rant:the next generation and our society

[Cerb]

I love it when people put full blame on the teachers.

Look at my post right after that one. I didn't.

Are they doing something that importat to where that can't take 30 min. to come down and to talk with the teacher? It's a disgrace...

What about when my parents were trying to get a conference and my teachers kept skipping it? Where I went to school, people like you are in the minority.

I'll tell you what the problem is. It's laziness. As a society weve gotten way to relaxed. The parents don't want to be involved because it takes to much of their time. Well make time! American's need a wake up call.

I agree, but the schools are going that way as well, which is why I am 19, currently in college, and not yet not finished with high school.

 

[Cerb]

If we concentrate all our resources on private schools, then as usual... the poor and middle class students will suffer.

This is why I ended up going to public school. Through elementary school, that school was willing to deal with less money (When my dad finally quit working for the city as electrician, it was a tough few years, but he now makes more than both my parents did together), and my parents worked very hard for that. When it came to 7th grade, it was a choice of going to a private school that has now gone to hell, and lose one of the cars (my parents worked nowhere near each other), or go to public school. Looking back now, there were other options we should have taken before being forced to (I refer here to home schooling and unschooling).

 

[Antoneo]

It also disgusts me that young students look up many entertainment figures that are selling whereas physicists, doctors, engineers, and other beneficial-to-society occupations are largely ignored and fail to spark any interest. One would think that as they grow up it would fall out of favor, but these days I really don't see it in many kids (at least here in NYC).

 

[Cerb]

I'm teaching now because I consider it a calling. It's more who I am than a career decision I made. I don't have to work, at least not at this point. It's not about money for me.

It's definitely not something I was born for, but I have been thinking about such an option. Mainly, while I definitely have skills that could get me 6-figures with a few more years of work, the thought that there are other people who had as much trouble as I did really hits me.
Hell, I'm practically tearing up writing this. If I could learn to be able to deal with people better (I have a very specific problem: I can only deal with specific questions and topics...if something is too broad my mind stumbles to figure out where to start), I might just go towards such a thing. Currently I'm not, but given how several of my relatives didn't find what they truly should have done until 40, and how well they are doing now, I'm too worried about running out of time .
It's aggrevating when you lose sleep to make a C; yet the people with 99% averages, who take 12+ hours a week in extra-curricular activities, are asking you for help. There's just something wrong in that.

 

[Zebo]

You need to empower the teachers. IMO a teacher should have the same amount of authority over a child as the parents do when the parents are not there and should be immune to lawsuits like the parents are. Also they should separte the dumb kids like they used to in the basement of the school. Now, the smart kids are the ones being handicapped because the education is geared for the slowest person in the nation. And unruly kids should be kicked out. Let thier parents pay for military academy is they are not there to learn.

Money has nothing to do with education look at india and ITT's, in fact I'd say the more money a district spends the worse the kids are and the worse SAT boards are. Look at DC schools which spend 10K per student vs my sons private school is only $2100 a year and 95% go on to college.

 

[Isla]

Cerb, well it seems we have some things in common.

I was actually double promoted (I think I must have had high levels of smartness or something ) but then I ended up dropping out of high school, getting my GED, and going on to college. My graduating class had over 1050 students... the total at the school was over 3000... 'critically overcrowded' is what they called it. A freaking insane madhouse where inept adults attempted mass babysitting techniques was more what I saw it as. My parents could neither home school me nor put me in private school... so I found my own way instead.

Since then, I have home schooled my own children when faced with sending them to schools with critical overcrowding, and that went well. My whole theory is to try to be flexible and meet the needs as they arise, and so far, so good. Now, they are at a point where they are all doing well in good schools (relatively speaking) and I can do something I always wanted to do: Go back into the same system that offered me so little and try to be there for kids who aren't as fortunate as I have been.

Remember that you can also have more than one career, and you can do it in stages... I've had a little job reviewing books and writing some fluffy pieces that has put a few dollars in my pocket, and I'm not giving that up, either.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Originally posted by: Isla

People should teach because they love it, just like people should become doctors because the sincerely want to help and heal people. Anyone who gets into a career that involves serving/helping others should have a heart for it, and not because they think they are going to get rich doing it.

That is a great point, and makes me think about it in a way I never have before. I always believed the motto "do what you love, then find how to make money at it", and I think it's good for people, but I realize now that it is not only good for individuals, but for society. If we had people everywhere doing their jobs because they love them, everything would be alot nicer. Sorta like when you go to a restaurant, and you have a waitress, who perhaps doesn't want to be a waitress forever, but you can tell she enjoys talking to people. It makes everything alot more enjoyable for everyone.

<--teaching Elementary Special Ed (Public)

That's awesome, especially special ed, since those kids kinda get the short end of the rope. My aunt is a teacher, and she is a very neat woman - obviously doing it for love of teaching, and she's one of the top teachers in her district.

And to be a bit OT in OT.... My aunt is a health teacher, and her son had to take health class with her in junior high, and we all know what goes on in junior high health class.. sex ed. There's a really funny story about her saying penis and him nearly falling out of his chair