Maggie's Farm

I can't agree that the problem is as simple as women teachers. I started 1st grade in 1949. My woman teacher was about 68-74 years old. She was tough as nails and the 36 kids in the classroom did not act up. Yes she was tougher on the boys but the boys were the ones testing the teacher. Same story in the next 5 years of elementary school. The teachers were all quite old, all graduates of a state teachers college and all of them had total control of the classroom even though our classes back then averaged 3 dozen children. The difference today is not the gender of the teacher but the belief system taught to the teachers. This is reinforced by the medical community solutions to hyperactive boys and the legal communities approach to injuries and dangerous activities like sports and dodge ball. The next big problem for children will be this belief that almost anything that makes a child unhappy is bullying. The new emphasis on bullying will be used by adults to punish children and often children totally innocent of any wrong doing. Another part of this problem is that today in a school with 12 classrooms and 150 students you have 18 teachers, three dozen teachers aids, two principals, half a dozen librarians, one nurse and 10 office staff and anyone of these adults can "brand" a child as bad, bullying, hyperactive or ADHD etc. While I believe that for the most part teachers and others working in K-12 are doing a good job I think that there are multiple new ideas and thinking about education and children that defy logic and common sense and these new ideas permeate the education system.