More zero tolerance stupidity run amuck

[mamabearCali]

Many are quick to blame the teacher--I am not. I was a teacher for 4 years. Teachers are hamstrung by the administration, if they try to exert common sense into the situation they are reprimanded at minimum. When I was a teacher there was a situation where a 7 year old boy gave a girl a peck on the cheek (it was very very innocent and meant absolutely nothing), the girl was not even upset, she rather enjoyed the attention. I told him we can't do that here and wrote a note home explaining the situation to both parents--the girls' parents were mildly upset that I did not describe the boy's punishment (which I would not have been permitted to do anyway) and contacted the school. Well you would have thought that I had let a mass murder escape prison rather than have not suspended a 7 year old for what I saw as a very minor issue of classroom management. I was reprimanded and told I had 0 say in sexual harassment cases--(which a peck on the cheek apparently is for a 7 year old--as I roll my eyes). Happily because I stuck to my guns all the 7 year old got was some lines--not the whole hog suspension nonsense that he would have gotten had I acted differently.

Needless to say it was my last year teaching and even if I had not already planned it to be so it would have been. Additionally my kids are not ever going under their supervision. Not ever!

[SHMIV]

Many are quick to blame the teacher

I know a couple of teachers that don't buy into the modern hogwash, but I know so many more that do.

I'd like to see the teachers that are sick of the state of public education band together.

[mamabearCali]

Those with common sense are drummed out of the system real quick. Usually by two things--better employment oppertunities/can't stand the system. I had both--an offer to stay at home and be a mommy and I really hated the way things were going.

[dorminWS]

Many are quick to blame the teacher--I am not. I was a teacher for 4 years. Teachers are hamstrung by the administration, if they try to exert common sense into the situation they are reprimanded at minimum. When I was a teacher there was a situation where a 7 year old boy gave a girl a peck on the cheek (it was very very innocent and meant absolutely nothing), the girl was not even upset, she rather enjoyed the attention. I told him we can't do that here and wrote a note home explaining the situation to both parents--the girls' parents were mildly upset that I did not describe the boy's punishment (which I would not have been permitted to do anyway) and contacted the school. Well you would have thought that I had let a mass murder escape prison rather than have not suspended a 7 year old for what I saw as a very minor issue of classroom management. I was reprimanded and told I had 0 say in sexual harassment cases--(which a peck on the cheek apparently is for a 7 year old--as I roll my eyes). Happily because I stuck to my guns all the 7 year old got was some lines--not the whole hog suspension nonsense that he would have gotten had I acted differently.

Needless to say it was my last year teaching and even if I had not already planned it to be so it would have been. Additionally my kids are not ever going under their supervision. Not ever!

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I certainly had the administrators in mind when I made my last comment. I feel very strongly that our public schools are vastly overadministrated (If that’s not officially a word, we need to get it introduced into the lexicon – because it’s a concept we need to recognize and deal with). For years, I have been shaking my head and rolling my eyes at the situations that arise from this problem. As I understand it, you can’t teach, (no matter how impressive your credentials may be in a substantive area) unless you have the requisite credentials in the purported discipline of “EDUCATION”. But you can apparently teach anything you want (or at least could in my community when my kids were in school) whether or not you have the substantive credentials if you DO have the “education” credentials. My (admittedly limited) exposure to this “education” discipline has left me under the strong opinion that it is hard to characterize as anything but institutionalized bullshit. Last time I checked, a school system in Virginia had to have not only a “Superintendent”, but also an “Assistant Superintendent”. This rule mandating layers of administration applies to a schools system for a town (technically a “City of the Second Class” and therefore independent of the County and its school system) that now has something like 3,800 inhabitants. It goes on and on. I also feel that incidents like you cited tend to drive good teachers with some common sense and balance out of teaching. There’s also the problem (in my opinion, at least) that there are a lot of teachers out there that went into teaching because it was the course of least resistance who do not have the substantive knowledge they need, are not dedicated to teaching children, and who use tenure, unions and “education associations”, (which are pretty much the same thing as unions) to shelter their poor performance. We don’t reward good teachers; we reward the ones that hang around long enough. I’ve said it before; I think teachers ought to be as well compensated as lawyers - - but I think it ought to be just as hard to become one; and I think they ought to be paid for performance like lawyers are..

[mamabearCali]

There are many many things that would help education become better in the US. school choice, vouchers, specialized schools, even pay for performance if a method could be established so that those teaching in crappy districts (where the parents show up to parent night high) don't get penalized. However, sadly, I have precious little hope that anything except more taking of my tax dollars to fund more of this stupidity will happen. My husband says I should start a blog list of all the stories I see on the stupid 0 tolerance nonsense and the insanity of it. Just a list of story after story of kids being expelled from school and even charged with crimes for nothing more than being children.

[dorminWS]

I agree that objectively quantifying teacher performance is something I have no idea how to do or if it can be done EXCEPT they way it used to be done when my parents were students; which is by close monitoring and supervision by a dedicated superior who had the authority to hire/fire/promote/not promote each teacher based upon that. These days, such a system would be so bogged down in greivances and lawsuits that the school district would be bankrupt before it completed it's 1st semester. So you're right; we need, as a nation and society, to grow up and act like the kind of responsible adults our grandparents were. And if we don't we are lost.