I have to admit that I taught 9th grade geography in South Carolina - and no she was not one of my students. I did teach low level at a rural school and a large number of my students could not label the 7 continents on a world map the first day or class or label the U.S. It is very sad and very disappointing when they reach high school with such little knowledge! And I have to defend public school teachers and say that you can only do so much with what you have to work with.
"And I have to defend public school teachers and say that you can only do so much with what you have to work with." You talking `bout the students or the budget?
I see your point Jiggy! I understand and agree with you. I have seen a couple of things with Homeschooling parents. There are two types, maybe more. 1. Parents that are teaching homeschool as an alternative to public schools because of situations like ours was, or similiar. 2. Those who choose to homeschool to shelter their kids from the world in general. These are the kids you hardly ever see outside, they are never playing with other kids, and these are the types that show up and doors like Spicoli and freeze. They only know their parents so when they are confronted by other adults they are afraid. If you met my son you'd have no idea that he was homeschool. None! Other then the fact I told ya. Granted he was only homeschool one year. One of his girlfriends in middleschool was homeschool along with her brothers. She didn't get to go to a public school until I believe 7th grade. You can't tell with either of those kids either. Again, they were not the sheltered type. They played with friends, went to the movies, did sports, you name it. So your right there are those who end up lacking those skills you mentioned. However, most of those skills can be fixed quickly. I would rather have that situation then a bunch of dense kids that don't know or haven't learned anything past the 9th grade because they are so far behind or left behind. At that point most of them would be very difficult to help in a public school without the help of a special education program. For the most part I don't have a problem with public schools. I think what needs to be worked on is: higher educated teachers getting just pay. smaller classroom sizes (student wise) councelors that actually do their jobs updated books and going back to the teaching method of IN SCHOOL teaching, instead of relying on parents to teach the lesson in which most are not qualified to do properly. My wife worked at a elementary school where she worked with two kids that were of special needs care all day! This is partially why my wife made a good teacher.
There's ignorance and stupidity in the world. Give a stupid person as much knowledge as you want, they'll still be a liability to someone. Just identify the stupid kids, then teach them how to carry cement bags from point A to point B instead of worrying about how many continents they can name.
Yep and if I only had one student in every one of my classes, I would venture to guess that the LEAPS forward would be huge also. If I had known teaching was soo easy, I wouldn't have bothered going to college. Yes... I am a public school teacher...and yes your comments offend me. Flame on.....
To add to my pride, I live about 20 miles from Lexington. Some day she may serve me a hamburger. We have had our son in two different schools, the first he was barley making it, and the second he went to A/B honor roll for just over a year and a half. It seems the teachers you get make a big difference. They didn't get easier, we just founds some that would listen to us and get to know him. Now maybe he can teach me to spell and proof read
I had an 8th grader who was a D student and in trouble all the time. I took him racing and he instantly became a B student and stopped getting in trouble. He graduated HS with a 3.5 average. I recommend racing as a motivator, as in, oh, you wanna race? No problem. Stop getting Ds and start behaving. Relapse, and you stay home. It worked great.