Teachers. Your unions have done you well, but.....

[Varmit]

A lot of parents sit down with their kids and help with homework.  In many cases my wife and I have had to show our kids how to do the work properly because the teacher didn't.  Most weeks my oldest kid has additional work put on him by me and my wife, espcially in the areas of history, reading, math, because the materials assigned by his teachers are a joke. 

[Diane Amberg]

Varmit, I really did know what you meant but my comment would still be the same. At what point should "at risk" kids be identified? I know when I taught third grade I had a few each year who were already far behind and they had only been in school for two years before they came to me! Several had already been held back once. Now, when you have a child that young who has already repeated second grade, with a different teacher, and went to a reading specialist several days a week as well as having reading with me, that child is just slow to get it, and/or very immature and not ready to learn in the "traditional" way, but not so slow as to be identified as special ed. Kids who have identifiable learning problems, such as dyslexia, will always have reading difficulties and will always need extra help that not all school districts can afford. Eventually they will develop coping skills to overcome their problems to a point, but in many other countries they would have already been written off. I think we would do better to look at the overall adult success rate and include all factors, the parents' attitudes and involvement, the abilities and credentials of the teachers, the attitudes of the administrative staff, the attitudes of the school board and the abilities of the individual child. I don't approve of schools "graduating" kids that can't perform, never did, but the pressure to shove them through is tremendous in some situations. As far as computers replacing teachers....for some kids who are self starters and learn well on their own, that is already an option. Most kids do best with a combination of things, using as many senses as possible.  Sure, there are some poor teachers out there just as their are poor lawyers, mechanics and vehicle drivers but it's not fair to tar all teachers with the same brush without knowing all the facts. Why is our rating against other countries so important? Are their kids more successful at adult life than ours?  If one wants to be a successful farmer why does one care how kids in Germany do with Shakespeare anyway? Get the education that fits! And keep on learning, why stop just because your formal education is finished?
Varmit ,why do you think your child's homework is a "joke." Have you asked the teacher what it was all about and what she had in mind? Isn't it hard enough to suit you? Doesn't it take long enough to suit you?  What do you mean by "properly"? If it's "Singapore Math" it will seem strange to you but that doesn't make it wrong or improper.

[Varmit]

I think the homework is a joke because of the lack of it for one, another is it isn't challenging enough and is far below my kids potential.  I have asked his teachers about this and they said that it was about the average level for his peers.  I tried to explain to her that the "level" is too low, she didn't get it.  Now, I'm not that great at math so I leave that up to my wife, who is a genuis with it, and there have been several instances where the teacher had "taught" the kids the wrong method of working out the problems. 

I know that there are good teachers and there are bad teachers, but I'm talking about performance of our educational system overall. 

As for other countries and our ratings...if we are to maintain our position in a global community then we need to be turning out a product that is superior to others.  That goes for everything, not just education.

[Lookatmeknow!!]

I agree with you on some levels of what you are saying. I understand that you think your child needs to be challenged and thats great. I do believe in trying to teach to the highest level in the group of children. I also believe that every child learns different and as a teacher you sometimes have to try things outside the box to get the attention of the children and make them learn. I do know that my middle child learns about things that aren't standard based. She has learned about many things that I actually forgot about. I think that is great. But every classroom of students is different. When I taught kindergarten, I had students that were reading at first grade level. I would get things off of the internet to challenge those students, such as reading a story and writting about what the main point of the story was. I did this for them when they were done with other assignments. I believe it helped those students further their education.

I also believe that there are several ways that math can be done and different ways that it is taught. Like carrying, I do it my way and my daughter was taught a different way. We both do it right, just not the same. I sit down and help my girls with their homework, but with my 7th grader I have to let her do what she can on her own first or she has me showing her how to do every problem. I know how to do it, she needs to learn. I also don't believe that a child has to have hours of homework a night. As a busy parent, I like having nights with only about 30 minutes of homework. I don't think there is anything that I can say that will make you see where I am coming from. But I do know that the teachers that my girls have had and have are doing a great job!!