by snowbird 113 Replies latest jw experiences
Discipline, respect, and appreciation - almost bordering on reverence - for our teachers.
The thing is, Americans don't have this respect for teachers any more.
I worked in the school system for several years, fixing computers, networks, etc. I got to see a lot of things.
I can't tell you the number of times a parent would go against a teacher, when the child was at fault. There was no respect for the teacher's authority in her classroom. It starts at home.
BTS
Americans don't have this respect for teachers any more.
A side note to that... a general lack of respect by all of us towards teachers is shown in what we don't pay them. And as their pay becomes less, great teachers become harder to recruit.
I know two teachers who work part time as bartenders and they make more bartending than they do working full time as teachers. Another friend who is a full time bar manager used to be a teacher but quit because he was pulling down more bartending...he changed his career from teaching to managing bars.
There's something wrong there... Children are the future. We should invest in their education. Hard to do when those capable of educating them leave to work in a bar.
OH!!! I had a VERY interesting conversation with the Assistant Principal at our school a few months ago. He's the guy in charge of discipline. I would HATE to have his job. Not because of the kids but because of the PARENTS.
My son had taken his cell phone to school. The year before they were allowed to have them at school, but they changed the rule the following year. The kid took his phone so he could call me when football practice was over. A friend of his knew he had his phone at school and texted him during class. They got caught. Phones were taken away.
The next day, I called the Asst Principal. We talked for about 20 minutes and, boy, did I get an earful!!! I'm with Verizon and mainly wanted to be sure the phone was locked up and secured and NOT being used. That poor man told me he had actual THEFT charges filed with the Sheriff's department over cell phones he had taken away. He keeps them for 5 days if he catches one at school. He'd had parent threaten to beat him up--over a phone!!!!
He also told me it's your more affluent parents who spoil their kids rotten and make them suffer no consequences. It's like those parents think the rules do NOT apply to their children.
That man is underpaid! I wouldn't take his job no matter what they offered to pay me. After that conversation I had newfound respect for him.
In 2010 I wouldn't want to be a teacher. Between undisciplined kids and teenagers, and the parents that defend them like BTS mentioned, and being underpaid like UnderCover mentioned, ......screw that. There was a English teacher who I was fond of. After I graduated, I ran into a cat I knew. He was a Junior when I was a Senior. I asked about this teacher I liked. He told me she had a nervous breakdown in the middle of class. She just stopped what she was doing, and sat at her desk, and started bawling. He told me the class was full of knuckleheads, some of whom I knew. Hard headed dudes all on their way to prison or the grave at a young age. Then he told me about another teacher who I respected but didn't really like per say. She was a history teacher. She broke down too. She just didn't show up one day, and never went back. As far as the racial aspect to it, both of those teachers were late middle aged white women. The classrooms were predominantly black. Those little women were incapable of earning the respect of those dudes back then. Reflecting on it, when I went to that school, the only teachers that we really respected were the males, such as the Gym teacher, and trade teachers such as Technical Drawing, or Autobody. They were mostly white too, but something about them resignated with us. My one Gym teacher had a military background, and he was tough. We all loved him for that. He'd call us faggots when we expressed disatisfaction with his decisions. Or sissies when we didn't complete our pushups and laps. I miss that guy.
good thread snowbird. there are so many here I agree with.
But snowbird I have to ask you why you disagree with affirmative action. One of the best things about a policy of affirmative action is that an establishement is saying 'you are welcome here' to minorities and that 'we regret that we excluded you in the past'.
(Mind you from the perspective of an xjw - as we excluded ourselves from everything and lack opprtunites because of that - I guess a subject like this (the general topic that is) is going to hit a lot of raw spots. But I still think its worth discussing).
I have called bullshit on a couple of teachers. Sometimes I think that just because we are on the poor side they think the worst of my children. Funny how when you let a teacher know you are paying attention.....................
It also works for the slip side too. If a teacher knows you care about your child they give them extra attention.
Americans don't have this respect for teachers any more.
I totally agree. I can't tell you how many times my children's teachers were surprised to hear about our pro-teacher stance.
This is what we've told our children from the start: Your teachers work for us, we pay them to teach and supervise you, they represent us when we are not with you. If you disrespect the teacher, you are disrespecting us and it will not be tolerated. If you act out of line and the teacher has to call us do not assume that we will automaticlly take your side. And if the teacher has to call us, you're in big trouble. We expect you to behave in school.
We realize there are bad teachers out there but so far we've been lucky and our attitude has worked great with our children's teachers and our kids.
Dinah and Josie.
QuietlyLeaving, please see: http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/social/current/197743/1/Why-I-Disagree-With-Affirmative-Action
Syl
But snowbird I have to ask you why you disagree with affirmative action.
I can tell you why I disagree with it (not answering for Sylvia), it's because I don't like the assumption that I got the job based on my race or sex instead of my skill and experience. People have assumed that I couldn't read, or write, that I couldn't make a pattern or grade manually or by computer (I'm getting kinda techincal but fashion production is where my skill set and work experience is). And it was funny and slightly disturbing when people would find out that I really could do the job and then voice their surprise.
I don't raise my children with the expectation of being able to benefit from affirmative action.
On a side note: I didn't name any of my children with african or pseudo africanized names. I'm not a fan of them but a nasty twist to those kinda of names is there seems to be a backlash against those names when folks try to apply for jobs:
Two recent papers from the Cambridge-based National Bureau of Economic Research draw somewhat different conclusions about whether a black name is a burden. One, an analysis of the 16 million births in California between 1960 and 2000, claims it has no significant effect on how someone's life turns out.
The other, however, suggests a black-sounding name remains an impediment to getting a job. After responding to 1,300 classified ads with dummy resumes, the authors found black-sounding names were 50 percent less likely to get a callback than white-sounding names with comparable resumes.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/29/national/main575685.shtml
Noted, Josie.
I named my two daughters Tara and Claire.
My oldest daughter took heed and named her six children Leah, Chelsea, Jared, Kendrick, Cheyenne, and Taylor, respectively from oldest to youngest.
Our reasoning: Why needlessly handicap our children?
Syl
