Jilli Happy Bday and Yay for surgery being over! !

I get to spend the evening lolling about, eating mac n' cheese from Whole Foods, and watching my new birthday DVD of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Not quite the whirlwind celebrations of previous years, but I'm not complaining.

ION, Trinian (the Dumbest Cat in the Universe) has mysteriously turned into a lap cat. I don't know if it's that she misses Beastie, or just that her little brain is stuck in an "Oooh, people!" setting.

Last post on this subject for me for awhile.

Just want to point out that the entire institution of public education, especially in terms of teacher certification (as Emily alluded to, though I think that the states have done a helluva lot more for that than stoopid No Teacher Left Standing) has changed a LOT since when most of the people on the board were a part of it. I always get frustrated when I hear the "my school sucked 20 or 30 years ago; therefore, public schools still suck" argument. It's a bit like comparing technology of 10 years back to what we have now. Yes, in many states teachers are still overworked and underpaid and therefore may burn out or become negligent—and yes, as in any profession, there are some schools that are just plain poorly run and teachers that are just plain bad. Still, overall teachers now are better prepared (so few people who started school in the 60's and 70's even *had* opportunities to learn the art of teaching) and better paid than they were. And also? It's a lot harder to be a teacher now. All the parent communication and NCLB paperwork and continuing education and special ed paperwork and so on and so on and so on take up a lot more time. My parents both back me up on this. By the time they retired (Dad two years ago, Mom one), they said they were easily doing twice as much as when they first started. I just think you have to really WANT to be a teacher to stay in the profession now. Weekends off? Ha. Vacations? Lots of take-home work or continuing education or professional development. It used to be that someone could get away with being a shitty teacher who did the job for summers off. Those people still exist, but I think they are far more in the minority. There's a reason that 50% of all new teachers leave the profession within 5 years, never to return.

Which brings me back to the original reason I posted the article. I'm just so sick of parents going "over my head" if they don't like the grade their son/daughter is getting. I'm sick of having to talk freshmen off

cliffs because their parents are going to "kill them" because of their B+. I just want to teach and to let kids enjoy their learning.

t /rant

Yay Jilli! So glad you're okay.

I just want to teach and to let kids enjoy their learning.

Word, dawg.

There's a reason that 50% of all new teachers leave the profession within 5 years, never to return.

That's awful. Makes me all the more grateful for some of the teachers Jake and Ben had, two of whom had been teaching for twenty years each. Jake's third grade teacher retired before Ben could get her, which broke my heart (not that we're even in that school district anymore, but if we had been...).

FWIW, I got a kick-ass education in the public schools. And with very few exceptions, my teachers were smart, caring, and crazy hard-working.

just think you have to really WANT to be a teacher to stay in the profession now. Weekends off? Ha. Vacations? Lots of take-home work or continuing education or professional development.

See, I don't know if it's the district he taught in or what, but this was par for the course for teachers in Dad's school district. So I always boggled at the idea of teaching-to-have-the-summer-off.

I'm just so sick of parents going "over my head" if they don't like the grade their son/daughter is getting.

Which is legit, totally.

Unfortunately, the article in question was glommed onto by the Neocon set when it first came out (it made waves in Blogworld), so my reaction to it involves a sudden knee jerk and raising of hackles.

For which I offer apologies.

I just want to teach and to let kids enjoy their learning.

Yes this!

talk freshmen off cliffs because their parents are going to "kill them" because of their B+.

I have to fight myself not to be "that parent". I want the best for the kids but I have to keep reminding myself that as long as they have done the best they can, then the grade shouldn't matter. If they don't try and get a bad grade? Then that's their problem and they have to deal with the consequences which will be unpleasant to say the least.