Vent: Complete and total lack of respect towards teachers on here

[PotterWatch]

Quote:
I am not trying to be argumentative, but isn't that rather judgemental? Afterall, you have no clue how said people do their homeschooling. They might use programs that don't require the parents to have exemplary spelling or grammer skills. I'm not saying there aren't people who shouldn't homeschool, I'm just saying this may not be the best forum on which to base that opinion. I wouldn't assume from something I read on this forum that a person isn't qualified to be a teacher as there is so much more to a person than what can be gleaned from reading responses on BYC.

 

[Davaroo]

Quote:
Many people who think for themselves resent the institutionalised nature of the teaching profession. There are those within the field who give the impression, if not believe, that educators know more than other people. This is simply because they have set themselves up with a nice little system that perpetuates that. Usually, the people who put down the teaching profession see through that.

I recall a commencement exercise for my son last year. There were speakers, inevitably from the education field itself. There weren't any self made millionaires in the group, which I though was odd.
After all, it was time for these kids to go out in the world and make something of themselves - and there was no one to inspire them to do that
Instead there were a bunch of speakers, whose message was to stay tied to the educators themseves for life. If you don't, you will drift away into some abyss where they cannot reach you. I found it all rather pompous and arrogant.

But most people know that the average teacher on the street is a motivated person who wants to make a difference. I know I do, I've been a teacher myself.
I don't believe it is individual teachers that they might rail against, as much as the elitist, self-perpetuating education systemthat we have.
Again, and speaking for myself, that's what gets my goat.

 

[AngieChick]

I haven't read the entire thread, but I too have been concerned about some of the negativity and stereotyping that has been directed at teachers. I was an art teacher for a number of years, and have many many friends who are in the school systems. What a lovely, wonderful, brilliant group of people. I stepped down due to burn out (in part due to lack of administrative support rampant in the school with the transfer of a new principle) and the needs of my own sons at this point in their lives.

When we decided to homeschool this year, it was a massive and heartwrenching decision. My son has Aspergers and was overwhelmed by the social and organizational demands of middle school. I made it very clear to his teachers that it was not them, or the program that precipitated this decision. They tried to make adaptations and genuinely care about him. We found that at this point and time, institutional learning takes too much of an emotional toll on our son. Now, my older son has decided to homeschool as well, for very different reasons. He is going into 10th grade and is a very creative and intellectually gifted child. His next year will consist of taking PreCalculus and French II at the high school and a very interesting history class at the Community College level. We have found that the Honors English class is not at his level and he will be studying that at home. We will be reading a series of novels and he will also be spending some serious time writing. Fortunately, in our area we have a very rich community of kind writers and literature professors available to help us. Again, institutional learning is not fulfilling all of his needs.

I am telling my reasons for homeschooling to try to illustrate that the community is made up of many people with very diverse experiences. In the same vein that you, rightly, ask that all teachers not be negatively lumped together, I ask that you do the same for those of us who have chosen a different path.

I have nothing but respect for you Writer, and have always loved your posts.

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

Writer,
I homeschool my children. But I am in no way against teachers, whether they are public school, private school, etc.
Sadly, my reasoning for homeschooling my children has much more to do with avoiding the influence of other children (those kids of drunks, drug users, abusers, neglectors, and so on) than with the teachers.
I applaud you for your work in your community and I bet you are making a difference everyday in the life of your "kids".
I'm sorry you feel attacked and put down.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Quote:
What you just described, those kids, are usually the ones who cause the problems, who's parents are complaining about the teachers, and I can tell you, those parents are the worst!

When I tried, as one parent to another, to talk to a parents who's daughter was bullying my daughter, the dad told me not to bother him about his child, that if I had any problems with his child, to take it to the school board.

After re-reading WoW's posts, I do believe thoseare the kind of parent she is referring to, not those of us who truly care.

 

[Mrs. Glassman]

Wow.
I would never make a blanket statement bashing teachers. I would, however, bash a specific teacher for a specific deed.

Like when my step-son forgot to ask us for another ream of paper to take to school...we keep the supplies put away. If we give it to him all at once, he tends to use it all up making airplanes. Anyway, he forgets. He askes his teacher for paper to use during class. OK, he is unprepared, I accept that. Take away his break time, make him stand outside the class for 15 minutes, give him extra homework.
NO this (insert any bad word here) teacher, grabs trash out of the garbage can and announces that if he is "too poor to afford paper, he can have some from the garbage".

My DH was livid. He told that teacher (it was a man) that if he made another statement like that, he'd come and see him, and that when he was done, they'd both leave in a county owned vehicle, they'd just end up in different places.

I don't think my DH would have been so mad any other time...his work hours had just been cut from 40+ a week down to 24. Money was an issue. But we had to cut out the fun stuff...not school supplies.

On the other hand, to this day my favorite person in the whole world has always been my high school english teacher. Mrs. Moore. She was a wonderful lady, very intelligent, very insightful, and has a great personality and sense of style. I loved to write stories for her. I would always get them back with notes about how great the story was, but that I should get a dictionary. Spelling has always cost me several points...not that I ever cared.

I'm sorry you feel bashed. Maybe people should be careful to point their frustrations at a specific person, and not an entire group. As we all know, there are people who have no business teaching children, and there are people who are wonderful at it.

By the way, I used to work at an automobile factory. "Bubba the drunk" was replaced by a robot years ago.

 

[Msbear]

Quote:
Im sorry you are frustrated.

There are many wonderful teachers that I can remember in school and, unfortunately, there are equally as many cruddy ones that had no business being there. I wish they could all be as dedicated as you seem to be.

However, I am an involved parent who doesn't smoke or suck down boos and will never send my child to school hungry or unprepared. I feel that because so many parents as well as teachers are slacking in the public education system, this may not be the best place possible for my children. Im sorry if this hurts anyone's feelings but Im glad we live in a place where we are free to choose.

Every parent needs to be apart of their kids' lives. This trend of children raising themselves has frustrated good teachers to the point of leaving their profession. They simply do not get paid enough for what they are forced to deal with on a daily basis.

 

[PotterWatch]

WOW, I want to make sure that I come across as I intend to. I completely understand your frustration at the lack of general respect give to the teaching profession by parents and students alike. Perhaps I just haven't read some of your posts on this thread as you intended them to be heard. As AngieChick said:

In the same vein that you, rightly, ask that all teachers not be negatively lumped together, I ask that you do the same for those of us who have chosen a different path.​

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

Quote:
I am not trying to be argumentative, but isn't that rather judgemental? Afterall, you have no clue how said people do their homeschooling. They might use programs that don't require the parents to have exemplary spelling or grammer skills. I'm not saying there aren't people who shouldn't homeschool, I'm just saying this may not be the best forum on which to base that opinion. I wouldn't assume from something I read on this forum that a person isn't qualified to be a teacher as there is so much more to a person than what can be gleaned from reading responses on BYC.

I have to agree with this wholeheartedly.

I dropped out of school in ninth grade. I don't have my GED let alone any college education.
I still homeschool my kids! My husband has a college degree and we use a boxed cirriculum for our kids.
As soon as I dropped out my husband started schooling me at home. When I dropped out I couldn't spell anything, I had a 3rd grade math level and an even lower history level. I was one of those kids who had fallen through the cracks of learning and had just been pushed along from grade to grade anyway. The only thing I could do well was read because my mother and father were book worms and had me in a library from infancy. In 4th grade I was reading at college level.
I had a severely dysfunctional home life, my parents divorced when I was 8, there was abuse at home, etc.
I was DXed as being A.D.D. at 10 years old and put on Ritalin. I believe the demise of my education started because I was too bored with classes and just gave up and then it spiraled out of control until I was truly behind and never had a fighting chance to catch up.
Once I was in control of what I wanted to learn in a home setting, I soared.
I still don't feel like I am "educated" enough to homeschool my kids to completion (12th grade), but by using a boxed cirriculum from a accredited company and help from our family (we all have our specialties and pitch in as all of the kids in the family are homeschooled, not just ours) I think we do okay. If my husband didn't have a degree and wasn't a math whiz I think I would really doubt us as a homeschooling parenting team.
Thank god for him, but I'm no dummy either.

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

Oh and I had a great favorite teacher, Mrs Robinson. She was my Second grade teacher and she was the warmest, kindest woman I had ever met at a point in my life where home was a scary place to be and I had no stability and she was someone who cared. And you know what?
I ran into her in a store about a year ago, some 16 years later and she remembered me!
I walked away with tears in my eyes. She said she never forgot a single student and recalled me by full name and I believe her. She was some teacher.