Re: How do you think American education rates....

Re: How do you think American education rates....

Posted by MissJones



Anyway, either way, I love my job. I go home exhausted and battered from the day , but I am also one of those teachers whose school day doesn't begin at 8:20 or end at 3:00, M-F.

Re: How do you think American education rates....

Re: How do you think American education rates....

Re: How do you think American education rates....

So what do you think of $$ being attached to the individual child and will follow them wherever they go?

Re: How do you think American education rates....

Re: How do you think American education rates....

I think it's a great idea because it would encourage teachers to perform at higher standards. However, I don't think it would work in a system like ours. There is also too much money out there in terms of curriculums and who will benefit from a certain curriculum being purchased, if that makes sense. For instance, in NYC, we have hte teachers college of reading and writing. As a teacher, it is horrible. However, it isn't leaving any time soon. So, who's making money from it? Who was brilliant enough to sell it? When there are situations like that, situations in which there are too many money ties to the system, it wouldn't work. If there were standards to achieve and individual schools could choose programs to follow, then I think it would work, because the schools would be held accountable and there would be less blame on "the system".

Re: How do you think American education rates....

Well if kids were actually given a chance to LEARN for the sake of learning as opposed to learning to pass a test, that would be a VAST improvement.

Also, I hate to say this but there are many parents that are a huge contributing factor to the poor education here. It is NOT the school's responsibility to educate a child 100% and learning does not end once the school day is over! Parents are empowering their children way too much- they are enabling them and do not hold them accountable. When I was growing up my parents sided with the teacher 100% no excuses. I never got a phone cal home that was bad because I knew there would be consequences. I would never think to speak or act the way today's youth does especially towards their teachers.

Re: How do you think American education rates....

There are so many sides to this issue and each one makes me more irate then the next.

First, I went to Catholic school in NYC. We had 40 students in the classroom. Various levels, no assistant teacher. Materials were okay. And guess what? We could all read and write. I firmly believe that if parents had to pay something for their child's education, they would pay more attention to what is going on in the child's life. Mess around with people's pocketbooks and they get really upset. Granted there are those who "can't" afford tuition, but I also can't afford $150.00 sneakers and designer clothing but most of my students dress nicer then I do.

Secondly, even before the child enters school at 5 years old, he/she should have been learning all sorts of things. It is not my fault that this child comes to school as a blank slate. The parent failed to do his/her job.

I work in a DOE public high school in NYC after 10 years as a Catholic High School teacher and have never experienced such waste before. I just think of all the money that is wasted on Xeroxing, supplies, and students don't take care of anything because they don't see any value in what they are learning!

Most of my students have resolved that they will be drug dealers b/c that way they can afford all the nice stuff. They do not buy the argument that if you are educated and work hard, you can also have that nice stuff. It is a vicious cycle that really needs to be broken.

Re: How do you think American education rates....

Message edited 1/15/2006 8:09:33 AM.

Re: How do you think American education rates....

Miss Jones- you're right about the curriculum- it ***** and people are making so much money off all these "initiatives" that are supposed to help the kids. Like those Princeton Review interim assessments- a friend of Bloomberg heads that division of PR. Convenient, right?

There does need to be more equity in funding- the kids in NYC have about 38% of the state's children. To be fair, then, NYC should get 38% of the lottery money that the state takes it. It doens't; it gets hugely shortchanged. The state was successfully sued by the city and Pataki is still fighting it because he does not want to give NYC its fair share. This is why he will never, ever get my vote.

Parents (not all) are part of the problem, for sure. I too grew up in a house where if the teacher said we did XYZ, there was NO debate. My school "loops" and I had a small group of kids for 3 years. There were three or 4 kids whose parents I never met, not once in 3 years. It's pitiful the way I often have to make my case against a child because I know the parent will fight me.

Re: How do you think American education rates....

Overall, we really have one of the worst education programs in the world IMO (universities and grad school aside).

The social promotion here is terrible. My cousins live in Paris and one cousin is in Oxford. His brother, who is very bright but not as serious a student, failed some classes in his senior year and now has to repeat the year. Its severe, but I bet when he goes to college he definitely learned a lesson.

However, we do have some of the best programs for children with learning disabilities. In some places in Europe these kinds of programs are not available so if you have a learning disability, you basically get left back until you have been left back enough and then they switch you to a special school for children with severe mental and physical disabilities.