Frustrated, my wife resigned from teaching on Friday

Melensdad · Apr 27, 2014

Putting this under the RANTS section because I cannot believe the state of public education in this age of political correctness.

My teacher wife turned in her resignation. It is effective at the end of the school year.

There are several other teachers who surprised the district this year by turning in end-of-year resignations/retirements.

Principal was "floored" by the resignation. My wife was just named one of the most influential teachers in the school district by top students. My wife is also fed up with the lack of standards, lack of discipline, lack of effort by the students, etc. They just got a new principal who has made some positive changes but the system is still a cluster.

They don't believe in giving students homework?
There are no qualifications/prerequisites for taking "Advanced Placement" classes so the teachers then have to "dumb down" the advanced classes . . . consequently very few students pass the national AP tests!
They don't believe in failing students who are, in fact, failing! They just inflate the grades!
Every failure is the fault of the teacher.
Can't use RED pens to grade papers because it might hurt the esteem of the student.
Too many other problems to BEGIN to list.

I've been volunteering as an unpaid coach at the same school for 2 years. One thing I know is that there is a VAST difference between the attitudes and conduct of most of the public school kids when compared to the private school kids I've encountered over the past 5 years at another school where I volunteer. It confirms on thing in my mind ~~~ the pubrik skool system is generally bad. If you have kids, do yourself a favor and send them to a private school that has high standards -or- home educate them!

I've very glad she finally quit.

In the last day or two she's acting like the weight of the world was lifted from her shoulders.

mla2ofus · Apr 27, 2014

I don't blame her. In this atmosphere of PC, don't hurt a student's feelings and there's no such thing as 2nd place I just feel our graduates are going to keep falling further and further behind the rest of the kids in the world. Hopefully your wife's and other teacher's actions will wake up some of the powers that be in the school district, but I have doubts.
Mike

Doc · Apr 27, 2014

Sad state of affairs for the public schools that we all pay for. These are adults making all these decisions that make it harder for any of the kids to be successful. So now the schools will lose the best of the best teachers which will make education for the kids even worse. I do not fault any of the teachers for leaving. I thank them for staying and putting up with the BS as long as they did. Like many things I guess they have to hit rock bottom before real changes for the better are made.

EastTexFrank · Apr 27, 2014

She'll probably be better off for it. Personally, I don't know why anyone would be a teacher these days.

Schools have completely forgotten the purpose for their existence. From what I see they have developed into a baby sitting service to allow disinterested parents freedom during the day. I was shocked when I found out the percentage of kids our high school that received free meals, breakfast and lunch. It was something over 70%.

No, the answer isn't to throw more money at the system, the facilities at our local high school are stupendous. I honestly don't know what the answer is but we really need to get back to basics.

Good luck to Mrs Bob on the next stage of her life. I'm sure she will enjoy it. :flowers:

Melensdad · Apr 27, 2014

I agree with ALL of you.

She will be better off.

Sadly the public school systems all across this nation have lost their way. I'm not saying there are not some exceptional public schools, there certainly are some. But there are too many that give "participation" awards to the kids who show up. It raises their expectations into believing they don't really have to work to get through life, they don't have to be on time, they don't have to turn in assignments on time. All of that translates into FAILURE in the workforce!

Leni · Apr 27, 2014

I was going to be a teacher but they were going to start me in downtown Los Angeles, not exactly a good place for a blonde blue eyed person. I decided that I would not do well in that culture and opted to go in another direction. I did end up working down there for a few years for the government. Talk about culture shock!

I totally agree with all that was said here earlier. We're lucky that we have several top schools here in the Valley including the one that just won the national (brain freeze) educational contest. Cannot think of the name of it.

NorthernRedneck · Apr 27, 2014

The school system isn't much better up here. I deal with the schools on a regular basis. I can't believe some of the tactics they now have to use in order to not hurt the kids self esteem. They don't take attendance into account for the most part so kids skip all the time. I'm almost certain that they are graded on a percentage of the work they actually do versus what they would be assigned if they did attend regularly. It's a joke really. The kids in high school even have the option of a credit recovery program if they do fail. They essentially are given every opportunity to pass even though they make very little if no effort. What happens is that kids are graduating grade 12 and can't read and can barely write their name.

Melensdad · Apr 27, 2014

"credit recovery" is the worst thing that some of the schools have come up with! My wife's school has it.

My daughter's school did not. My daughter went to a highly ranked private school that refuses to lower its standards. I'm amazed at the differences between the two schools.

So can anyone tell me how "credit recovery" helps kids in real life? Seems to me it teaches them that they are allowed to ignore the work assigned by their superior. Seems to me it allows them to ignore classes. From what I can tell, the credit recovery allows slackers to barely pass along to the next class.

Can you imagine a college professor who will take your paper at the end of the semester when it was due at the end of the first week? Or can you imagine a boss who assigns a task with a specific deadline and an employee simply not doing it … but then expecting to be able to remain employed after refusing to do the task?

mla2ofus · Apr 27, 2014

I feel all the chickens will come home to roost in the near future.
Mike

Melensdad · Apr 27, 2014

mla2ofus said:
I feel all the chickens will come home to roost in the near future.
Mike

Well the world can only hire so many burger flippers :ermm:

Leni · Apr 27, 2014

Very true. The kids are in for a rude awaking.

Melensdad · Apr 27, 2014

Leni said:
Very true. The kids are in for a rude awaking.

And that will have all sorts of ramifications for society.

I expect that the 'achievers' who actually learned in schools, and those who excelled in private schools, and those few who have a strong work ethic will end up ruling society and the rest will be pumping gas, mowing lawns and collecting food stamps.

BigAl · Apr 27, 2014

She will be a lot happier working for herself ! Now start flippin those condo's and houses . You said yourself that she wants to do another one .Timing is perfect and its time for her to get her feet wet . GOOD LUCK !!!! :smile:

Doc · Apr 28, 2014

It sounds as if the 'credit recovery' plan is more for the teachers than the students. It allows the teacher to send the student on to the next grade and be someone elses problem. Otherwise they might have to actually attempt to teach the student all over again in the next school year. Heaven forbid, that might be tough on the teacher. So allow the kids credit recovery and move em on down the line. :bonk:

Brilliant. :bonk:

Trakternut · Apr 28, 2014

Should a teacher not pass a student, can you imagine the hell that would be raised? I think a lot of students are passed on just to save the ruckus.
IMHO, school administrations can be the biggest stumbling blocks to education, aside from all the stupid mandates.

NorthernRedneck · Apr 28, 2014

Sadly the world we live in is run by psychologists. God forbid one kid fails because his self esteem will suffer. God forbid another kid excells in a subject because that will make all the other students feel bad.

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk

Melensdad · Apr 28, 2014

Trakternut said:
Should a teacher not pass a student, can you imagine the hell that would be raised? I think a lot of students are passed on just to save the ruckus.
IMHO, school administrations can be the biggest stumbling blocks to education, aside from all the stupid mandates.

Well here the teachers are actually graded by the number of kids they pass and if their 'failure rate' is too high then their pay goes down.

Uh, yeah, administrators thought of that!

NorthernRedneck said:
Sadly the world we live in is run by psychologists. God forbid one kid fails because his self esteem will suffer. God forbid another kid excells in a subject because that will make all the other students feel bad.

Quoted for truth.

And I'll also add that there are a lot of crappy teachers who brag about not failing kids, about how many "A's" they give out, etc. Those are the same teachers who's kids can't pass a standardized test.

These are the teachers who 'buy into' the whole self esteem psychology where they move kids along so they don't get a bruised ego. It inflates their self-esteem to levels beyond reason and they get bitch slapped down by some college professor or some boss somewhere who won't put up with their crap!

BigAl said:
She will be a lot happier working for herself ! Now start flippin those condo's and houses . You said yourself that she wants to do another one .Timing is perfect and its time for her to get her feet wet . GOOD LUCK !!!!

Well that is her current plan.

I bought her a Stanley FUBAR as a gift.

Leni · Apr 28, 2014

As I recall it was Dr Benjamin Spock who started this whole don't bruise the poor kids ego.

Doc · Apr 28, 2014

Leni said:
As I recall it was Dr Benjamin Spock who started this whole don't bruise the poor kids ego.

I think you are right on that Leni ...but I also think Dr. Spock never would have dreamed folks would carry it out to such an extent / extreme.

Leni · Apr 28, 2014

Plus he was talking about very young children, not teenagers.

EastTexFrank · Apr 28, 2014

Melensdad said:
It inflates their self-esteem to levels beyond reason and they get bitch slapped down by some college professor or some boss somewhere who won't put up with their crap!

Bob, that's probably the hardest thing right there.

When I was working, part of my job at times was to mentor new hires for 3 or 4 months until they got into the routine and to learn what was expected of them. The hardest part was to try and convince these new college grads that, while they had a very expensive piece of paper, it didn't mean that they actually knew anything. Most of their college knowledge wasn't relevant to the actual world we worked in. Besides, almost everybody around them owned basically the same piece of paper plus years of experience. They were in no way special. In fact, the exact opposite was true.

Also that a deadline was in fact exactly that, a DEADLINE, not a suggested finish date. It's surprising how many had trouble with that concept. Lastly some had trouble understanding that drilling oil wells is a 24/7/365 occupation. That rig doesn't shut down on week-ends because they want to take their girlfriend to some football game at College Station.

And to think that new petroleum engineering grads are leaving college these days and walking in to almost 6-figure jobs right off the bat. They should realize that nobody is going to pay them that kind of money for lack of effort and second class work.

Danang Sailor · Apr 28, 2014

First:
It has been clear for some time that the National Education Association (NEA) is opposed to the steps that would lead
to improvement in our schools. This is obvious when you note they are totally against any move to require basic competency
testing for teachers. I became a staunch supporter of this when a neighbor asked for help for his son who was failing
high school history. It turned out that the kid knew most of the material, but was being given a failing grade because the
so-called teacher didn't know it and couldn't make sense out of his homework; it was written in proper English!

After several weeks of submitting proof that my neighbor kid was earning a passing grade - and the teacher was failing -
we got him the grade he deserved. And the teacher, who deserved to be fired for gross incompetence? Moved to
another school, teaching the same subject, and given a promotion! I wish I was joking, but this was the school's
way of "disciplining" the teacher, was was actually more than the NEA rep wanted - which was nothing at all.

Second:
This is attributed to Bill Gates; whoever wrote it, it should be posted in every classroom in the country, and be required
reading for all students and staff:

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2: The world doesn't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you
feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until
you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they
called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills,
cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from
the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished
failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest
resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping
you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Rule No. 12: Smoking does not make you look cool. It makes you look moronic. Next time you're out cruising, watch an
11-year-old with a butt in his mouth. That's what you look like to anyone over 20. Ditto for "expressing yourself" with purple
hair and/or pierced body parts.

Rule No. 13: You are not immortal. (See Rule No. 12.) If you are under the impression that living fast, dying young and
leaving a beautiful corpse is romantic, you obviously haven't seen one of your peers at room temperature lately.

Rule No. 14: Enjoy this while you can. Sure parents are a pain, school's a bother, and life is depressing. But someday
you'll realize how wonderful it was to be a kid. Maybe you should start now. You're welcome.

mla2ofus · Apr 28, 2014

DS, you are absolutely right!! I copied it off and it's going to evening coffee. If anyone else wants a copy I'll gladly print it off for them.
Mike

RedRocker · Jun 12, 2014

That little puke that killed his roommates with a knife & shot three other people is an example of what we have reaped from our PC school system. The EGAT generation, Everybody Gets a Trophy!

Melensdad · Jun 12, 2014

RedRocker said:
That little puke that killed his roommates with a knife & shot three other people is an example of what we have reaped from our PC school system. The EGAT generation, Everybody Gets a Trophy!

Yup, Everybody Gets a Trophy!

Standards are lowered to give everyone passing grades.

Roughly 40 kids had "perfect" academic grades out of less than 400 kids. That means that 10% of the graduating class was "valedictorian" for the school???

Yet, the state has a higher "average" score on the SAT and ACT college entrance exams than the National average. But her school has lower average grades than both the state and the national averages; so while they have 40 "valedictorians" in the graduating class with perfect grades they still can't get good scores on their college entrance exams?!?

Something doesn't add up :whistling:

EastTexFrank · Jun 12, 2014

I was talking to a teacher friend the other day. her complaint wasn't really about the school, it was about all the "standardized testing" that is required these days. She said that she spent so much time during the year preparing kids and teaching for the test that she didn't get a chance to "teach" kids anymore. I asked her what she would teach instead if she didn't have to "teach to the test". She looked at me as if I was absolutely crazy. I almost expected her to say, "Stuff". :yum:

Melensdad · Jun 12, 2014

EastTexFrank said:
...I asked her what she would teach instead if she didn't have to "teach to the test". She looked at me as if I was absolutely crazy. I almost expected her to say, "Stuff".

I asked kids at the local school about Margaret Thatcher.
They didn't know who she was.

I just watched a video asking college students in which DECADE Ronald Reagan was President.
90% didn't have the right answer, some had the wrong CENTURY.

The problem with "teaching to the test" is that someone decides which "facts" are the most important and only those are taught. Further, the CONTEXT of those "facts" is not taught. So kids may know some facts, but they don't understand what those mean in the context of the history of our world.

Danang Sailor · Jun 12, 2014

Melensdad said:
I asked kids at the local school about Margaret Thatcher.
They didn't know who she was.

I just watched a video asking college students in which DECADE Ronald Reagan was President.
90% didn't have the right answer, some had the wrong CENTURY.

The problem with "teaching to the test" is that someone decides which "facts" are the most important and only those are taught. Further, the CONTEXT of those "facts" is not taught. So kids may know some facts, but they don't understand what those mean in the context of the history of our world.

My youngest is a bit of a wise-ass - I have no idea where he go that trait :brows:

- and once asked his high school American History
teacher when the last battle in the War of 1812 was fought, and what was strange about it*. She gave the obvious and of
course completely wrong answer to the first part, and couldn't even come up with a decent guess as to the second! It's no
surprise that these "educators" don't teach context ... they don't know it themselves!

*The final fight in the War of 1812 was the Battle of New Orleans, which was fought to its bloody conclusion in January
1815. The Treaty of Ghent was signed in December 1814, which means the most famous battle of that war - the only
famous battle for non-historians - took place two weeks after the war was officially ended.

jpr62902 · Jun 12, 2014

I would think the attack on Fort McHenry would be the most famous battle of that conflict.

loboloco · Jun 12, 2014

jpr62902 said:
I would think the attack on Fort McHenry would be the most famous battle of that conflict.

My preference was for the sacking of Washington, but, the battle of New Orleans is actually better known by those who don't study history.

Frustrated, my wife resigned from teaching on Friday

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