Teacher Rant!!!

[Liesje]

Originally Posted by Whiteshepherds

Y...It's a wonder they have any time to teach!

LOL I'm always appalled at how much time every evening my husband spends dealing with parents who are upset over the most ridiculous things. You'd think they'd want him to spend time, you know, grading their child's work and preparing lessons but instead they expect him to Facebook chat about why someone touched their child during a game of TAG and stuff like that. His most recent issue is that all the kids tattle on everyone, for anything at all. He said one kid was tattling because another kid kicked a ball at him....while they were playing dodgeball kickball (with a mushy soft ball and they already are not allowed to keep score).

[selzer]

Ok, I just yesterday had to help the girls with their math homework. 4 pages of math homework sent home on a Friday due on Monday for first graders.

Ok, the first page, question 1, shows a kid on the sixth step. and another kid on the top of another set of steps:
If Craig goes up four steps he will be on the tenth step, what step is he on?
If Dolly goes down three steps, she will be on the sevent step, what step is she on.

Question 2: 4 rabbits mark them a, b, c, and d.
Rabbit A is 4th from the right.
Rabbit B is next to Rabbit A.
Rabbit D is between Rabbit B and C.

Question 3: Put the pictures in the proper sequence using ordinal numbers:

There are five pictures of a worm being famished, finding an apple, eating and finishing the apple.

Ordinal numbers?!? What they heck???

Ok,
Question 4, shows a circle, square, and rectangle. It tells you that a kid makes the pattern, circle, square, rectangle. Then it says, continue the pattern, what shape would be 10th from the Left.

That was just math. They also had to read a Christmas book and write down Christmas words on a drawing of a Christmas tree, and color the drawing, and read the books for their daily tests.

Also, if they miss just one part of one question on the math homework, that whole question would be wrong. They will get a D or an F for a minor mistake.

Now I am not saying the teacher is crappy, in fact, I figure she must be pretty good, because most of the papers the kids do, are done in class. But all that school work for first graders, on a weekend in December is wow. I don't remember having homework in the first grade. And we did learn to read in kindergarten back then. I think that it is designed to ensure the parents teach their kids this stuff.

When my dad was a kid, teachers didn't even want parents to teach their kids to read.

When I was a kid, teachers expected to do all the teaching in class, and homework was really not given until 3rd grade.

My mother never, not once, helped us with homework. She wouldn't read a paper or project either. I really have to say, that anything I ever turned in was my own work, because my parents opinion on that was that the teachers wouldn't give us anything that we couldn't do on our own. We would be so screwed nowadays, when it seems that teachers expect so much from parents.

We also got progress reports with listings of sastisfactory and needs improvement and unsatisfactory. And we were graded on subjects, and then graded on parts within subjects, and also graded on behavior -- works well with others, uses time wisely, and all that shtuff.

Things are way different these days I guess.

[selzer]

Originally Posted by Liesje

LOL I'm always appalled at how much time every evening my husband spends dealing with parents who are upset over the most ridiculous things. You'd think they'd want him to spend time, you know, grading their child's work and preparing lessons but instead they expect him to Facebook chat about why someone touched their child during a game of TAG and stuff like that. His most recent issue is that all the kids tattle on everyone, for anything at all. He said one kid was tattling because another kid kicked a ball at him....while they were playing dodgeball kickball (with a mushy soft ball and they already are not allowed to keep score).

When I was in the first grade, my teacher had a donkey tail, that she would pin onto the back side of any kid who tattled. I don't think that would go over very well nowadays.

[x11]

what i find interesting in the west education is all about the needs of the individual child with absolutely no responsibility on placed the child, child does poorly its the "system's" fault.

in the countries that are consistently top of the pile in international testing of math, science etc are the countries where the child have few choices, instruction is not based on the individual child's needs and teachers do not do discpline - the child comes with that as a standard feature from home. these countries are unofficially the power economies on the planet at the moment.

the universities of these countries are graduating mainly engineers, scientists, designers, tech types. our universtities in the west are graduating nearly everything but.


gotta be something in all this?

[stealthq]

Originally Posted by x11

teachers do not do discpline - the child comes with that as a standard feature from home

This, I think, is the key point. If kids aren't going to be taught proper behaviour at home, then teachers need to be empowered to do the disciplining for them like they used to be able to do or they, and the kids, are sunk. Of course, it used to be that kids here were getting discipline in both places, which seemed to work just fine.

[onyx'girl]

There was a 7 year old that a bus attendant threw against the bus windows, caught on tape/the attendant was not charged because that child had been causing trouble for some time. It was really sad, because clearly the child had issues, and I don't think riding a school bus was the best option for everyones safety.
So many kids have emotional problems, they cannot deal with the pressure of public stimulation.
When the parents won't be their advocates, it ends up becoming the school systems problem. Then the system is blamed for failing the child.
Video: Student slammed against bus wall | WOOD TV8

[x11]

i think the public has to be clear and decide if the school is a school or is it a hospital

- the most relaible indicator/predictor of a childs success at school is if the parents value education.

[Liesje]

Jane that bus incident is so one-sided, do not just trust news 8. My uncle told me the details and the kid deserved to be thrown OUT of the bus!! There's a reason she has not been charged.

Sue my parents didn't help me either. For one I didn't need it but I also passed what they retained by fifth grade. I remember struggling with a math concept and they couldn't help me (but I eventually figured it out). The one thing they did do was read with me EVERY day when I was a kid. I still cannot fall to sleep without being read to and I listen to audio books instead of reading.

DH came home a few weeks ago complaining because some parents demanded MORE homework. He teaches second grade! He also has a parent that insists on their child reading harder books but in reality he knows she's not understanding much of what the parents are pushing her to read and gives her books at her level.

[Liesje]

Originally Posted by x11

what i find interesting in the west education is all about the needs of the individual child with absolutely no responsibility on placed the child, child does poorly its the "system's" fault.

in the countries that are consistently top of the pile in international testing of math, science etc are the countries where the child have few choices, instruction is not based on the individual child's needs and teachers do not do discpline - the child comes with that as a standard feature from home. these countries are unofficially the power economies on the planet at the moment.

the universities of these countries are graduating mainly engineers, scientists, designers, tech types. our universtities in the west are graduating nearly everything but.


gotta be something in all this?

There is something in it, parents are involved and there is pressure at home to do well in school and be a successful person accountable for your own actions.

[onyx'girl]

Originally Posted by Liesje

Jane that bus incident is so one-sided, do not just trust news 8. My uncle told me the details and the kid deserved to be thrown OUT of the bus!! There's a reason she has not been charged.

I'm aware of that...the person that did the throwing had her own video(which was made public) of the kid mouthing off several times days previous. Like I said the kid shouldn't have been on that bus for everyone's safety. And the authorities are the ones blamed due to a child's behavioral issues.