Posted on 02/04/2006 8:54:24 PM PST by george76
In our district, those would have been unexcused absences, she wouldn't have been allowed to make up the work, and she'd have been denied credit for the year.
Does your younger son teach about feelings and do banana demonstrations of condoms?
I'm usually pretty sympathetic on doctor and dentist appointments. My dentist has a lot of teachers as patients so he usually works around my schedule luckily. I've never been called to jury duty, though I almost think I may be too opinionated if I ever was:).
I had kind of a weird thing happen the other day. This kid in my class has a fake eye (he was born with one of his eyes that didn't form completely). The fake eye fell out and so he hurried and put on his eye patch. His mom had given explicit instructions to me not to draw attention to it and so I didn't. I called his mom (per her instructions) who came and put it back in. The kid was a trooper and acted great.
Most teachers here miss about 9-10 days or so, most for the reasons you describe, not to mention special conferences. We do have one pregnant teacher who will miss a few weeks too. I'm sure that drives the averages up. Very rarely do teachers miss here for vacations and such. Who knows about other places?
Most kids miss about 9 or 10 days too, often for sickness, vacation, appointments, etc. (though with some "other" reasons thrown in-hehe). I take it in stride because there's really not much I can do about it. One year, I had 450 absences (this is for first grade) total. One girl missed 65 days because her mom's life made General Hostpital seem like a kid's show. By some miracle of the man upstairs, she ended the year reading on grade level.
You're a trooper, keep it up.:)
In our district, those would have been unexcused absences, she wouldn't have been allowed to make up the work, and she'd have been denied credit for the year.
Maybe in the secondary schools here, not sure. But then something like that can get people's hair tied up in a knot too.
No. He is a music teacher. He knows a lot about feelings...
The purpose of my post was intentionally biased to show my feelings bout modern education. Isn't yours?
Good teachers are a blessing. We need more of them, and less of the idiots sitting in too many classrooms, wasting our childrens futures. We need to get rid of the myriad of people whose sole purpoe is not education, but instead are trying to deal with things not within their purview, or mandate, IMHO.
It's gottne to the point where the unions have ruined our public education by requiring money to be spent on their pet theories... and the children languish!
I just get really tired of the condom-on-the-banana cliche. From the postings on these education threads, you'd think that's all we do in schools.
The only time I've ever had a condom in my classroom was when some goofball teenager dropped one (still the package, thankfully) out of his pocket, and I picked it up off the floor as part of the regaining control thing.
Yes, there are teachers who are immoral, lazy, incompetent, etc., just as there are good and bad, competent and incompetent in all professions.
I just don't think the broad-brush, stereotypical snap comments add anything to the discussion.
I made the point I wished to make in my "discussion". That is what we do on FreeRepublic. You made your points, and they are equally broad-brushed. What makes the difference is that you are coming from a defensive position, while I have no axe to grind, just a valid complaint.
I am a taxpayer. I see $15k per student being spend in nearby DC. I know the average quality of teachers in DC, and they are below average, overall. Utah spends a third of that amount. The problem stems from union and government interference in the education system.
Yes, there are teachers who are immoral, lazy, incompetent, etc., just as there are good and bad, competent and incompetent in all professions.
Yes, but they don't get tenure, nor do they get to dictate conditions to their employers. If they take too many sick days, they are fired. Teachers get employment benefits far beyond what most people receive, and have more time off. I think most are way over paid, for the benefit we receive from their (lack of) efforts.
Teachers are important. I wish we had more of them, and less of the dregs... and far less of the "administrative" personnel!
Yeah.
What about teaching tolerance and diversity, eh?
And that homosexuality is perfectly acceptable and to be celebrated.
And, God forbid you should be able to quote the Bible or teach about the Prince of Peace - or alternatives to the theory of evolution.
Where exactly do you live? I suspect that either you don't live in a small town in the Bible Belt as I do, or you're basing your impressions on worst-case type stuff you've read in national papers and on FR.
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