Neutrality of Teachers

Heck, I taught history one way, computer programming another way. I also changed my approach in a subject given the size and composition of a particular class.

British Columbia in Canada has the top literacy score in the world in PISA literacy test but they seldom force students to take standardized tests.

I used essay tests in my history classes. Good for you.

Sure, why not?

 

My wife taught family studies.

 

Did it prepare them to be better parents? I don’t know what family studies is. Classes aren’t always what the name implies.

 

Agreed, but it's a lot of work to evaluate essays. I'm not surprised English teachers in particular burn out on essays when they might have 200 or more students.

 

Yes, and better people.

It's about parenting, personal relationships, sexuality, family roles, and on and on.

 

Tell her thanks for me (even though I’m not big on teaching sexuality in government schools).

 

I agree. All this ought to be the responsibility of parents. It’s a no win situation in my opinion once parents turn their responsibility over to others.

 

Sorry, didn’t flesh out my thoughts.

Preparing kids to be good parents doesn’t have to be preachy. Learning about credit card interest rates and rent to own services is all facts but prepares people to be good parents. Same with hordes of other things like health science, using spreadsheets to make wise buying decisions, and on and on.

If you and Langley had classrooms full of students with intact, functional, caring families your job would be more enjoyable and fulfilling. At this point you are expected to do the impossible for the ungrateful.

 

It's not a 'belief', it's statistics from academically selective public schools from around the world. You have them in America, so you can look into it any time. The one in New York has - again - 40% 'poor' kids. And they had to compete with rich kids to get in .. beating hundreds or even thousands of rich kids in doing so.

How do you explain this to yourself, if you think academic success is a product of wealth?

 

BINGO!

 

Yes, but it is not a function OF poverty, it's a function of the same thing which keeps them IN poverty. Apathy, laziness, addictions, greed (yes, greed can manifest in the absence of money), infantile levels of self-discipline, etc etc.

 

We didn't even bother. No kid is going to be lucky enough to have a full array of wonderful teachers, so it's a given that some will be good and some will be crap. We figured it was our job to pick up any slack in the array.

 

The programs might be better than you think. The pastor of the 2500-member Baptist church ran all of his daughters through my wife's course. She gave a thorough sex ed part of the course from all the "how to" they could want to info about STDs, contraceptives, contraception, pregnancy, and childbirth. She had them take Baby Think It Over home for a couple of days.

 

Pick up the slack as best you can. It's tough if the kid's teacher is lousy in your weak area.

 

1) you're not required to 'care' about social skills. as long as the kid is keeping up academically, and had no anti-social behaviours, it's none of your business if they're shy, or have no friends, or won't look you in the eye, or whatever. that stuff is often cultural and therefore out of your wheelhouse as an educator.

2) yes, they can. assuming a cognitively normal child, medicine is not impossible. but not everyone wants to work that hard.

3) academics are literacy, numeracy, and sciences. and when I say sciences I don't mean social sciences. and I would teach anthropology, rather than flat history. a focus on the history of human society would be far more useful, with just a brief overview of the past 200 years. much less room for propaganda and politics to creep in, also.

4) On the contrary, I'm a socialist Leftie. That's why I don't want resources wasted on non-pragmatics. "Luxury" subjects, as it were.

5) No, I'm not trying to make education cheaper, I want resources currently allocated to luxury subjects, reallocated to the sciences and math etc. Do you understand the difference? I don't want less, I want different. Perhaps you don't quite grasp the degree of difficulty Gen Z and beyond will have keeping roofs over their heads.

6) Who are you to decide what a student's 'life skills' should look like? Some parents want their kid hopelessly innocent and virginal til marriage. Some parents buy their 16 year old condoms and give them wine with dinner. Some parents do nothing about anything, because that's THEIR preference. None of your business. Not your concern. Your concern is academics - period.

 

Then you pick up slack 'harder'. All of it is surmountable with support and determination.

 

In 2019, there is great danger in thinking that money isn't important.

Once, minimum wage earners could have adventures and own homes. Those days are rapidly coming to an end. We must prepare our kids for current reality, not our own reality of 30+ years ago.

 

Cool. In high school we got assigned marriage partners and “made” our own babies together (yeh, ha ha) out of fabric and soybeans. There were a lot of ugly babies. Pretty low tech compared to your example but it was a boarding school where everyone went to class half days and worked half. We had to work out care schedules with our partner and all the faculty were in on the monitoring and reporting of inattention/irresponsibility. For a week. It does make one assess realities of life.

Sorry, being ignorant on such matters I have to ask. How many daughters does a Baptist pastor have?

 

But it really isn't. Go to a 'poor' Asian migrant community (yes, they exist) and I guarantee that the environment will support education.

 

The only way you can teach good parenting is by MODELLING good parenting. It's not words, it's actions. Be a good parent, and you'll produce good parents.

 

Happiness and contentment will always be more important than money in my opinion. And I wasn’t taught it was unimportant. Just that making accumulation of money your goal can ruin your life just as surely as not having enough.

Your points on a changing world are well taken though.

 

That’s where it’s at for sure. That’s why in other posts I’ve said teachers are attempting the impossible when trying to fill the void left by parents today.