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Are we leaving no room for the possibility that parents are dropping off undisciplined, angry, ill-prepared kids with no respect for adults or authority, and that the best of teachers with the greatest of intentions is wasted on being a warden?
My wife teaches 1st grade at a private school, and there are students who flat our refuse to follow any instruction she gives, who are being trained by their parents that if they scream loud enough, they’ll get to keep playing with their toy, or watching TV, whatever. How do you solve that with money? She is a very driven and gifted, highly trained teacher, but this will be her last year of teaching. It neatly coincides with her getting finishing her master’s degree. She wanted to be a teacher, not a parent to 22 kids who apparently haven't had one.
My dad was a math teacher at an urban school for 35 years, in the trenches of education. By the time he left, it wasn’t because he didn’t love teaching; it was because he wasn’t able to teach. He spent his whole time on classroom management, and it was on things like “Don’t smoke week in my class”, “Stop copping a feel with your girlfriend in my class”, “Please don’t knife another student in my class.” How do you solve that with money?
I’m not that old. I’m not old enough to be saying things like “Kids these days, grumble gumble grumble”. But it’s true! Our culture has lost their ability to raise up their children, and the fruit of the poisoned tree is ripening in our schools.
-sm
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