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I have to say I agree. I learned more when I was in school over what they teach now.




Where are you located Addy?

No, I have to strongly DISagree there. When teachers strike, it's not just greedy whining. Depending on what part of the country you live in, $36k/year is NOT enough to raise a family. I make... well, I make more than that (and I have three jobs)... and I have a family of three, and we're making ends meet, but some months it gets uncomfortably tight. Considering the average US family has 2-3 children instead of just one... And with education cuts getting more and more common, a lot of teachers are stuck with buying classroom supplies out of their own salaries because the school district budgets don't cover the stuff that the school district policies demand every class have. And the REASON they have to strike instead of negotiating is BECAUSE otherwise people do exactly what was done here: assume they're just whining.

Furthermore, good teachers are hard to find in the first place, and it's been well-established by countless studies that employees with job security do better work and work more efficiently. Fear of being fired makes the employee tense, prone to mistakes, and makes them spend time dotting i's and crossing t's just to make sure the boss doesn't have an excuse to give them a pink slip when they could be doing something productive. Worse, if the school district were get a reputation for being fire-happy, a lot of prospective teachers would just find another job rather than deal with the stress and low paychecks for a job they can't even be sure they're going to keep. Quality of education just goes down.

Oh, I forgot the other thing I was going to complain about: "no child left behind". The law is (basically) good (with a few issues, nothing's perfect), but too many school districts implement it COMPLETELY wrong. Not leaving kids behind is supposed to mean that students get help when they need it. Refusing to fail a kid means they're NOT getting that help; they're getting progressively pushed into harder and harder stuff that they're just not prepared to deal with. Refusing to give kids bad grades ONLY to avoid having to report failures to the government is CHEATING the law. If students are failing, that means that the SCHOOLS aren't doing a good enough job of teaching, of enforcing discipline, and of being sensitive to the individualized needs of students. Of course, school districts that are slashing budgets aren't going to be able to retain good teachers or handle individual students.

I have to respectfully disagree right back. Quality of education goes down when crappy teachers can't be fired because of the union. Poor conduct should be punished, not protected, including giving out easy As when students didn't earn them. I agree that job security makes for a happier worker.
As far as teachers digging into their own pockets, I remember that from high school, and while I'm grateful for it, it used to be that the students were responsible for bringing their own supplies. Students are expected to purchase and bring in their own books, notebooks, pencils, and art supplies. If the teacher is buying this for them, something's wrong.


@Addy: Not as much as poor Duchess.

Well, sure, the extreme on either end is bad -- being completely unable to discipline teachers is bad, but not having job security is bad too. Poor conduct SHOULD be punished, but it needs to be done through a system of demerits and disciplinary measures, not immediate termination. Termination should be reserved for long-term, repeat offenders, or people who do something particularly egregious (like getting convicted of a felony).

I've never seen a pre-secondary school where students have never been expected to purchase their own textbooks. The district is supposed to provide the curriculum materials and students are only supposed to have to purchase consumables like paper and art supplies. The problem comes when the district requires classes to provide a certain set of materials, doesn't assign enough of a budget to buy the stuff, and then penalizes the TEACHERS when the stuff isn't there for the students.

*snuggles on my island by myself* =[

i agree with coda wholeheartedly. I dont like the face tht the better the overall grades the school gets the more funding it receives, its the school with the low grades that needs more funding not the other way around

Upper Michigan! I'm the teal peg near all the lakes.

In Trinidad/ Tobago

added self. woot

Well I was not saying it was enough to raise a family on but it could be enough seeing as over half of America is raising family's on half that amount each year. Before the job losses and all more than half the country was making it on 40k for two working parents. So I know that if one teacher (one parent) makes 36k a year and the other parent makes 19k-30k a year they are doing a lot better than most are now a days. Heck my fiance is the one paying bills here and he is the only one working and does not complain as much as the teachers here do.

In my opinion it's one thing to complain when the country is in a good financial standing but it's another to complain when they country is having to sacrifice everywhere. In most states across America the teachers make less than 30k a year starting off an are lucky to make anywhere close to 40k a year after being there a while. I don't see why the teachers in South Carolina have to be so different and expect to be treated special when our kids are learning nothing from them.

Many of the teachers in the school districts drive 30-40 thousand dollar cars. For that kind of payment I'd be looking to buy a house somewhere away from my mother. So my point is they earn enough for what little they teach our kids. If they taught them things and it showed then I'd be all for paying them more but they don't.

An on a side note I think they need to bring back teh old school punishments for kids who misbehave in schools.

This is really interesting
*adds self*

Put myself on the map.

I just did this the other day on another avatar site XD

Oh wow, you are far away. Use to know someone up there but that was way back when. xD

I'm all alone in Longmont in my lonely apartment