As bad as public schools may be, they really have the minds of our kids in their hands through the grip of AI powered media platforms. FaceBook, Instagram, YouTube etc. And this is particularly insidious in that the kids don't feel they're being led, they believe that they are discovering. I won't go so far as to say there's a mastermind at play.

https://www.thesocialdilemma.com/

Perhaps it's just technology run amuck. But the outcome is the same.


.

I look at this situation (political BS aside) from my daughters position. 2nd-4th grade teacher, 8 years now. Loves teaching, despite the crappy pay, loves interacting with the kids and their parents. Every evening she would call and talk about how great her day way. Covid-19 hits, her district goes to a hybrid schedule where some kids go 2 days a week and on-line for the rest of the week, she teaches on-line to another group of classes. Here is her schedule:
7:00-7:30 Team meeting with staff
7:30-3:30 On-line teaching to 7 different classes
3:30-5:00 Office hours and tutoring to kids in need
5:00-6:00 Office hours for parents who need help with homework.
A long, day with little time away from the computer.

She hates every day. Kids don't participate, zero interaction, parents don't support and complain, district flip-flops on scheduling. Yesterday she said she is going to quit if they don't go back full time in Sept.

So here is an outstanding teacher, who loved her job, frustrated and saddened by the lack of any structure or support from the school system or parents.

It irritates me when people say, 'if they are not in the classroom, they shouldn't be paid'. So who will teach the students? Parents? And yes, I do understand that there are parents who are passionate about home schooling - but what about the rest of the parents......

quote:

Originally posted by Fredward:
The school system does not need money, gambling or otherwise. It is top heavy with faux administrators and equity counselors and other nonsense. My state spends thousands per student per year and still has a very high dropout rate. Make them teach, not indoctrinate!

This ! No shortage of $ being blindly pumped into our public education sewer system.

quote:

Originally posted by neverfollow:
It irritates me when people say, 'if they are not in the classroom, they shouldn't be paid'. So who will teach the students? Parents? And yes, I do understand that there are parents who are passionate about home schooling - but what about the rest of the parents......

It's not so much because people believe they shouldn't be paid, but rather to force school administrators to get teachers back into a classroom instead of in front of a computer. Imagine how quick most of these "teachers" would drop the nonsense with COVID if their paychecks were on the line. Same goes for politicians and government workers too. It's too easy for them to say "well, we don't want to interact with people because of the Wu Flu, so We're not doing what you are paying us to do in person anymore."

quote:

Private schools around us start at $19K/yr, my wife is nearing $65K with nearly 15yrs in...there aren’t enough hours in the day nor students to be tutored to make up that difference

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
That is unfortunate. You can either accept the lower wage or seek employment elsewhere. BTW 65K is double what many teachers make in other states.

quote:

Originally posted by neverfollow:
Here is her schedule:
7:00-7:30 Team meeting with staff
7:30-3:30 On-line teaching to 7 different classes
3:30-5:00 Office hours and tutoring to kids in need
5:00-6:00 Office hours for parents who need help with homework.
A long, day with little time away from the computer.

You know, she must work at a totally different type of school than I've ever been around.

I've spent the last 40 years in 2 different states living within 1/4 mile of two different schools and so I go by their parking lots all the time, 5 days a week.

The teachers parking lots are empty until around 7:30AM and they're not full until around 8AM or so.

By 4:00PM, the lots are empty and the only cars left are the maintenance workers.

Maybe she could get a job teaching at a school where they put in less hours.

I think the hours are longer because she's not tied to the bus schedule. Here, buses arrive at 7:30 and depart at 3:30. She volunteers the extra evening hours because she realizes kids aren't learning in the remote setting - and was hoping additional time might help. As it is, she has to drive to the school and sit in an empty classroom - and teach remotely.

If anyones pay should be held for the remote learning debacle, it should be the people who make the rules. She'd rather have a classroom full of kids versus watching them zone out on her laptop.

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:

quote:

Originally posted by neverfollow:
Here is her schedule:
7:00-7:30 Team meeting with staff
7:30-3:30 On-line teaching to 7 different classes
3:30-5:00 Office hours and tutoring to kids in need
5:00-6:00 Office hours for parents who need help with homework.
A long, day with little time away from the computer.

You know, she must work at a totally different type of school than I've ever been around.

I've spent the last 40 years in 2 different states living within 1/4 mile of two different schools and so I go by their parking lots all the time, 5 days a week.

The teachers parking lots are empty until around 7:30AM and they're not full until around 8AM or so.

By 4:00PM, the lots are empty and the only cars left are the maintenance workers.

Maybe she could get a job teaching at a school where they put in less hours.

I know college is diff from K-12, when I taught college, I put 2x+ as many hours doing class work at home than I spent in the classroom.

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:Wait till she realizes her school is in Gilead.

Hey, there is no balm there, y'know.

Very good point airsoftguy,

Perhaps the casinos just need to adopt a school ( or three)
Then cut out the middleman ( local government)

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:She said she considers everything she says now, because she could be phone videoed at any time and if you say something that’s not PC, you’re hauled in front of the principal—at best, and in front of the school board if the incident goes further, and they do.

At another school in the district, this quote was posted on a hallway whiteboard:

quote:

The man who has no sense of history is like a man with no ears or eyes,

The quote was not attributed, but somebody determined that the quote came from Hitler. All hell broke loose. Lots of public flogging, public apologies, inquisition. Now two professors say they don’t think Hitler ever said or wrote the quote.

Insanity. This is our world now. So sorry for those still in a vulnerable place in it.

Critical Race Theory at work. This line of thinking has created the conditions that would make Mao's Red Guard proud, people questioning every, single, thing, emotionally reacting to any perceived slight and promoting the 'virtues of victimhood' while discounting everyone else's contribution.

This article touches on this very issue of what's happening in the country's education system
Conformity to a Lie Academia’s monolithic belief in systemic racism will further erode American institutions and the principles of our civilization.

Christoper Rufo has written many articles exposing this new rubric in today's educational system.
Against Wokeness: Conservatives must understand the threat posed by critical race theory



Some additional content to follow
Rise of Woke Schools

Jljones - My wife is a retired Kentucky teacher. I agree with most of what you said. However, I would like to play devil’s advocate on this topic.

There are good teachers and bad teachers, just as there are good doctors and bad doctors, good plumbers and bad plumbers, etc. But much of the blame, in my opinion, needs to be placed on the large number of $#!++y parents. The laziness and greed of some of the parents that the teachers have to put up with is almost too much to believed. And, unlike the private sector, the schools can’t “fire” a parent. They have to deal with them.

Kids now get two meals a day in the schools because they may not be fed when they get home. Some students are given meals in special take-home backpacks just so that they will have food to eat over a weekend. But many of the parents eat the food for themselves. It’s much harder for a kid to learn if he or she is malnourished.

Her school had/has a clothing bank where kids who came to school in dirty clothes or in their pajamas could change into a decent set of clothes so that the other kids wouldn’t make fun of them. At first the school asked the parents to wash the clothes that the children wore home and then return them to the school clothing bank. However, they found that parents were selling the clothes at yard sales. So now (at least back when she was there), the kids have to change back into their soiled clothes to go back home.

Kids often have to ride different busses in the same week because one day they need to go to their mother’s house, then to their father’s house another day, and perhaps a grandparent another day. Just keeping up with the bus schedule of some of these students is challenging. And the schedule can change at any time.

There are children who start kindergarten who don’t know their abc’s or their numbers. Some may not even know their full name or the names of their parents.

Then, a few years ago, the Kentucky legislature, in it’s infinite wisdom, changed the age at which students had to remain in school. It was 16, now it is 18. They were apparently embarrassed by the low graduation rate of Kentucky students. However, now that attendance is mandatory through age 18, the high school diploma is nothing more than an attendance certificate. And the teachers are forced to deal with the kids that don’t want to be there.

And as for teacher’s unions, most teachers that I know don’t like them either, However, most teachers remain union members for the protections that the unions offer if a parent or school administrator arbitrarily singles them out for some perceived infraction.

It’s no accident that the best public schools in Kentucky are in the wealthiest neighborhoods. Most of the parents in these neighborhoods are successful themselves and value an education for their children. That support from home makes all the difference in the world.

I deleted my post shortly after you read it. Because I say the same thing each and every time the topic comes up and I figured people tire of reading it over and over.

Many of the points you bring up also just further make me sound like a broken record. With the amount of money KY throws at social programs such as WIC and SNAP, welfare and Medicare, when does the taxpayer get theirs for accountability of said shitty parents? And shitty teachers? And corrupt school systems and unions? Or is it going to be like the billions we spend trying to force people who really don’t want drug treatment into drug treatment?

I can tell by reading your post that we are on the same page, I’m just tired of the Kentucky Teachers that are shitty crying how anyone that tries to stop throwing good money after bad “hates children” or wants to see them die.

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Shugart:
I taught high school chemistry from 1970-1977.

A collogue came by my lab during my first year and asked me to join a teacher's union. She said she was shooting for 100% membership. I told her that I could relieve some of that stress, because I disliked unions - especially unions of public employees.

She said, "So, I guess you'll be taking a free ride on all the the benefits that the union will provide."

I told her she could take a free ride on my social finger and offered it to her. She was quite offended by this and filed a complaint with THE ADMINISTRATION. I was admonished and thereafter known as the 'finger guy'.

There are two main teacher's unions, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association.

You can read up on these fucking organizations if your blood pressure is low OR you can fix yourself a stiff bourbon and go bed.

I recommend and latter course and will be implementing it myself shortly.

Unions are a legalized mob in our society. They extort funds and give little in return.

JlJones - Yes, I think that we are on the same page. And thanks for replying. By the time I posted I saw that yours was gone and I thought that I may have accidentally done something to your post!

You raise many good points and I certainly don’t have the answers. I wish that all sides could have an honest discussion about the issues without getting defensive and trying to shut down the other side of the discussions. But I don’t have a lot of hope at this point.

Most teachers are working their asses off during this time. I have friends putting in extremely long days trying to meet the needs of their students. Certainly some are lazy, but teachers aren't the ones collecting money for not working through this.

I see we’ve changed the topic pretty dramatically.

bendable - you bring up a very good point & remind me of something in my past. Several years ago - 20 or more - I had a friend living in Florida at about the time that Florida instituted their statewide lottery. IIRC they called it the "Florida Education Lottery". After that - about the same time that Tennessee was trying to get their own statewide lottery - called the Tennessee Education Lottery, she moved back to Tennessee (my state). I distinctly remember talking with her about that; about what a mistake it would be for Tennessee to institute a lottery; and about what happened to the bulk of the lottery money in Florida. According to her the students received very little benefit from the lottery "take"... and she predicted that the same thing would happen in Tennessee.

Now I haven't the facts or figures to prove or disprove what she said. But I DO KNOW that most of the school systems around this state (Tennessee) are still pleading for more money to help educate their students... And I DO KNOW that several times each year this "lottery" boasts jackpots of several millions of dollars -> sometimes even scores of millions. And I DO KNOW that in a state with a population of about 6 1/2 million people (not that many kids), portions of jackpots greater than millions of dollars WOULD necessarily HAVE TO have a positive effect on the condition of the schools around the state.

So, if my suspicions are correct I wonder what is happening to all the money NOT GIVEN to the school systems? Yeah, I know this sounds like conspiracy theory but I suspect strongly that much of it is falling into dirty hands. Accordingly I would urge citizens of states which have not yet fallen for the siren song of "better schools through gambling" to seriously consider these few facts before you pull that lever voting FOR legalized gambling in your state, because once you have this vice instituted as a respectable pastime in your state you will find it almost impossible to get rid of. Let the past - and others' experiences - be the roadmap for YOUR future........... FredT

My wife has been a science teacher for 31 years. She has 4 degrees and 12 years of college. She can teach chemistry, physics and biology. She has had so many of her students come back who have become doctors, lawyers, joined the military and other professions who are contributing to society. She is especially proud of her kids who choose the path of serving their country. She lost her father to Vietnam and appreciates their sacrifices. She doesn't belong to any union and has no interest in politics. She has no interest in "indoctrinating" her kids. She just wants to teach.

Much of what bogeyman says is true. Yes there are bad teachers. But a lot of them truly want to see their students succeed. There are a lot of people who can't handle teaching. Especially right now. She has never worked harder in her life. She is up late every night trying to create interesting educational lessons that translate to the computer screen. She could sit back and just say "oh well" it's the pandemic and just give busy work but she's working her ass off trying to do the best for her kids. A lot of teachers are. She has kids messaging and communicating with her until 10 PM many nights.

No, the education system isn't perfect but there are a lot of hardworking caring teachers who are putting forth their best efforts despite what they are up against.

As a relatively new HS teacher, I want to thank those of you who realize there are folks out here fighting the good fight on this front. My philosophy is that kids are too important for us to surrender them to the left. I may not be a great teacher, but I am there to try to make a difference.

This is America, where self-government is not a spectator sport. Please get involved in your school district. You and your like-minded friends can make a difference.