public school?

Good morning class and welcome to education 101. My name is Professor D and today we will be learning about the importance of all roles involved in the life of a student/child. As you can see from previous posts (Holly), some parents are aggravated with the public school system of their community. It is a right they have to be aggravated but simply complaining does nothing. Here are the facts of Holly's plight. The teacher says he/she does not have time to help each student individually. The teacher is not paying enough attention to her child. The teacher is a whiner who does not care about children. The teacher..well anyways class, you get the point. This is problem number one with parents, everything that happens to their children educationally is the fault of the teacher. Since you are in this class I assume you want to be a teacher. Get used to the idea that, even though as a classroom teacher you have very little control over such issues as state and district curriculum requirements, district policies, and how much you have to teach in a short, concrete amount of time, parents will expect you to give their child one-on-one attention. You see, the parent does not come and sit in the classroom day in and day out trying to educate 20 or 30 different students using the same curriculum. In elementary school this is more difficult as there is less room for variety.

Now class, also note that there are critics of the education system who use the scientically irrelevant statitiscal data set of N=1. Their student is their data set! Amazing that, through their students experience, they can decide that you are lazy as a teacher. Do not get discouraged, after a few years of teaching you will realize that Professor D is right and knows what he is talking about. As teachers, your day starts usually about 5am when you wake up and start to get ready for school. Shower, dress, gather up your things, polish off the last few details of today's lesson plans, finish the grading that you stopped doing because it was 2 am already, eat a quick breakfast, jump in the car and head to your school. You will get there at 7 am or so and set up your classroom for the day, finish the grading you still have to do, write down any notes you have, read your email from the principal, parents, district, and other sources, make sure you have all your materials handy, straighten the room from the day before because the kids do not do it, and sit down for 5 minutes until the bell rings. WHOA!! it is 8am and here come the kids. Little Johnny, Little Susie, Little Javon, Little Ty...etc. all walk into the classroom bouncing off the walls and acting crazier than a nutjob in the local lockdown. Then Little sally comes in and, as usual each day, heads straight for you. You know what she is going to ask and you hold out the apple and juice box you bring daily so she can have breakfast. The other kids in their craziness to get to their seats, talk to their friends, toss their books in the right place, and all the other things they do take notice and think it is so cool that you do that (even though they will never say that too you!). Today is a special day and is the reason the students are wound up and crazy, it is State Examination day. This is the day the previous 150 days has been building up to. The students will sit in their seats for the next three days and take test after test to measure THEIR success or YOUR failure. Meanwhile, as you and the much needed assistant you get for testing quiet the kids down and get the materials ready, you use these last few minutes before testing to hand back the assignments, talk quick about what you saw, encourage the students to do their best and, silently you PRAY TO GOD that they pass as it is your job if they do not pass. You look over your classroom of students and realize that, as an inner city school, most of them will not pass because after they leave school they get no other stimulation outside of Grand Theft Auto and Master P. You realize that Little Sally, who you gave the apple too, is probably not the ONLY one who did not have breakfast but was the only one who told someone she is not getting breakfast and you volunteerd as her homeroom teacher to bring her something ever day! You also realize that since then, Sally has been doing better in your classes and other teachers have noticed the change as well. Since your school does not have the funding from the state or district to enact a breakfast program, many students who need breakfast to succeed are getting it in the similar way. This, my class, is a problem of parenting not teaching that we are expected to solve.

Of course..that is fictional...but ..that is what my first year of teaching was like and I taught HIGH SCHOOL! As a teacher, I had on my roster up to 50 students and I thanked GOD daily that some did not come to school because I was in a room provided by the school that had 28 desks! When I went to my principal to ask for a textbook for one class he told me that we had none and I had to buy my own! Well, I sure as heck could not afford to buy a 90 dollar book for myself and 100 plus student editions at 50 bucks a pop! so we did what we could with 30 year old books I dug up at the school. My first day I was cussed out by students on a regular basis and immediately questioned why I wanted to t each in an environment like this! I went on for two years in that district and then left thinking the grass was greener elsewhere. Unfortunately I was wrong. I have now returned to school to get my PhD and become Professor D! To try to help college students who want to be teachers to understand they CAN NOT DO EVERYTHING FOR EVERYONE! The biggest failure of the public schools is COMMUNITY. The Second biggest is FAMILY! Of course, Holly and others will disagree with this but, until you come sit in our shoes for a week or more and do our jobs, you have no idea what it is like to be a teacher. Everyone is quick to judge and even faster to blame someone else. It is so important that parents talk to their kids and ask them about their school day and try to help them understand when they do not. The reality in school has nothing to do with lazy teachers, if a teacher is lazy they will not last long in today's education world. Public schools have far more accountability than do private schools. The lack of control over teachers by one poster here is ludicrous! I had someone from adminstration or the district in my classroom at least once a week reading my lesson plans, questioning me and my students, and observing my class. My friends in private schools say they may get a class observation every month or two if that. They have a ton of freedom compared to public schools. The reason most teachers are getting tired and are not able to go one-on-one with students anymore is NCLB and the reality of that is one of time and money. We, as educators, spend more time than other professions on our work for less pay. We also do more with less in the classroom than many people think. from old textbooks to using our own money to buy paper supplies, pens, pencils, crayons, and other needed items. I spent on average as a teacher about 500 dollars a year out of my pocket for my students to have what they needed to succeed. At one point I made student BUY pens and pencils to help offset my costs (especially since they could lose them by the end of the hour).

I appologize for sounding so harsh in this post but the reality is parents do not get it! Teaching is one of the hardest professional jobs out there. I agree there are bad teachers but most are not. Most of us spend anywhere from 3 to 5 hours a day at home ignoring our families so we can get our work done! I used to go to school for my 8 hours and then come home and spend about 3 hours every night grading and reading papers, correcting horrible grammar, writing reports for the school about students who are having trouble, etc. I would take off on Saturday to be with my family but on Sunday, after church, I would spend the rest of my day writing lesson plans for the week, finding materials, grading assignments, planning for events, etc. That is right....I would spend upto 11 hours per day M-F and then another 10 or so on Sunday working! I got paid for a whole 30 hours per week (my check stubs prove it!) Then, on those fictional holidays where teachers do nothing, I would use some of that time to plan for the next semester or year, some of that time to evaluate what worked and what didn't and how to change it, and some of that time realizing my kids are older! During summers, I spent more of my families money to pay for the graduate courses and professional development seminars that are REQUIRED if you want to keep your license and your job.

I give up..parents....step into the classroom and do our job then you can be critical if yous ee it that way still.

Public schools work in the places where parents and community are willing to support them.

Public school CAN be a success, but it will need to be drastically different from what we know today, and it won't be cheap.

I believe the biggest problem with schools today is... parents. Not all parents, mind you, just the ones that demand THEIR particular worldview and ideas should be taught to ALL students (and that any other worldview/idea different from or contradictory to theirs should be excluded). The parents who expect the teachers to hold their child's hand from the time they enter Kindergarten to the time they graduate (or drop out). The parents who drop their kids off at school (or shove them out the front door), then forget about them until it's time to put them in bed, so said parents can have some "me" time.

There are successful kids from almost every school. The biggest difference between the success and failure of a child is the parents. If the parents value education and see it as a way up (regardless of where they are coming from) for their child, they will push that child to succeed and the child WILL succeed - regardless if they are in an inner-city school or an exclusive private school.

It is the parent's responsibility to see that their child is educated, not the teacher's, not the principal's, not the school district's, not the government's. Too many parents have decided that schools are training camps for their kids, forgetting that THEY are the primary teacher, they brought the child into the world. If more parents took this responsibility, the schools we have would be adequate.

I believe that, in order to facilitate more parental involvement, we need SMALLER schools. How can any parent differentiate themselves (or their child) when a school has 4000 or more students? How can any teacher know and understand each of their students if they have 200 or more per day (30 students per period x 8 periods)? Public schools should NEVER have more then 1000 students - this will allow the teacher's to get to know the students as well as the parents, and to partner with parents to produce motivated, self-directed, respectful adults.

Will there be those who fail under this system? Of course. But honestly - can it possibly be worse than what we have now?

It depends on the public school. In general, though, public schools cater to the middle ground, and those who are above or below it suffer. I have to say that I can't think of a single public school which is entirely a success or a failure, but I can think of individual teachers who are successes or failures. The successes are the ones who create a certain bond with the students, without being wishy washy, and who hook the kids into learning the subject matter being taught.

The reasons most public schools fail is because you can't meet each child's need because everyone is different. Because a teacher isn't a parent and knows the child from day one they can't tell when something is wrong from the child's behavior. This is why public schools fail, not saying the teachers are wrong or parents are wrong for sending their kids to schools outside the home. However, when the homeschool movement first started it was with the idea that because you are the parent, know your child, you will be the best one to educate him/her. Not someone who sees him for two or three hours each day may enjoy how smart he is but, doesn't truly care about what he will be when he grows up, etc. One way both systems fail is because of lack of discipline.

Here is my feelings alot may not like this ,but this is my own personal experience .!the teachers here just are lazy anymore they put alot on the parents as far as work goes ,and money ,Im so sick of hereing I have 20 students, I dont have time to explain everything more than once with your child .I dont think the children these days get the right kind of help ,here is what I see if a child is not grabbing this infirmation well then they start with the fact your child needs medication!Im seriously tired of this whinning we here from teachers as a parent ,if you cant handle your job get out ,let someone other than you may can do it ,If you have a child that is not a top a student then he gets pushed to the back of the rest .and why is schools like boot camp now days !!!My gosh , back when most of us went to school the teachers handled kids fine without the drugs teachers want them on ,and had the same amount if not more students ,If you go to the school and talk to my sons teachers its always we dont have time to remind him to wrie his name etc,,I am just tired of hering I dont have time or hey I have 20 students ,why not put the slower children up front in a row and the ones that need less help set more behind the slow children so it wont be so hard for the teacher to help and keep a eye on the child that needs that extra help .I have a 8 year old he got points and a note sent home ,because he got up to hand this other child something they had dropped .Come on he is 8 ,well my own experience and Im not so pleased .

well I can only talk about what I know, Portugal. Public schools aren't a failure, but private schools are better, due to better conditions (material provided, environment, teacher and of course salary).

If teachers earn more they work better. Another reason is in public schools no one supervises teachers, so they can do whatever they want in a classroom (that doesn't happen in a private school- teachers are controlled).

The public school in my city has failed kids for years, and it's a fact.

i moved to Ohio when my child was 7 yrs old, now he is 14. when we first got there he began to change radically. his behavior in school was soooo bad that he would do anything to get kicked out of being there. We finally got to the reason why the drastic change in his behavior started. He told me that when he was 7yrs old that anther student brought a gun to spyhole and threatened to kill him, while showing it to him. so you tell me? needless to say i am home schooling him for the remainder of his school years.

i go to public school.... and i am a success,,, many other students as well....I'm a freshman and i have a 5.0 because I'm in honors... my other friends have a 4.0... so i think the schooling is even

***bravo Professer D ..i agree 100%... you should win a gold medal

i know some public schools are excellent, but some are not good. i think the school leaders are responsible for its sucess or failure.

it is the basic for any one who want to make a good life so it will be a success