Y/N... are you a Union Member?

How we teach kids hasn't changed. They still go to several periods a day teaching the same crap the same way. I come from a family of teachers and have countless kids in my family, I even help them with homework so I'm well aware of both public, private and charter schools in the Houston area.

The vast majority of classes are still taught chapter by chapter, assignment by assignment. Countless studies have found that proficiencies in core areas continue to decline even though we're spending more money. 7% of 8th graders in Detroit are reading at or above level... that means 93% are lagging behind. That is the case all across this country.

The problem with our education system is the system. Not the teachers, not the money, but the system. You can say it is changing, but at the snails pace we're currently on we are going to be lapped several times more (we already have been) by other countries.

Kids should start their career progression earlier, and should be allowed to work at their own pace and be rewarded for doing so. Kids are also getting hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt on college educations that don't prepare them for the real world.

The education system in America from top to bottom is overwhelmingly a joke... and the metrics back that up.

 

If your family are still teachers then they must not have been keeping up on their professional development. Because teaching has changed greatly.

Helping your kids with their homework says almost nothing about how they are being taught. It only addresses what they are being taught. But what they are being taught is changing too. Look at the common core standards being introduced. They are patterned off of other nation's education systems (some of which you're talking about). So pretending like we aren't starting to do the same thing isn't really accurate.

Our system does need changing, and thank goodness it is changing.

 

With that quote right there, you've shown that you have no clue what you're talking about. Do you know what would happen if you tell a 13-year-old kid to work at his own pace? They'll do jack s#!t in the classroom. They won't do a single thing. They'll become bumps on a log.

I'm a teacher, and I agree that the system needs revision. But to place the blame 100% on schools is ridiculous. This is a CULTURAL problem. When you have a man running for President being criticized for going to a good school, you know your country has an effed up view of education.

 

Saw a great quote today


"If any man tells you he loves America, yet hates labor, he is a liar. If any man tells you he trusts America, yet fears labor, he is a fool."

-- Abraham Lincoln

 

Money to be made? Not really. Those underperforming kids are more likely to be from poor families.

 

Do you believe that if you gave all the poor families a million dollars, the kids would start performing better?

 

You're right, they are more worried about passing standardized testing than actually teaching. There are more than 10 kids in what I consider my immediate family in school. Some in private, some in public and some in Charter. The kids in public school are in "nice areas," yet the education is still sub-par. The kids in private schools are catered to as you would expect and the two kids in charter schools are excelling past the others.

I have absolutely no clue how someone can look at our abysmal education metrics across the board and say we're on the right track.

I meant allowing kids to progress faster if they wanted, not slower. Obviously they need guidance and a clear path for success, I'm not a r****d. If a kid can finish K-12 when he's 14, let him. But no, schools don't want to miss out on that daily check they get for every butt in the seat so most stifle the kids who want to move forward. I know, I was one of those kids.

Because it is all about the money. Those cities and school districts are more worried about receiving maximum funds than they are about helping kids succeed. Are there exceptions to this? Yes, but the vast majority of them just want a kid to be there when roll is called.

 

I'm on your side when it comes to the emphasis on testing. I also agree that a lot should change with our schools. Like I said some public schools are great, and some aren't. They run the range. Often public schools in nice areas won't automatically have the best teachers. Because students in those areas will often be motivated enough and have a good enough background to do well on their own. That is a big generalization though.

Some charter schools are great. Some private schools are too. Some public schools are also great.

As I said the system needs changing, and right now they are changing. You seem to ignore that or are dismissing that change even though it's based on the schools in other countries that you've held up as examples. With those changes which are just now starting, and aren't at all grade levels yet the schools are going in the right direction. People who are actually aware of these changes seem very happy about them. The tests for the students will be completely different as well. It will all be done by computer, and the better the students do, the more in depth and complex the questions will become. Part of the goal for these new common standards are to get students to become career ready earlier just as you've said should happen.

You can sit there and complain about everything, but since you don't know about and aren't willing to look at the changes that are happening your complaints are largely off base.

 

Some of them, but in 3 generations of continued high economic level, the kids would be performing better.

 

1) Teachers' unions are vehemently against high-stakes standardized testing.

2) You seem to be drawing some unjustified conclusions based on your very limited personal experience. Your American Dream is not the same as someone else's.

 

Assuming they don't waste it, then over generations, absolutely. The current generation would likely eat healthier, be more likely to have parents at home, get assistance when needed, etc. That generation would likely grow up understanding the world outside of poverty, which would then pass on to the next generation.

It's just the basic Maslow heirarchy of needs. If the parents don't have to focus all their energy on just basic survival, they can provide other things to their children which will benefit in the long run.

 

I realize most teachers are against standardized testing, but it is still part of the broken system... and teachers unions don't seem to be protesting standardized testing as much as they are better pay and benefits. Yes, I know that many teachers are underpaid and under-appreciated, just pointing out the fact that they could too protest and threaten to walk out over standardized testing, but they do not.

I am NOT drawing my conclusions based on my limited personal experience. Every single metric the US government uses to measure education in this country clearly shows our education system is failing our kids, when compared with other countries (especially SE Asia). I used my personal experience merely as examples to reaffirm my findings.

 

No, they really can't. Standardized testing is dictated at the federal level; teachers' unions protest at the local level. Protests are far more effective a means of change on a small scale, and would almost certainly be a disaster for everyone if you tried to do a nationwide teacher protest.

But those metrics don't show charter schools as the solution, which seems to be the conclusion you've drawn from your personal experience. Charter schools haven't been shown any more effective as a whole than public schools.

 

First of all I'm in a teacher's union and we have never threatened to walk out based on wages. We make complaints about standardized testing all the time, probably more so than we do about wages.

That's for several wages. We understand the state's budget is underfunded. Making wage demands would cost people jobs. We've actually taken pay cuts, found waste in the system, and money that was previously not even accounted for. The union did that and streamlined the process.

As I said most states (more than 40) are all adopting the new common core standards which are based in part on what's being done in SE Asia, Scandinavian countries, and places where the system is different. One of the goals is career readiness for the students.

 

poor black, white, hispanic, asian families, or all of the above?

 

Standardized tests are a huge issue for unions. See most recent Chicago teachers' strike for details.

Every single metric? I'll let that one slide. You're moving goalposts. Even if the US education system is as bad as you claim, you have not shown that teachers' unions are part of the problem.

 

I'm not saying charter schools are the answer, just an alternative... or something to build upon.

Maybe not the teacher's unions here, but across the country many certainly are. See Detroit for details.

 

I realize many teachers try to do the right thing, I'm not making sweeping accusations that all teachers unions are the problem or that they are only the problem with the education system. I'm not saying that about all unions either. However, denying that many unions don't cause problems or are only looking out for their own interests is just as short sighted as sweeping accusations about all of them.

I want teacher to be rewarded for succeeding, but I also want teachers who fail to be held accountable without the process and paperwork of a union.