In Defense of Bad Teachers

[Lightning Rod]

In Defense of Bad Teachers

The Poet’s Eye loves to see the national chorus being raised by the Waiting for Superman movie and the unified media push on the subject of education reform. One thing that troubles me is that we seem to be, in the process of creating a sense of urgency, risking a witch-hunt that will distract from real solutions. The witch-hunt is based on the dubious assumption that our system isn’t working properly because the evil unions are sponsoring what are vaguely termed ‘bad teachers’ or ‘inferior teachers.’ They might as well say ‘heretics.’ When labels like that start to be flown, hysteria often ensues. (Read The Rest Here)

[Steve Plonk]

Sometimes one may learn from a teacher, who is without a winning personality, because the subject matter is made interesting. There is an old teaching adage which says: "Don't smile until Thanksgiving". I taught for several years...It is the 'luck of the draw' ,in a class, as to which students are there to learn and which are there just to pass the time and disrupt the class. The above adage always worked for me... I was not a popular teacher, but I had kids come up to me years later saying the subject matter was presented in an interesting manner and they said they learned a lot of material. One of my students, that I know of, went on to college and did quite well. Not everyone is lucky enough to know how their students turned out.

I was a health and special ed teacher. I usually taught middle school. I was also a substitute teacher... In special ed, you sometimes had to teach six subjects. Usually, I just taught them in a resource class which only had reading, language arts, and math or teamed up with other teachers to help students who needed remedial work.

I think that if everything is just based on comprehensive test scores, and popularity, that teachers will be tempted to teach the tests like they have
in some school systems. I can't think of a "drier" method to teach. Brains
need to be stimulated way beyond the tests. Teaching is about stimulating
lifetime learning. I hope that is what I taught my students to do: Ask questions,
look things up if you don't know, and keep that quest for knowledge alive.

Oh, and another thing: unions help teachers keep from being fired arbitrarily and help teachers with professional rapport, pay and benefits. I f the teachers unions are weakened, or destroyed, the profession will suffer as a whole.
Not every teacher can be "the bees knees" and win awards for congeniality.
The average teacher is coping the best they can under trying circumstances.

Teaching is not for everyone...That is why there is such a high "burn out" rate.

I wish that the school systems would keep politics out of the classroom and
permit teachers to teach with more autonomy. Also, many of our public schools
need more custodians, rest rooms, and many buildings need repairs. Back in the day, there used to be a "School tax" to help pay for educational expenses in cities and counties. Public school education needs to be fully funded.

Many richer folks have selfishly turned away from public schools and are paying "through the nose" to send their kids to private schools.
They selfishly resent paying the "school tax" and are not into spreading the bounty. We talk about free public education, but it increasingly is not free because of textbook rentals, and activity fees which poor folks have trouble paying. In addition, some school systems require uniforms-- which is an added expense. School lunches are subsidized, but the fees always need to be paid.