Re: Teachers ...

[Linda Anderson <lindaa -at- EMTEK -dot- COM>]

Joe,

I've tried to stay out of this thread since it get me on a soapbox, but
what you said about the amount of money going to school administration is
pretty accurate in many states, I think. I taught Jr. High English for a
year in Utah and I know it's true there. From what I've heard since
moving, it's also true here in Arizona.

What Barry West says is also true, but I don't think he goes quite far
enough. A teacher has 50 minutes of CLASS TIME, but by the time you
subtract the amount of time used to take roll, let the stragglers stroll
in late, settle the kids down ad nauseum, pause for announcements, etc.,
actual TEACHING time has turned into somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes and
that's NOT enough time to *teach* anything effectively.

I don't know that increasing teacher salaries is so much the answer as
increasing the number of teachers (even though I got out of it because
the pay's so low). A teacher with 15 students will be a heck of a lot
more effective than one with 35. In fact, that teacher might actually get
to teach for 40 of those 50 class minutes!

Our education system is definitely in trouble. We're trying to do too
much with too few resources and rather than address the problem
adequately (i.e. more teachers, more schools) our country is using the
bandaid approach -- lowering the standards for academic excellence and
allowing functionally illiterate kids to graduate ill-prepared for the
demands of the workplace. We can only do this for so long before it
catches up to us and some of these functionally illiterate "kids" become
the leaders of this nation.

This is not to say that all kids are doing poorly academically, there are
certainly many who are excelling, but if we continue to lower our
standards to meet the majority who are not excelling, the end result in
another generation could be disasterous.

Linda

             Stand quiet in your own circle

EMTEK Health Care Systems
Tempe, Arizona
USA

On Tue, 6 Jun 1995, Joe Fockler wrote:

> Barry West writes:
> +
> + I generally try not to digress from the purpose of the list. However, as a
> + former teacher . . .
> +
> + It doesn't make sense to blame student's in most cases, nor does it make
 sense
> + to blame teachers in most cases, as you suggest.
> +
> + Scenario:
> +
> + - You're a Math teacher.
> + - You have 5 math classes with 30+ students in each class.
> + - You have 50 minutes to teach them the lesson of the day, each day.

> [SNIP]

> There are likely some marginal teachers and even poor teachers, but with
> a majority of teachers, you could give them a 50% pay increase and they
> would still be underpaid.  Here in the Dallas Independent (accept for the
> dependency on tax money) School District, nearly 70% of the budget is for
> administrative overhead. YIKES!  (This is based on a report in the Dallas
> Morning News).

> --
>    Joe Fockler                "Success is when those who know you best
>    Interphase Corporation      love you the most."
>    Dallas, Texas 75234
>                                                  -- unknown
>    jfockler -at- iphase -dot- com
>                                "Great works are performed not by strength
>                                 but by perseverance."

>                                                  -- Samuel Johnson

>                                 "Success is going from failure to failure
>                                  without loss of enthusiasm."

>                                                  -- Winston Churchill