Teacher Criticisms...(rant)

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  • KatyRing
    KatyRing Posts: 84 Member
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    Before you start comparing salaries you have to realize that the STARTING pay for a teacher is a lot lower then a teacher who has been in the field for years. But you know how teachers imrpove their salaries? by continuing their education into masters degree, but guess what? School districts DO NOT pay for this education, the teachers do. I know that in other professions trainning and things are usually, and notice i said usually paid for. So maybe if we took the cost of those extra degree programs out of the salaries being reported then the story would be alot different.
  • tallen3687
    tallen3687 Posts: 244 Member
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    The four most underpaid careers - Military, Teachers, Police Department and Fire Department. I admire them all and am amazed everyday that we don't show them enough respect. Let's pay the football players (some who couldn't even complete college and didn't do that well in high school) millions while some teachers can barely get by. Don't get me wrong, I love football, but who thinks this is right?
  • chanstriste13
    chanstriste13 Posts: 3,277 Member
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    Our education system needs more real business people and less career teachers, and maybe a results oriented system could demand the kind of pay worthy of a real profession.

    silliness. the business model in education will *never* work.
  • _binary_jester_
    _binary_jester_ Posts: 2,132 Member
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    Our education system needs more real business people and less career teachers, and maybe a results oriented system could demand the kind of pay worthy of a real profession.

    silliness. the business model in education will *never* work.
    Competition improves any product. There are many different models that have great siccess, but are opposed to by the NEA.
  • loopybec2002
    loopybec2002 Posts: 313 Member
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    This is simply my opinion and you can disagree all you like, but PUH-LEASE! You can chose to make your day as easy or as difficult as you like. If you care about your students, you're going to have a more packed day, if you choose to sit back and relax, your day is going to be a breeze. I've had good teachers, and bad teachers but seriously, the job cannot be as bad as you're all making it out to seem. You get weekends off, multiple weeks throughout the year off, plus 2 months during the summer off. Give me a break, if your job is that difficult or you're not enjoying it (not saying you guys don't) then find a job where you do enjoy yourself. Teachers should be prepared for the work load, and love children. If you're not and you don't, then keep flipping through the book of careers till you find something you like. My sister-in-law is a fourth grade teacher and all she does is complain about how the students shouldn't be in the class or are acting like brats... blah blah blah... I just want to tell her to find a job where she'll actually care about it. If you're just going to complain all day about things at your job then move on.

    No body here is saying they don't like their job. They are saying it is hard work. I work in a school for naughty boys. You say we can sit back and relax when You work in a school what do you think those students will be doing while i kickback with my feet up. I work in a school for children who would be beating each other to a pulp using anything they could get there hands on. I get swore at every single day sometime I have to seperate 2 15-16 year old boys from fighting and get caught in the cross fire. If our teachers kicked back and relaxed while in the class room 95% of our students would be in jail by the end of the week for ABH the only reason these lads stay out of jail is because us teachers show them the positive side and that someone cares. Over 50% of our students have tags on.
  • Elizabeth_M
    Elizabeth_M Posts: 562 Member
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    Well said!
  • FinallyFindingLisa
    FinallyFindingLisa Posts: 222 Member
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    What Do Teachers Make?
    by Author Unknown



    The dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life. One man, a CEO, decided to explain the problem with education.

    He argued: "What's a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?"

    He reminded the other dinner guests that it's true what they say about teachers: "Those who can...do. Those who can't...teach."

    To corroborate, he said to another guest: "You're a teacher, Susan," he said. "Be honest. What do you make?"

    Susan, who had a reputation of honesty and frankness, replied, "You want to know what I make?"



    "I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could."

    “I make kids believe in themselves when no one else will.”

    "I make a C+ feel like a Congressional Medal of Honor and an A- feel like a slap in the face if the student did not do his or her very best."

    "I make parents tremble in fear when I call home"

    "You want to know what I make?

    "I make kids wonder."

    "I make them question."

    "I make them criticize."

    "I make them apologize and mean it."

    "I make them write."

    "I make them read, read, read."

    "I make them spell definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful, and definitely beautiful over and over and over again, until they will never misspell either one of those words again."

    "I make them show all their work in math and hide it all on their final drafts in English."

    "I make them understand that if you have a dream, then follow it...and if someone ever tries to judge you by what you make or what you do, you pay them no attention."

    "You want to know what I make?!"

    "I make a difference."

    "What about you?"

    FANTASTIC!
  • UsedToBeHusky
    UsedToBeHusky Posts: 15,229 Member
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    Referring specifically to public school teachers...

    I am a state employee also. I am paid an annual salary less than yours. You are off through the whole of June and July while I work. But you tell me that you can't teach my child for 8 hours a day for 180 days out of the year. This same child that I teach at home and deal with for that remaining time that you don't. Granted, there are other children to teach, but sometimes this is just hard for me to swallow. I actually don't mind paying teachers more, but I do want them to teach my child and not give up halfway through the year just because she is one of your more challenging students.
  • rthompson81
    rthompson81 Posts: 305 Member
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    It's not so black and white. There is so much wrong on so many levels. SO many parents don't do their part, and So many teachers don't do there's. I'm in and out of different classrooms every day, I see many excellent teachers, and I see many horrible teachers.
    To me, it's not really a matter of who's to blame. The fact is that as a nation, we are failing our students. And something different needs to be done.

    I have two graduated, one graduates this year and one next year. If I had to do it again, no way in hell would my kids be in this school system.

    This is very true. That's why I, as a teacher, support merit-based pay.

    ME TOO! I've worked in public and private high schools, community colleges and universities, and teacher should get paid what they are worth, not for the number of years they have been teaching.
  • ItsMeRebekah
    ItsMeRebekah Posts: 910 Member
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    Not all teachers are cut from the same cloth.. just as not all students are the same.
  • vellacraptor
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    What Do Teachers Make?
    by Author Unknown



    The dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life. One man, a CEO, decided to explain the problem with education.

    He argued: "What's a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?"

    He reminded the other dinner guests that it's true what they say about teachers: "Those who can...do. Those who can't...teach."

    To corroborate, he said to another guest: "You're a teacher, Susan," he said. "Be honest. What do you make?"

    Susan, who had a reputation of honesty and frankness, replied, "You want to know what I make?"



    "I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could."

    “I make kids believe in themselves when no one else will.”

    "I make a C+ feel like a Congressional Medal of Honor and an A- feel like a slap in the face if the student did not do his or her very best."

    "I make parents tremble in fear when I call home"

    "You want to know what I make?

    "I make kids wonder."

    "I make them question."

    "I make them criticize."

    "I make them apologize and mean it."

    "I make them write."

    "I make them read, read, read."

    "I make them spell definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful, and definitely beautiful over and over and over again, until they will never misspell either one of those words again."

    "I make them show all their work in math and hide it all on their final drafts in English."

    "I make them understand that if you have a dream, then follow it...and if someone ever tries to judge you by what you make or what you do, you pay them no attention."

    "You want to know what I make?!"

    "I make a difference."

    "What about you?"

    SAUCE: http://youtu.be/EzT5iKpxjFA

    : DD
  • iuangina
    iuangina Posts: 691 Member
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    A friend posted this a while back:
    ]
    Fed up with teachers and their hefty salary guides. What we need here is a little perspective. If I had my way, I'd pay these teachers myself...I'd pay them babysitting wages.

    That's right...instead of paying these out-rageous taxes, I'd give them $3.00 an hour out of my own pocket. And, I'm only going to pay them for five hours, not coffee breaks. That would be $15.00 a day. Each parent should pay $15.00 a day for these teachers to babysit their children. Even if they have more than one child, it's still cheaper than private daycare.

    Now how many children do they teach a day - maybe twenty? That's $15.00 X 20 = $300.00 a day.

    But remember, they only work 180 days a year! I'm not going to pay them for all those vacations.

    $300 X 180 = $54,000. (Just a minute, I think my calculator needs batteries.)

    I know you teachers will say what about those who have ten years of experience and a master's degree? Well, maybe (just to be fair) they could get the minimum wage, and instead of just babysitting, they could read the kids a story. We can round that off to about $5.00 an hour, times five hours, times twenty children. $5.00 X 5 X 20.

    That's $500 a day times 180 days. That's $90,000.

    HUH???? Wait a minute. Let's get a little perspective here.

    Babysitting wages are too good for those teachers. Did anyone see a salary guide around here???!
  • rthompson81
    rthompson81 Posts: 305 Member
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    Before you start comparing salaries you have to realize that the STARTING pay for a teacher is a lot lower then a teacher who has been in the field for years. But you know how teachers imrpove their salaries? by continuing their education into masters degree, but guess what? School districts DO NOT pay for this education, the teachers do. I know that in other professions trainning and things are usually, and notice i said usually paid for. So maybe if we took the cost of those extra degree programs out of the salaries being reported then the story would be alot different.

    Ha, yes. With a masters degree I would have made $500 more A YEAR than with a BA. And a PhD $1000. That's it. It's crazy.
  • FitFi74
    FitFi74 Posts: 129 Member
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    Referring specifically to public school teachers...

    I am a state employee also. I am paid an annual salary less than yours. You are off through the whole of June and July while I work. But you tell me that you can't teach my child for 8 hours a day for 180 days out of the year. This same child that I teach at home and deal with for that remaining time that you don't. Granted, there are other children to teach, but sometimes this is just hard for me to swallow. I actually don't mind paying teachers more, but I do want them to teach my child and not give up halfway through the year just because she is one of your more challenging students.

    Just as I chose to be a teacher - you chose to have a child - this post sounds like you'd appreciate a boarding school!
  • blink1021
    blink1021 Posts: 1,118 Member
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    I would love to know what the hours are that some of you who are teachers I hear a lot of people talk about how they are criticized for their day ending at 3:30pm when does your day officially start? I know for one that my son's school the teachers do not arrive until 8am since school doesn't start until 9:00am. We can go around on this topic for hours but everyone can argue their job is stressful with no thanks at the end of it. Not every job offers to pay your masters program I know mine didn't. I also hear a lot of generalization about parents. Not every parent is uninvolved with their children. Just because a parent can't be at the school in the middle of the day on a teachers whim does not mean they are uninvolved. Their will always be children with behavior problems but that is part of the job.
  • jennajava
    jennajava Posts: 2,176 Member
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    NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND (a tragic and stupid piece of legislation that has NOT worked)

    ^^This ABSOLUTELY!!

    When exactly were they going to fix this in Washington again?


    It IS being talked about.......................and the more that people protest it, the quicker it will disappear !

    They're too busy trying to "fix" our healthcare system.
  • kwortham
    kwortham Posts: 48 Member
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    YES!!!! I have been a teacher for 10 years and it was as though you were reading my mind!
  • Shannon2714
    Shannon2714 Posts: 843 Member
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    As the wife of a teacher, I couldn't agree more. I would love to hear ONE job that is more important than a teachers! There wouldn't be doctors or lawyers or CEO's without teachers!

    And, I don't know who some of you think you are, but teachers don't have all the time off you seem to think they do. My husband is in his office at home on the weekends and on breaks, working on lesson plans and grading papers. He does have more time in the summer to relax and enjoy his own children, but he deserves that time for some of the things he has to deal with all year long.
  • ARDuBaie
    ARDuBaie Posts: 379 Member
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    First off, I am a teacher.

    I teach in a community/technological college. I see the product of the American education system and all I can say is that if I worked on a production line and put out that kind of a product, I would be fired.

    I enjoy teaching older students because they recognize the value of spelling and grammar as well as making a study schedule. They work hard and expect a lot from themselves.

    The younger group, for the most part, have no clue what a study schedule is, expect to not have homework, can't spell, have no concept of capitalizing the first word of a sentence or using punctuation, and can't do simple math without a calculator. Additionally, they have no research skills, believe any of the Wiki sites are suitable for research papers, copy and paste without citations, and then wonder why I gave them an 'F' on their paper.

    I have to re-teach every student who comes out of schools these days. I have to have them bring in calendars and create a study schedule. I have to explain to them how to take notes, how to do assignments, and how to study for tests. I still have students that will ask me what is on the tests because they can't seem to grasp an understanding of what is important and what isn't important, even when I stand up and say, "Now this is important, so pay attention."

    They want every test to be a multiple choice test. They panic when they have to write out a paragraph for short answer essay. Half the time I have to find an interpreter to read their printing. They don't know how to write in cursive. Those that do write must be going on to be doctors because I sometimes have to ask who the paper belongs to or what it says.

    They call me at all hours of the day, and sometimes at night, because everything is an 'emergency'. They can't follow the syllabus. Most don't hand in assignments on time and some even insist that the assignments are optional according to the school. If they were optional, would I have assigned them points and included the points in the final point count?

    Few students coming out of school have logic or reasoning abilities. They can't read well enough to understand the material that is presented to them. Simple words stump them, so you can imagine what larger words associated with Anatomy and Physiology do to them. They can't form complete sentences and half their sentences make no sense.

    I wouldn't worry so much if this was just one or two students coming out of highschool. Unfortunately, this has been about 95% of the students coming out of highschool. That's another thing: I put the number of points that they get correct on their test and they can't figure out the percentage that they got on the test. I have to do it for them!!

    What people don't realize is that the ACT, PSAT, and SAT (tests used for college placement) have been dumbed-down so that the students today can get an acceptable score! Otherwise, there would only be Asian, Middle East, African, and European students in our colleges and universities.

    Do I think that teachers deserve a raise? Not when they are producing the students that I have to re-teach every block.

    The raises that teachers receive should be tied to how well their students do. Yes, there are students whose parents don't encourage them. Yes, there are students who don't want to crack open a book. I've had some of those as well. You motivate them. You talk with the parents and motivate them as well. If they are not interested in their child's education, then you talk to Social Service and Child Protection.

    I homeschooled both my children from fifth grade on. Why? My daughter kept being passed on to the next grade even though she could not read, so I took the reins and pulled her out of school. She is an avid reader now and an electrician. My son kept getting beat up in fifth grade by a gang of girls. They didn't just beat up him, they beat up other boys as well. He ended up with a concussion and fractured ribs, so I pulled him out of school. This happened in the playground in front of playground monitors, by the way! He is now an honor student at Penn State. They both scored higher than children who went through public and private schooling on their placement tests.

    We live in a society where knowledge is necessary to make a living, yet our students are not being educated well enough to prepare them well enough to make a living. They can't balance their check books, read, write, think for themselves, think logically, perform math, etc. They don't have the motivation to do anything other than what is asked of them. They need their hands held for just about everything. In Europe, adolescents are cognizant of the world and their place in it. In America, adolescents are cognizant of only themselves and what's in it for them.

    I blame this on a school system who wants to make every child feel good. The every child is a winner concept is ridiculous because it makes children less motivated. Why excel if you are not going to be recognized for what you do? So every child produced will be mediocre at best and that is pretty much what I am seeing in the community colleges today.
  • kayleen_longworth
    kayleen_longworth Posts: 147 Member
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    I was thinking about that same forward. Sadly teachers aren't paid enough.