Education in America

[Plow]

That's the thing people just won't face up to: we need REALLY good teachers. The people that are raising and educating our children should be the people we wish we could have learned from.

Unfortunately, we'll never give in to the idea that if we want more black kids to grow up and be NDT, we need to offer Woozie and Miz more to come teach them than to, say, develop better ways to kill people.

If we were a genuinely thoughtful and intelligent society, we'd already be offering them a LOT more.

[Ksandra]

That's the thing people just won't face up to: we need REALLY good teachers. The people that are raising and educating our children should be the people we wish we could have learned from.

Unfortunately, we'll never give in to the idea that if we want more black kids to grow up and be NDT, we need to offer Woozie and Miz more to come teach them than to, say, develop better ways to kill people.

If we were a genuinely thoughtful and intelligent society, we'd already be offering them a LOT more.

believe it or not though you kinda highlight a problem in your own sentence that isn't just limited to "finding good teachers." It's your statement of "the people we wish we could have learned from". Because,sad to say, the average parent would have wanted to learn from a teacher that never gave them any homework, didn't give them a detention for swearing at Suzie, had easy tests, etc.


Society's parents fight against teachers instead of supporting. The amount of "my child is perfect, you're wrong!" type attitudes is huge and getting bigger and bigger.


There is no respect for teachers good or bad, and you'd be surprised by the amount of "good" teachers that are perceived as bad because they were strict while forgetting how much they learned was actually from said teacher.

[Plow]

Well, that's not quite I meant heh, I just mean people like NDT that you listen to and pretty much can't help but go "damn I wish that dude was my science teacher." Not like, literally a checklist of what people want from a teacher.

[Ksandra]

Well, that's not quite I meant heh, I just mean people like NDT that you listen to and pretty much can't help but go "damn I wish that dude was my science teacher." Not like, literally a checklist of what people want from a teacher.

ya but even then the "damn I wish that dude was my science teacher" is completely subjective, and you know that.

[Ryany]

I feel the discussion on the education system should be aimed more at parental involvement (slightly touched on a few posts back) than the teachers/government.


...and yes, I understand that it is hard for a parent or parents to get involved when some parents out there have to work 80 hours per week just to pay the bills.

[Not Kuno]

I feel the discussion on the education system should be aimed more at parental involvement (slightly touched on a few posts back) than the teachers/government.

Parents are the last people who should be talking about what happens in education. That's like having a patient tell the doctor how he should work. Sure a the patient might have some ideas and might not like certain things, but theyre the fucking doctor, let them do their god damn job. Educators (ie people with teaching experience) should be the ones in charge (even though they're not, here in NYS).

[Zeb]

ya but even then the "damn I wish that dude was my science teacher" is completely subjective, and you know that.

Fuck that, everyone wants NDT as their teacher.

[Ryany]

Parents are the last people who should be talking about what happens in education. That's like having a patient tell the doctor how he should work. Sure a the patient might have some ideas and might not like certain things, but theyre the fucking doctor, let them do their god damn job. Educators (ie people with teaching experience) should be the ones in charge (even though they're not, here in NYS).

I don't mean parents telling teachers how to do their jobs. I mean parents being involved with their children emphasizing things such as getting good grades and making sure their children are doing their homework rather than just blaming the teachers/school system when their child fails.

[Ksandra]

Fuck that, everyone wants NDT as their teacher.

I don't

Spoiler: show

No idea who you're talking about

[Not Kuno]

I don't mean parents telling teachers how to do their jobs. I mean parents being involved with their children emphasizing things such as getting good grades and making sure their children are doing their homework rather than just blaming the teachers/school system when their child fails.

Oh yeah. That would be great. But the problem is most parents don't know what their kids are doing. They don't even know how to raise their own god damn kids. Do you know what happens when little Billy has been acting up in class and a parent is at parent/teacher or they got called in for that behavior? They'll ask the teacher what they can do.

[Greatguardian]

Parents supporting their children's teachers instead of actively undermining them would certainly go a hell of a long way.

[quannum]

if current trends continue, public schools will go away. your kids will enroll in a Wal-Mart Lower Education Center©, with their govt voucher. they will learn just enough to spin the cranks, and wash yachts and shoot guns at brown people.

nclb was specifically implemented to work towards the purpose of turning public opinion against public schools, and they trick the parents to use "triggers" for charter schools. then they get someone to work the numbers (rhee) to market their schools as better alt to public school. public schools have been getting defunded at least since the 80s, do you think the trend will reverse?

[Ksandra]

Parents supporting their children's teachers instead of actively undermining them would certainly go a hell of a long way.

100000000000000000000000000000000000000000x this.

[Plow]

I don't

Spoiler: show

No idea who you're talking about

Neil deGrasse Tyson.

http://startalkradio.net/

Listen to pretty much any of his podcasts ever (or listen on the radio if you're lucky enough to get it) and within like 10 minutes, you'll wish he was your science teacher.

Anyway, you're taking my statement too literally lol.

[Not Kuno]

Being a good speaker doesn't make you a good teacher. I don't really listen to his stuff but he'd probably do better as a college prof where the students are more included to give a shit.

Except for like undergrad. Seriously, freshmen and sophomore years in college is pretty much High School II: Electric Boogaloo.

[Fairy-Killer]

My freshman and sophomore years in computer engineering were weed out classes where they made life hell. This and the fact that I had never put any effort into school before really made them a son of a bitch.

[bigrougabagel]

And quite frankly, I've worked with a lot of students with special needs, they deserve an education, so fuck the other countries, we're doing good by allowing them in the schools. Though I will say sometimes it's a bit retarded to force them to take these tests when they can't even count past 3.

Laughed way too hard at this.

[miokomioko]

Almost every teacher that I have personally known had become a teacher because it was easy, not because it was something they actually felt strongly about. That's a huge problem.

[bigrougabagel]

Because teaching is easy. You just have to stay 1 chapter ahead of the students and you're golden. Seriously though, after tutoring at the local community college, I have no idea how anyone learns math. All the professors use pre-made class notes, homework, tests, quizzes. I might see the same problem from 8-10 different students in a day, and they do not all have the same professor and I expect I will see those same problems starting in the fall when the teaching materials get recycled again. We wonder why some students are taking college algebra 4 times(possibly because they are dumb or maybe it's that if it didn't work before, it won't work again).

[Rocl]

Almost every teacher that I have personally known had become a teacher because it was easy, not because it was something they actually felt strongly about. That's a huge problem.

Really? I don't know a single teacher personally who went to it because it was easy. Not exactly the greatest teachers in the world, but not the worst either.

In one instance it was "what the fuck am i going to do with a history degree?" though.