Maybe you never had the right teacher or you were just obstinate. Merit pay is not the answer noone would want to work in special needs. Lets be real sucess in school starts at home with upbringing and discipline then transitions to school with appropriate content knowledge in teachers and well behhaved students that have supportive parents.

School does not teach you anything unless you are willing to learn. Most students study for a test, not for life. The teachers do not grade fairly and most schools use inflation to receive more state money. People wonder why there are so many Paris Hiltons in the world and no more Einsteins and da Vincis. I don’t agree with computer learning. I am all for the protection of books. I believe that students should study from the same professors or mentors like they did in the old world.

I find I have to do lot of stupid repetitive crap in life that I don’t need to do, but I am required to do it in order to get along, kind of like school. Part of school is teaching you to have the discipline to do what you’re instructed to do to reach a certain goal. It sounds like you’re grumpy because you got low grades. If it were really so easy for you, why didn’t you just do the work and get the grade? Seems like the work is only an obstacle for people who have little understanding of the subject and therefore it takes them an unusual amount of time to do it. You’re saying the system was screwed up but it sounds like the student’s work ethic was screwed up in your case. Your parents didn’t have a problem with a clearly intelligent kid bringing home crappy grades? I think you have illustrated the opposite of some of the points you tried to make.

I blame the teachers, they r no good. When I moved here from my country I could barley speak English and I was the smartest one in class. Why? Because I was way ahead. Now I myself am majoring in Education and I hear all this other student complaining about “when r we actually going to teach this stuff” Well ur the teacher u need to TEACH them everything.

I also know a first grade teacher who stress more on “recess” time than teaching.

THUMBS DOWN!! LOL….Okay what was SO NEGATIVE about my answer..ITS THE TRUTH

What needs to happen for teachers to improve their preformance, and theirfore are school system to improve(w/out vouchers which is what really needs to happen but in this answer I will talk about teachers) is that there needs to be incentives for good results and pay cuts/ job losses for bad results. This would give teachers the incetive they need to preform well in the classroom. While one would like to think that teachers don’t need cash motivation to do their job well thats is not always the case. Under the current syste, because of teachers union the rewards for good and bad preformers are the same. If teachers knew that they would be paied more if they dedicated more time to beign a good teacher their preformance would imporve

You sound like you need formal education to get a real job. I did what you did and quite because the school system sucks. It was a lot harder for me to complete my education and conform to college learning – and that is what I expect you will have to do and hope you do it as well if not better then I.

Well,because I am a teacher, of course I would have to disagree with you. Why would you refuse to do the work? There is a standardized program. We have standards for each grade level, and students do work to prove that they have learned each one. I would not give credit to a student that did not do their work.

I’m tired of teachers bitching They work 9 months, get every minor holiday off, and probably actually work about 5 hours a day if you subtract lunch and prep periods. Even at 30,000 a year that is still $33 an hour. the majority teach from their books, use the same exact lessons as the year before, and make photo copies of work that they are told the kids have to do.

What sucks is “no child left behind” – testing, testing, testing – low pay – being treated like a babysitter rather than a professional – unavailable/overbearing parents – students who come unprepared to learn – “decision makers” who have never taught – ditto for curriculum makers. I could go on, but I won’t.

Teachers do not deserve all of the blame…some do, yes….but the community and the home deserve most of the blame..

No Dentist Left Behind (parody of No Child Left Behind)

My dentist is great! He sends me reminders so I don’t

forget checkups. He uses the latest techniques based

on research. He never hurts me, and I’ve got all my

teeth.

When I ran into him the other day, I was eager to see

if he’d heard about the new state program. I knew he’d

think it was great “Did you hear about the new state

program to measure effectiveness of dentists with

their young patients?” I said.

” No,” he said. He didn’t seem too thrilled. “How will

they do that?”

“It’s quite simple,” I said. “They will just count the

number of cavities each patient has at age 10, 14, and

18 and average that to determine a dentist’s rating.

Dentists will be rated as excellent, good, average,

below average, and unsatisfactory. That way parents

will know which are the best dentists. The plan will

also encourage the less effective dentists to get better,

” I said. “Poor dentists who don’t improve could lose their

licenses to practice.”

“That’s terrible,” he said.

“What? That’s not a good attitude,” I said. “Don’t you

think we should try to improve children’s dental

health in this state?”

“Sure I do,” he said, “but that’s not a fair way to

determine who is practicing good dentistry.”

“Why not?,” I said. “It makes perfect sense to me.”

“Well, it’s so obvious,” he said. “Don’t you see that

dentists don’t all work with the same clientele, and

that much depends on things we can’t control? For

example, I work in a rural area with a high percentage

of patients from deprived homes, while some of my

colleagues work in upper middle-class neighborhoods.

Many of the parents I work with don’t bring their

children to see me until there is some kind of

problem, and I don’t get to do much preventive work.

Also many of the parents I serve let their kids eat

way too much candy from an early age, unlike more

educated parents who understand the relationship

between sugar and decay. To top it all off, so many

of my clients have well water, which is untreated and

has no fluoride in it. Do you have any idea how much

difference early use of fluoride can make?”

“It sounds like you’re making excuses,” I said. “I

can’t believe that you, my dentist, would be so

defensive. After all, you do a great job, and you

needn’t fear a little accountability.”

“I am not being defensive!” he said. “My best patients

are as good as anyone’s, my work is as good as

anyone’s, but my average cavity count is going to be

higher than a lot of other dentists because I chose to

work where I am needed most.”

“Don’t’ get touchy,” I said.

“Touchy?” he said. His face had turned red, and from

the way he was clenching and unclenching his jaws, I

was afraid he was going to damage his teeth. “Try

furious! In a system like this, I will end up being

rated average, below average, or worse. The few

educated patients I have who see these ratings may

believe this so-called rating is an actual measure of

my ability and proficiency as a dentist. They may

leave me, and I’ll be left with only the most needy

patients. And my cavity average score will get even

worse. On top of that, how will I attract good dental

hygienists and other excellent dentists to my practice

if it is labeled below average?”

“I think you are overreacting,” I said. “‘Complaining,

excuse-making and stonewalling won’t improve dental

health’…I am quoting from a leading member of the

DOC,” I noted.

“What’s the DOC?” he asked.

“It’s the Dental Oversight Committee,” I said, “a

group made up of mostly lay persons to make sure

dentistry in this state gets improved.”

“Spare me,” he said, “I can’t believe this. Reasonable

people won’t buy it,” he said hopefully.

The program sounded reasonable to me, so I asked, “How

else would you measure good dentistry?”

“Come watch me work,” he said. “Observe my processes.”

“That’s too complicated, expensive and

time-consuming,” I said. “Cavities are the bottom

line, and you can’t argue with the bottom line. It’s

an absolute measure.”

“That’s what I’m afraid my parents and prospective

patients will think. This can’t be happening,” he said

despairingly.

“Now, now,” I said, “Don’t despair. The state will

help you some.”

“How?” he asked.

“If you receive a poor rating, they’ll send a dentist

who is rated excellent to help straighten you out,” I

said brightly.

“You mean,” he said, “they’ll send a dentist with a

wealthy clientele to show me how to work on severe

juvenile dental problems with which I have probably

had much more experience? BIG HELP!”

“There you go again,” I said. “You aren’t acting

professionally at all.”

“You don’t get it,” he said. “Doing this would be like

grading schools and teachers on an average score made

on a test of children’s progress with no regard to

influences outside the school, the home, the community

served and stuff like that. Why would they do

something so unfair to dentists? No one would ever

think of doing that to schools.”

I just shook my head sadly, but he had brightened.

“I’m going to write my representatives and senators,”

he said. “I’ll use the school analogy. Surely they

will see the point.”

He walked off with that look of hope mixed with fear

and suppressed anger that I, a teacher, see in the

mirror so often lately.