Someone in the national educational arena commented recently that our schools are failing our children.
I just thought, how can teachers—those who work with so little against such a great tide of problems, and who accomplish so much in their day to day lives, character, and academic development of children—do any morethan they do?
I once observed teachers every day who gave totally of themselves.
Today, teachers are required to deal with a multitude of health, social, economic, developmental, and ethical problems.
Their job is to teach, and the students’ job is to learn.
But there is an undercurrent of commitment from teachers that often goes unnoticed.
They are teachers, yes; but they are also parents in place of parents in loco parentis. They are providers, counselors, nurses, referees, social workers, coaches, life skills directors, comforters, and supporters.
Children, meanwhile, play out their issues all day long.
Although born to learn, many children do not progressin the classroom, until their instructors meet theiremotional needs.
And increasingly, we are seeing children come to school damaged by their parents’ substance abuse.
In some areas, fifty percent of children do not live with their parents.
Some children often remain traumatized by a cadre of retched and repulsive teachers, who often encourage their young charges to experiment with different genders and genital awareness.
“Pleasure is fun, so you don’t have to feel guilty or self-conscious about who you are,” they whisper to the children.
Yet, it remains a dark secret kept from parents and the community, and we never know why our children seememotionally disturbed, often failing to learn or function properly in the school environment.
There are children troubled and disturbed and neglected at all levels.
Some have never heard a story or held a pencil when they walk into an elementary school for the first time. With students’ academic and verbal development delayed, schools eventually will pay a price at assessment time, when students get tested, on their grade or age level.
Sadly, these children will have their own kids in a few years, often much too early.
And yet, national education officials claim to have made great strides in the development of Head Start and pre-school programs, which really amount to governmental parenting.
Meanwhile, society is failing while schools are criticized and penalized even though teachers cannot fix society’s problems in the classroom alone.
Society is looking to school systems to solve its social problems.
We can try, we can love our students, and we can teach them what they are able to learn. However, we cannot change a system overstuffed and bloated with bureaucratic gobbledygook—in other words, administrative jargon that says nothing and does nothing to help children learn.
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We require more of the teaching profession than any other occupation. Teachers earn less compensation thanpractically any other profession.
A nurse straight out of an Associate Degree Registered Nurse program on the first day on the job starts out at a thirty-year teaching veteran’s salary.
With seven years of college, career–long professional development sessions, and 25 years of teaching experience, an educator still earns a salary that is at the bottom of middle-class income level.
Starting out, a beginning teacher almost qualifies for government food stamps.
Walk into any government or state building and read the sign: “Are you eligible for food stamps? Join America’s Dinner Table.”
Up until that point, we all love teaching.
The harsh reality, meanwhile, is that teachers’ families have needs too.
Teaching is not an exact science. Neither is it an act of charity, as some would have us believe.
As professionals, teachers need a professional salary.
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And as I have said before in this column, and I will say it again, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) originally may have contained a morsel of worth.
We all should value and instruct every child.
Passing a law that all children will achieve a proficiency level or skills mastery by a certain datedoes not change the ability of children to learn.
It puts unrealistic expectations on the education system and on teachers, who already were “battle fatigued”before NCLB came along. Obama’s “Race to the Top” also flopped and failed in practicality. It was just a newly invented label for the same old bureaucratic rubbish, only sporting a different title.
I agree that teaching standards should always go upward. Professionalism and professional development are absolute musts, but there are circumstances we cannot change.
The educational system expects teachers to emphasizethat all children are equal.
They are not. They have equal rights. They also have equal standards, but they do not have equal abilities any more than the masses of society are equal in their capacities.
Each child is different with unique aptitudes, capabilities, and character traits. Accordingly, some students have a great deal more ability than others. All are valuable, but to hold the same expectancy for all of them is illogical.
A school can have high numbers of distinguished students and still fail to achieve Annual Yearly Progress (AYP), basically because too many studentswith learning disabilities are enrolled.
Areas with extreme poverty are automatically at risk. Larger schools are more at risk, simply because one numerical standard applies to all.
It is a formula for ratios, but with strict, rigid numbers.
Counties and school districts fall into the same dilemma: they cannot have more than fifty students in a subgroup falling below proficiency.
Small schools are likely to pass the numerical gate,because they have fewer students in the special education subgroup.
The larger schools, however, given that nature places the same percentage of disabled learners in an area, must meet the same cutoff number of fifty.
We have an inordinately effective school system in Raleigh County with diligent, hardworking, and high-quality leadership. Our superintendent and school board are among the most fruitful in the nation.
Much of the shameful educational behavior and corruption witnessed in the cities of California, New York and Illinois have not yet arrived in our schools.
We can observe ethical violations and criminal, debauched, and wicked acts being performed across the nation on nightly news and on the internet, and on Facebook.
With an increasing number of regulations and less and less currency to spread among administrators, teachers,and staff, all must forgo their personal lives and work long hours to fight an unreasonable and unscientific enemy.
Where is the logic in that?
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Top o’ the morning!