Originally a reply on G+, decided it wouldnt be polite, proper, not exactly on topic.
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I have mixed feelings on this; teachers used to get crap pay where I live. Soon, they got well-deserved raises, and fantastic benefits. Free health care and nearly every drug free but Viagra (was still in court last I'd heard). Now the Union structure and politics turned it into a literal Mafia with a Teachers-Union-owned insurance company - and required participation - that was helping bankrupt the state. I'm Union, and while most of my "brothers and sisters" hate the new Governor by default, he really hasnt taken away much from teachers, and his tools are helping districts, even small ones save millions from insurance premiums alone. Many districts have the same coverage, albeit a deductible and a 15%ish contribution in premiums (I pay about 21%, $39 a week for family with premium dental and vision). The pension is funded (Wisconsin is one of few states that have a sustainable pension fund at the moment), teachers may still retire in their 50s (if eligible) with a pension that survives them to their spouse's death. It's not a bad deal at all. The previous Governor had cut teaching jobs, eliminating a national award-winning teacher due to seniority. Nobody seemed to care then. Public support quickly faded from the traditional "teachers are heroes" to "They make HOW much?", coupled with a rather strange and boisterous demonstration at the capitol that lasted for weeks, with many fringe groups tagging along which had nothing to do with teachers, or even Wisconsin. More support dropped when Communist groups and paid out-of-state "Professional Demonstrators" ran amok daily in Madison. Everyone just wanted it to be over. With the recall effort of the governor now over (Governor Walker got a greater percentage of the vote in the recall against Barrett than in the main election, also against Barrett), teachers arent starving, class sizes are actually down, budgets arent slashed (reduced aid to the schools from the state was offset by what the districts made up in insurance premium savings alone). The taxpayer - really all of us - has taken charge. It's not all about money; we already have the highest property taxes in the country but we still dont hate teachers, and we dont want sub-par education or conditions for our children. If these changes would have negative effects, they would raise all heck to get things back the way they were. It's still a "good gig" being a teacher in Wisconsin, and I feel bad they got a bad rap over the last 18 months because of a few polarizing groups.
That said, we really need to emphasize what students CAN be good at. Provide advanced classes, hire SMART guidance counselors and have regular interaction with students. Push the students, all of them, into what they are good at. Make them ENJOY winning, yet learn sportsmanship. All this "fairness" and "thats good enough" mentality is HURTING us as a nation. I didnt have any of that despite attending a college prep high school...and I didnt make it to college. Nobody pushed me. I wish they had. I started pushing myself several years ago. Most people couldnt handle what I had to juggle without giving something up. I sacrificed my health and my relationship. I still have learned and done more than most engineers several years out of college. I'm happy now, but I started this far too late in life. That motivation should be forced on kids.Yes, FORCED. Whats the harm? If we find out a child isnt good at something, then emphasize something else. Not everyone is right for college, and the opposite is true. I know white-collar professionals that are legends in their careers, but can barely mow the lawn, let alone fix anything. Push a gearhead into accounting and the book nerd into the Golf team, you might not have a happy student, nor a successful one. Kids dont know what they want to do, and many have no clue what they are "good" at even at 16, 17...or as an adult.
This is the failure of the school system. We just "do it this way". WHY? Sure, A kid not knowing how to balance a checkbook or who Napoleon was is ridiculous, but it happens now as it is.
Compare:
Husband: "Honey, why do you cut the ends off the roast before you cook it?"
Wife: "Well, it's the way my mother always did it. I'll ask her"
Wife to her mother: "Mom, why do you cut the ends off the roast before you cook it?"
Wife's Mother: "I dont know, it's how my mother did it. Call her"
Wife: "Grandma, why do you cut the ends off the roast before you cook it?"
Grandma: "Well, my pan was too small..."
Are we doing things wrong in the first place, just because we've always done them that way?
Are some GOOD teachers "not-so-good" BECAUSE of the way we teach and WHAT we teach,
or is it just the teacher in some cases?
Not all teachers SHOULD be teachers just because they WANT to be teachers.
Some really SUCK at it, just like any other job. Some people suck at cooking, or can't seem to grasp certain skillsets; their brains arent "wired" that way. It's not evil to say someone shouldnt be teaching because they are terrible...its evil to let them keep teaching, and diabolical to put students under their instruction.
A poor teacher, no matter their well-intention, is a curse on students and impressionable young minds.
They should be able to be fired, just like anyone else on earth.
This, by NO MEANS is the only problem, if it even IS a problem.
Why does Milwaukee Public School system constantly churn out students that cant read nor
tell time unless it's digital...but yet some of the brightest students also come from MPS.
Is there just a surplus of lazy kids...or dumb ones?
When I was in high school, there were a lot of social problems. Besides the God-awful students, the fights, the drugs, the truancy, We had terrible teachers, not teaching us anything, but instead had us read the chapter, take the test. Do a dumb timeline and color it in and make it look nice. This was 11th grade...COLORING...and covering the same boring US History in one semester, leaving about 99% of history out of it, and focusing on the Holocaust for a month alone, which didnt even happen in the United States. World History, repeat, except one month on Native Americans, one month on the Holocaust, one day on Vietnam, the rest on social issues that were popular in the 1960s when the teacher was a teenager and were pretty much solved by then.
I was bored to death and loathed several classes. I was proficient at math at the time, but the teacher really hated me. I didnt do anything to apply myself, and often skipped out. Nobody cared. No, not even my parents.
I did have a science teacher that was a prude and sort of weird, looked and acted like that frumpy woman that won that Britans Got Talent opera singer. She saw my potential, paid attention to my work, and FLIPPED THE F OUT for me. Got my first "Success Card". She BRAGGED about my project (which was really uncool at the time, we all had to be cool 24-7 or get our asses kicked by someone else acting more cool than we did that day), and I think she'd even kept it. THAT drove me. When I got in a fight in her class (it was bound to happen), she got me in trouble BUT said I had potential. She'd followed up on me. She even gave me a ride home once - I lived a few miles from the school but wasnt "eligible" for the bus.
THAT is a good teacher. She didnt let me slide when I did something wrong. She encouraged me LIKE A PARENT SHOULD, and without saying everything I did was wonderful. She told me SOME OF MY WORK SUCKED, but I was the most intelligent student shes seen in years, and was excited for MY future.
Where are these teachers? I've only had ONE since then...
I had a GREAT teacher for my Apprenticeship, whom added to my knowledge and experience and recharged my lust for knowledge of all things technical. He'd also shown me I can prove him wrong, or correct him when he makes an error; this PROVES we're all fallible, and that we should NEVER be satisfied thinking we "know it all".
'Nuff said.
