This is the state of our educational system

Around here if you fail a class you get night school. You show up to night school and automatically get a 60, so pass Dont have to do Jack shit just show up and yet some still manage to fuck that up.....saw a vid about how they do it in Sweden I believe it was and it was great. We were the greatest country in the world but are losing it. As all great empires, rise and fall.

 

Right on, you only missed one point. Teachers are doing all this and making some shit money, if you can even call it that good.

 

The problem is balance.. volunteering is great and helping until it sucks the life out of you and you dont have enough time to work. People are sponges and will not step up to provide the correct assistance needed if it does not directly benefit their child. Volunteers would come in for 15 minutes, assist their child and leave changing people is a difficult process. We also have a issue with parents bringing kids late all the time. The budget is screwy and throws good money after bad. If English wasn't my sons language, he would have more opportunities and benefits allotted to him via the school district.
This year the schools here have all but eliminated special education services.

 

That’s bullshit, teachers need to teach to all students in their class, which can be hard, but very possible. The teach to the lowest, ends up in splitting kids based on levels, and that doesn’t work.

 

I agree with the majority of people on here blaming the parents for the majority of this. I don't have kids myself but I am around my nieces and nephews(2 shitty and 4 nice ones) enough to see that the parents are the root cause of the kids problems.

When I was in school(Graduated HS in 07) my parents would always teach me respect for my teachers and they wouldn't hand me ice cream and pizza when I got a bad grade. My shitty nieces and nephews get this any time they want. When they are at my house we are nice but strict with the kids in a way of, if you have good grades you get rewarded, if you have shit grades you stay at home and study while the rest can go to the water park. Two of the kids that get whatever they want almost cried the first time I told them 'no' to playing video games before finishing homework. They didn't seem to understand the concept.

This behavior is transferred directly to school with the kids not listening to the teachers and the parents getting mad when their shit kid gets shit grades. Its almost infuriating to see this happen. You just want to bring back spankings in school, but for the parents. I guess parenting is more involved than just sticking your kid in front of an iPad and giving the kids some fries for dinner. Who knew?

Rambling over....

 

I am a Project Manager in IT and only hire College graduates. I have to spend about 6 months teaching these kids what they should have learned during their education experience. One young man I interviewed was so proud of the game he invented for his phone and was all butt hurt when I told him that I could care less about some game on his phone. Another one told me he couldn't work weekends or nights. When I do get something, I catch them playing Pikachu or some other stupid game, or Facecrack, tweaker, or something else. I had to discipline one of my employees and they went out on stress leave for a month. Just fired another one last month and here we go again. Trying to find someone who knows what the hell we do here. Mind you, this is not a small shop. 5 different data centers, 250 servers, 1125 computers, SANS, switches, and more ++++ with over 50 different locations, and about 1400 employees. I cant wait until I retire and say good luck. Done.

 

Some very great points in this thread.

I am currently in my 6th year work as a behavior Ed tech.
2 of those years I was the restorative Ed tech, basically took a restorative approach to helping students when they screwed up. There were parents who freaked out that there kid was being required to take ownership of their actions. We had one situation where we suspended a kid for snapping a girls bra strap. With in a hour of making the decision the girl had informed me the decision was overturned. The girls parent had contacted the Superintendent who forced the principal to over turn the decision.

That’s just a taste of the icing on the cake.

I was talking to a teacher a few weeks ago, we talked about how when we were in school, we didn’t want the school to call home, cause we knew we were in trouble. Now a days the kids basically dial the phone for you, cause it’s the schools fault.

Just recently, had to call in resource office and they felt this student needed to evaluated by crisis. The parent argued with the police and blamed the school.

Help our society by holding kids accountable and make them own it when they fuck up, cause we all do.
Oh and keep the phones out of kids hands for a bit.

Oh and common core is not to blame, that’s just trying to set some learning standards. And some things are taught differently because there are better ways to teach it.

 

That respect has to be earned, not just given. We teach the respect thing and it has come back to bite us in the ass. My son was told by another adult to give up his umbrella during a down pour because 2 girls didnt bring one. He gave it up for a couple of reasons, 1 respect that an adult told him to and the other reason will get me banned. All I can say is BLM BS.
Respect has been lost for this teacher and will never be regained

 

I agree with the parents being a bigger part of it, but as with all social issues, it is complicated. There are great teachers/human beings that teach because that is their passion, but there are others that only do it because that's the best thing they can get. I think it's the 80/20 rule across the board. 80 percent of the teachers are good, 20 percent not so much. 80 percent of the parents are reasonable, 20 percent are jackasses. The 20 percent ruin it for the 80 percent. Or maybe I have those things backwards, YMMV based on local conditions.

My daughters were lucky enough to always have great teachers, at least for the most part -- there were those wacky few of questionable sanity.

My wife has both volunteered as well as worked as a tutor/assistant. She loves being with the kids and forms great connections with them. At her last gig, she was told not to get so close to the kids. She didn't need the job, so she finished out the year and didn't go back (administration was very ineffective). And this was in one of the most desirable districts in the state. Volunteering is way better, they can't really tell you what to do if they want you to come back.

 

Where do they have their prom? In the garage?

JK

 

My kids pretty much do whatever they want, which be find by mes. My son is stoned all the time and I haven’t seen his sister from my other girlfriend in days, but theys both be older kin. When the school calls for the younens, I just say they are at there mothers, the whole joint custody freak show. About this time of year I gets a letter that they’d be a staying back again sos I done don’t need to find me a sitter no more.

Oh wait, nah, my wife and I raise our children. Are active in their lives, volunteer for the things they like, and guide them in the things they don’t. We know their teachers and have family meals at a table with no TV or cellphones for anyone. They walk the dog, do the dishes, have nice friends and get good grades. So we take them to amazing places to meet amazing people. Toughest job you’ll ever love. I respect any teacher or parent volunteer that’s part of the village helping to raise mine, even if they are only an example of what not to become.

 

AMEN....
.....however, I can already see parents complaining about this if it were actually sent home.

 

I know folks who did home school as part of a group .. so rent out an event hall as a group?

 

I have to agree with many of the comments made throughout this thread. My background - I am a middle school/ high school math teacher with a Master of Science in Mathematics and 22 years of teaching experience. I have to agree with the OP, I also don’t have any answers but feel that education is in a crisis.

I have seen the good and the bad of public education, private schools, charter schools, home school, school administration, parents…and the list could go on. I don’t think there is a simple answer.

I always have former students come visit. I enjoy visiting with former students and hearing how successful they have become in life, whether they have become a business owner, engineer, carpenter, or housewife. I am glad that I became a small part of their life. Even with all the negatively surrounding education and teachers, I will always be proud to say that I am a teacher.

4BYTOY

 

One could use your example of people not taking responsibility as a perfect example of our education system's limitations. There was no premise the coffee was too hot... it was dangerously hot. hotter than any coffee you've likely ever held.

Some cliff notes:
- The coffee was hot enough to cause 3rd degree burns (3rd degree burns are oens that go through the skin and into deeper tissue).
- more than 700 previous complaints were filed with mcdonald's about their coffee (including some other 3rd degree burns)
- McD's admitted it knew the risks of heating coffee to 180-190 degrees F
- McD's admitted it didn't tell the customers the risk of their coffee being hot enough to cause 3rd degree burns.
- She spilled the coffee when pulling off the lid to put cream and sugar in it.
- The 79-year old woman who sued McDonald's initially wanted to settle for $20k to cover her medical bills and lost income. McD's refused.

Here's her burns (Warning, they are f-ing gross). Get a better example of "personal responsibility failures":

Spoiler

Here are her skin grafts:

Spoiler

Edit to add: Maybe you meant McDonald's was the one that failed in accepting personal responsibility. If so, then I guess this is all for naught.

 

We have 3 kids and my wife teaches/taught all 3 at home - (girl - 15, boy - 17 and a girl - 18) - our oldest is a Freshman (majoring in Comp Science/Cyber Security & Math) and the other 2 are completing 11th grade. I must say HS has tremendous hurdles as well. First it is very expensive - we use a hybrid of curriculum (we use a private school as an 'umbrella school'). The expense comes from not only the books/on line lessons but outside activities as well....Since they were 5 years old they have had weekly music lessons (violin, piano, guitar, banjo, mandolin), Martial Arts Training/Tournaments (4-5 times a week since 5/6), tutoring, on and on. We have them compete in national martial arts tourneys, local, state and regional public speaking contests, and other activities to ensure socialization. We are very active in our church as well as requiring our kids to do local community service of at least 10 hours a month (nursing home visits, food bank prep, etc). We live on a horse farm - so that alone requires a level of discipline and work. My oldest finished #1 out of 720 students in her graduating class (they rank her in the umbrella school and she got to travel there and attend their graduation ceremony), she scored 99th percentile on her ACT and got a free ride to many schools (Thank God - literally)! I say all that to say this - I am a HUGE proponent of teaching at home, but it is NOT for everyone. The parents that expect the schools/teachers to raise their kids or instill discipline are not equipped to teach at home. Accountability IS needed for the kids certainly, but equally needed for parents and teachers/administrations.

 

My sister, who has been teaching Math at the 7 & 8th grade levels in Long Beach, CA for the last 25+ years, has told me horror stories about how bad the education system is, at least in California.

* She has met many substitute teachers who have only an "emergency" credential, to allow them to teach.
* Anytime she has a student with discipline issues, and sends them to the Principal's office, they send the kid right back to her saying "We don't want to get sued by the parents for actually disciplining a student. If you can't control your class, that's your problem, and it will reflect on your performance evaluation." So teachers are getting zero support from administration in many cases.
* The concept of holding a student back a year if they have truly terrible grades no longer exists. That would hurt their self esteem. Better to just pass them along to the next grade (and eventually the world), because hey, who needs to be able to function in the real world, right?
* My sister is fairly petite, barely over 5' in height. When she first started teaching (high school level back then), she had more than one occasion where she was literally threatened with physical violence by much larger male students in the parking lot if she had held them accountable for an assignment/tried to discipline them/done something else they didn't like... and received zero support from her administration.
* Countless stories of kids disrupting class, telling very inappropriate jokes/stories, playing on their phones, etc.. If she sends them outside the classroom for a moment, they are likely to just leave and go home. Or openly defy her in front of the whole class, and she has no recourse.

I would love to teach someday, but I would only be willing to do so at the college level.

God bless all those who try their best to properly educate (not indoctrinate) our children!

 

This is where having standards that the students need to show they can meet will help with this. Now, how do we all agree on the basic standards students should be able to show?

 

Children literally have to be 3 grades behind to be held back.