<p>Teachers often spend as many waking hours each day with children as their parents spend with them. However, educators feel the communication lines between teachers and parents are not very open. When asked what they'd want parents to know about education, five specific concerns surfaced. Please visit the link below to view the entire story.</p>
<p>5</a> things teachers want parents to know – Schools of Thought - CNN.com Blogs</p>
<p>From the article:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Oh, gag me! Teaching elementary school children is no rare skill; most reasonably-educated parents can do so. Controlling a class of 20-30 kids may be an acquired skill, but teaching is something that almost everyone does at some point in life: with children, siblings, spouses and co-workers. Computers would still be a mystery to most of the population if we had not helped one another and instead waited for “the professionals” to explain everything!</p>
<p>My experience with teachers was that they would say they wanted teacher-parent communication, but when the parents actually communicated with them, the teachers usually reacted negatively.</p>
<p>I think that the teachers were looking for specific types of communication. But what they wanted was never made clear. So what mostly happened is that we all irritated each other.</p>
<p>^^ That’s one of the reasons teachers are underpaid. Every parent who has ever taught their kid to tie their shoes thinks they could teach algebra to a room full of squirrelly 13 year olds.</p>
<p>Just as with any profession, there are those who are good at their jobs and those who are not. In the public school system, it’s very difficult to remove those who are not which means that there are more teaching than would be under normal scenarios where they would be let go. It’s the parents’ jobs to make sure that things are going as they should at school and with the teachers. </p>
<p>Sue22, most parents that I know would not think they could teach algebra or deal with a room of 13 year olds. They do expect those who are in there to do so to be able to do so with competence.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Mutual respect is a big part of communication. If parents have so little respect for their kids’ teachers, it’s no wonder the kids themselves show so little respect. </p>
<p>Anyone who really believes that it’s easy to teach 25-30 students, each with different levels of ability, skill and learning styles, really has no clue what the job is all about.
If teaching is so easy, why do we have the problems in the education system that we have? It should be a piece of cake- I mean, anyone can do it. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>cptofthehouse,
You’re right. In my frustration I overstated my point. What I should have said is that some parents think that because they’ve taught their child to tie their shoes they can teach a room full of squirrelly 13 year olds.</p>
<p>I taught a Sunday school class of 1st and 2nd graders for a couple of years. Usually 12-15 kids about 2/3rds boys. It was 45 minutes 1 day a week. I would not be cut out to teach on a regular basis. Usually they were good kids. There were days I wanted to lecture the kids and spank the parents:)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Both of you are mixing factory-style production techniques with basic skills. One can be an excellent carpenter and yet not be able to run a furniture factory without additional specific training. The factory, on the other hand, seeks to turn out uniform widgets, not individually-crafted artisan pieces.</p>
<p>As a parent, I don’t care how about the whole class, I care about how my own children are succeeding, relative to their abilities.</p>
<p>I may not be able to teach algebra to a classroom full of 13-year-olds, but I had no trouble teaching algebra to my 6-year-old. Your average certified teacher cannot teach algebra to a 6-year-old because they have been so conditioned to teach to the median they simply cannot wrap their minds around the fact that there are indeed 6-year-olds who are able and eager to learn such material. Explain it once and move to the next section or you’ll bore them silly.</p>
<p>I’ve known quite a few brilliant teachers over the years, but the ones who fall back on the “we’re the professionals, trust us” argument always turned out to either be substandard in their abilities or unable to see beyond their median-centric bias.</p>
<p>That teacher could almost certainly teach algebra to your six year old…if they had the leisure you did to teach one-on-one. Instead they’re probably struggling with two highly advanced students, one 2E, fifteen or twenty average kids (all with varying strengths and weaknesses) and eight with varying LDs. If you want to get the absolute best out of your student, by all means hire a private tutor or do it yourself, but don’t criticize a trained professional for not being able to do with 30 kids what you can do with one easy kid at a time. </p>
<p>To follow your analogy, one can be an excellent furniture maker yet still have no idea how to build a house.</p>
<p>I have a child with a severe math disability. She’s 11 and can’t add 5 plus six in her head, but with the proper teaching interventions she’s been able to keep up in a tough pre-algebra class. Thank god for trained teachers who have been able to work with her to keep her on track. Without them she’d still be quite literally smacking her head against the table trying to memorize the times tables.</p>
<p>^ (@LoremIpsum) Are you suggesting you didn’t just denigrate an entire profession with the following statement, in which you clearly weren’t referring to one-on-one teaching but instead suggested that anyone who breathes might be considered as professional as those who teach every day?</p>
<p>Let’s see: Class, interpret the following persuasive argument presented by the aptly named Lorem Ipsum. Extra points if you can deconstruct it to detect and reject propaganda:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Very well said.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>And we wonder why the American education system is going down the tubes. Gag me!</p>
<p>Education isn’t a business, it’s a service. Students come from many different backgrounds, many different expectations, many skill levels. Teachers have little control over what or even how they teach, but are wrongly held accountable for every test score the gov’t and test companies can create. Tests make people feel better, but they don’t actually prove much and years of research backs that up. </p>
<p>American education is coming apart at the seams, imho, for many reasons and one of them is that rather than stand their ground, partner with the teachers, and demand better from their state governments, those same reasonably well educated American parents with the means to do so too often abandon public schools. (I realize that’s not a popular view here on CC) If education is important for my child, it is important for every child. It is especially important for the children who CAN’T leave the school. Vouchers will not fix that, they just accelerate the abandonment. Privatizing (at least in PA) has not fixed schools. Raising a ruckus over it could make a difference. Imagine if we were as worked up about bad math scores, poverty, illiteracy, patronage, etc. as we are (as a country) about Kim Kardashian’s hair or Obama’s birth certificate.</p>
<p>I think it’s shameful the lack of respect that teachers get in today’s society. It really leads to a very harmful vicious cycle. They get no respect, so some do not act in a way deserving respect - and then we point to those few and scream, “SEE, they’re not worthy of respect!” painting them all with the same broad brush.</p>
<p>kmcmom13, one does not need a teaching certificate in order to be able to teach, one needs to know the subject material well. Colleges, including the Ivies, do not require teaching certificates from their professors. Many elite private schools do not require a teaching certificate. Are they all wrong for not hiring “professionals”?</p>
<p>For the record, I am skeptical of anyone in a service position who feels the need to openly declare “we are the professionals.” A true professional will recognize that you know more about your business, your children or your life than they do, and will ask you targeted specifics and then offer their expertise as it applies to your specific situation. They earn their reputation as a professional by offering sage advice, not by reminding you of their degree or certification.</p>
<p>When I talk to my accountant, I only care about the advice she offers that applies to me. I do not judge her success on how many other clients she can juggle at the same time and if some of them are “squirrelly.” She may be good at managing large numbers of clients or not, but I’m there for the core expertise, not for the crowd management skills.</p>
<p>I think that some teachers don’t even enjoy their job and just take it out on others. Their main job is to communicate with parents yet they don’t really seem to like that type of confrontation.</p>
<p>If all these teachers were “professional” and this was their "expertise’ why are we having so many students graduate without the ability to read or write at an acceptable level?</p>
<p>Why do I feel I’d be MUCH better off for not clicking on that link? Why do I think that it will contain the usual litany of excuses and the typical NEA narrative? </p>
<p>Nah, I will let my curiosity win me over. Then I will post my thoughts and be harpooned for being a unbashful critic of the profession. </p>
<p>Deja vu! Now I’ll click on the link. Can’t resist!</p>
<p>Well</p>
<p>I didn’t read it.</p>