Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page

Much Sorry with Delays
Birth, Death and All That Stuff in Between
How to Honor Labor Day, Every Day
My Yom Kippur Miracle (Repost from 2010)
Good intro to fly casting
Peach update, with pie
NYC update
Easy for you to say: To the elites on mass immigration
For NYC on 9/11, Sailors' Snug Harbor
Pickled Peaches
Water Shoes
Labor Costs in U.S.
Your "identity"
Good news about The Great Courses
Uses of Hot Pepper Jelly/Sauce, Chutneys, and Jams
A Saturday Drive to Litchfield County, CT
How to Pick a Kayak
Civilized: Fruit forks and knives
Loads of kayaking on Cape Cod
Psychology Experiments' Questionable Results

Categories


All categories

Quicksearch

Links

Blog Administration

Open login screen

RSS Readers

Add to Google

Subscribe with Bloglines

Friday, November 5. 2021

The Demoralization of the American Teacher


It is a sad story: The Demoralization of the American Teacher. He begins:



 Ten years ago, I showed up for my first day as a high school teacher. I had landed a job in the best school of what is often called a “destination district.” Still, I knew I was facing an uphill battle. Warnings abounded of an American public school system in decline. But I was undeterred. I had that youthful sense that education needed change and I was just the one to change it...


Posted by The Barrister in Education at 13:36 | Comments (12) | Trackbacks (0)

Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

Educational outcome depends more on the quality of the students than the teachers. Stupid kids are just not going to learn, no matter what.
#1 Stargazer on 2021-11-05 15:09 (Reply)
The idea that nurture is more important than nature leads to the absurd idea that one could teach calculus to a horse if one worked hard enough.

So of course leftists believe it.
#1.1 Fred Z on 2021-11-05 15:12 (Reply)
It's not simply "quality students" it is quality parents. A tiger mom can turn an average student into a genius (at least as genius is determined within our system). While a welfare mom can turn a average student into an illiterate (or more accurately allow and encourage the student to remain illiterate). The teacher for the most part merely presents the material and grades the student on what they learned, there is very little real "teaching" going on.
#1.2 OneGuy on 2021-11-05 16:17 (Reply)
Nope. Tiger moms can't do that. It's a myth. If you work much with the adoption community (I have three myself) you learn very quickly about the limits of environment.
#1.2.1 Assistant Village Idiot on 2021-11-05 19:23 (Reply)
You are blind. Or unhappy with opinions that don't fit your bias. Grow up! Everything isn't about you.
#1.2.1.1 OneGuy on 2021-11-05 23:44 (Reply)
This comment enjoins AVI to "grow up" for daring to present his own opinion, since "not everything is about [him]." Is this approach not the very model of postmodern infantility? That is, is the growing up to be done elsewhere? Just wonderin'...
#1.2.1.1.1 ergonom3 on 2021-11-06 07:05 (Reply)
You may not be aware but AVI didn't like me commenting on mental health issues because that is HIS sandbox so now he comments on anything I post simply to contradict me. Just saying, since you were just wondering...
#1.2.1.1.1.1 OneGuy on 2021-11-06 10:35 (Reply)
Don't discount the guilt of the left in this. I went to school in my hometown and still live here. When I was in our public school system, if you were a troublemaker, you reformed your ways or you were booted from the system. Today, if you punch the principal or flip off a teacher, you will be back in the class within a week with no long-term ramifications. Is there any wonder why good teachers are burning out when having to put up with kids who are toxic to the entire classroom?

Just say that you're going to go back to the rules we used in the 80s and watch how fast you are accused of being racist and elitist. Never mind that it worked a lot better than this.

It is true that a big proportion of our public school population just isn't intelligent enough (or motivated enough) to be successful in college. So either shift some of those resources to vocational education or get used to frustrated students acting like prisoners trying to break out.
#2 Dangerous Dean on 2021-11-05 23:36 (Reply)
It was true 55 years ago and still true today. Family background/neighborhood is the strongest indicator of student educational success. But there's no money in that, there cash for school infrastructure and salaries to be made. So that's where the "education" professionals spend their energy. In '68 it was integration so as to put black children next to white kids so the black children would have a good role model. Today, they want socioeconomic integration where poor students are sat next to middle class students. But it has to be 25% poor to 75% middle class. But with the degradation of discipline, 1% of that 25% can bring down the whole school.


QUOTE:
Altogether, expenditures and facilities have much smaller associations with secondary and postsecondary outcomes than many scholars and policy advocates assume. The overall conclusion of the Coleman Report—that family background is far and away the most important determinant of educational achievement and attainment—is as convincing today as it was fifty years ago.
50th anniversary symposium on the Coleman report. https://conversableeconomist.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-coleman-report-n-equal-educational.html

The Equality of Educational Opportunity report was published in June 1966. (Coleman Report) In the wake of the Civil Rights Act.
#3 JK Brown on 2021-11-06 11:39 (Reply)
QUOTE:
I’m not going to let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decision. I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach. — Terry McAuliffe


QUOTE:
Parents are often upset and try to shift the blame to the teacher or coerce further grace . . .

Teachers must have the authority to select lessons, teach, give failing grades, punish those who cheat, and determine that behavior is unacceptable without themselves being subject to a courtroom inquisition. — Shane Trotter

 
#4 Zachriel on 2021-11-06 13:16 (Reply)
Everyone should be responsible for what they do. AND our government should never cover up what they and their minions do.
#4.1 OneGuy on 2021-11-06 15:11 (Reply)
OneGuy: Everyone should be responsible for what they do. AND our government should never cover up what they and their minions do.

Agreed.
#4.1.1 Zachriel on 2021-11-07 07:32 (Reply)

Add Comment
(Your e-mail will not show in your comment)

By commenting on this site you agree to the site rules listed here. Email
addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for email notifications.

Quick reference guide: [i] italics [/i], [b] bold [/b], [u] underline [/u],
[url] (web address) [/url]. More tips here.

Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (*word*), underscore are made via _word_.
E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications.

To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly.
CAPTCHA

BBCode format allowed
 
 
A Chris Southern Consulting website.