disheartened with our local public school system

i feel that the local public school system is failing my child.

the teachers are condescending and apathetic. they refuse to return the graded work to the students. without these assignments, the kids have no idea what they did wrong, what to study harder on, or if there was a potential grading error. when asked why they won't return the work, they say because students could resubmit it at a later time for credit. i've never heard of such a thing, my teachers have always returned my work. or at the very least allowed me to review it in detail...

the curriculum is dumbed down and acceleration or ambition to learn/grow faster than the predetermined rate is actively shunned and quashed. there is no continuity in what the children learn. they learn typing each and every year, but only for part of the year, and then are told they can't type any of their assignments in other classes. why learn something you are not allowed to use?

they do spanish, or other foreign languages, but only sporadically. this essentially equates to the children learning the spanish alphabet, numbers, and a few basic terms like greetings and colors over and over in such a way that none of it is retained year after year.

the classes are geared around teaching to the test. critical thinking is actively discouraged. asking questions is actively discouraged. working ahead is actively discouraged. independent study is actively discouraged. basically, the kids are taught to sit, be quiet, learn only what is forced upon them, and only in the depth necessary for the teacher to satisfy his or her requirements. basically: blend in, be mediocre.

there is no consistency in homework. sometimes they have it, other times they don't. when they do, it's so sporadic, that the directions are often confusing and the kids are not familiar with what it is exactly that the teacher wants turned back in the next day.

my daughter was told they were going to do a project where they had to keep a robotic baby for the weekend. they were told this baby would wake them up in the middle of the night. they were told they could opt out of this and do an alterate assignment. a form was provided. i completed the opt-out form and my daughter promptly turned it in.

my daughter has a chronic health condition and does several hours of medications per day. she goes to bed late, she gets up early, and her baby sister died six months ago (edit: her half-sister, not my child)...all good reasons for her NOT to have to take care of a robotic baby.

weeks went by and when my daughter approached the teacher and politely asked her what if anything she was supposed to be doing for the alternate assignment...this "teacher" told her to "sit down and be quiet".

is this how we are preparing our kids for the future? is this what the government has to offer us as a means of educating and inspiring tomorrow's leaders?

the worst thing about this, is that it does NOTHING to prepare these kids for college or the real world.

LoneKiller said:

Jesus!
Trent I can't tell you how sorry I am to hear about your children. I'm not a parent so I can't say that I understand what it feels like to go through everything you are going through right now. All I can do is offer my sincerest condolences.

As far as the description of this school and it's conduct. It's messed up big time. I've never had teachers treat the students like that. That is appalling. Someone needs to straighten them out. I guess the easiest thing for me to suggest would be to send your child to a private school, but that can be expensive.

If those teachers were working under me, they would be suspended without pay for their actions. There is absolutely no excuse for their methods. They sound lazy and careless. I'm sorry that you have to go through this. It's absolutely ridiculous.

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thank you for your condolences. her sister was not my child. (half-sister) but was, nevertheless, a huge loss. i appreciate your sentiment.

as for the school system - yah, it boggles the mind.

i'm truly afraid for my child. i see the world around me. without blinders. i know how competitive this world is. school should be preparing these kids for what they are going to face in real life. i just don't see that happening as it stands right now.

i want desperately to just say "fresia it" and pull her out of there. i could do a better job of teaching her at home. (never thought i'd say that) but it's true. over the summer, she and i worked (at home) on a college-level keyboarding class. she was EXCITED to learn and got really GOOD at it. the sad part is that these feelings about learning (excitement and positivity) were foreign to her.

we have it good here. we are in midwestern suburbia. i can't imagine about these kids in the urban centers and inner-cities.

problem is in the current nanny-state, we accept the status quo because the school system is a mandatory free babysitter.

You should talk to Ak5. He was home schooled and he's wicked smart. I suppose that you could go over the teacher's heads and ruffle some feathers, but then they might get pissed off and take it out on your daughter. Even try the school board.

What I would suggest is contacting some other parents who may feel the same way you do. Start a petition online or on paper and get tons of signatures to back you up. That will give you more power.

From the way it sounds, these teachers are treating these children like they're little criminals or something. Whether or not these teachers may hate their jobs and are lazy. Too bad for them. They still decided to pursue a career in education. They knew what came with the territory when they took that job. If they don't like it, fresia them. Tell them to quit.

Young children are so impressionable. Their minds are like sponges. They absorb everything. These teachers aren't teaching. What they will end up doing if nobody intervenes is corrupt their young minds. Don't let that happen to your young one at their critical stage of mental development. If the teachers don't care. Neither will the students. That's a bad scene man.

EDIT: I forgot to mention. You might also want to talk with IgnoredOne. If memory serves, he's a teacher. He would know a lot of stuff to help you.

Magnet schools, alternative schools, catholic schools (not sure if $$ exorbitant),

I think your main priority, or one of at least, should be, are your child's needa met. Does she need accomodations? An IEP? Are they providing this to her? If no, get her the fresia out of there. She needs access which at the same time encourages and fosters her independence.

Sadly this sounds like my college. My statistics professor has not yet graded my homework from 3 weeks ago. He says he lost it. This is a routine occurance at my college, which is a college for the deaf.

I'm okay with being here though because it will teach me how to sign better. I am mute so that is my main for of communication. I want to work with deaf people eventually. So being here is not limiting for me.

As for academic rigor. Let me tell you something. All of the homeschooled kids I've met have been far brighter and more educated than I was at a normal mainstream school.

The only draw back I can think of is socialization.

Teach her to advocate for her rights. Teach her the ADA (americans with disabilities act) and there are other laws too that protect disabled people, give them access, and rights. I just can't remember them. ;/

Also, I want to tell you I get the impression that government jobs are some of the best for disabled people. The benefits are good (health insurance is key for disabled people). They have a no discrimination policy for disabled people, in fact they actively come around my campus looking for deaf people to hire (the forestry agency, federal marshall service, IRS etc.) which makes me think they have some quota they need to fill for diversity (but that doesn't mean they don't hire capable people. I've seen the deaf people they hire and they've impressed me.)

If anything I said happens to not be applicable, feel free to ignore what I said.

I can appreciate that you are worried about your daughter and there is no doubt that there are some bad teachers out there. Having said that, it is a mistake to paint all teachers with the same brush.

Let me tell you how the last 24 hours or so have gone for one of those lazy and apathetic teachers you are hating on. She got home last night about 8:30 after offering a night class to make life more convenient for some of her students. She got up this morning at 4:30 so she could be at school by 7:00 am in order to supervise a field trip for some drama students who were competing in a one-act play contest. She and her students eventually returned to the school about 7:00 pm. Now...it's a Friday evening so it's time to go home and relax for the weekend, right? Maybe she can even watch her beloved St Louis Cardinals play what will probably be their last game of the season. But no...it's Friday. So this lazy and apathetic woman accompanies the football team across town so she can support her students instead. About 11:30 she makes it home so she can be exposed to your thoughtless posts (or ones like them) and then, exhausted, go to bed and try to begin the process of resting up for next week.

If the schools are failing your daughter then, by all means, take her out of there and home school her. That's what I did with mine.

But DO NOT paint all teachers with the same brush. It is wrong to do that.

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I must admit that your posts (and your biases) annoy me. Having said that I am, seriously, saddened by your loss. It is just wrong when a child dies...life shouldn't be that way.

Rocky I am afraid you are dead wrong. There are some good teachers out there, but let me tell you, they are few and far between and just as underpaid as the rest of the completely soul crushed apathetic dream destroyers.

Do you have any idea of the number of school teachers that recommend kids take speed? They recommend these young minds that are still developing to take amphetamines (without any prior psychological or psychiatric training) because they are, "disruptive", in class.

There are children out there who have energy and are EXCITED to be alive and desperately need direction.

It makes me sick to my ******* gut the way children these days are raised in this society. Many of them were born on accident by parents who have no ******* clue what they are doing and would rather be doing something else, 'more important.' They are put into schools where if they cross too many lines they will be put on SERIOUSLY mind altering medications that WILL alter the way in which their brains develope, and then when they grow up wanting to die every day because they just don't fit in and haven't found what excites, challenges, and or encourages them to contribute to this world in a positive way, they're only refuge is the horde of other children just as lost as they are, trying to find themselves in a wash of scheduled substances our society has long forgotten how to administer in a spiritual, medicinal, and or mind cultivating way.

Some teachers just don't give a honeysuckle and it's a **** shame. I think that is the way it's always been, but at least back in the day the ones that didn't give a crap just smacked you on the wrist. Now they smack you in the brain with amphetamines and permanently alter your physiological developement. Why? Probably just because they are stressed out and over worked and underpaid.

Blame Big Pharma, Big oil, and ignorance. Why waste precious tax payer dollars and raising bright minds when you can outsource to foreign countries for 1/4th the price and import the products directly? Same principles. Corporations OWN America.

Get your kid out of school. Homeschool and make sure they are a part of some clubs, as in having a hobby, something they can express themselves with, music, sports, etc, etc... If you can...

Most people aren't fortunate enough to be able to do these things though and evolution will weed out those unfit to survive this ass backwards excuse for reality we desire to live in so comfortably.

No, Starfish, I am afraid you are the one who is wrong.

Tell me, just how many teachers are out there who actually recommend that students take speed? Seriously...I'd be curious to know. And if you can prove this, then why is that teacher (er, those teachers) still teaching? But...oh...you are talking about Ritalin, aren't you? Funny...you didn't say Ritalin...why not?

You are making the same mistake as the others. Yes, there are some bad teachers. But to paint them all with the same brush is a mistake.

"Soul crushed, apathetic dream destroyers?" ...very clever...deep...

I'm really sorry to hear that, although I don't really have any good suggestions. What LK and Soph have said sounds good if you can manage it.

As for the thing about teachers. Yes, most teachers I've seen are overworked and underpaid. Some of them are awful teachers and I don't know why they're doing it in the first place. In university there were a lot of people who were only teaching because they were doing research or whatnot there, so they had zero actual teaching ability. I'm really scared for the future honestly. The system here doesn't seem to realize that kids have imagination and creativity - it wants them to excel so badly in maths, science etc. that it doesn't actually care about other stuff. And then it teaches them these things by rote.

the government doesn't really care about THEM. What it cares is how many world-class professionals it turns out and how big of a penis it gets to wave around on the international stage.

Rocky66 said:

I can appreciate that you are worried about your daughter and there is no doubt that there are some bad teachers out there. Having said that, it is a mistake to paint all teachers with the same brush.

Let me tell you how the last 24 hours or so have gone for one of those lazy and apathetic teachers you are hating on. She got home last night about 8:30 after offering a night class to make life more convenient for some of her students. She got up this morning at 4:30 so she could be at school by 7:00 am in order to supervise a field trip for some drama students who were competing in a one-act play contest. She and her students eventually returned to the school about 7:00 pm. Now...it's a Friday evening so it's time to go home and relax for the weekend, right? Maybe she can even watch her beloved St Louis Cardinals play what will probably be their last game of the season. But no...it's Friday. So this lazy and apathetic woman accompanies the football team across town so she can support her students instead. About 11:30 she makes it home so she can be exposed to your thoughtless posts (or ones like them) and then, exhausted, go to bed and try to begin the process of resting up for next week.

If the schools are failing your daughter then, by all means, take her out of there and home school her. That's what I did with mine.

But DO NOT paint all teachers with the same brush. It is wrong to do that.

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I must admit that your posts (and your biases) annoy me. Having said that I am, seriously, saddened by your loss. It is just wrong when a child dies...life shouldn't be that way.

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i was INCREDIBLY careful NOT to paint all teachers or schools the same way.

i referred ONLY SPECIFICALLY to "our local school system" and to "my daughter's teachers"

i did NOT backmouth the profession. so you don't need to lecture me about the inappropriateness of generalizations or how hard teachers have it.

all i did was tell my daughter's story in her current situation with her current teachers in her currents school within her currents school district.

but, please, by all means, lets turn my story into open ******* season to argue goddamned politics.

run with it folks, feel free. i'll just stay the fresia right out of the thread and let it get downright goddamned itiotic here.

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mods: close this thread.

i knew better than to actually post something useful on this ******* site.

Closed by request of OP