STORM2K

The kids got to choose which grades they would get, and a lot of them got F's? Oh man, thats great.

This teacher rocks.

The bottom line is that just as teachers have a responsibility to teach, students have a responsibility to learn. And I think that quite a few teachers do some variant of this (and I say this as an ex-teacher whose colleagues often taught the few who wanted to learn and did let the others more or less run wild--because they felt it was better to teach those who wanted to learn than to play policeman and teach no one.)

There is a reason that homeschooled children tend to do so well on tests--without teachers (and very few have parents who are competent to teach in all areas--but it does not matter)--because from early on they become responsible for their own learning! So they spend a lot of time learning stuff instead of goofing off. It's like the Kosher hot dog ad--homeschool kids have to answer to a "higher authority." If they don't learn, then no one is going to "make them."

I think this teacher probably announced what she was doing in the classroom and the kids blew her off. Notice this was an "advanced algebra" class. Usually it's the "smart kids" who make it into "advanced algebra" classes... These kids knew what they were doing.

And, no, I don't "approve" of how the teacher did this, (without knowledge and consent of school principal, other officials), but I'm not all that surprised.

A story. When my daughter was in high school she was in a similar "advanced" science class. The teacher, with many years of excellent teaching behind her, had cancer and was undergoing chemotherapy. However, if she took a leave of absence, she had no health insurance. A spinster, she had no "fallback." And back then teachers weren't paid all that well. SHE did not do any teaching that semester. Much of the time she slept with her head down on the desk or threw up in the bathroom. The kids had a moral dilemma--if they reported her, she lost her job, her health insurance, etc. If they did not report her, they would have to teach the subject to themselves--and they did. So yes, there was teaching going on in the classroom--the kids did the teaching. I think all the kids in that class probably learned as much of the specific science as they would have with a fully functioning teacher. However, they also learned some hard lessons--but important lessons--about how health insurance works, how life dishes out crap, how to solve your own problems, etc. Most important, I think the kids in that class learned a whole lot about making decisions and how those decisions would affect them. Those kids were the bright kids and they were going to take standardized exams that would test some of the stuff they needed to learn in that class. Their decision would, therefore, affect their futures. I think, by the way, that they made the right decision and I was one of many parents who participated in filling the void by providing lab equipment, etc.

All the kids around here are coming home with crushing, overwhelming amounts of homework that they cannot possibly do without staying up until all hours. Why? Because the teaching is not happening in the classrooms! All sorts of stuff is happening, but generally it is not the teaching that the kids need. So those who do the homework at least learn something. Those who blow it off don't.

I do think that we need to get rid of the notion that education is like one size pantyhose. It does not fit anyone! And I do think that we need to get the troublemakers out of the classrooms and keep them out, and that we need to send kids to school with the notion that they have a responsibility to learn, just as the teachers have a responsibility to teach. It is only when you have people who want to learn that the teaching takes place. I think we do children a great disservice when we seem to let them think that going to school is a passive activity that they do not have to invest anything of themselves in. And it is only when we made the classrooms places where learning can take place that we will get teachers dedicated to teaching.

if you possibly can, send your kids to private schools. i had a spanish teacher that lets us basically do anything we wanted in class. i gossiped and did my homework for the next class i had. i got a c without doing or learning a blessed thing.

Coppertop's own teachers have told me that, in the artificially-structured environment of high-school, he willl do poorly becasue he is BORED; and he knows he could "ace" a GED test tomorrow if they gave him half a chance.

Ditto with the ASVAB; but those same teachers also said that, in a collegiate setting, Coppertop would BLOOM.

Any questions?

I got bored in high school.

I've had a few teachers like that before. When I was in HS first period math the teacher was always a half hour late to work/school cause we would sit outside with no teacher and the door locked. How can teachers not get fired when they call in all the time and are late to their job? Also in HS I had a teacher who would always leave the room like a half hour at a time, and the kids in my class were all trouble makes and would throw stuff around the room. Id even skip class alot cause it was a total joke, and for saftey reasons.

I skipped classes in high school to go to the library. Woke up at the end of 10th grade.

kevin wrote:I skipped classes in high school to go to the library. Woke up at the end of 10th grade.

Well I skipped that class though cause they would always throw penciles, ect why the teacher wasnt there. Better then getting injured I think. Strange I wasnt there most of the time and got a b???

The thing is, Coppertop KNOWS the material already, and feels no compulsion to demonstrate his facility with it.

The only thing he shares with his classmates is chronological age; he's light-years ahead of them in every other meaningful way.

Anonymous wrote:I've had a few teachers like that before. When I was in HS first period math the teacher was always a half hour late to work/school cause we would sit outside with no teacher and the door locked. How can teachers not get fired when they call in all the time and are late to their job? Also in HS I had a teacher who would always leave the room like a half hour at a time, and the kids in my class were all trouble makes and would throw stuff around the room. Id even skip class alot cause it was a total joke, and for saftey reasons.

i may be mistaken, but i believe govt school taechers get alot of protection from their union, and it is very difficult to fire them.