Piffka wrote:I wonder when teaching became viewed with such disdain in the country. It has been that way since at least the pioneer days, when parents would hire & fire one-room schoolhouse teachers.
There were considered to be not smart enough to own and run the farms and often were characterized as lazy, sickly &/or odd.
Maybe it's an inherent jealousy of another adult having that strong an influence in your child's life. That could explain why parents get all in a huff wanting teachers to teach their children exactly what and how the parents want.
Piffka wrote:I wonder when teaching became viewed with such disdain in the country. It has been that way since at least the pioneer days, when parents would hire & fire one-room schoolhouse teachers.
That brings up a very interesting thought... being held accountable for ones actions. If you don't perform up to expectations... we'll get someone who can. Of course what good is it if the pool you are selecting from is no betterthan the person you just fired?
We certainly need accountability for our teachers. Anybody know anything about AmeriCorps? I looked into it but I think I'm too old to join. I was wondering if anyone knows what kind of success they've had and whether the program will be expanded.
Hmmm... I'm not familiar with them but here is their website:
http://www.americorps.org/
Sounds interesting...
Hmmm. I must have misremembered the name. I was thinking of a program where recent college grads did a summer teacher training course and then got sent to underperforming schools.
I'll have to look for that. Sorry, my thoughts are all over the place.
Ah, here it is.
http://www.teachforamerica.org/why_join.html
Don't know why I thought it was AmeriCorps.
Yes, 1 in 10 Americans not being able to find the U.S. on a map is shocking, but the overall ignorance of adults in the field of biology and natural history is even more shocking. I would doubt that more than 1 in 10 adults could answer simple questions like, Why do we breathe? or Do plants need oxygen? or Why do people have differently pigmented skin? Maybe fewer than 1 in 10 on the last question.
People love to blame the schools for their children's distressing voids of information.
I suggest that poor parental attitudes may be equally responsible.
As an earlier poster pointed out there is a lot of geography on the evening news, but this information vanishes from the living room unless parents indicate by example that the evening news and accompanying geography are important.
I agree... so how do we start changing peoples attitudes towards learning?
jp--
How do we start? One toddler at a time.
Unfortunately, all children are not born with equal advantages.
Support your local Head Start system--this is a government program that works and winds up saving taxpayer money.
Or, if you're a praying man....
I'm surprised nobody has noticed that kids are are a good source for their own learning, if they want, yet except for Montessori-type schools, few give children good tools to help themselves.
The children should be huge particpants in their own educations, but seem to make a willful choice that shows their disdain.
Not every country, though. I heard a man from Jamaica talking about his education outside of Kingston. He said in his class the kids knew they needed to work at their educations. Those who fooled around were sent out to the fishing boats and the kids knew that those who were sent out didn't get to come back.
If learning became as interesting as TV, we'd really have something.
Our school system winds up reinforcing the values of the variety of homes from which the students come.
The Bright Eyed and Bushy Tailed kids get an education.
The offspring of the anti-intellectuals do not--but they are kept off the streets and out of the job market until they are old enough to be valuable in the labor pool.
Noddy I think that goes back to teaching not being a glamorous job... why would you want to teach in bad inner city schools when you could get a job in the suburbs that pays more with less trouble?
That means those that can't get the nice jobs have to settle for what's left... so you get mediocre to bad teachers teaching those that need the most help. Factor in a non-existent family support structure and it is a recipe for disaster. Of course there are a few good, truly caring teachers that take those jobs but my guess would be that they are few and far between.
Them as has, gets.
Them as don't have....loses.
Every year there are a few kids who succeed against incredible odds. To balance there are a also a few kids with every advantage who trade a rosy future for drugs or booze or other aspects of the sordid side of real life.
jpinMilwaukee wrote:Noddy I think that goes back to teaching not being a glamorous job... why would you want to teach in bad inner city schools when you could get a job in the suburbs that pays more with less trouble?
That means those that can't get the nice jobs have to settle for what's left... so you get mediocre to bad teachers teaching those that need the most help. Factor in a non-existent family support structure and it is a recipe for disaster. Of course there are a few good, truly caring teachers that take those jobs but my guess would be that they are few and far between.
Except I've seen that there are some excellent teachers who never get the toe in the door of closely-entrenched school districts. Just because a teacher works in a fancy school district doesn't mean they're good, maybe they're just yes-men and women. I have a friend who started into education late. Now, for the local school district, that's the kiss of death. What? You did something else with your life? Unless you are related to someone (Oh yeah, nepotism reigns around here -- you'd be shocked.) you'll never even get an interview. My friend started his own newspaper and ran it for about seven years. Then he started working for the major daily and stayed until it de-unionized. That's when he went back to get a Educ. M.A. But in this state it is a combination of experience & education that gets noticed and there are some bad teachers with loads of it.
I could picture kids mixing up the atlantic with the pacific. And Sweden is harder to find on a map than America, so that statistic isn't impressively ignorant... I guess I should say, doesn't express impressive ignorance. But not even being able to point out your own country is pretty sad. I can picture kids in my own grade that might have looked at a blank globe and have trouble without the boundry lines there, but I can only picture it with the kids who didn't want to learn. The girls who pretended to be ditsy to impress boys, or the guys who thought learning was for dorks. Blah, blah, blah... I'm just babbling.
I would not say that americans are stupid. But maybe a lot of americans think that their country is the centre of the universe, and are not interested in other countries and cultures. This of course is a generalisation though. I travel the world a lot and see a lot of american backpackers and travellers in my travels.
Piffka wrote:
Except I've seen that there are some excellent teachers who never get the toe in the door of closely-entrenched school districts. Just because a teacher works in a fancy school district doesn't mean they're good, maybe they're just yes-men and women. I have a friend who started into education late. Now, for the local school district, that's the kiss of death. What? You did something else with your life? Unless you are related to someone (Oh yeah, nepotism reigns around here -- you'd be shocked.) you'll never even get an interview. My friend started his own newspaper and ran it for about seven years. Then he started working for the major daily and stayed until it de-unionized. That's when he went back to get a Educ. M.A. But in this state it is a combination of experience & education that gets noticed and there are some bad teachers with loads of it.
Your friend sounds like the perfect candidate for teaching. In fact, you should have him check out
http://www.teachforamerica.org/looking.html .
Quote:Who we're looking for
We need those of you who have what it takes - both to excel as a teacher despite immense challenges and to ultimately assume great influence in our country - to step up and take our effort forward.
Each year, Teach For America launches an aggressive effort to recruit the most outstanding graduating college seniors and recent college graduates - people who will be the future leaders in fields such as business, medicine, politics, law, journalism, education, and social policy. We seek a diverse group - socio-economically, racially, ethnically, politically, and in every other respect.
We seek leaders who can describe significant past achievements and who operate with an exceptional level of personal responsibility for outcomes. Because our corps members face such tremendous challenges, we seek applicants who have demonstrated determination and persistence when confronted with obstacles in the past. Lastly, we seek people with the specific skills - from critical thinking to organizational ability - that we have seen characterize our most successful teachers.
And that's my last plug for them, I swear. I just think it's a great program.
You guys are looking at this all wrong, or at least from a typical american point of view.
The argument is not about schools and education per se. Geography to most people in the world is not JUST a subject in school.
Most Americans live very insulated lives, secure in America, the blanket. The news, entertainment, travel is customized to sell itself to the american public and generally, what americans find interesting is themselves. World geography and news are rarely reported. You, as a nation, are more interested in navel gazing. Aside from a few outstanding newspapers and magazines the US publishes, world events are more apt to get a few minutes of confusing, ticker tape TV coverage.
In Europe, trade, sports and travel between countries is more commonplace, a measure of day to day life.
Americans have little interest in geography and as a result your schools place little importance on it. It would be hypocritical to blame schools soley on this phenomenon...
Ceili wrote:In Europe, trade, sports and travel between countries is more commonplace, a measure of day to day life.
Americans have little interest in geography and as a result your schools place little importance on it. It would be hypocritical to blame schools soley on this phenomenon...
It is also a lot easier to travel between countries in Europe. A tunnel from london to paris a quick plane ride to Italy from there maybe Greece... you can literaly spend a weekend in another country and be back for work on Monday. It takes a lot more for Americans to be able to do that.
I think saying that we don't know about other countries because we only care about ourselves is an inane statement.
