From this teacher’s point of view . . . I don’t know that there is a single place to stop the buck.

I do feel that money has forced everyone to suffer, mostly our kids! There’s not enough money to educate and there’s not enough because voters can’t afford to give more and/or the funding is being sorely misappropriated.

Secondly, over the years I have become responsible for much more than my field of teaching. Instead of nurturing what should be learned at home, I have to teach respect, responsibility and morals, just to name a few. I don’t always blame parents because most families are two-income families…and parents have less time to teach. I have children come to school tired, hungry and dirty. More and more kids are required to get themselves up, dressed and off to school, whether it’s because their parent is sleeping or off to work. These same kids may also get home to an empty house, further adding fuel to this fire. Kids are left alone far too often these days, and believe me, they could care less about school for a variety of reasons.

Kids can’t learn with all this baggage and teachers can’t teach if the kids aren’t responsive. It just keeps snowballing.

They say it takes a village to raise a child, and far too often the village is abandoning the child. The parent blames the school…the school blames the parent…and the child is the loser EVERY TIME!

We need to stop blaming each other. I believe in the triangle of education . . . . . School/Parent/Child. We ALL have to work together. Each must point a finger at themselves and begin working together for the betterment of the future!

My humble opinion only . . . .

My experience has been that the teachers are being placed in a position to discipline rather than teach in a lot of schools (My son’s for example) My son is a straight A student – and quite bored in school. He also plays football, so I know he has some disipline in his life. But I have had so many calls from the school for what I consider stupid things! One teacher was upset (my son had a 100 average in her class) because he would lean on his hand in class. She said that if an administrator walked by, she would receive a black mark on HER employment record. My solution was – give him something to challenge him. That is just one example. Frankly, I have homeschooled my children. I still take opportunities to teach my children at home but I know I am not the norm. Perhaps it is the system itself and maybe that is what needs changing. The teacher’s teach, the parents parent and opportunities exist for all levels of students.

Teachers can’t teach anymore. They are governed by people that are not in the classrooms to see what needs to be done.

I think Teachers should be allowed to use different methods to help children understand. Use things that interest the children they teach. Allow subjects that interest them.

Sounds like “all of the above” to me. Changes in society, especially in the distribution of wealth, have made it much harder these days to provide a stable, decent lifestyle for a family without both parents working themselves half to death. Many of the problems we see in education today stem from the lack of political will to solve some of the really hard problems.