All Teachers Fired at Underperforming School in Rhode Island

What bothers me about teachers (at least in our district) is that their pay rate is based on their level of education (degree plus credits) rather than experience or student results. The district pays for their graduate courses and then gives them a raise based on the course completion.

What a gig! Sheesh...

 

Really ?

http://www.businessinsider.com/henr...more-per-day-so-town-fires-all-of-them-2010-2

 

Thanks for providing that link, Rick. It gives a bit more information, and I now see where you are coming from.

 

I think we have 2 separate but related topics going on here.

Actually most teachers work 10 months a year. Most people don't have to put up with the crap teachers put up with on a daily basis. School shootings and student on teacher violence have become common place.

I have a unique background in that from 1997-2001 I was a traveling teacher for a museum. From 2001-2007 I worked for a State Department of Education. While I don't know all the particulars of this Rhode Island case, I do know that most teachers are qualified, inspired, and devoted to educating their students.

As for most people not earning as much as a teacher. Most people don't need to have the specialized and expensive training that teachers need to have. They also don't have to put up with the parents/grandparents of the people they work with everyday.

On a different note No Child Left behind has been the biggest boondoggle to education since . . . I don't know what. It's just a horrile and huge step backward.

I know that there are many bad teachers and I believe NCLB should be repealed. There are things that ASOLUTELY NEED to be changed in America's public education system. Sometimes when a child earns poor grades it's not the teachers fault. Not every student is brilliant no matter what you parents think.

 

Not every student is brilliant . Well no kidding . That is why they need to be TAUGHT ! I have to disagree that MOST teachers are qualified , inspired , and devoted .

 

Ok, you go to what 2-5 years of college to be a teacher? You make 72k?

My friend is a #### phsycist he has 10 yrs and a phd and only makes slightly more... and he has to work every weekday and sometimes the weekends.

We all have crap to deal with sorry but that line gets no pity from me. We have to deal with crazed dot, idiot kids and their parents driving and random shootings too as truckers.

 

Four years minimum, as per NCLB plus another 18-24 months to become a master teacher. No one I know started at $72K. It's only in the past 15 years that teachers have been earning a living wage. By living wage I mean most teachers no longer have to have a 2nd job to exist.

If you think teachers don't work nights and weekends you are crazy! My mom is a retired kindergarden teacher and I know for fact she brought work home with her daily and it wasn't because she was lazy and didn't do it during the work day either. There is always prep work for each and every lesson. Homework and tests must be graded and recorded and handed back to students.

Until you have walked a mile in my moccassins don't tell me I don't earn my pay. You have no clue.

As for your friend he's what we educators call a lab rat. He probably graduated tops in his class but has poor people skills. That's common in math and the sciences. I'm friends with people exactly like that who have PhD's in physics, chemistry, plastics engineering, and applied math. Some earn big bucks, some don't it depends on the part of the country they live in and whether or not they are in private industry or working for a university. Small companies and universities pay less than the larger ones. As for him working nights and weekends certain types of testing can only be done at off peak hours.

We all make choices, that was yours.

 

Well, I've dealt with all the crap of being a truck driver, and now I'm gonna go deal with the crap of being a high school teacher, and I honestly can't tell you which has more stress (got friends who teach at all levels, including special ed.). Trucking has shippers, recievers, dispatchers, DOT, traffic, and random idiots. Teaching has students, parents, school boards, unions, DOE. Make the call.

 

Hmm, I agree that most children are educable; but some are not. Those that are not need to be in special classes and schools. Unfortunately with the introduction of mainstreaming in the 1970's this is not possible. A teacher can only teach as fast as the slowest student, which is why bright children often act up and cause trouble. When we speed up and create extra work at an advanced level for your little geniuys we are taking time away for that slow learner in the back of the class room who struggles to keep up. By the way the special lessons that we create for the slow kid and the gifted kid, we do that at home during nights and weekends because we don't have time during the work day.


The programs that create teachers at the university level are faulty and need a complete overhaul. They do not prepare you appropriately. Thank GOD! I had my mom and her teacher friends to go to for assitance because there was nothing available at the school level once I had my own classroom. Teacher education programs are all based on an ideal classroom setting not one where half the clas hass 'special needs.'

The good teachers rarely if ever make the news. Just like the good students rarely if ever make the news.

 

Interesting comments . Things must differ by region . My children were in special ed classes in the 80's . Only one needed to be . I pulled the other 2 out , helped them a little myself and their grades improved . They had been in special ed not because of a learning deficiency but a teaching deficiency . Don't try to debate it . It was obvious . Several teachers were nothing but slackers .
I knew who the good teachers were and they were a minority .