Lazs, you've taken the right step in adopting an active role in the education of your granddaughter. Private schools offer a viable, yet much maligned alternative to the overburdened public school system.
I taught for 27 years in public schools. One of the biggest problems that we faced as educators was parental apathy. Many just don't give a damn. Try teaching the children of a parent who has such an attitude and you'll soon get an inkling of the sort of frustration that a dedicated teacher faces.
A surprisingly large number of teachers do NOT belong to the NEA or any other teachers' union. The NEA does NOT speak for me, especially on the political front. The NEA often throws up barriers against the adoption of meaningful and badly needed changes in the education system.
For much of my career I was fortunate enough to teach at a small rural district which was well funded by local taxes, voted in by a citizenry that believed steadfastly in the worth of their little school. It was killed off and forced into consolidation by the state's governor, Mike Huckabee, who believed that the state's educational system was top heavy with administration. Bigger is better, don't ya'll know?!
Dred, many of the problems of the American educational system lie in the gigantic size of its schools and districts. How much individual attention and discipline training can a teacher give a student in a school that is the size of a small town? In such a system, children with problems fall through the cracks.
Certainly, our schools share part of the blame for the decline in academic achievement. They have their share of deadbeat employees and superfluous and lightweight academic programs. Yet, Swoop was dead on when he said that the list of contributary factors was very long.
My friends, I earned my money; driving buses, breaking up fights, counseling troubled students, attending idiotic and redundant workshops, dealing with smart-ass parents and their punk kids, grading mountainous stacks of homework and tests, preparing my classes for state-sponsored written exams (Thank you SO much, governor Huckabee for the Benchmark), trying to catch students rumored to be fornicating on the school grounds, sponsoring clubs, running the clock at basketball games after hours during the school week and for end of season tournaments.
I've retired from public school teaching. Now I work trying to educate juvenile delinquents, where the problems are compounded. With my retirement check and my bi-weekly salary I'm finally earning enough to catch up on paying off debts that have been hanging over my head for years.
Yet, I'd rather take a beating from three irate Irishmen that listen to people who have never walked my path whining about teacher salaries.
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. Give up your high-paying jobs and spend a few years teaching if you want to find out what it's really all about.
Regards, Shuckins
