A thought occurs! (Teachers and teaching)

A brief musing from a public school employee

In b4 tl;dr.


I have noticed something interesting about teachers. They can be divided into two types. "Pains in the asses" and "Great people" - at least in terms of dealing with them on a professional level.

The PITA group are the ones who have been teaching all their professional lives. They graduated high school, went to college, and became a teacher. They know nothing, or very little about the real world, and have probably never had a real boss outside of a superintendent. or a building principal that they didn't leave when summer was over.
These people are impossible to work with. They are demanding, they have unrealistic expectations of those that work in the peripheral areas of the school, and have always got something to complain about.

New, young teachers are on the fast track to becoming PITA oriented.

By and large, their student experience is limited to what they learned in a text book, or what they've been looking at in a classroom for 30 years. They can be effective teachers, but are forgotten almost as soon as a student leaves school, much of the time they're just plain hated by the kids.  

The other group, Are easy to deal with. Odds are, they spent time doing something else prior to teaching. Perhaps working a blue collar job, or serving in the military, whatever. Either way, they've been given a good, solid look at the world of work, at how things REALLY are- and they're great to work with. They'll make a request and understand that they may not be the first in line to be taken care of. They're the ones that don't partake in the gripe-fests of the teacher's lounge, and often will eat lunch in their own rooms, alone. You can have a conversation with them about almost anything. You wouldn't mind having a beer with them after hours.

Most of them are middle aged to older, and can relate to their students better. They actually make better teachers, and will be remembered and emulated by their students.


So. I hereby propose a solution to end the streamlining of people into academia, which smacks of a significant lack of real world experiences, and can ultimately lead to the suffering of students, and the people who work with these unfortunate souls.

As soon as you graduate high school, you may go to college to become a teacher if you wish....BUT, you are not allowed to enter a teaching job until you turn 30. This will force almost a decade of real world work on everyone entering the teaching field, and cannot do anything but benefit everyone.

Your ability to deal with your professional colleagues will improve, as will your ability to deal with your students, because your exposure to them will not be limited to some educational psychology textbook and a semester of student teaching.

_____________________________________

......I don't actually expect responses, nor do I really think anyone is dumb enough to read all the way through that, but I had a thought while I was hammering out an e-mail to one particularly obnoxious teacher and figured I'd take the figurative pen in hand and spread my wisdom to the world.

Why I started here, I'll never know.




Edited by Reb Cpl - 16 October 2008 at 10:37am

Its not a serious thought at all, and isn't meant to be taken as a solution to sucky teachers.

Its something I concocted out of irritation thanks to the bladder brains that I have to deal with on a daily basis.

You make excellent points for not being serious at all, though. The teachers I remember most are the military guys, the ones who have had field/work experience in the subject they taught, and the hot ones.

Starship Troopers?

Rambino wrote: Starship Troopers?

I'm fine with that too.

Rambino wrote: Starship Troopers?

I'm right there with you, Reb.

Teaching high school is something that sits in the back
of my mind as a possible alternative later in life. If I
end up in the police force I could see myself doing that
til I got older and less interested in a physically
active job, take a 20 year pension, get out and go into
teaching.

FreeEnterprise wrote: I home school my kids as well. Public education in this country is such a joke.

speaking as someone who went to public school (a "good" public school even) private school, and was homeschooled... i strongly agree with that statement. yes i had a few good teachers that managed to make that class a great learning experience, but those were a small minority.

I have also just been handed the realization that teachers are crybabies.

For over a year I've been trying to get them to use a certain program which makes grades, assignments, and class information available on the web for student and parent use, it makes life so simple. For a year, the majority of them have been fighting me.

The other day I sent an e-mail out that was pretty much a slap on the wrist. I was curt, but courteous....and I managed to offend the entire 7-12 staff here because they felt like they were being  yelled at.

I was just approached by a teacher who pretty much reamed me out with a "Who do you think you are" speech. It was all I could do to keep from telling her that the message was necessary because the staff is full of incompetent boobs who like to do things the hard way.

ugh. I think I'll be a homeless man for a while....at least then people ignore you.

Me wrote: This is a quick message to once again beg those of you who are not using Edline to post grades and class information to start doing so ASAP. Your students are all using it, and while I was giving the 7th graders their tutorials today, it was difficult to explain to them how important it is when only 3 (yes, 3) of their teachers were using it regularly to post up information. We've had it in place for almost a year now, and its success is undeniable when taking into account the number of parents who are looking for edline access, and the number of students who use it each day, from school AND from home. In order for it to be a complete success, we need all of you to help out. Some of you have classes where it isn't necessary to post such information, and I understand that, but many of you have curious parents and students eager to put the program to work. In a nasty little maneuver on my part, I've been encouraging students so start badgering those of you who aren't using it. :) Posting your grades weekly is a great start, but Edline has so much more to offer than that, for you AND your students. If you're still confused about it please (picture me on one knee right now) see me about getting any worries or trepidations about edline cleared up so we can use it to its fullest potential. Or, ask around to your colleagues who DO use it, and I'm fairly certain that you'll get a favorable response. Thank you in advance for the response that I know I'll get! -Jason

That was it. I copied it from my sent items box exactly as it was.


Edited by Reb Cpl - 17 October 2008 at 8:44am