Sunday, November 15, 2009

Some parents thought that is what you wanted

What tired Oregon teachers say (when parents aren't listening)
Oregon teachers would like parents to set down their cell phones for five minutes and pay attention to their kids.

They'd also love more parents to act like parents, or at least allies, if teachers are going to make it through the school year.

"Most teachers accept the fact that yes, we are raising these children, and other people are raising ours," says Laura Shingleton, a middle school teacher in Salem. These kids need order and support, she says, more than their preoccupied parents and overwhelmed educators may realize.

Step 1: government tells parents that the school will feed their children breakfast and lunch, the school will provide clothes for their kids, the school will provide health care for their kids, the school "will assist in feeding and changing diapers" for their kids, (current job opening for that position, see link) and the school will provide classroom supplies for their kids.

Step 2: Lazy parents truly come to believe that the school will raise their kids.

Step 3: Good teachers who actually believe that their role is reading, writing and arithmatic get upset because parents don't want to do their job.

Step 4: We can hopefully rein in government. Take away the crutch that bad parents are using to avoid their responsibilities.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Reign? I think you mean rein.

Daniel said...

Or maybe I meant rain...

DAVE01 said...

Shit Daniel, you mean I have to put down my beer and the remote for the TV and help my girlfriend's daughter do her math homework. We did it last night. After that, I needed two more drinks to get rid of my headache. She is in sixth grade and had to work with fractions and mixed numbers. Mommy has problems with math and cannot help her. I can do that stuff in my sleep. In one part, I had her doing long division by hand. She was starting to have a tantrum and said her teacher told here that they would not do long division in the math class. The kid also told me that they were supposed to do it the easiest way possible, with a calculator. Fuck that. They can't do the basics. How in the hell can she advance if she doesn't understand the basics.

I am going to bet to the bottom of this and find out if the kid is lying or the teacher is an idiot. I will report back on my findings.

Anonymous said...

IF the teachers want to actually teach maybe they should give private schools a try. At my daughters school all the parents ( at least all of the ones I have talked to ) are all invloved , very involved in there kids education process.
I have been told by a couple of teachers thats the reason for them being there, They can teach instead of raise other peoples kids. It's also a lot better for the kids .
I hope and pray that I never have to send my kid to private school for that reason .