A thought occurs! (Teachers and teaching)
Printed From: Tippmann Paintball
Category: News And Views
Forum Name: Thoughts and Opinions
Forum Description: Got something you need to say?
URL: http://www.tippmannsports.com/forum/wwf77a/forum_posts.asp?TID=178477
Printed Date: 18 August 2026 at 1:49am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.04 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: A thought occurs! (Teachers and teaching)
Posted By: Reb Cpl
Subject: A thought occurs! (Teachers and teaching)
Date Posted: 16 October 2008 at 10:37am
|
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. ------------- ? |
Replies:
Posted By: GI JOES SON
Date Posted: 16 October 2008 at 10:48am
|
dumb enough to read it no. procrastination sort of set in though... i understand what you're saying, its not something that would seem effective on a district wide thing, my speculation is it would burn out before getting far. it seems like something to write a thesis on (painstakingly irritating to say the extreme least) and send it to a major college in the area as a lecture perhaps. just a thought. |
Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 16 October 2008 at 10:50am
|
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. ------------- ? |
Posted By: GI JOES SON
Date Posted: 16 October 2008 at 10:52am
| as a recent hs graduate, i saw it as a plausible solution and would welcome it with open arms if it meant my kids teachers weren't retarted. |
Posted By: Gatyr
Date Posted: 16 October 2008 at 10:55am
|
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. ------------- 
|
Posted By: FreeEnterprise
Date Posted: 16 October 2008 at 10:55am
|
I agree with your viewpoint. Book education only gets you book knowledge. Look at Obama, he constantly changes his mind about his positions because in acadamia, that is normal. In the real world, wishy washy cost money and lives. My sister, and sister in law are both teachers. My sister in law went to a very liberal school and of course came out with those viewpoints. She has started to shift the other way, now that she sees the issues and the massive amount of fiscal waste in her school district. My sister on the other hand works in her field, and as a teacher to students she brings real world experience to her classes. We need to rate all our teachers. And if you get put in a class with a bad teacher, you should be able to easily change. That would put more focus on education and less on politics. Here is my sisters rating, although now she is teaching her children at home. As a home schooler. http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=287298 - http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=287298 I home school my kids as well. Public education in this country is such a joke.
|
Posted By: Rambino
Date Posted: 16 October 2008 at 11:03am
|
Starship Troopers? ------------- [IMG]http://i38.tinypic.com/aag8s8.jpg"> |
Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 16 October 2008 at 11:04am
Ah, the hot ones. I didn't have any when I was in school, but I worked with a girl last year that registered about a 57 on the 1-10 scale. Sadly, she moved to Houston to live with her doctor husband.  My father is a pretty good example of what I'm trying to say here I guess. He put himself through college to be a teacher while working as a custodian and a bus driver while supporting a wife and three kids. He didn't start teaching till he was in his forties, with plenty of real world stuff under his belt. His first year teaching in NY, he had a 100% passing rate on the regents exam, and was up for tenure within two years instead of the usual three. The kids love him out there, and he gets along with the administration without any trouble. On the flip side of the coin, we have a woman here whose been teaching for 30 odd years, its the only job she's ever had and the kids don't like her, I don't like her, and the other teaches say lovely things about her when she isn't here. hmm...... ------------- ? |
Gatyr wrote:Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 16 October 2008 at 11:05am
I'm fine with that too. ------------- ? |
Posted By: FlimFlam
Date Posted: 16 October 2008 at 11:11am
Service guarantees citizenship... ------------- 
|
Posted By: PaiNTbALLfReNzY
Date Posted: 16 October 2008 at 11:15am
|
Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 16 October 2008 at 11:24am
Spend some time dealing with the NYS education system and you'll get a feel for how bad it is. Getting a teaching degree here is so difficult that you can move out of state and not have to do much if anything to be granted an equivalency certification. Come INTO NY from anywhere else, and you're going back to school and taking all kinds of tests. (I'm sort of proud that I lasted through the curriculum long enough to get certified) But that being said, NY is such a ball buster to work in, that we EXPORT more teachers and teaching candidates than any other state. The pay elsewhere is better, cost of living is lower, and in many cases we're not teaching to a state mandated exam that spells 'gospel' for how the school operates. You don't teach content here, you teach test material, which is why I'm about 80% certain that I'm not going to teach here.....ever, despite two jobs opening up in the fall that I'm a pretty good candidate for. Another huge reason might sound sort of snobbish- I don't want to end up like the PITA crowd. I went to high school then college, then started looking for a teaching job. Before too long, the little bit of the real world that I do know might be overshadowed and my education might bet in the way of my ability to function as an effective PERSON, much less a teacher. ------------- ? |
Posted By: brihard
Date Posted: 16 October 2008 at 11:55am
|
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. ------------- "Abortion is not "choice" in America. It is forced and the democrats are behind it, with the goal of eugenics at its foundation." -FreeEnterprise, 21 April 2011. Yup, he actually said that. |
Posted By: Rambino
Date Posted: 16 October 2008 at 12:07pm
|
Many of us working stiffs would love to "retire" into teaching. The problem, of course, is that for most people who have put in 20 years in the private sector, the salary for a "new" teacher is simply unacceptable. Fine, I'll take a paycut, but there is a limit to how much I can stomach. Sadly, the career choice of many teachers (in my experience) is influenced in no small degree by the desire to have an easy daily schedule. Perhaps if we could find a way to expand the duties of teachers (if only optionally) to justify a proper salary, in order to be a better alternative to a private sector job. Dunno. Tricky problem. ------------- [IMG]http://i38.tinypic.com/aag8s8.jpg"> |
Posted By: adrenalinejunky
Date Posted: 16 October 2008 at 12:15pm
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. |
Posted By: BARREL BREAK
Date Posted: 16 October 2008 at 9:43pm
|
I've had roughly equal amounts of good/memorable teachers from both groups.
My favorite teacher in High School came to our school straight out of college, and the best professor I had last year spent 20+ years in the field with the Peace Corps and doing research. e: Counter example (as long as we're going anecdotal)- The principal at my highschool was an ex-marine and probably the least competent person in the school. Not a single teacher or student liked the guy. |
Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 17 October 2008 at 8:23am
|
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. ------------- ? |
Posted By: Snake6
Date Posted: 17 October 2008 at 8:35am
|
Post the email plox.
------------- 
|
Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 17 October 2008 at 8:42am
That was it. I copied it from my sent items box exactly as it was. ------------- ? |
Posted By: Gatyr
Date Posted: 17 October 2008 at 8:47am
|
That offends me so much. Why are you so mean to those poor people? That smiley face? Ugh.
-------------
|
Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 17 October 2008 at 8:51am
You know, the more I read what I wrote, the more pissed I'm getting, there wasn't much in there that could be construed as anything more than 'curt' I was going to apologize, but I don't think I'm going to. ------------- ? |
Posted By: adrenalinejunky
Date Posted: 17 October 2008 at 8:54am
| i wouldnt... |
Posted By: PaiNTbALLfReNzY
Date Posted: 17 October 2008 at 9:00am
| Just let it simmer and sink in. Then tell them they all have AIDS. That will take the sting off. |
Posted By: Zata
Date Posted: 17 October 2008 at 9:56am
| One of the more popular teachers (with the students I mean) was a guy who used to be a Marine. You could always find him in the halls in between classes talking with students and stuff. And he wasn't just a 'cool teacher', I remember actually learning stuff in his classes. |
Posted By: Snake6
Date Posted: 17 October 2008 at 10:09am
|
Thats it? That is more a friendly email than a "you need to do or I will kill you email". I would love to get emails like that on a regular basis. I am in the same situation as you right now though. I am trying to accountability of all the govt cell phones in the Det, because ultimately I am the one responsible for them. I have called the people who have the phones, emailed the entire detachment, and I have even gone to the CO. These guys still gaff me off. I told them I need to see all of them, with their cell phones by COB today but I have a feeling that I won't see them. They are going to be in for a rude awakening come Monday when I start turning their phones off. -------------
|
Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 17 October 2008 at 10:15am
|
Heh, yeah, same boat. I'll bet the CO tells you "Its your job, not mine" and might make a few half ass suggestions, but nothing helpful right? I could yank their computer access, but they'll get all butt hurt and then I'm a dead duck if they start complaining to the very boss that won't help me win their cooperation. I think we should start our own IT company. ------------- ? |
Posted By: Skillet42565
Date Posted: 17 October 2008 at 10:17am
|
inb4 tec9/skin hat But anyway, kill them. ------------- 
|
Posted By: Mack
Date Posted: 17 October 2008 at 10:26am
I'm visualizing: "Rebel Snake IT . . . have it our way or get your butt kicked." ------------- 
|
Posted By: Snake6
Date Posted: 17 October 2008 at 10:33am
If you don't like it then get out. The CO sent them all an email about it. I guess they just really don't care. -------------
|
Posted By: mod98commando
Date Posted: 17 October 2008 at 11:34am
|
Hehe, I know exactly what you're going through Reb. My mom is a teacher here in NJ and the amount of problems with the public school system is unbelievable. Not only are most of the teachers the PITA type that you described but all of the administration is so corrupt that education seems to have almost nothing to do with the system anymore. I'm hoping that our next president will step in and make some serious changes because I have a feeling that it will get worse if not addressed very soon. I definitely agree about needing teachers with real world experience too. All of my favorite teachers through high school and college were the ones who not only knew the material but put it to use for years before teaching us. I've learned far more useful things in college than I did in high school and I think a large part of that is due to the fact that most of my teachers have worked or currently work in the field that they teach. ------------- oreomann33: Everybody invades Poland Rofl_Mao: And everyone eats turkey Me: But only if they're hungary Mack: Yeah but hungary people go russian through their food and end up with greece on everyth |
Posted By: Enos Shenk
Date Posted: 17 October 2008 at 2:30pm
|
Ugh, "online" teaching tools are CRAP. Ive had to deal with about 3 varieties of them in college, and I hated every single one. But you are spot on with this reb. Teachers need to practice what they teach, not just learn to teach it. I think my college unconsciously knows this, every instructor Ive had for "real" classes (read hands on stuff like welding, machining, etc) has years of experience under their belt before they came to teaching. One guy I had for one of my machining classes was one of the most knowledgable machinists Ive ever met. He was smart enough to know when to step in and correct, and when to let you go ahead and make your own mistakes and learn from them. But if you asked his advice, he knew more little tricks and special techniques than the textbook lost on the cutting room floor. Not to mention he was absolutely hilarious, he would tell the greatest dirt jokes ever. ------------- 
|
Posted By: Uncle Rudder
Date Posted: 17 October 2008 at 5:28pm
|
I remember being in grade school and in 7th and 8th grade my friend and I would just make stuff up and say that we saw it on The Discovery Channel and the teacher would always say "OH I SAW THAT TOO!" She was retarded. None of my teachers could use a computer for anything more than card games. They would always click the wrong thing and then freak out thinking their laptop had now become a bomb.
Needless to say, I feel sorry for you. I couldn't deal with these teachers without going postal. ------------- 
|
Posted By: impulse!
Date Posted: 17 October 2008 at 10:53pm
Haha except your kids are home schooled. Talk about not having a reality check in the world. Which is the whole subject of this thread. ------------- 
|
Posted By: Mack
Date Posted: 18 October 2008 at 1:40am
It's not that they don't care. It's that they don't care enough to go to all the trouble to come clear over to your office. (Which, I wouldn't be surprised at all to be told, might even be just down the hall from some of them.) The problem is that it won't be an issue for them until the service is interrupted or something else happens to upset their comfortable routine. Yeah . . . I've dealt with similar situations. It is among the things I don't miss at all. I have to ask if you've heard this one yet: "Well I'm the <insert random position/title that makes them think they are important> so you should just make a special exception and come to me for this issue." -------------
|
Posted By: adrenalinejunky
Date Posted: 18 October 2008 at 8:46am
for the most part - you are correct. but i do know some well adjusted homeschoolers, generally they are the ones who were involved in other activities (mainly sports - as long as they werent home school sports teams...) from a young age. also alot more people start to figure things out more when they get thier first job... some people are just hopelessly lost in thier sheltered lives though. |
Posted By: Snake6
Date Posted: 18 October 2008 at 12:26pm
That's basically how it is. I am going to start cutting service off on monday. -------------
|