Saturday, April 17

Teachers, Schools and Disappointment

I was just over at Poppy's Dream Fields and she was talking about how the school has to be open on a Saturday due to the fact that it was closed on a regular school day. The teachers actually have to teach so many hours of the year in most of Europe! There is a set amount of hours that the school's actually have to be in service so if there is bad weather and the school has to be closed, they actually have to make up for it with either longer hours or on a Saturday!

Wow I wish that were the case here! As it is there are more day's off during the school year now than I can remember from when I went to school. One day a month the school gets closed for "Professional Development", every two months the school is closed for teachers conferences, the last Wednesday of every month is early dismissal and the list goes on. It's sad really, the amount of time that could be spent on teaching the kids that is just flitted away with whatever excuse can be thought of! The less teaching the teachers have to do, the happier they are!

That's all bad enough in and of itself, but what I find to be much worse is the grading of the students. Or should I say, lack thereof!?! Now-a-days you can't even get failed up to and including grade 7 for failing to meet grade standards! You can't read, who cares, the teachers next year can deal with that problem. That's the attitude, or so it seems to me. Kids are graduating from school now barely literate and it really is a shame.

The Kid brought home her report card not that long ago and had received an 80% on one of her subjects, not bad I thought. Then the following week, she comes home with an updated report card with that grade bumped up to 85%. Not because the teacher had mis-graded her, but because one of the students parents was ticked off at his low grade. So in order to please that parent and keep the grade spread somewhat accurate all the students grades were bumped up by 5%. Have to keep that grading curve accurate you know! Really, what is wrong with marking students according to the work they actually do?

In Social Studies she failed on a test of the map of Canada. Well in order to not give her a failing grade, the teacher had her rewrite the test until she got it correct. If memory serves, she labeled that map (which is all the test was) 3 times before she got more that 75% of it correct, and that's when she was graded on it.

Speaking of marking grades, in Math class, The Kid got a mark of 90% on a particular part of the course. Wow I thought, she really has a good concept of percentages! So I asked her, what's 10% of 100? She looked at me with a really dumb expression and proceeded to ask me "How on earth am I supposed to know that?" That's when I found out that the schools idea of teaching percentages to grade 6 students is to give them a paper with circles and squares on it and they are to color in things like 50% of the circle, or 75% of the square or whatever it happens to be.

You know, punctuation, spelling, grammar and neatness used to count towards your marks as well. Now, not so much. It seems I have to take out a deciphering code in order to read that which The Kid writes. wordsarewritten like this with no capitalization or spacing. Paragraphs, what are those? Writing repetitively, who cares you're getting your point across, sort of! Long sentences that don't make sense, ah well, you're just a kid, you'll figure it out eventually!

If this is the attitude of the teaching profession, and this is the way the kids are graded and taught, what is the point of them going to school? It's become nothing more than a daycare!

Don't get me started on discipline, because when I went to school there actually was some in the classroom! It wasn't really needed due to the fact that us kids knew there were consequences for bad behavior. Now there is no real discipline but rather "if you be good, we'll give you a treat" reward system. Trust me, it doesn't work! The Kid is always coming home from school complaining about how disruptive some of the students are!

So what do you think? Time to pull her from the school system and start teaching her at home full time? I'm unofficially teaching her here anyway, may as well do it properly and permanently, don't you think? Not only would she actually learn something constructive, but she'd even have more time to help out around the yard and in the house, thereby learning how food is grown, preserved and eventually cooked. Not to mention how to properly care for a home. To me it's a win-win situation, constant learning!

15 comments:

  1. That's sad, Skye.

    We see a lot of kids here that can only communicate in "text speak" if that.

    Also, they took Physical Education out of the curriculum for years. Duh. The kids are obese. That's not the only reason but it sure didn't help.

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  2. hey you. sorry i've not been around. my website has been down, but i finally fixed it. and uh, the love of my life has been fucking someone else for the better half of our relationship.

    i may or may not have written a blog about it.

    p.s. you rock.

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  3. Home schooling can be a fabulous choice for some people. We have several friends who have home schooled their kids and loved it. It's a lot of work and it's not for everyone, though.

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  4. Reffie - no, that certainly wouldn't help! Granted, food choices in the cafeteria's and vending machines in the school aren't all that much better!

    Brit - Aww Hunny, I'm so sorry to hear that about your love! No wonder you hate other women so much, hell, I would too!

    I'll be down to check out your blog very shortly! And thanks for saying I rock :)

    Cat Lady - Thanks for the heads up on home schooling not being for everyone! I'm of the old adage, 'those who can, do, those who can't, teach', and absolutely hate teaching! So, this may or may not be a very good idea, but hey, with Silv's help, it may just work! It certainly can't hurt :)

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  5. Interesting insight on how the generation who's going to be administering my medications in the nursing home are being educated, that.

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  6. There's a lot of discussion about schools here (in Europe) as well. We, the teachers, are not appreciated an we also hear some of the things you say about your schools.

    And one goes with the other.

    I'm not making excuses, don't take it like that. But it somehow comes "from above" how we should grade and even teach. Discipline? Well, teachers used to be able to talk to parents. Nowadays? Less and less. What do you do? Call a cop? A social worker? When the only answer from some (minority, thanks god!) parents is that their child is well behaved and good in every meaning of the word. And so on and so on.

    I feel lucky to be teaching the one subject where the standards have sky-rocketed in comparison to what we were taught so many years ago. But still - what does it help when the kid can't read? Or when their language is not my language an I'm teaching thethird language when the kid is not so good in the first and the second?

    More changes are coming (nobody's thinking of throwing out PE, though)and the additional amount of work we have to do is usually (believe it or not): PAPERWORK. Now figure that out if you can.

    Good luck with the Kid and the education that lies ahead. I'm sure you'll make the right decision.

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  7. Tatty Tiara - scary thought, isn't it? Don't get me started on the medical system, I have known far too many people that ended up buried due to "medical mistakes" by doctors. :(

    Minka - I'm aware that the school boards and school trustee's (at least here) are the ones that govern what gets taught and what doesn't. The sad part is that the teachers aren't taught any better when learning to teach, and it's those of my generation who are now "dumbing down" the system. The generation before mine did the same and the new generation coming up will do it as well.

    We may be becoming more advanced as a species in some areas, but we're certainly going downhill in others!

    Thanks for the well wishes, I'll be needing them!

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  8. I don't really know what to say. I'm a teacher-in-making and all I hope to do is to educate kids and broaden their mind as much as possible. But how am I goimg to do that if the time I have is so limited and of course kids aren't interested in extra activities. You can't even do all the planned things.

    I think every teacher to be is an idealist. For the first few months. :P

    I have no clue how I would manage home schooling, though ...

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  9. Poppy, everyone is an idealist when they start Poppy, everyone is an idealist when they start out on the profession of choice. It's not such a bad thing really :) However, it's too bad that you can't get all the planned work done in the time allotted. I don't know how I'd survive if I were a teacher, I'm just not cut out for that. And yet here I am seriously contemplating home schooling. That puts me in a teacher category I should think :). It will be hard, should I decide on that route, but I also believe that it will be well worth it!

    Cheers Poppy, and good luck with your teaching. May your idealist views last long into your career and may you find that perfect balance that enables you to get done what needs to be done while imparting a lot of knowledge to all the children!out on the profession of choice. It's not such a bad thing really :) However, it's too bad that you can't get all the planned work done in the time allotted. I don't know how I'd survive if I were a teacher, I'm just not cut out for that. And yet here I am seriously contemplating home schooling. That puts me in a teacher category I should think :). It will be hard, should I decide on that route, but I also believe that it will be well worth it!

    Cheers Poppy, and good luck with your teaching. May your idealist views last long into your career and may you find that perfect balance that enables you to get done what needs to be done while imparting a lot of knowledge to all the children!

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  10. I can't imagine homeschooling, either. But I do understand its advantages: you're dealing with a smaller number of students (one in your case, right?), you KNOW what they are learning (so you don't have to worry about that), you can raise the standards if that particular student is able to follow that and you can monitor the progress ALL THE TIME. It's raising and educating your child at the same time: if you make them WANT to know more, you've done half the job. If you enable them to find what they need and to learn and then get some positive feedback, you're the winner! I think what we need nowadays is some general knowledge as the background where we can "stick" all the additional information we need every day. If we don't have that, it is oimpossible to connect the different things we learn all the time.

    GOOD LUCK, YOU BRAVE WOMAN!

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  11. Thanks Minka! Sorry it took so long to get back to you, life's just been far too busy!

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  12. If I had it to do all over again, I would have home schooled. It would have been hard work but like you said, we have to teach them when they get home anyway. I use to spend 2 hours each evening with my three boys and that, I felt still wasn't enough, but I couldn't push it any longer than that.

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  13. Heeeeeeeeeeeeey, I miiiiiiiiiiiiss the chuckles! And you, Skye!

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  14. Skyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I miiiiiiiiiiiiiisssss you and your injections of chuckles :(

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  15. I wonder how the schooling of your daghter has been going.... still so disappointed?

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I've decided to use comment moderation simply because that way, I never miss a new comment on my posts. I'm really quite forgetful and tend to not remember how many comments had been in each post the last time I looked, so please bare with me and my memory lapses :)