Now for a serious post. I think I'm ready to change my career path or at least my current situation. I love my coworkers, but I'm not feeling admin from central office all the way down. I feel like the basic goal of a teacher has changed. It seems like we have simply become classroom managers instead of educators. The admin seems to be more worried about not angering a parent than trying to make sure students are getting the education they need. They try to stop things or block things trying to keep from upsetting a parent before things even get a chance. This is ludicrous.
I signed on to try to educate America's youth, not to be an under-appreciated babysitter. I'm sick of having to give a kid work that's not trying to do anything all semester, but has "paperwork" that says they need extra time. A whole 5 weeks??? Is that extra enough? That's ridiculous and admin just keeps letting these kids work them and the system. I've seen students pass without having done a lick of work but the teachers can't fail them because admin doesn't want to have to "deal" with the paperwork or the parents so the teachers are urged to let them pass. The amount of paperwork on the teacher to fail the non producing student is immense. I'm done with this foolishness. These kids are allowed to skate through while you have some students that actually do their work and try and they are the ones who really suffer. The knuckleheads are given numerous chances and the good kids are being punished for dress code violations. What sense does that make? I'm lost. I need something else.
I've already started talking to some contacts and my placement for next year is uncertain at this point. I would hate to leave my coworkers, but it seems like the culture at my current location is changing anytime soon. We have too many personal agendas going on and the kids get lost in the shuffle. It's sad. We need to do better as a society if this is what education has come to. I see why people leave the profession....
Showing posts with label School. Show all posts
Showing posts with label School. Show all posts
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Why is school free?
I was just thinking about this the other day while I was talking to my dad and then I went to a training yesterday and the question was posed again, so I figured I must be on the right track. I had a thought earlier this week and it really got me thinking. "What if all public schools charged for students to attend?" I'm not talking a private school type tuition, but something like $500 per year. A little more than $2.75 per school day. It would help pay for school improvements, better lunches, better facilities etc. What would be so wrong with this?
The more I thought about it, the more I actually liked the idea. This is how I would see it playing out. The home property taxes would go down because schools were no longer solely funded by the number of houses in the area. If a student lived in one area but went to a school in a neighboring area, the school would still be financially supported by that student and their family. Schools that have large apartment populations would also reap the benefits of more cash flow from their students. I think this would take a great burden off of school budgets to pay for student who aren't paying for the school as in the current system. It would also allow a stream of revenue for other academic endeavors such as school technology and building projects. Districts would be able to allocate more money to teachers, administrators and personnel since actual per school cost will have a way of being covered. These are just some thoughts.
I'm sure some will argue that "All kids can't afford it." or "That's wrong to make kids to pay for school.". I disagree. I feel that if you want a quality product you should be willing to pay for it. When these same kids buy Jordan's, Coogi sweaters, true religion jeans, baby phat outfits, coach handbags, and ipods I don't hear anyone complaining about cost, so what's so different about their education? If a parent is willing to pay $400 for a playstation 3 with 1 controller and no games you think $500 for the ability to read, write and comprehend would be a bargain. Sadly enough, the masses don't see it this way. They expect a free education. They expect people to want to deal with their unruly children and like it and then they turn around and want to bash the people who take their time and efforts and give their all to try to teach the masses. They say "those who can't do, teach." Well I'd like to see some of those same people stand in front of a crowd of 30 uninterested, unmotivated, untrained, disrespectful strangers and teach them anything. Then you'll see what one class is like. Good luck!
I think a paid education would allow for most of the principles that people want to see in schools. If you're paying, then you expect a good product. This would mean that parents would be more apt to actually take a vested interest in their child's education because they are now footing the bill. Since you are paying, you can now expect teachers, principals and the like to provide the best service available to your child. It's not like they aren't already, but now when you say "I would like to meet with you because I feel something may need to be done better" you have a leg to stand on and the school would be far more apt to listen because it's your business they would like to keep. By supporting your child's school, you could demand for better food, services, supplies and production from your school and what the kicker would be is that the school will actually have funding to implement the changes without the red tape.
These are just ideas of how I think things would go in a paid education system, but I don't think it would be a bad thing. Sure there are holes that I would have to sure up and guidelines that would still need to be put in place but the overall premise is one that I think needs to be looked at moving forward with today's education system. If you have any more ideas, suggestions, concerns, rebuttals, dissenting opinions please feel free to leave a comment or two. Don't forget to follow @ogreen32 on twitter or at ogreen32.blogspot.com for all of the latest updates. Take care!
The more I thought about it, the more I actually liked the idea. This is how I would see it playing out. The home property taxes would go down because schools were no longer solely funded by the number of houses in the area. If a student lived in one area but went to a school in a neighboring area, the school would still be financially supported by that student and their family. Schools that have large apartment populations would also reap the benefits of more cash flow from their students. I think this would take a great burden off of school budgets to pay for student who aren't paying for the school as in the current system. It would also allow a stream of revenue for other academic endeavors such as school technology and building projects. Districts would be able to allocate more money to teachers, administrators and personnel since actual per school cost will have a way of being covered. These are just some thoughts.
I'm sure some will argue that "All kids can't afford it." or "That's wrong to make kids to pay for school.". I disagree. I feel that if you want a quality product you should be willing to pay for it. When these same kids buy Jordan's, Coogi sweaters, true religion jeans, baby phat outfits, coach handbags, and ipods I don't hear anyone complaining about cost, so what's so different about their education? If a parent is willing to pay $400 for a playstation 3 with 1 controller and no games you think $500 for the ability to read, write and comprehend would be a bargain. Sadly enough, the masses don't see it this way. They expect a free education. They expect people to want to deal with their unruly children and like it and then they turn around and want to bash the people who take their time and efforts and give their all to try to teach the masses. They say "those who can't do, teach." Well I'd like to see some of those same people stand in front of a crowd of 30 uninterested, unmotivated, untrained, disrespectful strangers and teach them anything. Then you'll see what one class is like. Good luck!
I think a paid education would allow for most of the principles that people want to see in schools. If you're paying, then you expect a good product. This would mean that parents would be more apt to actually take a vested interest in their child's education because they are now footing the bill. Since you are paying, you can now expect teachers, principals and the like to provide the best service available to your child. It's not like they aren't already, but now when you say "I would like to meet with you because I feel something may need to be done better" you have a leg to stand on and the school would be far more apt to listen because it's your business they would like to keep. By supporting your child's school, you could demand for better food, services, supplies and production from your school and what the kicker would be is that the school will actually have funding to implement the changes without the red tape.
These are just ideas of how I think things would go in a paid education system, but I don't think it would be a bad thing. Sure there are holes that I would have to sure up and guidelines that would still need to be put in place but the overall premise is one that I think needs to be looked at moving forward with today's education system. If you have any more ideas, suggestions, concerns, rebuttals, dissenting opinions please feel free to leave a comment or two. Don't forget to follow @ogreen32 on twitter or at ogreen32.blogspot.com for all of the latest updates. Take care!
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Back on the grind!!
Well good folks! Tomorrow puts me back into the real world. The world of schedules and deadlines and benchmarks and everything else school related. I've enjoyed a wonderful break and I feel that I have refocused as much as I could to get ready for this next semester. We plan on pushing the kids as much as we can in order to squeeze as much academic juice out of them as possible. This break has given me time to ground myself and escape from the roughness this school year has brought. I look forward to keeping myself going by focusing on the positive around me and trying to let the negative come and go without me missing a beat. I'm thankful for the new opportunity that I have been given to do some writing and reviewing for droiddog.com. That gives me a chance to keep up with one of my favorite past times, mobile technology. As my mom said, I should be a part of the geek squad. Why not? Maybe, I'll put in an application soon. Who knows? It's about that time for me to start looking towards tomorrow. I hope everyone has a wonderful night and a great week. Take care and for the record the Kardashian show sucks.
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