really liked what I saw there. They aren't held to the same standards as public schools (i.e. they give the FCAT but it doesn't count because they are privately funded) and their learning standards were MUCH higher than the public schools at which I've worked. Mind you, this was only one private school, but I really liked what I saw there.

I'm hoping when we get someone else in office, the NCLBA will be thrown out and some more concern and work put into our rather lackluster school systems.

Very well said! I agree!

Should there be higher standards for who teaches? Sure, but is that realistic? There aren't enough teachers as it is for the millions of students in our country. If standards were higher you better believe your taxes would be higher.
I agree with everyone that parents should be more involved. Far too often, parents think it's the schools job to completely educate their children and that they do not have to be involved. I could read and do math before my mother ever sent us off to school, because educations starts in the home. I don't blame schools for child obesity, I blame homes and parents. Schools don't raise your children, you do.
I don't believe school scores should have anything to do with funding, but I'm not against testing. I did FCATs growing up in FL, and it didn't bother me. I was going to school to learn and be tested and keep improving... not for fun. Just how I feel personally though, I think that's what school is for.
My best friend is doing her internship right now and she has some awful days. The school she is interning at can't keep teachers at all, the kids are horrible and parents aren't involved one bit. She doesn't plan to take their job offer, she is looking elsewhere.
If any change happens, I think parents should be held legally responsible for not being involved in their children's education, such as never showing up for conferences and whatnot.

On another note. I want to add that I feel standardiazed tests are important. However you cannot use a standardaized test for the everyone when not everyone is learning the same thing. Also a test should reflect an overall growth in learning not that a child can take a bubble in test very well. This is where people I think become frustrated with the tests because their children are only learning the test and nothing else for the school year. I feel this is a huge disadvantage to our nation.

Well said Elizabeth! And I am :yes my head at Amber again!

Most teachers are not bad just like ANY career there are a few bad apples. I think teachers SHOULD be held to a higher standard. However I also feel parents need to also be held to that SAME standard. (if not even HIGHER)

I agree with your whole post, but especially this part with the parents being held accountable for their child's education. I despise that many parents lately feel it is the school's responsibility to soley educate their child. :screwy

Debra...what I mean by standing up for a child who's parents can't/won't be involved is...I feel that as a parent if I see a child being mistreated then I think I should contact that parent...or speak to an administrative person regarding the teachers behavior...and I just wonder if other people do this as well.

I understand school are state funded and the rules vary from state to state as well as the testing that applies.

We are currently living in Goose Creek, South Carolina...the school my children attend a Title 1 school. This school as well as most others in our county have failed the state standard testing for past 2 years we have been here and will probably fail again this year...the results will be out soon. The school teaches grades pre-K thru 5th grades and has approximatly 1400 students in all. Since they are a Title 1 school they have been put under guidelines for student to teacher ratio...most classes have 18 or less students to 1 teacher...all pre-K & K have a certified teacher & an assistant. South Carolina is a state where you are allowed to have 2 years of college credits (any courses or take a test) to become a teacher assistant.

My kids as well get PE once a week for 30 min...and a 15-20 minute recess daily...if the weather permits they go outside if not most of the time they watch a movie inside...generally something like Magic School Bus.

We were stationed in VA prior to being here and I didn't feel that the school system was failing there. Since living in SC I have seen a drastic change and it's a horrible school system here. I know it will be different again when we transfer next summer I can only hope it gets better.

I am an involved parent as much as possible. I just really feel sorry for most of these kids as I feel they are getting the raw end of the deal when it comes to education.

My mom's a teacher, I wish she could get paid a little more because of all the extra things they have to do now. Grading systems change so she has to go in on weekends to do grades an give comments, they make them spend time on one thing then leave out another. It's all confusing to me. My mom loves her job, but somedays shes just sick of things.

But yet we send our kids to school for 6-7 hours a day with teachers who do the same things to our children. And our children do not have the rights, knowledge, or power to defend themselves against these teachers let alone the communication skills to inform us that these awful things are happening to them daily.


I disagree with the exception of children who cannot speak. We as parents need to listen to our children. Many times children ARE communicating issues and are NOT being heard.
I also disagree with the "lack of rights" comment. There are codes of conducts for STUDENTS AND ADMINISTRATION. We as parents need to educate ourselves up on those and communicate them to our children.
JMO

I think the school systems are lacking. It's the haves and have nots in every school district(I'm still hot about the school bus issue-if we lived in the right neighborhood and I didn't look 15, it wouldn't be an issue, I grew up here, I know how it goes.). They don't care about education, they care about tests and that's sad.

I think the school systems are lacking. It's the haves and have nots in every school district(I'm still hot about the school bus issue-if we lived in the right neighborhood and I didn't look 15, it wouldn't be an issue, I grew up here, I know how it goes.). They don't care about education, they care about tests and that's sad.

i can assure you most teachers i've known do indeed care about education, and they hate the tests as much as you do. but it's not up to the teachers. it's coming from a long line of higher-ups.

i can assure you most teachers i've known do indeed care about education, and they hate the tests as much as you do. but it's not up to the teachers. it's coming from a long line of higher-ups.

I was talking about the school systems.

Most teachers are not bad just like ANY career there are a few bad apples. I think teachers SHOULD be held to a higher standard. However I also feel parents need to also be held to that SAME standard. (if not even HIGHER)

Many parents are not involved with their children's school lives. If you send your child off to school, and fail to make certain that the school is doing its job that is a failure on the parents fault. It is easy to blame the majority of the teacher's many of whom are over worked and underpaid (also the over crowding that so many public school's have to struggle with, not to mention the BS of the no child left behind act) I think more parents need to be looking at themselves and evaluating why they are sending their children off to school yet not getting to know the other parents in the class, the teacher/s, and the administration team.

If parents want things to change then go to the parent council meetings, volunteer, visit your child's classroom, go to the school board meetings, etc. Only through active involvement in our children's schools can we better their education.




Amen!!! Believe it or not, teachers have a lot on their shoulders everyday. We are responsible for educating and discipline, something a lot of parents don't bother to do anymore. There are only so many hours in a day, and even though kids spend the majority of them with us, we are only human! Are there bad teachers out there? OF COURSE there are. There are bad doctors, lawyers, cashiers, nurses, etc. etc. etc.

Unless you've walked a mile in a teacher's shoes, especially a special education teacher's shoes, then you have no idea what we go through EVERY single day! There ARE high expectations for us, in my opinion. The salary SUCKS, especially when you realize how much teachers have to do after school, before school, and at home.

No child left behind is in place to hold teachers accountable for academics. But don't even get me started on that.