The Largest Source of Teacher Stress? Students (Education News)

Lenitus · 08-13-2012, 03:21 PM

"No amount of instructional skill can improve outcomes for students who aren't willing to do their part."

Teachers whose futures are becoming more dependent on objective student performance metrics have been experiencing a marked increase in stress as of late. Opportunities to impact their students positively in the classroom are greatly overshadowed by what goes on outside of the classroom. For instance, are parents valuing these students, are they getting to bed on time, are they actually doing their reading assignments, etc. In other words, the careers of many teachers are at the mercy of several variables over which teachers have no control. In other words, their best may just not be good enough, and there is little they seem able to do about it.

The Largest Source of Teacher Stress? Students | Education News

IWillKillForMIT · 08-13-2012, 04:14 PM

I hate the NCLB!!!
Thanks a lot Bush

Bay · 08-13-2012, 05:41 PM

If students have not been trained to do their assignments, be organized and bring their textbooks to class by middle school and especially high school, the teachers are largely responsible for that.

lmkh70 · 08-13-2012, 06:38 PM

Most of my children home schooled. My oldest did not, but my 2nd did. My oldest had horrible organizational skills. It is hard to tell a child how to organize things at home when the school does not communicate or help at all. I constantly felt my hands were tied. Meanwhile, my 2nd child, who now attends the same school as her older sibling, does far better and has no organization troubles. I even found that when my younger middle children were in lower elementary, I could not get a teacher to communicate about what they were doing or what they needed to do. My child would come home and try to convey some complex, and costly, projects to me and I would not get it at all. Then the teachers would refuse to clarify. They would state that they were too busy to speak to parents or to answer emails so we just needed to ask our children. Try asking a 6 yr old what this huge project is about. When he describes something that you have no clue how to do, or is to general and no one will answer, what then?

I agree that parents need to do their parents. But teachers do too. It goes both ways. And the students are caught in the middle of bad lazy parents and bad lazy teachers. And then they become "bad lazy" kids.

cobrat · 08-13-2012, 06:41 PM

Quote:

If students have not been trained to do their assignments, be organized and bring their textbooks to class by middle school and especially high school, the teachers are largely responsible for that.

Completely disagree. In old-school American homes and many societies with comparable/better K-12 education systems....the responsibility for all that falls mainly on the parents and students.

In the early years, the parents bear all/most responsibility. By late junior high and especially high school, it is mostly/completely considered the responsibility of the student.

Believing this is mostly/completely the teacher's responsibility omits the substantial responsibility parents and students have in school preparedness/academic outcomes.

InvolvedmomFL · 08-13-2012, 06:42 PM

@Bay- what are you talking about????

Yes- there are many variables that teachers cannot control. In the early elementary years, students must read for pleasure in order to improve their skills and make the transition from "learning to read" to "reading to learn." Those who do not read at home are at a disadvantage and many parents are not willing to fight with a reluctant reader on a daily basis. As well, in the early elementary years, someone should check their homework every night and help them get organized. Once they internalize these organizational skills they are set- but they need help. Many kids do not have this type of help.

lmkh70 · 08-13-2012, 07:32 PM

Parents have a huge role in this too. I see many parents who let their children play video games ALL THE TIME. Not kidding! They do not regulate their children at all. I see parents who do not even try to follow up on anything with their children. They just figure it is all handled there.

Teachers have a role too. I mentioned already about the issues we have had. I should add too, that I think the teachers where I live now tend to be quite lazy. They do not grade papers. They do even try to help the children organize. I have seen where administration for our district has told all the schools that they must have the students use organizers. SO, the teachers then make the students use the organizers to copy down what they did that day. They did not use them properly at all.

InvolvedmomFL · 08-13-2012, 07:39 PM

@lmkh70- I agree with you- teachers must work with parents, and parents must do their part and not assume that someone else is laying the foundation for their child's success. It is very true that some teachers do not do a good job of communicating with parents. My pet peeve is when a teacher acts like she is doing a parent a favor by answering questions via email or phone. OTOH, I also can't understand how an elementary student makes it through an entire school year without a parent ever looking through and cleaning out a book bag. Also, I do not understand how some kids rarely, if ever, do homework and live with parents who swear that they had no idea.

I do agree that it is a two-way street.

barrons · 08-13-2012, 08:14 PM

Outside of parent-teacher nights I cannot recall one time my parents spoke to any of my or by brother/sister's teachers k-12. If they are getting bugged by parents now in addition to all the other work no wonder they don't stick around. All of us managed to get through college in the same manner.

Vladenschlutte · 08-13-2012, 08:28 PM

A teachers whole job is to teach students. What else would be the biggest source of stress? Was there ever another major factor? Also, is it really newsworthy to say that it's hard to get kids to learn who don't want to? Is water still wet? Do triangles still have 3 sides?

Now that what I felt was the obvious and necessary reaction to such an article is out of the way...

Quote:

Those who do not read at home are at a disadvantage and many parents are not willing to fight with a reluctant reader on a daily basis.

Presumably you are a parent? Did you make your kids read as a "chore" and if so did it work out? I'm asking genuinely.

Quote:

I should add too, that I think the teachers where I live now tend to be quite lazy. They do not grade papers. They do even try to help the children organize. I have seen where administration for our district has told all the schools that they must have the students use organizers. SO, the teachers then make the students use the organizers to copy down what they did that day. They did not use them properly at all.

This part of my post goes off topic a bit, but I think it's an important issue and it related to your comment so I'm going for it...

Certainly some teachers are like this, but I think there should be other questions here too. Why does the administration require teachers force students (or presumably influence them with grades) to use organizers? Since organization is a tool used to enhance performance in a task, isn't it to the detriment of the students. Presumably the administration agrees that there's not much value in keeping a journal of what you did every day as an organizational tool, so why did they not work with teachers to determine first whether they should have such a requirement and if they decided to, to develop a protocol for their usage? Would a perhaps better way have been figure out how you want to use tool X (probably an agenda book - we got them in middle and high school) to organize your academic work, and then maybe make an hour out of showing other students what they did. I don't know if it would work but it at least sounds better and it took 2 minutes to come up with. Why regulate something where you can allow for innovation?

I think that appears to be a trend in education. Centralization and regulation kill innovation and ultimately will make more useless drones and fewer productive citizens. The only thing regulation gives us is a scapegoat when the results aren't as expected.

ptontiger16 · 08-13-2012, 08:34 PM

The largest source of student stress? Teachers.

Bay · 08-13-2012, 09:05 PM

If teachers need to blame parents for students not being organized, doing their homework or bringing their textbooks, then they are putting too much responsibility on the parents. If they expect parents to ensure these things happen, then they need to include parents in the day-to-day assignments. Teachers do not do this, and why should they?

My son's private elementary/middle school did not allow parents to have a role in their work. Homework assignments were written in code, so parents would not have a hand in it. Students who did not do their work were punished with mandatory after-school detention during which they had to get the work done. If they forgot their books, they were sent to the office for a lecture and minor humiliation. Granted, this was a private school, and students who continually failed to comply were eventually dismissed, but the vast majority of students learned to do their work without any help from their parents. I've never seen anything remotely like this happen in the three public schools we've attended.

cobrat · 08-14-2012, 02:12 AM

Quote:

If teachers need to blame parents for students not being organized, doing their homework or bringing their textbooks, then they are putting too much responsibility on the parents.

This perspective is one I've only seen with some American parents....especially those who are younger boomers and later.

Earlier boomers and older and many folks from outside the US tend to feel the responsibility to ensure the student is organized, doing homework, bringing textbooks, well-behaved/ready to learn in class is mainly on the parents and students in varying proportions depending on age.

Weighed totally/heavily toward parents when student is junior high aged or younger....weighed totally/heavily towards students for the high school aged students.

Among old-school Americans and folks from outside the US, the teacher's responsibility is to be prepared to teach the material to be covered when class starts, answer any raised questions, grade homework/papers, notify parents of concerning behaviors/poor academic performance, be available for parent-teacher conferences, and act in a supporting role to assist...but NOT completely/mostly supplant the parents'/students' own responsibilities to have students have it all together.

Heck, I've lost count of how many older boomers or older Americans have ranted about how too many younger parents are thoughtlessly offload most/all of what they should be their/their kids' responsibilities on outside parties like teachers, neighbors, or sometimes even strangers...and then have the chutzpah to complain when there are serious issues. Especially when current teachers have far less discretionary powers over student discipline...or even how they run the classroom compared with 50+ years ago due to lawsuit happy "not my angel" parents, education admins, school boards, and politicians.

NJSue · 08-14-2012, 08:40 AM

Quote:

tudents who did not do their work were punished with mandatory after-school detention during which they had to get the work done. If they forgot their books, they were sent to the office for a lecture and minor humiliation. Granted, this was a private school

This last sentence is key. I once worked in an affluent public school district, and we could never have gotten away with treating students this way. The parents would have gone crazy. Their little darlings were never wrong and should only be "gently reasoned" with. They believed their kids should never, ever be made to feel ashamed or humiliated for not complying with community academic (or behavioral) norms. Of course these kids did not get into good colleges, but their parents were loudmouths. It's all down to the parents. If the parent can't make a reluctant kid work, the teacher certainly can't.

MADad · 08-14-2012, 08:55 AM

There is a very affluent town nearby that has had an inordinate number of alcohol-related deaths of high school students. The police are at wit's end, as ANY attempts to put an end to the underage drinking parties is immediately stymied by parents with their crew of lawyers in tow, as soon as anyone is taken into custody or charges are contemplated.

Just an example of how parents can do the wrong thing.