<p>*Even in the “best” school districts, where our teachers are paid 60,000-150,000 per year </p>
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<li>Boy, do I live in the wrong place! Our superintendent only makes $150,000 a year!*</li>
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<p>Including allowance for car leasing & payments to a retirement acct, our superintendent received almost $300,000. Because the board was too spineless to fire her with cause, she received severance pay of a year salary.</p>
<p>Much more than what teachers make.</p>
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You assume a lot when you refer to “the less desirable but still competent Calculus teacher.” Perhaps you are blessed with good teachers in your system, but we have encountered teachers who were not, in my opinion, OK. Were they bad enough to crusade to get them fired? Maybe not. But at some point, I have to advocate for my kid. I’d hate to be thought of as a “taker,” but I decline to be a sap, either.</p>
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<p>For what it’s worth, Poetgrl, I completely agree with you.</p>
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<p>I’m not sure I understand Hunt. Why would you be a sap if you decided to just let your child stay in the not so good teacher’s class?</p>
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<p>This works if your child is “truly talented.” My 2 Ds didn’t have any problem with mediocre teachers, the ones they described as “S/he doesn’t teach!” My Ds studied and learned the material on their own and did just fine.</p>
<p>The problem lies with the smart-enough kid (like my S) who needs to be taught the material in order to understand it; he needs it explained in clear terms, and then he gets it just fine. Isn’t this what a teacher is supposed to be doing? S does not do well and is harmed by mediocre teachers who are ineffective at teaching. And I don’t know what this has to do with “sharing the goods of life and caring about the community.” Are you saying my son should sacrifice his education so that mediocre teachers can keep their jobs?</p>
<p>As I said previously, it is a parents job to advocate for their child. The label “taker parent” (post 97) is just horrible. It is cynical and demeaning. It also shows a predispostion to dismiss the parents concerns without considering the merits. Every parent should be concerned enough to try to correct a situation that is harmful to their child.The minute you start attaching cynical labels to the parents, you have lost your ability to properly function in the best interest of the children.
What a terrible, burned out attitude…</p>
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I think this translates as, “Don’t rock the boat.”</p>
<p>My point is simply that everything in a school community isn’t about YOUR kid and YOUR kid’s education. It is about the education of EVERY child in the school. If parents advocate solely in the interests of THEIR child, the system cannot function as it is overwhelmed with too many competing demands. You need a broader perspective beyond just what the ideal situation would be for YOUR child.</p>
<p>Hunt, if you felt that the Calculus teacher was so clearly bad and completely ineffective, then for the good of the community you SHOULD advocate to get the teacher fired or at least retrained!</p>
<p>When parents demand good teachers, it benefits EVERY child.</p>
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<p>camathmom, do you read what you write?</p>
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<p>True, but…</p>
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<p>If all kids are deserving of good teachers (and I think we all agree on that) then what about the kid who doesn’t have a parent to advocate for them? Or has a parent that doesn’t care very much, or is sick or drunk. Does that child get delegated to the “bad” teacher through the displacement caused by the assertive parents who are determined to get the best for their child? Do only the children of the proactive parents “deserve” the best education?</p>
<p>When parents demand good teachers, it benefits EVERY child.
I agree & when staff of a school advocate to improve engagement of adults in their work- they benefit- for example that algebra class may have three teachers- two who are good enough & one that isn’t.
Do you want your incoming geometry students to have attended the classroom of the good enough teacher or are you going to be able to work hard enough so that the students who had the poor teacher, will still be able to keep up?</p>
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<p>LOL While I do confess DeborahT that I have at times written in haste and not proofread what I wrote, that situation does not apply here.</p>
<p>I just don’t understand the mindset of feeling that one is condemned to sapdom for letting their child stay in one class with a less than ideal teacher.</p>
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<p>If this happens, it is only because there is no current mechanism by which parents can participate in the firing of mediocre and incompetent teachers. EVERY child deserves the best education. As I stated before, our school does not allow students or their parents to select teachers. They are stuck with whomever they are assigned, so what you are proposing would not happen in our school. A random 1/2 of all students would be screwed in your scenario at our school.</p>
<p>That may be true in your school in regard to requesting teachers but this kind of favoritism or the expectation of favoritism happens all the time, sometimes in rather subtle ways. Some parents who are very involved in the school, PTO etc. will be the same ones who are trying to smooth that road for their child and again, when a child takes a seat in the classroom of the “great” teacher, there are many others who are not getting that seat. </p>
<p>I’m not really sure what this particular turn in the thread has to do with the original question but, maybe, it is a way for all of us to consider the ways that we may try to work the system. When we approach any problem from a narrow view, looking only to how it effects us, it can only hurt the system as a whole.</p>
<p>I never requested a teacher for my children. Although I was very tempted at times. I worked in my kids’ school system but never tried to “cash in” on my connections. My reasoning was the same as camathmon’s. I think my children learned a more universal lesson by learning to navigate different personalities. I also learned early on that, usually, class placements, etc. tend to work out in a way that I could never have anticipated beforehand. And again, it’s just not fair to the kids that don’t have a “squeaky wheel” parent.</p>
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<p>They don’t need one if all of the teachers are good.</p>
<p>^^^
I know. I get that. But it doesn’t change the fact that, as things are right now, it is unfair to those other children. We can all rationalize our behavior by saying " well, if the system wasn’t so corrupt, so damaged, I wouldn’t need to do this". I’m sorry, it just doesn’t wash. Besides, let’s suppose, wonder of wonders, that the system gets “fixed” in a way that raises the quality of the general teaching population. Do you really think that all parents will resign themselves to the luck of the draw? Everything is relative. There will still be the “better teacher” that everyone will want.</p>
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<p>It is the teachers who need to fix the system. Why don’t you propose to your union that they come up with an easy way to get rid of bad teachers?</p>
<p>…if all of the teachers were good-looking and the children were above average, THEN THEN everyone would live happily ever after…</p>
<p>Sorry, just a little humor. It keeps us teachers sane at this time of the school year.</p>
<p>But even in an ideal world where all teachers are Ivy educated, compensated as true professionals, fully supported with small class size, aides, abundant professional development and planning time, etc… There would still be a battery of parents charging into the principal’s office to demand more for THEIR kid. Unfortunately, I think that this is just our current American zeitgeist.</p>
<p>Bay,
I have already acknowledged that a lot of the blame rests on the educational institution. If you think that the entitled behavior of some parents does not contribute to the problem, you are kidding yourself. Again, it is fine to continue to blame all of the problems on the teachers without looking at the possibility that their are other factors that contribute to the problem and the inequity among the education that is being offered from child to child.</p>
<p>It is, for you, a problem if your child ends up getting the “bad” teacher but it’s fine to badger the school system to get a better placement while another child who has no parental support gets the short end of the stick. Why is one child more deserving or important than another?</p>
<p>cross posted with camathmom.</p>
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<p>OMG Bay, the teachers have to do that too? I for one want a raise!</p>