Public Schools stopped disciplining kids long ago. Fear of retribution, legal action, and a mountain of headaches from all angles. Why would anyone want to teach these days?
Now let me answer this question more directly. It’s actually worse than a lot of people think. There is an intense and overwhelming amount of utter bullshit that gets rolled down the hill starting with Congress, added to by state legislatures, and further reinforced by local school districts. And of course teachers are at the bottom of the hill. When you focus on that, and all the ways that the system is utterly dysfunctional, and not beneficial for students, it can be defeating.
But when you focus on your job, which is students, it’s the single most rewarding thing you can do, in my judgment. I was a lawyer for 5-6 years before getting into education. I hated every day of my life. Now I wake up excited to see my students and be with them. It’s genuine fulfillment I never thought I would have in my life. So, if you can withstand all the bullshit, and there is a metric shit ton of it for sure, it’s an amazing job. If you can’t stand up for yourself, or if you can’t deal with irrational requirements imposed by people fully out of touch with reality—-if you can’t, in other words, set aside, or ignore to the maximum extent possible, dealing with other adults, you should definitely avoid it.
I can do those things. Becoming a teacher was the single best decision I’ve ever made.
I’ve taught school for more than 20 years, starting at an alternative high school and following that with a rural high school, middle school, and even some college. What I’ve learned is that a teacher who speaks up won’t have a job (Questioning why it was okay for our male students to go the gym, with administrators’ approval, to play ball with a male teacher who was supposed to be a role model, instead of attending class.). A teacher who doesn’t watch every word they speak (Explaining that in formal writing, one should not use 1st and second person pronouns and being told by a parent that their precious child shouldn’t be taught the word gender, even though that word was never even spoken.)will end up as a target for uneducated parents or those with a misguided agenda. I’ve been in both of those situations more than once and after 20 years of crying for my kids, crying from the stress, and just generally questioning my sanity at staying in a profession that has become the scape goat for all the problems that our society faces, I’ve just grown tired. I try to discourage former students from going into the profession and have watched 3 young gifted teachers leave the profession in the last year alone. I’ve had training on how to properly search a backpack for drugs. I’ve had training on how to do triage on gunshot victims. I’ve had training and drills on how to barricade myself and my students in my classroom in case of an active shooter situation. And I did it all for one of the lowest pay scales in a state that already is woefully underpaying it’s teachers. I did not sign up for any of those things. If I had wanted to risk my life, I would have been a first responder or soldier. So I’m sure someone will ask, “Why did you stay?” There are multiple reasons to stay: job security, retirement pension, and mainly, my students. I love being able to help my kids and I love helping them realize their potential. That said, I’m counting down days until retirement. I’m looking forward to a new career in which I don’t feel like I have a bullseye painted on my back, being able to sleep at night without the stress, and mostly, I’m looking forward to not having to monitor every word I say and bite my tongue around everyone for fear of community tongue wagging. I only have a few years left and the end can’t come quickly enough.
I’m a teacher at an urban Title I school (over 70% of our students qualify for reduced or free school lunches). Yes, there is a lot of paperwork involved when you need to transfer student to alternative school or outright expel them. It’s only an issue though when you don’t document what’s happening along the way. And of course, documentation is not a bad thing. It would be a bad thing if kids were being run out of schools at the whims of tired, overworked, extremely stressed teachers. On the other hand, the really wacky stuff comes when it’s a special education student. You literally cannot suspend them for more than 10 days in a school year. I was the general education teacher in FBA meetings for three of my SpEd students who brought weapons to school (two knives, one taser). The result was to put them all on a functional behavioral plan which requires weekly reports about whether they are meeting FB targets: of not bringing weapons to school. The plan included that when they did meet their targets, they should be rewarded in certain ways, like being given time on a computer or time to speak with their friends or whatever. So, yeah. Rewards for… not bringing weapons. Now that was crazy.
Expulsion and suspension. I know a teacher who works in a school with this problem; state DOE policies puniah schools for suspending or expelling violent children, so instead they are allowed to continue terrorizing their peers and instrucrors.
To me it is definitely telling that the US Supreme Court found it constitutional and legal to administer corporal punishment by drawing analogies with prisoners in a jail. As in the pg essay “Why Nerds are Unpopular”, primary school is essentially a prison for the kids, a glorified day care center to keep them out of trouble while parents can work.
But elsewhere in many districts if the parent doesnt care then there are literally no consequences for children who disrupt classes, that don’t backfire badly on those who would try to make those consequences.
dmvdoug|2 years ago
Now let me answer this question more directly. It’s actually worse than a lot of people think. There is an intense and overwhelming amount of utter bullshit that gets rolled down the hill starting with Congress, added to by state legislatures, and further reinforced by local school districts. And of course teachers are at the bottom of the hill. When you focus on that, and all the ways that the system is utterly dysfunctional, and not beneficial for students, it can be defeating.
But when you focus on your job, which is students, it’s the single most rewarding thing you can do, in my judgment. I was a lawyer for 5-6 years before getting into education. I hated every day of my life. Now I wake up excited to see my students and be with them. It’s genuine fulfillment I never thought I would have in my life. So, if you can withstand all the bullshit, and there is a metric shit ton of it for sure, it’s an amazing job. If you can’t stand up for yourself, or if you can’t deal with irrational requirements imposed by people fully out of touch with reality—-if you can’t, in other words, set aside, or ignore to the maximum extent possible, dealing with other adults, you should definitely avoid it.
I can do those things. Becoming a teacher was the single best decision I’ve ever made.
gypsy2023|2 years ago
triceratops|2 years ago
uxcolumbo|2 years ago
inconceivable|2 years ago
dmvdoug|2 years ago
I’m a teacher at an urban Title I school (over 70% of our students qualify for reduced or free school lunches). Yes, there is a lot of paperwork involved when you need to transfer student to alternative school or outright expel them. It’s only an issue though when you don’t document what’s happening along the way. And of course, documentation is not a bad thing. It would be a bad thing if kids were being run out of schools at the whims of tired, overworked, extremely stressed teachers. On the other hand, the really wacky stuff comes when it’s a special education student. You literally cannot suspend them for more than 10 days in a school year. I was the general education teacher in FBA meetings for three of my SpEd students who brought weapons to school (two knives, one taser). The result was to put them all on a functional behavioral plan which requires weekly reports about whether they are meeting FB targets: of not bringing weapons to school. The plan included that when they did meet their targets, they should be rewarded in certain ways, like being given time on a computer or time to speak with their friends or whatever. So, yeah. Rewards for… not bringing weapons. Now that was crazy.
Scalene2|2 years ago
Georgelemental|2 years ago
unknown|2 years ago
[deleted]
EGreg|2 years ago
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_corporal_punishment_i...
Other ways included a time out, suspension or talk to the parents where parents grounded them, or punished them somehow.
All that has been phased out in most places for various reasons. Although nearly half of the US states still allow it: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/09/...
To me it is definitely telling that the US Supreme Court found it constitutional and legal to administer corporal punishment by drawing analogies with prisoners in a jail. As in the pg essay “Why Nerds are Unpopular”, primary school is essentially a prison for the kids, a glorified day care center to keep them out of trouble while parents can work.
But elsewhere in many districts if the parent doesnt care then there are literally no consequences for children who disrupt classes, that don’t backfire badly on those who would try to make those consequences.