Why do we need to care about educating poor or middle class Texans? Plenty of educated Californians to come in and take those good paying jobs. Its a better fiscal decision for the state. We need to keep a lot of people uneducated so they will take those jobs as housekeepers and nannies for the west coast and NE elites who are moving in every day.
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I’ll take a stab, been teaching higher education for 4 years, been in higher education for 10 years, and was working on my alternative cert, spring break 2020, before… well you know.
I walked away from medicine as it was clear the administrators were circling the doctors more and more, divorce rate through the roof, and #1 profession for suicide… something just felt wrong.
So, I dedicated the rest of my life to teaching and chasing my dreams. It was very important to free up my hands as a guitar player, so I chose to become a professor.
In 2020, I would end up teaching 480 students from a laptop computer, that is a lab unit and lecture unit for every last student. Not only did we have to convert all of our exams letter by letter on a keyboard to online format, but had to grade them on a keyboard as well. I would go on to teach 580 days in a row from a laptop…
Since our return to face-to-face, our enrollment has been WAY down, and we struggle to even fill our classes. Our college was the “second chance college” catered to young adults with late start (military, etc.), or middle aged adults who wanted to shift careers. Well long story short, last semester I taught 48 high school students, and we are now converting our college into an early college for high schoolers, and they are putting cameras and microphones in every room. I am certain there will be a day with an empty classroom and nothing but a teacher standing in it.
From my perspective, the rate of student depression is alarming, and it is hard to face that. The administrators are now circling the teachers, just as I witnessed in medicine 3-4 years earlier. Enrollment is still severely down… To make matters worse, our high school enrolees is based off a lottery system, because, and I quote, “we feel it would be too unfair to pick based of merit”… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … so, 4.0 student, honor roll, etc, doesn’t hit the lottery, doesn’t get a chance at a head start for college. Meanwhile, I will have loads of students come and make a muck of my class, striaght bomb, and to make matters worse… the early college has a no drop policy.
The behavior I have had to deal with… I wanna ring these students by the collar. It’s total and utter bullshit, it is not our responsibility to turn a child’s life around as a college educator. You should be giving us the cream of the crop of your ISDs…
Also, realize us college educator barely make more than a school bus driver, now demanded to take on the high school’s burden. In saying that, I am all for teaching actual laboratory skills vs. preparing students to pass a standardized test. If it were up to me, I’d start offering tech certificates at ever ISD in America, because college is not for everyone.
The day they enact free college, will be the last day I will ever teach in this country.
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Sorry it is winded, but worth the read. I would be very grateful, thank you all.
I am very passionate if you cannot tell by my post activity. Thank you alums.
Edit: administrators will be the bane of this society, yes let’s listen to people who have never taught a day in their lives’ or worked a day in medicine/went throught the rigor, oh yes, lets listen to them, the morons that went and got a medical admin or “child studies” degree, because of course, they are on the front lines, not us teachers and doctors (sarcarsm), they know better(wags finger).
so yeah, I relate.
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Teachers are not hard to come by…any one can become a teacher as the degree is just laughable…Some districts don’t require a degree to teach…A large portion of kids are entering college striving for a certain degree…when that fails…they become teachers…Don’t get me wrong…there are smart good teachers out there but there will never be a collapse of the education system because we can’t find teachers
You mean find bodies, doesn’t mean they are really a teacher
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Actually there is an acute shortage of teachers now, CCoog. And I’m unaware of any districts that don’t require a degree though schools in Oklahoma, Utah, New Mexico and possibly elsewhere are allowing National Guardsmen and police officers to cover classes because of the lack of qualified teachers in many districts.
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That sounds like a really tough situation. Sorry to hear that. I have been teaching at the college and then high school (seniors) level since the mid 90s, and I completely agree with your comment about tech certificates; in fact, I think we should move (should have a long time ago) to a system more like Germany where students who show promise with a liberal arts type of education remain in school and those with more of an aptitude for technology or mechanics are enlisted in tech/vocational school.
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Buying used textbooks already highlighted were one of the things I liked for non-major courses. But, once I got to UH, and changed my major, almost all of my classes were in my major.
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This thread is about the existing shortage of teachers in k-12 and just having a warm body is not the answer.
Unless, i can see it posted teachers need to have a degree, even if going through alternative certification.
Once you start teaching you have to make progress on a masters degree as well.
The retention rate and recruiting new teachers is what they are trying to address.
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What degree is that? Elementary education? Why am I not surprised that CCoog would be anti-education? Hmm . . .
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All we need is a time machine to take us back to the 1950s when teaching was the only profession which allowed women to participate in numbers. Law, medicine, accounting (CPA), banking or engineering were largely closed to women (yeah, always outliers), so they taught.
So, we can’t go back or want to go back to when teaching labor was generally serving a buyer’s market. Raising all compensation helps, but IDK what could make the job more attractive given schools have a broader mission than back then.
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Agreed about the broader mission and I dont think more money is the answer either…yes salary helps but those who really feel called to teach dont do it for the money…but throwing money via new technology or gimicks has not worked. If they can find a way to filter all the non teaching administrative tasks it would be a start. Having administrators from the principle up to the super intendents who really listen to their needs is a good start.
Because of poor leadership, you end up with bad culture and morale at schools. Bad culture/morale eats the best business plans for lunch.
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Genie is pretty much out of the bottle when it comes to discipline and the like. I don’t see how it will ever get back to any semblance of what it used to be. The states could give teachers more autonomy, which would help a little, but too many kids see education as pointless. Why study when you know the teacher’s fail rate has to be low, and you can play video games or watch Netflix on your phone?
Then all eyes go back to the parents, shouldn’t they be held accountable? It is easier to give a kid a tablet or phone to entertain and baby sit, than to actually parent. The parents set that behavior well before a kid starts formal schooling. If a kid has been raised on a steady diet of videos, they shouldn’t be surprised when their kid has no interest in actually reading. Then when their kid struggles with learning or discipline they will point the finger at others rather than look inward. Too many parents view school as free or subsidized baby sitting.
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This is the problem be summed up in one word.
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Absolutely. And it’s mind-boggling the lengths that many parents will go today to deny their kids’ wretched behavior or defend it, often by screaming at admins or teachers. And that’s the biggest reason I can’t see things ever getting back to anything like they were. Too many parents want their kids to see them as buddies rather than good, (and when necessary) strict parents. This cartoon kind of sums it up, and it ain’t just about grades.
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That’s a great piece. So accurate.
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This thread is the most mind boggling that I have read in a good bit of time.
I need Tylenol immediately.
I assume that in a given week that I speak to more actual teachers than all of you do combined in one year.
I need to go to sleep, I really do.
Let me tell you a secret, they got a real hard job.
Many people in ISD’s administration seem more concerned about protecting their pensions and budgets than they are about classroom outcomes.
A few years ago a friend volunteered as a parent in a northwest Houston area ISD thinking she could use her organizational skills to help contribute to a better outcome. She was assigned to the transportation department where she happily contributed her time and experience. While there, she found several ways to save a lot of money but she noticed one fellow who came in and mostly slept (hid) under a desk all day. When she inquired about this fellow she found that he was a school principal who was being kept on the payroll for several more years so that he could draw a bigger pension. [Since he slept most of the day, she presumed he might have had a real job in the evenings or at night.]
Of course this disgusted her (and may be illegal) but that wasn’t even what did her in. Near the end of the school year, she reported that her efforts had saved the department around $250,000 vs the budget. But to her dismay, they had a staff meeting the very next day to see where they could spend (waste) that $250,000 so they wouldn’t get a budget cut. Got to keep those school taxes going up you know!
Our teacher’s unions & ISD leadership are just so corrupt - and I shouldn’t have to tell you who’s been protecting them.
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Interesting how you tell a damning story about administration and then throw in teachers’ unions. The AFT in Texas, the TFT, isn’t corrupt at all. Not sure where you got that other than right-wing talking points being drummed into your head. Hotel Coog/HCNY is employed by a union. Do you think he’s corrupt? How so?