Attitudes Toward Teachers

[declansdad]

No, I wouldn't send a nasty gram to the police, mayor or anyone else for doing their job. In fact, I've been known to send thank you notes!

Do you do the same for the teachers?

 

[Pigeon]

.
I see lots of comments that insinuate homework is simply busy work.

I'm not anti-teacher. My dh is a public high school teacher. I am an academic. But after having two kids in public school, I've become one of "those parents."

I am anti-uninformed teacher. I am anti-homework in elementary school. The amount of homework assigned to children in recent years is insane and counterproductive.

First of all, it is ineffective. If you actually read the peer-reviewed educational literature with any attention to the data, you will find that there is very little that supports current homework practices. Yet teachers continue to assign homework to small children with a shovel. See, for example, Alfie Kohn's "The Homework Myth" and Bennett and Kalish's "The Case Against Homework." I buy copies of these books early on every year as a little gift for my kids' teachers. I can usually tell fairly accurately which teachers actually do my assigned reading.

Homework is inevitably 95% busywork. Its major effect, as far as I can tell, is to destroy any love of learning that a child might have. It comes with huge opportunity costs. Children learn through play. There is a great deal of research that supports that concept. My kids get so much homework that there's no time for play. Childhood obesity is a national problem. Maybe if our kids had fewer mind-numbing worksheets to fill out, they might actually be able to get a little exercise.

I often invite these teachers to come sit at my kitchen table for a few days at 4 pm, and listen to my kids ask why they can't go out and play because they've been sitting in school all day and don't want to face more homework. I don't have a good answer for why a ten year old shouldn't get some down time. Maybe these teachers could explain it.

You have our kids for seven hours a day. If you cannot teach them what they need to learn in seven hours, perhaps you should look at how the school spends its time, and use it more effectively. I spend lots of time in my kids school and dh works in a school daily. Schools waste enormous amounts of time on errant nonsense.

If I came home from my job every night and told my family that I didn't have time for any family activities because I need to do hours more work, I'd be considered a workaholic. Yet schools routinely expect our kids to do just that.

Why do you think you should be able to control what my family does on its own time? If your carefully crafted projects are so educationally valuable, get your school to cut out wasting time with things like the daily pledge of indoctrination, sporting announcements, the highly ineffective DARE program, and assemblies to spin up the kids to sell Sally Foster. Then you can have the kids do these projects on your time.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

As a mother, my goal is to support and protect my children. If the teacher is meeting my children's learning needs in an effective way, that's great. If he or she is not, I'll be quick to speak up.

Teresa

I want to make it clear that I have absolutely no problem standing up for your child if there is a situation, in fact, I wish more parents would take a vested interest in their child's education. It is the parents that seem to think that all teachers are out to get their children and come in with a "chip on their shoulder" as another pp said before they even know the teacher that I do not like.

I had a wonderful education program in college and grad school as well. The problem is, when you sign a contract in a public school district, you are not always free to do whatever you think is best. One of the teachers in my building had something written on her evaluation this year about not following the reading program that the school adapted the way it is meant to be followed. In a perfect world you'd be able to do what you think is best, but that doesn't happen everywhere.


I fully agree, and our profs have been telling us this over and over. You should hear some of our discussion on Saxxon Math . I wish that more parents realized this. When your teacher assigns homework, do not automatically think it is their decision. More and more schools are deciding curriculum for the students, right down to the worksheet. I was in a Kindergarten classroom in the fall and they used Saxxon Math and Harcourt Trophies reading. Both sent worksheets home every night. I did not agree with it, but the teacher had no choice. She is required to do so by the school.

I was trying to think of a nice way to say that. While yes I learned tons when I was in college, the majority of it went out the window when I started to teach. Some districts tell you what to teach, when to teach it, and even how to teach it. There is little room to do "fun" things. There is often little creativity and even less wiggle room to move things around as you would like to see them done. I have even seen cases where teachers were given the exact worksheets that they were expected to use in their classes which meant that they were to use them even if they felt another activity would be better.

AMEN (see above comment)

I'm not anti-teacher. My dh is a public high school teacher. I am an academic. But after having two kids in public school, I've become one of "those parents."

I am anti-uninformed teacher. I am anti-homework in elementary school. The amount of homework assigned to children in recent years is insane and counterproductive.

First of all, it is ineffective. If you actually read the peer-reviewed educational literature with any attention to the data, you will find that there is very little that supports current homework practices. Yet teachers continue to assign homework to small children with a shovel. See, for example, Alfie Kohn's "The Homework Myth" and Bennett and Kalish's "The Case Against Homework." I buy copies of these books early on every year as a little gift for my kids' teachers. I can usually tell fairly accurately which teachers actually do my assigned reading. Homework is inevitably 95% busywork. Its major effect, as far as I can tell, is to destroy any love of learning that a child might have. It comes with huge opportunity costs. Children learn through play. There is a great deal of research that supports that concept. My kids get so much homework that there's no time for play. Childhood obesity is a national problem. Maybe if our kids had fewer mind-numbing worksheets to fill out, they might actually be able to get a little exercise.

I often invite these teachers to come sit at my kitchen table for a few days at 4 pm, and listen to my kids ask why they can't go out and play because they've been sitting in school all day and don't want to face more homework. I don't have a good answer for why a ten year old shouldn't get some down time. Maybe these teachers could explain it.

You have our kids for seven hours a day. If you cannot teach them what they need to learn in seven hours, perhaps you should look at how the school spends its time, and use it more effectively. I spend lots of time in my kids school and dh works in a school daily. Schools waste enormous amounts of time on errant nonsense.

If I came home from my job every night and told my family that I didn't have time for any family activities because I need to do hours more work, I'd be considered a workaholic. Yet schools routinely expect our kids to do just that.

Why do you think you should be able to control what my family does on its own time? If your carefully crafted projects are so educationally valuable, get your school to cut out wasting time with things like the daily pledge of indoctrination, sporting announcements, the highly ineffective DARE program, and assemblies to spin up the kids to sell Sally Foster. Then you can have the kids do these projects on your time.

It is attitudes like this that I have a problem with. You don't even give the teachers the benefit of the doubt. Here are the issues I have with your post:

a.) Required reading? I would welcome any parent to sit down and talk with me about my homework policy for their student, but I will admit that if a parent ever does this to me, I am going to be defensive. You are essentially coming in and telling me how to do my job that I have spent several years earning my Master's for. You are basically telling me that you think you know how to do my job better than I do. I have seen those books and will get around to reading them at some point when my coursework lightens up, but I highly suspect that they are written from a very anti-school perspective. Again, homework is a way for me to measure how well your student know the concept outside of the classroom. I have seen it in classrooms many times where a teacher thinks that students have gotten a concept and then the homework comes back and it is clear that many didn't quite get it. I don't plan on assigning inordinate amounts of homework if I can help it. Unfortunately, many teachers are being handed the exact curriculum complete with a script and worksheet, thank you to NCLB.

b.) Um, no. I will agree that there are plenty of schools/teachers/curricula who assign far too mcuh homework, but don't paint us all with the same brush. If I assign a piece of homework, there is a specific purpose for it. I do what I can to make it fun, but there has to be a balance. I go out of my way to make sure that students enjoy learning. The reading curriculum I'm teaching for summer school is scripted, and my classmates and I who are student teaching have thrown most of our scripts out of the window and reworked the entire thing. We read Canyons by Gary Paulsen, and I brought in tons of Native American artifacts that my family own, as well as a video of the Koshare Indian Dancers. My kids even convinced me to wear my Harry Potter costume tomorrow. I'll feel like a dork, but I'm going to do it because maybe it will encourage some of them to read.

c.) It's a bit rich blaming childhood obesity on teachers. Maybe if your kids put down the video games and stepped away from the computers they could get some fresh air. I listen to what my kids talk about in school, what they do when they leave, and even in the summer quite a few are choosing to sit on their butts in front of the tv instead of going outside. There's nothing wrong with letting your kids play for an hour before doing their homework. Many families I know don't make the kids start on it until after dinner. At least for the schools here, that is more than enough time to finish it.

d.) When you are expected to be a teacher, nurse, counselor, social worker, parole officer, etc, then you may come talk to me about "errant nonsense". I try to tie everything back to the curriculum, but I am expected to teach much more than just reading. Why did I devote half a lesson one day to talking about character ed? Because the kids are not getting it at home and some of the behaviors were getting out of hand. We had kids bullying eachother, acting out in class, etc. etc. It was getting to the point that it was affecting how much we could accomplish in the classroom on a given day. You can bet your boots I did a character ed lesson, and you know what? We have had fewer problems since that day, and I am able to get more accomplished.

e.) Go to Missouri's DESE website and look at the GLE's (Grade Level Expectations). Look at everything we are expected to teach in one year. It's darn near impossible. I do give kids time to work on projects in class whenever possible, but at least some of it will be sent home. I try to keep it to a reasonable amount, but I will say this: If I am designing the assignment and your kid has hours of homework, that means that s/he is not managing their time well in my classroom. I've got plenty of kids now who spend most of their day off task, it is a constant battle. They don't get as much accomplished as the rest of the students and therefore have more homework.

I take offense at the general tone of your post. I can't find a delicate way to say this, but if you hate public school so much, why don't you send your kids to a private school or homeschool them?

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

I applaud many of you for your willingness to advocate for your children. You are right, I don't have kids at this point and don't always know the parents' persepctive. Please tell me if you think my expectations are unreasonable, but the least you can do is be polite about it. Don't come in assuming that I am aware that your kid is spending so much time on homework, or that I am assigning it just to keep them busy. As I mentioned in a pp, any homework I assign spends much more of my time than it does your child. I have to find or create an acceptible assignment and then grade them all at the end. My job would be easier if I don't assign any, but research has shown that one of the best ways to learn something is to practice, and that is one thing that homework accomplishes. The other thing it accomplishes is making sure the students learned the concept well. It is one thing to know a concept in the classroom, quite another to apply it outside the classroom.

I think that some parents might benefit from taking a look at how they approach the teachers. If you come in hostile, the teacher is probably going to get defensive. The term "nastygram" just rubs me the wrong way. Thank you for explaining that you tried other modes of communication first. However, that phrase just really gets under my skin. I hope that no parent ever feels the need to send me one of those. Talk to me like a human being, and you might just be surprised at how willing I am to take your consideration into account.

 

[GeorgiaPeach8]

The phrase "nasty gram" is just plain condesending. I beat your son's teacher was REALLY receptive to your message if it had that same tone. Also, if nasty gram's son is in a private school for gifted kids...that homework isn't that insane. The 20 minutes for lunch and recess is insane.

 

[Pigeon]

AMEN (see above comment)



It is attitudes like this that I have a problem with. You don't even give the teachers the benefit of the doubt. Here are the issues I have with your post:

a.) Required reading? I would welcome any parent to sit down and talk with me about my homework policy for their student, but I will admit that if a parent ever does this to me, I am going to be defensive. You are essentially coming in and telling me how to do my job that I have spent several years earning my Master's for. You are basically telling me that you think you know how to do my job better than I do. I have seen those books and will get around to reading them at some point when my coursework lightens up, but I highly suspect that they are written from a very anti-school perspective. Again, homework is a way for me to measure how well your student know the concept outside of the classroom. I have seen it in classrooms many times where a teacher thinks that students have gotten a concept and then the homework comes back and it is clear that many didn't quite get it. I don't plan on assigning inordinate amounts of homework if I can help it. Unfortunately, many teachers are being handed the exact curriculum complete with a script and worksheet, thank you to NCLB.

b.) Um, no. I will agree that there are plenty of schools/teachers/curricula who assign far too mcuh homework, but don't paint us all with the same brush. If I assign a piece of homework, there is a specific purpose for it. I do what I can to make it fun, but there has to be a balance. I go out of my way to make sure that students enjoy learning. The reading curriculum I'm teaching for summer school is scripted, and my classmates and I who are student teaching have thrown most of our scripts out of the window and reworked the entire thing. We read Canyons by Gary Paulsen, and I brought in tons of Native American artifacts that my family own, as well as a video of the Koshare Indian Dancers. My kids even convinced me to wear my Harry Potter costume tomorrow. I'll feel like a dork, but I'm going to do it because maybe it will encourage some of them to read.

c.) It's a bit rich blaming childhood obesity on teachers. Maybe if your kids put down the video games and stepped away from the computers they could get some fresh air. I listen to what my kids talk about in school, what they do when they leave, and even in the summer quite a few are choosing to sit on their butts in front of the tv instead of going outside. There's nothing wrong with letting your kids play for an hour before doing their homework. Many families I know don't make the kids start on it until after dinner. At least for the schools here, that is more than enough time to finish it.

d.) When you are expected to be a teacher, nurse, counselor, social worker, parole officer, etc, then you may come talk to me about "errant nonsense". I try to tie everything back to the curriculum, but I am expected to teach much more than just reading. Why did I devote half a lesson one day to talking about character ed? Because the kids are not getting it at home and some of the behaviors were getting out of hand. We had kids bullying eachother, acting out in class, etc. etc. It was getting to the point that it was affecting how much we could accomplish in the classroom on a given day. You can bet your boots I did a character ed lesson, and you know what? We have had fewer problems since that day, and I am able to get more accomplished.

e.) Go to Missouri's DESE website and look at the GLE's (Grade Level Expectations). Look at everything we are expected to teach in one year. It's darn near impossible. I do give kids time to work on projects in class whenever possible, but at least some of it will be sent home. I try to keep it to a reasonable amount, but I will say this: If I am designing the assignment and your kid has hours of homework, that means that s/he is not managing their time well in my classroom. I've got plenty of kids now who spend most of their day off task, it is a constant battle. They don't get as much accomplished as the rest of the students and therefore have more homework.

I take offense at the general tone of your post. I can't find a delicate way to say this, but if you hate public school so much, why don't you send your kids to a private school or homeschool them?

I don't hate public schools at all. As I said, dh is an experienced public school teacher. I want schools to do better. People like Kohn and Bennett aren't anti-public school. They want the schools to do better. You sound very, very defensive. Heck, you admit up front that you are defensive about discussing your policies. Wanting the schools to stop destroying a love of learning is not hating the schools, it is wanting improvement.

I don't come in and demand that teachers read the books I buy for them. This is an internet chat board and that was a joke, hence the smilie. I buy the books and give them to the teachers at the first parent-teacher conference.

I do ask them to read them with an open mind. These same teachers are assigning me countless hours of homework by assigning it to my kids. No, I don't do their homework, but if you think that good parents aren't involved in the process, then think again. It sucks the life out of us. I really don't think that it's too much to ask to provide some reading material for a teacher that might improve their teaching and also explain why so many parents and educators find the homework deluge to be problematic.

This really is an area where I think many teachers who don't have kids are clueless. My husband used to assign much more homework before we had kids. He had his carefully planned projects and his neatly tailored rubrics. After seeing what our kids go through with homework and after talking to many other parents and actually listening to them, he started scaling way back on the homework. He found that the larger amounts of homework provided no benefit. His test scores are higher now than they used to be.

My kids don't have video games. They watch a total of less than two hours a week of TV. They spend much, much more time than that doing homework, but thanks for the assumption. We are very big on the public library, but screen time, not so much. They are both straight A students. Our passion for learning has a great deal more to do with that than worksheets do. My kids are not obese, but if you pick up a newspaper, you'll see that many are. Homework and the elimination of recess that many schools have gone to are certainly contributors.

The errant nonsense was directed at the hours of contact time that are squandered by non-teaching activities. I listed just a few of the many time wasting things that the school does. I don't think teachers are behind most of these things, I think administrators are. But the teachers can advocate for eliminating some of this crap.

I hate NCLB and scripted "teaching" just as much as you do.

Frankly, I think your attitude and your assumptions about parents are a pretty good contributor to the "us v. them" mentality. You've got a Masters. That's nice, but really, recognize its limitations. I've got a Masters. My husband has a Masters. The thing with teacher education is that is does an abysmal job of both conducting and using its own research.

 

[Wishing on a star]

I'm not anti-teacher. My dh is a public high school teacher. I am an academic. But after having two kids in public school, I've become one of "those parents."

I am anti-uninformed teacher. I am anti-homework in elementary school. The amount of homework assigned to children in recent years is insane and counterproductive.

First of all, it is ineffective. If you actually read the peer-reviewed educational literature with any attention to the data, you will find that there is very little that supports current homework practices. Yet teachers continue to assign homework to small children with a shovel. See, for example, Alfie Kohn's "The Homework Myth" and Bennett and Kalish's "The Case Against Homework." I buy copies of these books early on every year as a little gift for my kids' teachers. I can usually tell fairly accurately which teachers actually do my assigned reading.

Homework is inevitably 95% busywork. Its major effect, as far as I can tell, is to destroy any love of learning that a child might have. It comes with huge opportunity costs. Children learn through play. There is a great deal of research that supports that concept. My kids get so much homework that there's no time for play. Childhood obesity is a national problem. Maybe if our kids had fewer mind-numbing worksheets to fill out, they might actually be able to get a little exercise.

I often invite these teachers to come sit at my kitchen table for a few days at 4 pm, and listen to my kids ask why they can't go out and play because they've been sitting in school all day and don't want to face more homework. I don't have a good answer for why a ten year old shouldn't get some down time. Maybe these teachers could explain it.

You have our kids for seven hours a day. If you cannot teach them what they need to learn in seven hours, perhaps you should look at how the school spends its time, and use it more effectively. I spend lots of time in my kids school and dh works in a school daily. Schools waste enormous amounts of time on errant nonsense.

If I came home from my job every night and told my family that I didn't have time for any family activities because I need to do hours more work, I'd be considered a workaholic. Yet schools routinely expect our kids to do just that.

Why do you think you should be able to control what my family does on its own time? If your carefully crafted projects are so educationally valuable, get your school to cut out wasting time with things like the daily pledge of indoctrination, sporting announcements, the highly ineffective DARE program, and assemblies to spin up the kids to sell Sally Foster. Then you can have the kids do these projects on your time.

Amen... and AMEN!!!!!!!!!

 

[TheDisneyGirl02]

If I came home from my job every night and told my family that I didn't have time for any family activities because I need to do hours more work, I'd be considered a workaholic. Yet schools routinely expect our kids to do just that.

That sounds like my dad...and he is a teacher. I can't tell you how many times he has skipped out on day trips with my family so he could work on school work. You would call him a workaholic but he's still my dad. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that your children may have homework to do, but so does my dad and he doesn't waste one minute in school. He does it because it is his job and it is what that needs to be done.

 

[In a hurry]

That sounds like my dad...and he is a teacher. I can't tell you how many times he has skipped out on day trips with my family so he could work on school work. You would call him a workaholic but he's still my dad. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that your children may have homework to do, but so does my dad and he doesn't waste one minute in school. He does it because it is his job and it is what that needs to be done.

Your dad is an adult. As an adult teacher, the expectations for appropriate behavior for me are much different than we should expect from a child.

 

[Pigeon]

That sounds like my dad...and he is a teacher. I can't tell you how many times he has skipped out on day trips with my family so he could work on school work. You would call him a workaholic but he's still my dad. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that your children may have homework to do, but so does my dad and he doesn't waste one minute in school. He does it because it is his job and it is what that needs to be done.

Your dad does it voluntarily and for compensation.

Children are forced to do it involuntarily to the detriment of their ability to do other things.

Huge difference.

 

[castleview]

Did you ever think to talk to school board members that you elected? In DH's schools system, all high school teachers are supposed to give two hours of homework every night. So if a student has six classes, he supposed to have 12 hours of homework a night.

Fortunately, most experienced teachers lighten that up or ignore it. Still, they can be reprimanded for it if they want.

 

[GeorgiaPeach8]

I don't hate public schools at all. As I said, dh is an experienced public school teacher. I want schools to do better. People like Kohn and Bennett aren't anti-public school. They want the schools to do better. You sound very, very defensive. Heck, you admit up front that you are defensive about discussing your policies. Wanting the schools to stop destroying a love of learning is not hating the schools, it's wanting improvement.

I don't come in and demand that teachers read the books I buy for them. This is an internet chat board and that was a joke, hence the smilie. I buy the books and give them to the teachers at the first parent-teacher conference.

I do ask them to read them with an open mind. These same teachers are assigning me countless hours of homework by assigning it to my kids. No, I don't do their homework, but if you think that good parents aren't involved in the process, then think again. It sucks the life out of us. I really don't think that it's too much to ask to provide some reading material for a teacher that might improve their teaching and also explain why so many parents and educators find the homework deluge to be problematic.

This really is an area where I think many teachers who don't have kids are clueless. My husband used to assign much more homework before we had kids. He had his carefully planned projects and his neatly tailored rubrics. After seeing what our kids go through with homework and after talking to many other parents and actually listening to them, he started scaling way back on the homework. He found that the larger amounts of homework provided no benefit. His test scores are higher now than they used to be.

My kids don't have video games. They watch a total of less than two hours a week of TV. They spend much, much more time than that doing homework, but thanks for the assumption. We are very big on the public library, but screen time, not so much. They are both straight A students. Our passion for learning has a great deal more to do with that than worksheets do. My kids are not obese, but if you pick up a newspaper, you'll see that many are. Homework and the elimination of recess that many schools have gone to are certainly contributors.

The errant nonsense was directed at the hours of contact time that is squandered by non-teaching activities. I listed just a few of the many time wasting things that the school does. I don't think teachers are behind most of these things, I think administrators are. But the teachers can advocate for eliminating some of this crap.

I hate NCLB and scripted "teaching" just as much as you do.

Frankly, I think your attitude and your assumptions about parents are a pretty good contributor to the "us v. them" mentality. You've got a Masters. That's nice, but really, recognize its limitations. I've got a Masters. My husband has a Masters. The thing with teacher education is that is does an abysmal job of both conducting and using its own research.

Well, as I mentioned in my pp. When we were still on topic and not on a thousands rants about individual teachers...the us vs. them mentality is really far worse from administration than from parents/public. The reason teachers have stopped "advocating" for eliminating the crap is because the climate of schools have convienently changed to favor administration and state departments. If a teacher voices concern about the "crap" i.e. time consuming meetings, trainings, etc...that are either repetitious or pointless than our administrators label us as one of "those teachers," "lazy" or "nut case."

I'm not sure what kind of "limitations" you are speaking of when you talk about teachers and masters degree. The only limitations I can think of is that I put out a great deal of time and money for very little financial return.

I can honestly say the discussion on teachers without kids doesn't hold water. I was more sympathic told kids BEFORE I gave birth to three. Now, I see what little scammers they can be I'm far more likely now to look at a student and say..."you don't have time to finish your HW? Really, and when your parents thought you were researching on the internet...how many friends were you IMing????"

Back on topic--I think elementary teachers get less public respect than middle school and high school.

 

[TheDisneyGirl02]

Your dad is an adult. As an adult teacher, the expectations for appropriate behavior for me are much different than we should expect from a child.

Your dad does it voluntarily and for compensation.

Children are forced to do it involuntarily to the detriment of their ability to do other things.

Huge difference.

My response about my dad was in reference to the following quote:

If I came home from my job every night and told my family that I didn't have time for any family activities because I need to do hours more work, I'd be considered a workaholic. Yet schools routinely expect our kids to do just that.

The OP of the quote was using an adult as an example and I was providing a situation where it applies. He is an adult and he knows he has to do what he needs to do to get his job done and he does it without complaining. If anybody is frustrated by it, it's me!

As far as being compensated for it - when he works on next years school work during the summer, he is not being compensated for it since his contract is literally 9 months. Pigeon, out of all of the posters you should know that since your husband is a teacher. When he does do work during the school year, technically he is being compensated for it, but at what cost? He lost a lot of family time that everybody is saying is so important.

May I just state that these are my frustrations and don't reflect my father's view as a teacher, so please don't say to me that he knew what he was getting into when he went into teaching.

As far as homework is concerned, I remember always having homework when I was little and I survived. What has changed now that homework seems to be such a bad thing?

 

[Wishing on a star]

a.) Required reading? I would welcome any parent to sit down and talk with me about my homework policy for their student, but I will admit that if a parent ever does this to me, I am going to be defensive.

d.) When you are expected to be a teacher, nurse, counselor, social worker, parole officer, etc, then you may come talk to me about "errant nonsense". I try to tie everything back to the curriculum, but I am expected to teach much more than just reading. Why did I devote half a lesson one day to talking about character ed? Because the kids are not getting it at home

but if you hate public school so much, why don't you send your kids to a private school or homeschool them?

WOW..... Just WOW....


So, you are 'defensive' if a parent has a concern, or wishes to present a differing viewpoint.

You have a 'MASTERS' which seems to make you feel that you are inerrant and GOD. (your policies, homework, actions, etc.. must be accepted, in total, as law, without any input or concerns by parents)

You openly 'parent bash'... (with broad negative statements that kids aren't getting what they should at home...)

You purport yourself to be not only a teacher, but "teacher, nurse, counselor, social worker, parole officer, ETC." Again with the GOD complex...

Then, add in the whole attitude of the completely wrong and baseless assumption that a parent must hate the schools, and that if there are concerns, that they should just walk... depriving their child of the education that has been mandated for ALL children.

WOW. What a classic example of how teachers can, and have, contributed to the so called us-versus-them mentality.

 

[Lanshark]

Most teachers are more than willing to discuss issues with parents.

Mutual respect and consideration is key. An open line of communication is essential. I let parents know that I consider us a team. If there is an issue I want to know about it . If I feel there is an issue I want to be able to openly discuss with the parent.

There are bad teachers in the profession and there are also parents who are less than stellar.

 

[spima3]

I'm not sure what kind of "limitations" you are speaking of when you talk about teachers and masters degree. The only limitations I can think of is that I put out a great deal of time and money for very little financial return.

I think what she is trying to state is that a Masters isn't the Holy Grail a lot of people seem to think it should be. Sometimes they "pay off", sometimes they don't.

My friends DH, private sector, big company, has a Masters and didn't receive a single penny more in compensation because of it, in his current position. Now if he chooses to apply for a different position, one that pays more, it may potentially work to his advantage that he has a Masters. Then again, maybe not. It doesn't necessarily follow that a Masters degree automatically guarentees an increase in income: it has it's limitations.

 

[In a hurry]

My response about my dad was in reference to the following quote:

The OP of the quote was using an adult as an example and I was providing a situation where it applies. He is an adult and he knows he has to do what he needs to do to get his job done and he does it without complaining. If anybody is frustrated by it, it's me!

I realize what and why you posted. My point is that there are/should be different expectations for children and adults.

I'm not against all homework. And I believe that practice can be of benefit. I am against the idea that "more is better." Oftentimes teachers forget that they are not the only important thing in a child's life. Family, sports, exercise, and down time are also important.

Schoolwork for next year takes about a week for me to gather and organize. I piddle with it bit by bit throughout the spring and summer. No biggie. One week of classes for me (computer BS this year) and the summer is mine. As a matter of fact, I'm off to the pool in a few minutes.

 

[Teacher03]

I wasn't going to comment on this thread, but I just have to put my two cents in. I know that it may seem on these boards that there are many out there who are against teachers (even though some have valid complaints and concerns), but I don't believe that is the general feeling of most. Many come here to vent and get advice, and not as many come here to praise their child's teacher, so those who are pleased with their children's teachers appear to be outnumbered. I agree there are terrible teachers out there. My kids have had a few. They've also had good teachers, and a few outstanding ones.

As I teacher, I do not mind listening to parents' concerns. I try to listen with an open mind and do my best to put myself in their place. What I do mind is demands and attacks (which hasn't happened very often). I have received phone calls at all hours of the evening and on weekends, sometimes on a Sunday night about an assignment that is due the following day, which was assigned weeks ago. I wish parents would remember that I want the same thing that they do, I want their child to do their best and feel successful.

As far as homework goes, I always tell my class and the parents that they should never get to the point in homework where tears are shed and it takes more time than it should. If that is the case, just write me a note and we will take care of it at school. Not once have I had anyone take advantage of it. If it is a project or studying for an upcoming test, I give plenty of advance notice.

I love teaching, some days and classes are easier than others, and some parents are easier to deal with than others. My first couple of years of teaching I would go home in tears if a parent was upset with me or didn't "like" me. I still lose sleep and stress out over it, but I've grown a little thicker skin.

Like I said, just my two cents!

 

[Pigeon]

Well, as I mentioned in my pp. When we were still on topic and not on a thousands rants about individual teachers...the us vs. them mentality is really far worse from administration than from parents/public. The reason teachers have stopped "advocating" for eliminating the crap is because the climate of schools have convienently changed to favor administration and state departments. If a teacher voices concern about the "crap" i.e. time consuming meetings, trainings, etc...that are either repetitious or pointless than our administrators label us as one of "those teachers," "lazy" or "nut case."

I'm not sure what kind of "limitations" you are speaking of when you talk about teachers and masters degree. The only limitations I can think of is that I put out a great deal of time and money for very little financial return.

I can honestly say the discussion on teachers without kids doesn't hold water. I was more sympathic told kids BEFORE I gave birth to three. Now, I see what little scammers they can be I'm far more likely now to look at a student and say..."you don't have time to finish your HW? Really, and when your parents thought you were researching on the internet...how many friends were you IMing????"

Back on topic--I think elementary teachers get less public respect than middle school and high school.

I don't disagree that administrators are a huge part of the problem. But I think that teachers all too often are willing to abdicate any responsibility for participating in improving the education process.

The OP placed a great deal of emphasis on her Masters making her the ultimate authority on education. Getting a Masters is time consuming and expensive, no doubt. It is also a basic requirement for getting a public school teaching position in many parts of the country. It is a high priced union card, but does not necessarily a good teacher make. Dh got his Masters from one of the highest rated programs in the country. The quality of the material taught was underwhelming. Pick up a few education textbooks and rifle through them and I think you'll see what I mean.

Schools pay a great deal of lip service to evidence-based practices, but run screaming when presented with evidence contrary to what they are actually doing.

We disagree on the having kids/homework issue. I've heard from countless teachers who agree with me, so our experiences differ.

 

[In a hurry]

I don't disagree that administrators are a huge part of the problem. But I think that teachers all too often are willing to abdicate any responsibility for participating in improving the education process.

The OP placed a great deal of emphasis on her Masters making her the ultimate authority on education. Getting a Masters is time consuming and expensive, no doubt. It is also a basic requirement for getting a public school teaching position in many parts of the country. It is a high priced union card, but does not necessarily a good teacher make. Dh got his Masters from one of the highest rated programs in the country. The quality of the material taught was underwhelming. Pick up a few education textbooks and rifle through them and I think you'll see what I mean.

Schools pay a great deal of lip service to evidence-based practices, but run screaming when presented with evidence contrary to what they are actually doing.

We disagree on the having kids/homework issue. I've heard from countless teachers who agree with me, so our experiences differ.

I believe your DH's program must have been similar to mine! 80% fluff and BS. And self esteem boosting, if you can believe it?!