Quiller, to put it mildly, your presentation troubles me.
Who is the hands on person here? None the less it’s the rest of the public and me you look to, to correct this situation.
What other profession do you know of who when confronted with problems, tells the public it’s all their fault?
I worked in a hospital. I didn’t demand the public fix our problems. The administration, the managers, and co-workers jumped in to fix things. We didn’t send letters to the community telling them they had to fix things for us.
If you’re telling me the teachers haven’t got any power, I’m going to respond that right there is the problem.
If there aren’t enough teachers out there who object to this stuff to the point where they will walk out as a body and tell the community why, then no amount of community dissatisfaction is going to fix things.
The community members do get upset. They do approach teachers and administrators. What they get in return is some holier than thou disgusted look that immediately translates to, “We’ve got another live one idiot, we’re going to have to deal with.” And then they proceed to lie to you or tell you that you are powerless to change things.
Where is the uprising from the school administrators? Where is the march on state capitals, or even one state capital?
I’ve been living in my community for 40 years. During that period of time I have not seen one teacher stand up on this issue and tell the community what is going on.
Don’t tell me this is my problem. It is my nation’s problem, my state’s problem, my community’s problem, my and my children’s problem. It is YOUR PROFESSION. You are a part of that problem, no matter how well meaning you are.
I have never seen a business that blames everyone else more for it’s problems than the teaching profession. When I address it, and mention teachers, I am constantly hit over the head with the idea that it’s my fault, not theirs.
It’s so bad people are opting out to home school at great financial impact on the family.
None the less, all our poor teachers out there are doing a bang-up job. Don’t blame them for what they are teaching.
Good grief.
I've reviewed my post, to try to see where I said there were no bad teachers, and it just isn't there.
I've gone through, line by line, to try to find the point at which I said it was all the public's fault, and have yet to find it.
Your hospital has problems, and everyone jumps in to fix it. Wonderful. Good on you. That's a great thing to do. Kudos to you and all the wonderful people you worked with.
But in many cases, the teachers who try to move things in the right direction run headlong into the very resistance you describe. You want the good ones to walk out? Be careful what you wish for, because when the good ones walk, what you're left with will be the ones you don't want, but can't get rid of because of state employment guidellnes.
I didn't start teaching out of need for a job. I retired from one, and walked away from another fairly good one because I saw a need in local schools that I could fill. Not by bitching about things that other people weren't doing, but by getting into the trenches.
Inside, I see the inertia, the institutionalization, and the party-line mentality you're talking about. I and my like-minded colleagues have worked agaisnt it here. We could raise the banner, march forth, and demand change. And next year, the rest of the faculty would wonder why we didn't come back.
If you really want to make a difference, don't go to the teachers. Don't go to the administrators. Go to the school districts, who DO make the decisions. I believe that IS in my post.
And I've never given anyone a "holier than thou" look when they complained about the quality of the material. But then, that just goes to the broad generalization you use to justify every comment you make.
Way off thread now, no point in going further in trying to open a closed mind.