13 Things Your Child's Teacher Won't Tell You(look at THIS BS)!

SHINE by Yahoo News ^ | Tue Aug 17, 2010 | Interviews by Neena Samuel

[US Navy Vet]

A look inside a teacher's mind could help you understand lesson plans and maybe even guide your child to perform better.

1. If we teach small children, don’t tell us that our jobs are “so cute” and that you wish you could glue and color all day long.

2. I’m not a marriage counselor. At parent-teacher conferences, let’s stick to Dakota’s progress, not how your husband won’t help you around the house.

[Sgt_Schultze]

Guys who dribble a ball for a couple of hours a game can make up to $20 million a year. We educate future leaders and make about $51,000 a year.

I've heard that ridiculous complaint before. I always respond, "When thousands of people start showing up and paying to watch you teach class, I'll pretend your comparison is serious."

[who knows what evil?]

"8. Guys who dribble a ball for a couple of hours a game can make up to $20 million a year. We educate future leaders and make about $51,000 a year."

Seen Congress lately; teach? You're the one that is overpaid...EPIC FAIL!!!

[OldDeckHand]

"Teachers follow the orders from them to teach for the stupid tests."

Make no mistake, I'm not insulating the administration from criticism. Perhaps there are changes that need to be made in the testing regimen. But, the tests in and of themselves aren't a bad idea. If the administration of the test needs to be improved, so be it. But it's pretty clear that the wrote line coming from the unions is that all testing is bad, and they are not the tool that should be used to measure teachers. That is just facially wrong, IMHO.

[al_c]

That is $51,000 for 9 months of work. It doesn’t include the generous public retirement benefits that allow a lot of teachers to retire in their fifties, unlike most private sector people.

That may be true for union areas. My in-laws are retired teachers in TX. Both retired in their 60s. They don't have much money at all, but that's the way it was while they were working and raising 4 kids. Actually, only one of them worked while raising their kids. So they're used to getting by on very little. Good thing since that's what they're getting in retirement.

[Right Wing Assault]

Teaching is hard, yes, but they also get a three-month vacation.

But the good ones work a 12-hour day when you include grading and prep done at home.

[arthurus]

So, you don’t believe the subjects covered by the standardized tests are useful for the kids? The problem is that standardized tests tend to be focused, at least in Florida, on traditional academic subjects while teachers in the classroom would rather concentrate on sex ed and homosexual promotion and hugging trees and such. My wife is a teacher. I have been in other classrooms. Without those tests there would not be much three Rs taught at all in lots of classes and in some whole schools. And Florida is much more traditional academics oriented than, say, Massachusetts where my grandson, alas, is in public school.

[al_c]

Make no mistake, I'm not insulating the administration from criticism. Perhaps there are changes that need to be made in the testing regimen. But, the tests in and of themselves aren't a bad idea. If the administration of the test needs to be improved, so be it. But it's pretty clear that the wrote line coming from the unions is that all testing is bad, and they are not the tool that should be used to measure teachers. That is just facially wrong, IMHO.

No unions here in TX. And these tests are not for the evaluation of the teachers. They use these tests for quality ratings. The higher the ratings, the more money they get from the govt. They don't benefit the kids or the teachers, IMO.

[who knows what evil?]

Now we know where Obama learned to whine so much...

[DoughtyOne]

1. If we teach small children, don’t tell us that our jobs are “so cute” and that you wish you could glue and color all day long.

Even if I do glue, color, fingerpaint, and cut out projects all day long, except for naptime, playtime, and meal time.

2. I’m not a marriage counselor. At parent-teacher conferences, let’s stick to Dakota’s progress, not how your husband won’t help you around the house.

One wonders just how many Dakota's there are out there.  Read number nine (9) to see what this teacher's self-proclaimed duties are.  Psycholigst and advisor seem to indicate this person is eminantly qualified to be a marriage counselor too.

3. We’re sick of standardized testing and having to “teach to the test.”

How about teaching children what they are supposed to know at their grade level so they can pass the test without teaching what is in it?  What a novel idea...

4. Kids used to go out and play after school and resolve problems on their own. Now, with computers and TV, they lack the skills to communicate. They don’t know how to get past hurt feelings without telling the teacher and having her fix it.

I thought children were supposed to get these skills at public school?  It's the first thing public school folks bring up when parents opt for home schooling.  "But do you realize how their social skills will be damaged by not coming into contact with other children in the school setting?"  One more big lie...

5. When I hear a loud belch, I remember that a student’s manners are a reflection of his parents’.

So when a kid wets or craps in their pants, you know right where they got that don't you.  While that's not a manner, you're quick to blame behaviors of the children on behaviors they've seen their parents exhibit at home.  No, children do childish things.  That includes belching Miss Child Expert.

6. Your child may be the center of your universe, but I have to share mine with 25 others.

A little bitter are we?   And why shouldn't a person's child be the center of their universe?  Are you as unconvinced as I am by this point, that you are great teaching material?

7. Please help us by turning off the texting feature on your child’s phone during school hours.

How about asking the children to keep their phones in their lunch bags turned off?  You could opt to ask them to keep their phones turned off, if the lunch bag option doesn't apply.  How long would this take you, fifteen seconds?  Thirty seconds?  And this is of such import, and is such a massive disruption to your day that you have to address it here?  Wow.

8. Guys who dribble a ball for a couple of hours a game can make up to $20 million a year. We educate future leaders and make about $51,000 a year.

How much do you think teachers should make per year?  $100k?  $250K?  $500k?  A cool million even?  A lot of people in this nation never make $51K per year.

When asked, you folks never fail to state that you are a teacher because you love children and want to make a difference in their lives.  And then you carp non-stop the rest of your life about being mistreated, under-apreciated, and under-paid.  Please, find a new way to make a living.  My children don't need someone like you in their lives.

9. We take on the role of mother, father, psychologist, friend, and adviser every day. Plus, we’re watching for learning disabilities, issues at home, peer pressure, drug abuse, and bullying.

Couldn't have described it better myself.  This is exactly what you think your job is.  Hmmm, what might you have left out here?  It's killing me.  It's right there, tickling my mind, but I can't quite come up with it. Oooooh, that's what it is.  Teaching.

Never has a profession had such a super-inflated ego-driven self-important vision of it's mandate, as today's teaching profession.  It starts in K and extends to our universities.

10. Kids dish on your secrets all the time—money, religion, politics, even Dad’s vasectomy.

And your kids don't?  It might interest you to know that children don't always get those messages as clear as you think.  You might want to take what they say with a grain of salt.  Intead you're worrying yourself about issues at home, because those little darlings deserve better than to have the parents they do.  Only teachers are the perfect creatures placed on planet earth to make sure children are safe.

What do you think those same children are telling their parents at home?  Most parents take those comments with a grain of salt, but you might want to consider this the next time you decide to trash parents on this topic.

11. Please, no more mugs, frames, or stuffed animals. A gift card to Starbucks or Staples would be more than enough. A thank-you note: even better.

Why not just send home a list with the kids.  Oh nevermind, you've already supplied it.  What an ungrateful idot stick you are.  You graciously accept those gifts understanding that the parents did it out of respect for you, take it home, and toss it in the trash.  You stated that a thank-you note would be even better.  Liar!  What would you do with that thank you note?  Keep it forever?  Probably not.  You'd toss it just like the gift that made steam come out of your ears.  Both are expressions of appreciation you ding-bat.

12. We love snow days and three-day weekends as much as your kid does.

Oh my god!  Imagine how unsafe those children are at home on snow days and three-day weekends.  Why those parents that talk in front of them and have personal views that are different than yours will be filing thier little precious brains with unwholesome fodder.  How can you be so uncaring?

13. The students we remember are happy, respectful, and good-hearted, not necessarily the ones with the highest grades.

Translation:

The children that smile at me, treat me as if I were god, and never give me problems are the ones I'll remember.  And if they don't learn anything at all in my classroom, they're still the best students EVER.

Anyone that can read this list and think it's a sound list, has turned off their critical thinking.

[UCFRoadWarrior]

Seems that teachers get trashed too much on here....granted there are poor teachers, but most are genuinely good and doing their best.

State mandated tests are big government on steroids....and it is odd that so many who claim to be “conservative” agree with Ted Kennedy (who pushed “No Child Left Behind” with Bush II). Real conservatives do not get anywhere near something supported by Ted Kennedy. Our schools would be better if we got rid of standardized testing.

And, I always notice that, when politicians cut school budgets....they always cut teachers and things for students....but never the bloated overpaid adminstrators....both GOP and DNC keep those overpaid administrative positions because many end up with jobs in our schools after they leave office.

[who knows what evil?]

I have pulled my children out of what amounted to a gay and lesbian appreciation day at school.

Don't forget 'Obama Day' next Tuesday...

[al_c]

Maybe if your parents had though that these conferences were a good thing, then you'd know that "irregardless" is not a word.

Sorry ... couldn't resist.

[JenB]

ANOTHER REASON TO HOMESCHOOL

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[doyle]

I enjoyed reading the article. I don’t think a lot of it is BS.

Teaching is an easy job to do poorly, but a very difficult job to do well.

In the last thirty years there has been a tsunami of students with “special needs” that are legally recognized and impose certain behaviors upon schools and teachers...often at the expense of the non-special needs student educations. Individual teachers have had no control over the hugely expensive consequences of that demographic, which is relentlessly bused towards their classrooms every September.

To be effective in the classroom a good teacher has to present information on an appropriate level for the individual student. Good lessons are based on such a transformation of subject matter. In doing that effectively the teacher may commit the sin of making it look easy. Many students and parents have ignorantly reacted to that appearance by proclaiming that the process simply IS easy...and that teaching is therefore “easy”...

Teachers attempt to award the credit for a student’s progress just to that student...so much so that, in many cases, the student and his/her family actually seem to believe they accomplished the goal on their own. There was most likely a teacher in the kid’s success story somewhere at the beginning , but often that sub-plot is dropped as the legend endures.

Children are more poorly prepared for classroom levels appropriate for their ages now than ever before. A big reason for this is that parents are not doing their jobs at home. Every day many kids in school are spending more time with an individual teacher than with an individual parent at home. It wasn’t supposed to be this way, and now the teacher is caught in the middle of this destructive social trend.

Such developments (and many others) have radically transformed the occupation of teacher in the last 25 years. Institutionally, we are not addressing these factors with a winning plan. To a taxpayer, the “face” of educational institutions is the teacher...until that changes, teachers will continue to be a critic’s best targets of negative thoughts about schools.

Are there incompetent, lazy, poorly prepared, BS-worshipping, union-hack teachers nearby? Sure!

Are there energetic, charismatic, intelligent, creative, and humane teachers nearby? Sure!

Separating specific examples of both kinds of teachers requires putting down the broad negative brush and closely examining individual cases....the same approach we would want a good teacher to use when his/her students enter the classroom each day.

[DoughtyOne]

Seems that teachers get trashed too much on here....granted there are poor teachers, but most are genuinely good and doing their best.

Now, if only teachers had that high an opinion of their students parents.

[Sloth]

I don’t get people whining about how crappy & difficult their jobs are and how they don’t get paid much. I can see taking a crappy, difficult job if I was going to be paid a lot. And I can see taking a job that paid poorly if I thought it’d be enjoyable, low-stress, etc. But staying in a difficult, stressful job with low pay & complaining about it, when there are other options? That’s just stupid.

You see the same thing in comments on stories involving bad behavior by cops... whining about how difficult & dangerous their jobs are, and how they don’t make much money. Well, duh — do something else.

[SoftballMominVA]

Teaching is an easy job to do poorly, but a very difficult job to do well.

That is my favorite quote of the week.

[DoughtyOne]

Maybe if your parents had though that these conferences were a good thing, then you'd know that "irregardless" is not a word.

Sorry ... couldn't resist.

[SoothingDave]

Now I know what to get you for Christmas!

[sportutegrl]

Dakota is the name of my hubby’s pickup.