angry thoughts thread
Jaguar wrote:Frank wrote:Jaguar wrote:grateful wrote:
It's official: The Republican Party of Texas opposes critical thinking. That's right, drones, and it's part of their official platform:
"Knowledge-Based Education ? We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student?s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority."
http://www.austinchronicle.com/blogs/news/2012-06-27/gop-opposes-critical-thinking/
Forget the Republican/Democratic angle of this. Believe me, canning this is a good thing and I can hear the teachers (both Republican and Democrat) applauding this decision all over and hoping it comes their way. I am fully aware how absurd this sounds to the average ear but it means nothing whatsoever as it does in real life English language. This program is so convoluted and bizarre that what it did most was prevent learning. Forget any real critical thinking, it wasn't there. They make the teacher change the wording of any objectives and such that end up having nothing whatsoever to do with proper grammar. It was based on some made up idea of arranging wording that did not in anyway carry over into real life understanding. There were times when it was impossible to do it based on their made up rules where it made any sense whatsoever to the either the teachers or the students. But the teachers were usually forced to follow them anyway and then quietly explain them to the students in regular English so that the students knew what they were supposed to do. In most cases, the program did nothing whatsoever to aide in learning; however, it did plenty to prevent any sort of common sense learning. Good riddance!
If they made competence in the English language a requirement to attend public school the grade levels in America would sky-rocket. It's r-e-t-a-r-d-e-d that a teacher has to stand in front of a class of kids, a large percentage of which only speak Spanish or Creole (that's the case in in south FL anyway).
If a kid doesn't speak English, and English language class seems like a pretty logical idea…….no?
"No child left behind" is really "Bring all the kids down to the lowest common demoninator"
I've always said that the theme song for that bogus 'No Child Left Behind' program, that you so rightly understand, is Ride's 'Leave Them All Behind'.
In reality, way too many of these programs are about dumbing down our kids rather them truly educating them. Number 682 on my list of reasons of why I quit teaching. In many of these systems, it's not even teaching anymore. Instead, it has more to do with corralling and babysitting than what one would assume. In fact, my last year of teaching, we had someone from the State tell us that teachers falsely assume that the main goal of teaching was 'critical thinking' (but not the Orwellian type in the program design mentioned above.) Hey, because that's what they (the State) use to tell us. He admitted to us that they could not care less about that. Instead, he said that the ONLY thing they cared about was that these kids would show up to work once they got out in the work force. That's it. Period. That they show up. Actually, that was pretty evident from what we witnessed within the schools themselves. That they showed up. Nothing else.
Now I can't say that all schools or systems are like that. There are way too many of them out there to believe that they are such cookie cutters and I do know that there are still some good ones left. I can only say that the the schools I was in perfectly fit the devolution totally dumbed down minimum security prison type of warehousing that is no good at all for anyone. I would never, ever allow my child to set foot in such halls of horror. In fact, I'd home school if all else failed. At least they'd have a chance at learning something productive.
By the way, except for maybe one or two teachers that I knew, they were all democrats and they all hated this program with a deep passion because they knew how ass backwards and ineffective it was. Anyone who thinks this is a dem/rep issue is being mislead and hasn't a clue what they are talking about.
teachers are overpaid
atomicfront wrote:
teachers are overpaid
Ha!!! See, that's another across the board broad assumption that those who know nothing whatsoever about the job choose to assume based on completely biased and misguided mouth pieces with other political agendas.
On the whole, some are paid very well. Don't know if it's still true but many in Pennsylvania were paid very welll. Then when you look at many other states and/or counties, you will find ridiculously low pay.
In my case, after 13 years of teaching, a bachelors degree partly in Education (k-12), 2 masters degrees, along with extra graduate work, and the top level of advanced certification I still made LESS than $50,000 per year.
To be honest, they could offer me a million a year and I would never, even for a moment, consider going back. It has more to do with all of the other complete crap, and DANGERS I had to put up with, than the money.
I would love for those who think they know so much about these hellholes to have to go in and teach for a full year before they opened their traps. I can guarantee you that they would come out very frustrated and with more of a different kind of knowledge than they went in with.
average salary is over 60k in baltimore area, i believe. they have great benefits and have the summer off. masters degrees in teaching are easy and the school system pays for them. The majority of local taxes goes to teachers. I know many people making 80+k teaching in baltimore area. Work a full year and get the same amount of days off as any other public worker.
I wouldn't complain so much about their salary but when i went to school in howard county, teachers seemed to be getting in the way of my education. Slowing everything down to their level. I hated high school so much because I wasn't really learning anything. Thank god in college you actually have intelligent professors who care about what they are doing and reward independent thinking.
as for the hell holes… why did you teach there? You can teach in baltimore city in the hell holes without even a teaching degree. Seems with your qualifications you could qualify for a better school district.
I wouldn't complain so much about their salary but when i went to school in howard county, teachers seemed to be getting in the way of my education. Slowing everything down to their level. I hated high school so much because I wasn't really learning anything. Thank god in college you actually have intelligent professors who care about what they are doing and reward independent thinking.
as for the hell holes… why did you teach there? You can teach in baltimore city in the hell holes without even a teaching degree. Seems with your qualifications you could qualify for a better school district.
I'm not getting into the 'teachers are over/underpaid' debate, but I will tell you this. Tenure is bullshit. There's way too many lazy teachers who don't give a toss about educating kids who are untouchable. If you turn into a lazy wanker in the private sector you get fired. The same should apply to the public sector.
I left the teaching field 15 years ago.
All I know is that I make more at my current job than i would have if i had stayed in teaching. With the same masters teaching degree (that i paid for myself. I did earn a second degree along the way, but it arguably hasn't benefited me much). I get six weeks vacation. And it's way, way, way easier.
And yes, I agree that tenure is bullshit.
All I know is that I make more at my current job than i would have if i had stayed in teaching. With the same masters teaching degree (that i paid for myself. I did earn a second degree along the way, but it arguably hasn't benefited me much). I get six weeks vacation. And it's way, way, way easier.
And yes, I agree that tenure is bullshit.
atomicfront wrote:
average salary is over 60k in baltimore area, i believe. they have great benefits and have the summer off. masters degrees in teaching are easy and the school system pays for them. The majority of local taxes goes to teachers. I know many people making 80+k teaching in baltimore area. Work a full year and get the same amount of days off as any other public worker.
I wouldn't complain so much about their salary but when i went to school in howard county, teachers seemed to be getting in the way of my education. Slowing everything down to their level. I hated high school so much because I wasn't really learning anything. Thank god in college you actually have intelligent professors who care about what they are doing and reward independent thinking.
as for the hell holes… why did you teach there? You can teach in baltimore city in the hell holes without even a teaching degree. Seems with your qualifications you could qualify for a better school district.
I don't have the time to break it down now but you just proved that you really have no clue what you are talking about. I taught in Baltimore City and it's not anywhere like what you assume it to be. Oh, and I did try to get out and into other systems. Most won't touch you unless you are brand new (cheap) and fresh out of college. Also, there are contractual issues involved that often prevent one from moving on.
Go teach, or TRY to teach, in that pit for a full year, then come back and we'll talk. As of now, it's very, very clear you haven't a clue what the real pay, benefits, reimbursements (which sometimes doesn't come through and are never as much as you are assuming), and other issues. Don't forget all of the extra graduate classes one must keep taking just to keep the job or they will fire you and replace you with someone straight out of college, and, as you said, with no education background. Yeah, they do that kind of crap. When do you expect these teachers to take these classes? Most years, I only got no more than 5 hours sleep a night, every night, because there was just not enough time to keep up with the job. It was literally killing me. Again, you wouldn't know about that because you have no clue what you are talking about.
Then there are the vast numbers of teachers that I've known who have been severly beat up by students, pushed down the steps, tripped down the steps, set on fire, had guns pulled on them, stabbed, punched, cars and other property vandalized, robbed, purses and other things stolen, etc., etc.. Several of those things, some of the worst on the list, have happened to me. And believe me, the system rarely protects the teachers in these cases. Instead, everyone of them have their principals say to them 'what did you do to cause that student to do that to you.' In fact, they sometimes do everything they can to prevent you from filing an incident report and from either calling the police or going to the doctor because they think it makes their school look bad. Screw it! There is no way I would ever go back to that.