early this morning, there was a comment in my teacher story below that was posted anonymously. don't take my removal of the comment personally. the comment was interesting -- i just don't allow anonymous comments. but i DID want to address the questions implied therein. this post will be removed in a day or two -- i'm hoping that the commenter will see this. if not, oh well, i tried.
actually i was not the one who came up with the idea of the form. it was the guidance counselor, at a meeting with ALL jax's teachers (except mrs. a, who did not attend, to the consternation of the g. c. who had set up the meeting 2 weeks in advance so that ALL teachers could be there. and, silly me, i thought it was PART of her job, not taking up valuable time (or "taking time out of their schedule"). and jax's behavior was never an issue. mrs. a plainly never liked jax. i guess i didn't make this clear (this was not the first or only hint of that). i don't know who she liked, really, because she was very cruel to some other students (to the point that matt and jax would be extremely uncomfortable), she'd make fun of students often. she was a bully (and not a very good teacher either). there was a whole history behind this; i see that i didn't make that clear. not just OUR history -- larger than that. nobody at that meeting said ANYTHING positive about mrs. a. she was clearly a "problem" in the school, and i was shocked that they were so openly non-supportive of her. it was unusual, i thought. this was a bigger problem (not just for us) than just her purposeful (i felt) exaggeration of a non-issue. simply put, i believe she needed a little bit of comeuppance.
lucy hit the nail on the head with her remark about tenure. i was trying to make the point that (in spite of popular politically correct thinking) all teachers are not saints. they're people. some good, some bad. i guess i didn't do that very well.
lawyers are people. some good, some bad. priest are people. some good, some bad. doctors are people. some good, some bad.
the deification of teachers is not a good thing. open your eyes. be your child's advocate. that does NOT mean taking your child's side in ALL things (supporting crap behavior will kick you in the ass someday -- crappy behavior by your child OR the teacher).
in general, i'm REALLY tired of all the teacher deification nowadays. don't get me wrong. my kids have had a couple AMAZING teachers. truly amazing and wonderful people and teachers. i will appreciate them always. but i'm not gonna award that status to every teacher out there. i think that's dangerous (think about what's happened in the catholic church). and counterproductive. i've met teachers who've got a chip on their shoulder from the get-go. i had a junior high band teacher tell me that, of COURSE, she couldn't seat the chairs (band geeks will know that means seat the musicians in order of ability so that the first chair has the more complex part, and on down the line) because she HAD 4 classes every day at 2 DIFFERENT SCHOOLS (2 miles apart). ohmygod. take a nap on your three-month vacation. so yeah, maybe i do have an attitude. SOMEBODY has to.
I think a lot of the problem is because so many people have totally turned their kids over to the schools--if you're gonna let the school raise your kids you've got to think they'll do a great job. Hence the deification of teachers. If teachers are just a changing part of a kid's life, then the parents are responsible and have to do the work--and WAY too many aren't willing to.
Posted by: TW at November 18, 2004 02:42 PMoh don't get me started on THAT one, tw. i could go on forever on THAT one. oh, and working moms? that's not a slam to you!
there are good sahm's. there are bad sahm's.
there are good working moms. there are bad working moms.
Posted by: stacey at November 18, 2004 03:28 PMOh, I know you didn't. There are so many parents, fathers and mothers, working and at home, who would rather do anything than raise their own kids. I just don't understand why they went to all the hassle of having them (jeez, labor and childbirth, at least in my experience, isn't my preferred way to kill several hours or days) if they then don't want to have anything to do with them.
Posted by: TW at November 19, 2004 12:15 AMI keep biting my fingers trying not to get involved in this discussion... There was a REASON I pulled Kel out and homeschooled her for two years after the abomination that was fifth grade and the teachers that made up that grade who were tenured. They're practically BLEEDING! ;)
Posted by: Keri at November 19, 2004 10:41 PMI could tell you the story of a man who taught me and my sisters who thought you could thump intelligence into children. Why do these people go into teaching? Must be the long holidays.
Posted by: Anji at November 20, 2004 09:26 AM