I didn't think teachers could strike

[Leah]

This.

Teaching is a profession, not unskilled labor like waiting tables or digging ditches.

You can tell who on the site has family who are in education (or who are in education) from those who have zero clue about it other than "I went to school & therefore know everything about it from an adult, professional standpoint".

Exactly. I was going to reply to that, but I thought for sure he didn't mean it the way I understood him to mean it. Apparently, I was wrong. Dang. I guess even though I have a Bachelors and Masters, I'm in an unskilled profession.

As several people who are in the trenches have said the problem is the don't give a sh*t kids who think it's cool to fail. And it's not always the parents fault some kids are just bad kids. You can spend hours every night helping with homework, get after school tutoring, sylvan learning center you name it but if the kid doesn't care he's NOT going to pass. Yes I speak from experience.
Do I blame the teachers no! I don't have blinders on, I know how hard they tried. Under the evaluation system the teachers would be blamed and possibly fired because my piece of shit kid is a little prick and thinks it's cool to fail. And it's not just his grade it was hurting. The disruptions in class bother other students and affects their grades and the teacher has to spend extra time on the fuckwad instead of a student that appreciates the help. I have the utmost respect for most teachers there are bad ones but they are far out numbered but the great ones.

This.

It all comes down to the way the parents raise their kids, numbnuts. If you raise your kids properly with a good set of values, they will turn out fine. Kids only fail when parents fail, there is no such thing as a hardwired "bad kid".

Not necessarily. I have seen GREAT parents at a loss on how to get their kid to give a shit. They have tried going to parenting classes, read books, worked with the school to do what they could and their kid just doesn't CARE. It's like an addict, you can't help them until they are ready to accept it. Now, on the flip side of that, I have seen kids excel even though they came from the shittiest home situation and parents that were never there.

People want so badly to assign blame as to why test scores are bad, or why kids fail when in all reality, it is very individualistic. Desire and persistence can be modeled, encouraged and even imposed, but in the end the kid has to make an effort.

*edit* I want to specifically respond to this: "Kids only fail when parents fail, there is no such thing as a hardwired "bad kid"."

Actually, yes there is. I have had a handful of students that I could tell you that no matter what intervention was performed, this kid was going to end up either in jail or dead. There is such a thing as a hardwired bad kid.

[Broncojohnny]

You seriously think being a teacher is a unskilled job????
WOW just wow YOU are seriously delusional.

Compared to a real job it is glorified babysitting. Not only that but teachers only work nine months a year. Being a teacher is hard because you have to put up with bullshit, not because incredible results are expected.

[Dlachance]

I'd like to second the athletics budget issue. My dad owns a paving company and we do lots of running tracks for schools plus parking lots etc. The amount of money wasted on stupid stuff is just jaw dropping. This last summer John Tyler(Tyler Texas...) HS completely repaved/rubbered their 7 lane running track. Then, later, they decided they wanted an 8th lane and spent...... one hundred thousand dollars on ONE LANE of running track. This doesn't include the new bleachers, lights, and concession stands they put in. We also worked on a school(can't for the life of me remember the name) that put in 3 new astro-turf fields for their football program plus a gigantic fancy school building. I mean, really? Is it really necessary to have 3 full sized astro turf fields just for football? Really?

At Keller during my freshman year, they completed building an, I believe, $7 million stadium. Before that we had turf, but they went ahead and spent $250k+ on a decked out field and we had a new track put in. The next year they spent about $1.5 M on rennovations. Last year, 32 teachers were cut from Keller High. They SUCK at planning, and there was nonsuch thing as a rainy day fund. Oh, and this year they completely rebuild the locker, workout and guest team facilities along with landscaping and a shit ton of concrete work. $50 to park at school for the year too. I could go on and on with the stupid shit.

[Dlachance]

As several people who are in the trenches have said the problem is the don't give a sh*t kids who think it's cool to fail. And it's not always the parents fault some kids are just bad kids. You can spend hours every night helping with homework, get after school tutoring, sylvan learning center you name it but if the kid doesn't care he's NOT going to pass. Yes I speak from experience.
Do I blame the teachers no! I don't have blinders on, I know how hard they tried. Under the evaluation system the teachers would be blamed and possibly fired because my piece of shit kid is a little prick and thinks it's cool to fail. And it's not just his grade it was hurting. The disruptions in class bother other students and affects their grades and the teacher has to spend extra time on the fuckwad instead of a student that appreciates the help. I have the utmost respect for most teachers there are bad ones but they are far out numbered but the great ones.

It all comes down to the way the parents raise their kids, numbnuts. If you raise your kids properly with a good set of values, they will turn out fine. Kids only fail when parents fail, there is no such thing as a hardwired "bad kid".

[4eyedwillie]

Both of my parents taught school for 20 years in special ed. I know how hard a teachers life can be and how much extra work it takes at nights and weekends that they aren't paid for.

[4eyedwillie]

As several people who are in the trenches have said the problem is the don't give a sh*t kids who think it's cool to fail. And it's not always the parents fault some kids are just bad kids. You can spend hours every night helping with homework, get after school tutoring, sylvan learning center you name it but if the kid doesn't care he's NOT going to pass. Yes I speak from experience.
Do I blame the teachers no! I don't have blinders on, I know how hard they tried. Under the evaluation system the teachers would be blamed and possibly fired because my piece of shit kid is a little prick and thinks it's cool to fail. And it's not just his grade it was hurting. The disruptions in class bother other students and affects their grades and the teacher has to spend extra time on the fuckwad instead of a student that appreciates the help. I have the utmost respect for most teachers there are bad ones but they are far out numbered but the great ones.

[Kimmypie]

You seriously think being a teacher is a unskilled job????
WOW just wow YOU are seriously delusional.

This.

Teaching is a profession, not unskilled labor like waiting tables or digging ditches.

You can tell who on the site has family who are in education (or who are in education) from those who have zero clue about it other than "I went to school & therefore know everything about it from an adult, professional standpoint".

[4eyedwillie]

Yes I can. In an unskilled enivronment all unions do is protect the lazy. A lot people can and will do the job, evidenced by the extremely low pay for teachers. These aren't pipe fitters we are talking about. So the only purpose the union serves is to protect the lazy or incompetent.

You seriously think being a teacher is a unskilled job????
WOW just wow YOU are seriously delusional.

[Broncojohnny]

You can't believe in good conscience that the teachers union is really protecting a large enough percentage of bad teachers to where if you replaced them all test scores would improve more than a few percent as a whole.

Yes I can. In an unskilled enivronment all unions do is protect the lazy. A lot people can and will do the job, evidenced by the extremely low pay for teachers. These aren't pipe fitters we are talking about. So the only purpose the union serves is to protect the lazy or incompetent.

[FreightTrain]

Well now what the fuck am I supposed to do?

I'm not sure, but according to this site what ever you do don't finance that bitch for 1.9% @ 72 months

[slow99]

Sorry, but the sky will not open up, you're not going to get a pay raise, and that corvette you want isn't going to drop in price by 20k.

Well now what the fuck am I supposed to do?

[FreightTrain]

If you would like to make the case that adding a teacher's union to the mix would make the situation better or have no affect, we'd love hear the logic, I could use a good laugh.

I'd love to hear the logic where getting rid of the union would make the situation better. I'm not talking about getting the kids back in class tomorrow either. I'm talking about making the education system better. You could disband the union tomorrow and nothing would change. A few teachers would lose their job to prove a point and things would settle down until the next election year. Mean while the test scores won't get any better. You can't believe in good conscience that the teachers union is really protecting a large enough percentage of bad teachers to where if you replaced them all test scores would improve more than a few percent as a whole. I'm betting they would stick with the current trend and go down and no that's not because I beleive the Union can part waters. In my entire public school education I can remember 3 teachers from Kindergarten to 12th grade that weren't worth a shit. I saw 2 of them replaced during the middle of a school year while I was a student in their class. I mean where not talking about the UAW at the Arlington plant here. Why isn't anyone talking about the root of the problem. The dumb ass lazy kids that don't want to learn, don't want to be in school, and their parents are no where in sight. Oh because that would be poltically incorrect.


Some people who bleed republican are just a bad as Obama nut swingers who believed he'd pay their bills. Get rid of all the unions tomorrow and your life isn't going to change. Sorry, but the sky will not open up, you're not going to get a pay raise, and that corvette you want isn't going to drop in price by 20k.

[Slykin]

Ah, gotcha. Well then yes, I agree with you there. That's the same as the TxDot blowing giant wads of money right before the end of the fiscal year(we also subcontracted for them) so that the feds wouldn't reduce their budget. They always blew it on really stupid useless projects too. That's why I laugh when people tout infrastructure spending.

[Broncojohnny]

This wasn't in South Texas, though I do know too much about the Robin Hood act.. Our little town used to have a really nice school until the Robin Hood act split up all our our money(Exxon plant in town) and now ALL of the schools suck. Ah well.

I wasn't saying the school was in south texas. They have to spend the money here, if they don't, it gets shipped out to "Mexico". That is why a school might have a multi-million dollar stadium and then has to sell candy bars to pay for band instruments. It is also a great illustration of the fact that you can't trust the government to get a fucking thing right.

[Slykin]

This wasn't in South Texas, though I do know too much about the Robin Hood act.. Our little town used to have a really nice school until the Robin Hood act split up all our our money(Exxon plant in town) and now ALL of the schools suck. Ah well.