Tidy Bowl Has No Idea What to Name Her Blog

Friday, January 13, 2006

Stupid In America: Why I'm Glad Someone Finally Gets It

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=1500338

It's not about more money. It's not about fancy curriculums or fancy buildings. It's not about teachers who have more degrees or more letters after their names. It's not about the administrators.

It's about students. It's about teachers who care. It's about making learning fun.

That's why I decided to become a teacher.

Maybe I should move. To China.

posted by Tidy Bowl at 9:15 PM

4 Comments:

  • I wish you worked at the school I'm at 2 days a week. Too many teachers there behave as if they hate their jobs and take it out on the poor kids.

    By Blogger Phil, At January 14, 2006 5:33 AM  

  • Yep, that was an incredible news story last night. The public school system definitely needs some healthy competition in order to improve. No offense to all the "good" teachers out there, but that's one reason we're going to homeschool.

    By Blogger Travis or P.T., At January 14, 2006 6:31 AM  

  • Phil, one of my big problems with the school unions is that a lot of teachers feel "trapped" into joining. Because joining the union (in MO it's usually the NEA or the MO State Teachers' Association') guarantees them $1 million (or something like that) in liability coverage. It sounds like something a doctor needs, but teachers generally need it in case a parent someday decides to sue them for whatever reason.

    I am really investigating the possibilities of paying for my own coverage, because I don't ever want to feel obligated because of union membership to vote or campaign for something that may not be good for the kids. Last semester I was (grudgingly) a member of MSTA, but since I technically qualified as a student teacher, it only cost me $13.

    There are lots of good teachers out there. Unfortunately I think there are even more bad teachers out there. The schools have to remember that it's about the kids first, and everything else takes a backseat to the kids. And that's why I'm planning to homeschool.

    By Blogger Tidy Bowl, At January 14, 2006 12:47 PM  

  • By the way - sometimes I wanna say, why shouldn't they hate their jobs? Poor curriculums, poor administrations, poring more money into the kids with no results, and incredible pressure to get kids to perform on standardized tests - that is NOT why I became a teacher. And I suspect that's not why they became teachers, either.

    To be perfectly honest - last night on 20/20, Stossel interviewed some parents who said the teachers were giving the kids the answers on the tests. While I do NOT do NOT do NOT approve, I understand why they felt like they had to do that. The incredible pressure that we get to get kids to perform well on standardized testing is ridiculous. Personally I have a bone to pick with Missouri's standardized testing process. This is not how we get kids to learn.

    To quote one of my favorite mentors, my sixth-grade teacher - She retired because teaching is not about teaching anymore. There's so much pressure to get the kids to perform on the tests, that she had absolutely no flexibility with her lesson plans. And that takes all the fun out of teaching.

    By Blogger Tidy Bowl, At January 14, 2006 12:53 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]



<< Home