Comments on: Why Public School Teachers Burn Out

By: elizabeth white

elizabeth white — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 01:25:27 +0000

Thank heaven there are prestigious private schools and home schooling where the teachers are not all lower middle classs culturally. Let the NEA and socialists take over the public schools. Everyones’s bad grammar , double negatives, and bad etiquette can be reinforced .

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 01:55:26 +0000

I am a teacher in an urban school with many poor and unmotivated students. This entire comment stream just makes me laugh. The REAL problem isn’t education. It is humanity. When will two people completely agree on every life detail? Never!

By: trd

trd — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 23:59:17 +0000

There are many angles you can hit this subject. Some teachers should not be teaching at all. And some parents should not have children at all. The good teachers and students sometimes get hosed. gucci mane dead

By: Bob

Bob — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:18:06 +0000

I was a public school teacher for several years, and, while teaching at the U. Illinois, taught the first year education course in the sequence leading to certification for undergraduates. It was enlightening to say the least. In the end, I got so sick of the notion of being “eligible” for tenure in college, I left teaching in 1985 and never looked back. Prior to teaching at the university level, while in the “public schools”, (to which I now refer to as “government schools”), I got so sick of never having an administrator who had any other qualification other than having burned out as a coach! Hyperbole, yes. But it makes the point. I wearied of the bureaucracy. Any one who fails to grasp this element will never understand how grating the whole teaching experience is.

By: Delia

Delia — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:51:55 +0000

I was ‘public’ schooled and I had some absolutely wonderful, precious teachers and some horrible, cruel, jerks for teachers. People are people after all and teachers are people too. My paternal grandmother was a public school teacher when she was young even though I only knew her as ‘grandma’ by the time I was born, she *did* teach me a lot and not just ‘book sense’ either.

During my ‘formative’ years, my mother moved us around constantly and I learned firsthand what it was like to experience the ‘differences’ from school to school. In some schools I was well ahead of the school’s curriculum and I’d be bored beyond belief and then we’d move again and I’d be behind. It was nightmarish [not to mention, always having to be the 'new girl' in class--ugh].

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere here before, my daughter aced her GED test and now she’s going to move back home with Ma and Pa and take some college courses and get a part-time job again. She’s been doing a lot of soul searching and I’ve been praying like crazy for her. I’m so proud of her and I’m glad I home schooled her even though it certainly was not always easy.

Even if parents can’t home school, they should [at the very least] try to be an active part of their children’s education rather than slacking off and leaving everything up to whatever school they enroll their child in.

That’s my rant. I’m done now [I think].

By: XTeacher

XTeacher — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:39:49 +0000

Interesting that Teacher In Texas got all that flack simply for stating that an extra $10k/year- not an insubstantial amount by teacher salary standards- was reason enough to stick around even it meant that he did not have as much autonomy in the classroom as he would have liked.

There are a lot of people working outside of the education field who similarly decide that the extra money in a given job is worth it even if there are aspects of the job they do not like. That is real life, folks: compromises.

Suzy: since you are so concerned about having dedicated teachers, I would suggest that you join the teaching profession. Undoubtedly your entering the teaching profession will improve the quality of the teaching profession, which is what we all need.

By: KCL

KCL — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:03:51 +0000

I taught at a public school where most teachers expressed their efforts as “rearranging deck chairs on the Titantic.” I really disliked the entire environment. Most kids were on free lunches and free breakfasts. School was the only place many of them had a hot meal. Parents expected the school to cough up money for school uniforms. The teachers would collect money to buy extra uniforms for some children who wore the same unwashed uniform every day. I joined the union so that I would at least have legal counsel if a student took a swing at me. Between classes, we were expected to stand guard in the hallways. The janitors would make sure they were in the hallways between classes to watch out for the teachers.

I don’t think school administrators are really trained to be good managers or administrators. Many of them are bad teachers who went back to school. When I went to speak to the principal about a difficult student, she told me that, “if they are not in your classroom, they’re out harassing the community.” She wanted to keep expulsions and suspensions down so that the school could get reaccredited. Degrees in education at the undergrad and graduate levels are jokes. Academic standards are weak. How could this happen in my country? My America?

You want better schools?

1. Expel students who are chronically disruptive and violent. Have a strict and enforceable conduct policy. Kids want and need structure. They feel safer and will perform better if they know they are protected.
2. Offer school vouchers to students at failing schools.
3. Demand high academic standards from colleges and universities that offer education degrees.
4. Pay teaching professionals a professional wage. Grant tax incentives/cuts to educators.
5. Send students to schools in their neighborhoods. Stopping busing them across town.
6. Require mandatory parental involvement. Parents/guardians must meet every teacher that teaches their child. They must come to parent/teacher conferences. Failure do so should result in legal action or fines.
7. Require school uniforms and implement year-round school calendars. Shorten schools days. Like most of us, kids don’t get enough sleep or exercise.
8. Stop bad-mouthing teachers with phrases like, “those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.” Teachers play a huge part in the development of our children emotionally and academically. Give them some credit.
9. Understand that the failing public school system is only a symptom of a larger disease within our society. We all should give more of our time to mentoring young children. Most of these kids don’t have enough people in their lives that truly care about them.

By: Delia

Delia — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:17:21 +0000

Man OHHHHHHHHH man!

I’m so glad I home schooled my one and only. *phew*

By: Teacher in Texas

Teacher in Texas — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:03:52 +0000

OH BTW Suzy, you laid out so much ad hominum idiocy that I had to refute, I missed one of the biggest insults that you levied. “walk down the hall in sweats and sneakers.” I will have you know that I am one of the last of the dying breed of male teachers who still wears a NECKTIE almost every day.

I have done so since my student teaching 13 years ago. I believe I have a responsibility to serve as a role model to my male students in terms of dress and deportment. When I taught in my first distict, where a lot of the kids don’t have fathers, have part-time fathers, or unfortunately abusive fathers, I think that made a difference that they had a male figure in their classroom who wore a tie and dressed professionally every day.

My little Hispanic girls loved me. I often heard from parents who said that their daughter gushed, “Momma, I got a man teacher and he’s NOT A COACH. He wears a tie.”

By: Oscar the Grump

Oscar the Grump — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 06:58:38 +0000

I’d like to add some memorable moments in the classroom. I had one student pass out from drugs/alcohol, then vomit when he was awaken. I had two attempted suicides. One slit her wrist in my class. Another attempted to jump out of my third story window when her lesbian lover rejected her. I had one student confess that he had killed somebody. Another with a gun in the classroom, another with a large knife. My classroom was broken into and completely trashed by a gang affilated kid who I must have offended. One student stabbed me with a pencil. I was punched a number of times, each time unexpectedly. I had personal items stolen from me. My car’s paint job was carved into with gang signs. All things aside the whole experience was worth it because the kids I reached. Being told how good a teacher I was by them personally. Making a difference. Being there when they needed me. And, finally being begged not to retire by students and staff.

I knew I was good!

By the way, the pay and the benefits sucked.