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One teacher we spoke with uses the word ‘abominable’ to describe behavior in the classroom. “We have no recourse and the kids know it,” she says. “If you so much as cross your eyes at a child, they (the kids or their parents) call the police and the school board. Ten-year-olds hold my career in their hands. It’s ridiculous.”
I've heard accounts from male teachers who've had to worry about their female high school students hitting on them (and yeah, some of them did just that). One of them asked a few of their male students to always "hang around", as witnesses. Under no circumstances would he allow himself to be alone with female students. This worked for awhile, but he ended up spending more time ensuring he wouldn't get misconduct reports nor complaints than actually teaching that it was less stressful just to quit and move on to other lines of work.
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Originally Posted by Marie Joseph
I have had two friends leave teaching for some of the reasons listed in the article.
There is a lack of respect and support for teachers in many districts. They are increasingly given very little freedom in curriculum development and it is becoming all about making sure that the kids score high on standardized tests. I would assume that most teachers get into the field because they are interested in helping kids learn, not so much making sure that they can pass the almighty state achievement test. One of my friends left teaching when it became more about standardized testing rather than regular teaching because she hated not having the freedom to develop her own material.
The article also made sense with the climate now with parents & kids. I've heard from teachers that it is frustrating because they get grief from the parents if they let the parents know that their kid is misbehaving in the classroom. It's a nightmare dealing with serious disciplinary issues in the classroom because the parents often come back upset with the school/teacher rather than their kid. I'm not sure what has changed over the past few decades, lol. I went to school 1975-1988. If I acted up in class and the teacher called my parents I was REALLY in trouble when I got home.
I can understand the pay, too. In my state (PA) teaching requires a master's degree in education and an undergrad degree in the subject you want to teach in. You also need a state certification and are required to pay for state clearances/background checks. The average starting pay for a teacher in my area of PA (Erie) is $44,000 in a public school. It is higher for STEM teachers/special ed teachers. Still though, for that amount of education $44K is not a high starting salary.
When I couldn't find work, I considered becoming a teacher. However, some states/areas require just that... a masters degree, and a certification. I wasn't aware that them checks was on the teacher's dime. This is truly a horrific deal. Granted, teachers get off 1 month of the year off (I'm not going to count the entire summer since teachers do a lot of things outside classroom time), and pensions can be great, but given the high upfront cost and investment and time, and the high burnout, what good are the retirement benefits if you're very unlikely to get anywhere near there? To top that all off, I learned in due time that "children are *******s". (no offense to those who have them, including those in my circle of family, friends, and coworkers).
People can self study and get tech jobs like setting up computer/network systems, or software development, make much more money starting off, and don't even need a bachelors degree, let alone a masters degree!
The girl had an epiphany when she was arrested the last time for theft (a couple phones). The PG SRO took her to the jail and bypassed the juvenile entrance and went to adult intake. The girl went nuts and wondered what was happening and why she wasn't going to Baby Booking. Turns out she'd turned 18 a couple days earlier and was now eligible for Big Girl Jail. She was real well behaved when she came back to school.
Do they still do that? I remember we had "scared straight" programs, where we visited a local jail. Not all the inmates were big, scary thugs. Some of them seemed to be OK people, minus the bad life choices that landed them in jail. However, you hear things about having to shower in the open with others, getting what's left of the limited water if "you're a little guy", fighting for toilet paper (huh.. pandemic, eat your heart out), and rampant theft when locks can be broken with swift kicks.
We also visited Discovery House where recovering addicts told their stories. Some didn't want to be there, but the choice was between that, or jail.
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Originally Posted by North Beach Person
Yeah most people don't have a clue. My system had its share of inner city like schools, I was at a couple of them early, but where I ended up was solidly middle/upper middle class but due to boundary vagaries and transfer policies we had our share of your type of problems. Also, many parents moved out to us thinking it would help their kids. It usually didn't.
I've heard of parents try to do this to get a leg up on the "college competition". They transfer their child who had stellar grades in their previous school thinking if they got great grades in a school with a more difficult academic rating, they'd be much better off. However, those better schools are more competitive, so instead of being a big fish in a small pond, you're now a small fish in a big pond
Do they still do that? I remember we had "scared straight" programs, where we visited a local jail......……….
I've heard of parents try to do this to get a leg up on the "college competition". They transfer their child who had stellar grades in their previous school thinking if they got great grades in a school with a more difficult academic rating, they'd be much better off. However, those better schools are more competitive, so instead of being a big fish in a small pond, you're now a small fish in a big pond
The story I told wasn't a part of any program. It was just that the girl had aged out of juvenile and could now be charged as an adult.
When I first started at the school one of the classes, it might have been a Contemporary Issues class, did tour the jail, in fact it was a "must do" in the curriculum. That ended by the mid-90s, though, just about the time I took over the class. The School Board directed it not be done any longer due to the jail was unable to guarantee the safety of the students and because there got to be too many students who knew too many of the inmates when they did the tour.
Yeah, parents will move to a higher academic ranked school and sometimes have a nasty shock, or rather their kids will. In my school's case it was more for safety than academics.
The story I told wasn't a part of any program. It was just that the girl had aged out of juvenile and could now be charged as an adult.
When I first started at the school one of the classes, it might have been a Contemporary Issues class, did tour the jail, in fact it was a "must do" in the curriculum. That ended by the mid-90s, though, just about the time I took over the class. The School Board directed it not be done any longer due to the jail was unable to guarantee the safety of the students and because there got to be too many students who knew too many of the inmates when they did the tour.
Yeah, parents will move to a higher academic ranked school and sometimes have a nasty shock, or rather their kids will. In my school's case it was more for safety than academics.
Our school also used to do the jail trips back in the 90's. We also had to stop because it was like a family reunion when the students met the inmates.
One of my perverse habits is checking the local jail list every morning. Random reinforcement keeps me coming back because every week or so I'll see one or more of my former students. From time to time I will see one of my current students. When that happens, I notify the administration so that they will be aware. Often I am the first person to learn about an arrest outside of the students' own families. It's a strange habit, but oddly satisfying. I'm not lying when I say that I teach thieves, carjackers, armed robbers, and murderers. Thank God they are just a small fraction of the students I teach, most of whom are sweet kids.
Our school also used to do the jail trips back in the 90's. We also had to stop because it was like a family reunion when the students met the inmates.
One of my perverse habits is checking the local jail list every morning. Random reinforcement keeps me coming back because every week or so I'll see one or more of my former students. From time to time I will see one of my current students. When that happens, I notify the administration so that they will be aware. Often I am the first person to learn about an arrest outside of the students' own families. It's a strange habit, but oddly satisfying. I'm not lying when I say that I teach thieves, carjackers, armed robbers, and murderers. Thank God they are just a small fraction of the students I teach, most of whom are sweet kids.
We didn't do that in any of the schools where I worked.
But one school invited a juvenile court judge to speak each year. The students would walk into the "little theater", a small auditorium where there would be something on the front wall that was covered over. Once everyone was seated (usually in groups of about 125) the judge would be introduced, he would say a few words, and then he would unveil what was up on the wall -- a bigger than life color photograph of a junior-high-aged teen after being autopsied. After the fainting and vomiting ended, the judge would talk about the kinds of trouble kids get into within the legal system. It was quite sobering...and made quite a few parents very angry.
^My father was invited to speak to my high school alumna mater about legal issues. He asked the students, "How many of you have seen the inside of a jail?" He told me that just about every hand in the room was raised. Then the students started to share their stories about various relatives who had been incarcerated. It was like a badge of honor. Jail certainly wasn't going to scare these kids. They were proud of it. That high school declined only slightly since I was a student there, even though it was quite a few years after I had attended.
^My father was invited to speak to my high school alumna mater about legal issues. He asked the students, "How many of you have seen the inside of a jail?" He told me that just about every hand in the room was raised. Then the students started to share their stories about various relatives who had been incarcerated. It was like a badge of honor. Jail certainly wasn't going to scare these kids. They were proud of it. That high school declined only slightly since I was a student there, even though it was quite a few years after I had attended.
Huh.. that's both amusing and depressing at the same time. It seems like this would work on those who are more upper class (who ironically enough wouldn't need this sort of thing as much), or otherwise don't already have folks in jail, as there's still some stigma to being incarcerated, and what you'd hear of it would be something someone would want to avoid.
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In the case you mentioned, I guess it's good to know that they can get a "support system" going since many are in the same boat, but yeah, such a talk would've been to keep them out of jail (which ironically enough again, they would need it more, but it wouldn't help).
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