...the folks who pay the bills that your union has racked up on your behalf only have so much to give you.
Providence plans to pink slip all teachers
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — The school district plans to send out dismissal notices to every one of its 1,926 teachers, an unprecedented move that has union leaders up in arms.
In a letter sent to all teachers Tuesday, Supt. Tom Brady wrote that the Providence School Board on Thursday will vote on a resolution to dismiss every teacher, effective the last day of school.
Full article: http://www.projo.com/news/content/providence_teacher_layoffs_02-23-11_MCML6R3_v17.1a1cc6d.html (http://www.projo.com/news/content/providence_teacher_layoffs_02-23-11_MCML6R3_v17.1a1cc6d.html)
I don't know what to say about this! Not that it surprises me, but man that would be a tough one to bite!!!
It probably doesn't really mean much. We had the same thing for while back in the 80's.The pain was we couldn't leave anything in our rooms over the summer. We had to pack it up and take it all home because we didn't know who would get Riffed. Many were called right back but some were shifted involuntarily to other schools, some of which were far away or in Wilmington proper which amounted to a pay cut as they have a city wage tax. Some teachers who had jobs where their own children were enrolled were messed up if they were forced to move because they were used to taking their kids to school with them. As far as how much the teachers make. Do other jobs with benefits count the benefits as part of the salary in order to inflate it? It's real had to pay a mortgage or buy gas with health car. Better take a look at all public sector jobs....courts, police, sewer workers, municipal snow plow and trash pick up drivers and on and on. Sadly it's become fashionably to pick on teachers.
Given american student standings in comparison to the rest of the world...why wouldn't we pick on teachers? Frankly, when you look at the results...they suck! So why shouldn't their pay be cut or them laid off? We have seniors graduating HS that can't read past an 8th grade level...that pretty much sums up or school system.
Elk County is graduating seniors that can't read past an 8th grade level? How do you know that? Shame on the parents for letting that happen. Who would you fire? The seniors' teachers? Reading teachers? Usually reading is not taught past seventh grade. Perhaps you should have remedial reading at the high school level and give a reading exam before they are allowed to graduate. How about laying that on the parents too. As I have said many times, I can't teach or help a child who isn't in school. Some of the inner city schools that drag the averages down have terrible truancy problems. The rest of the world doesn't try to teach everyone. Kids are washed out very early in many countries as they have to pass tests every few years to stay in school.The parents are held responsible for the success of their children. Look at Japan.
I wasn't speaking of Elk County, but the US as a whole. Truancy may be a problem but the fact remains that our educational standards are well below par.
I am just asking, Varmit do you know what the Kansas State Standards are? Have you looked at them? Do you know what kids are learning and at which grade they are learning it? I am not trying to be rude, I just do not think that you understand the amount of things kids are taught these days. Do you know how much time a teacher spends preparing their lessons, grading papers, and aligning what they have to teach to the state standards? But most teachers don't teach for the pay check, they teach because they love it. They love the kids they teach and their job. But do you really think that parents aren't to blame for some of what they learn in school? I believe they are. If you have a kid that misses dozens of days, how is a teacher to teach them? The parents are the ones that will have to help them make up the work and get caught up, do you think they do this? Plus, if you have a parent that is to busy with their own life and are not involved in their childs, then how do you expect a child to want to learn and get something out of school? I ask these questions cause I feel that teachers get the bad rap all the time when it comes to education. Yes, they are the ones that teach the materials, but its the government at state and federal levels that pick and choose what they want them to teach. I have a kindergartener who at the beginning of the school year didn't want to go to school. She cried for a month, kicked and screamed as I had to take her and physically pull her off of me. I was at the point as a parent that I wanted to just keep her home with me. But the teacher in me knew that she would be fine once I left. She was reading by November. She is doing really well in school and now loves it. She isn't even 6 yet. So to me, she is doing wonderfully. I think that we need to look at the government and what they enforce the teachers to teach, not the teachers.
You seem to be saying that you support the "independence" of the local school from the Fed's and State.
How about teachers being "independent" too by not joining with unions and associations?
Ang, I understand what you're saying about the parents and such. However, that is not the case a majority of the time. Most kids don't miss dozens of days each year. As for state standards, if a person wants a true evaluation of their effectiveness all they have to do is look at the finished product. How many times have we seen a young person that can't count back the proper change, read and understand simple instructions, summarize the basic concept of an article they've read?
As for a child wanting to go to school and get something out of it..I see that as a huge part of a teachers job. They have to connect with the kids and present the material in a way that appeals to the kids. If their only job is to simply teach the material then we could really cut costs and eliminate them altogether and replace them with computers.
I think teachers and schools in general are getting a bad rap because of lower standards. From what I've seen they are merely marking time and not challenging their students enough.
I understand that the teachers have to follow the federal guidelines and such, but seems to me that if they really cared about their students then they would tell the Fed.s and the unions to stick it. Push for higher standards and unite with the parents that do care.
How many parents today sit down and help their children with homework? Or do they just sit down and come up with the answers so we can get it done and get on with life. In my life I had some really good teachers and some not so good. Luckey for me when I had one that wasn't so good, my parents sit me down at home with my book and taught me what I wasn't getting at school. I love the blame game.
A lot of parents sit down with their kids and help with homework. In many cases my wife and I have had to show our kids how to do the work properly because the teacher didn't. Most weeks my oldest kid has additional work put on him by me and my wife, espcially in the areas of history, reading, math, because the materials assigned by his teachers are a joke.
Varmit, I really did know what you meant but my comment would still be the same. At what point should "at risk" kids be identified? I know when I taught third grade I had a few each year who were already far behind and they had only been in school for two years before they came to me! Several had already been held back once. Now, when you have a child that young who has already repeated second grade, with a different teacher, and went to a reading specialist several days a week as well as having reading with me, that child is just slow to get it, and/or very immature and not ready to learn in the "traditional" way, but not so slow as to be identified as special ed. Kids who have identifiable learning problems, such as dyslexia, will always have reading difficulties and will always need extra help that not all school districts can afford. Eventually they will develop coping skills to overcome their problems to a point, but in many other countries they would have already been written off. I think we would do better to look at the overall adult success rate and include all factors, the parents' attitudes and involvement, the abilities and credentials of the teachers, the attitudes of the administrative staff, the attitudes of the school board and the abilities of the individual child. I don't approve of schools "graduating" kids that can't perform, never did, but the pressure to shove them through is tremendous in some situations. As far as computers replacing teachers....for some kids who are self starters and learn well on their own, that is already an option. Most kids do best with a combination of things, using as many senses as possible. Sure, there are some poor teachers out there just as their are poor lawyers, mechanics and vehicle drivers but it's not fair to tar all teachers with the same brush without knowing all the facts. Why is our rating against other countries so important? Are their kids more successful at adult life than ours? If one wants to be a successful farmer why does one care how kids in Germany do with Shakespeare anyway? Get the education that fits! And keep on learning, why stop just because your formal education is finished?
Varmit ,why do you think your child's homework is a "joke." Have you asked the teacher what it was all about and what she had in mind? Isn't it hard enough to suit you? Doesn't it take long enough to suit you? What do you mean by "properly"? If it's "Singapore Math" it will seem strange to you but that doesn't make it wrong or improper.
I think the homework is a joke because of the lack of it for one, another is it isn't challenging enough and is far below my kids potential. I have asked his teachers about this and they said that it was about the average level for his peers. I tried to explain to her that the "level" is too low, she didn't get it. Now, I'm not that great at math so I leave that up to my wife, who is a genuis with it, and there have been several instances where the teacher had "taught" the kids the wrong method of working out the problems.
I know that there are good teachers and there are bad teachers, but I'm talking about performance of our educational system overall.
As for other countries and our ratings...if we are to maintain our position in a global community then we need to be turning out a product that is superior to others. That goes for everything, not just education.
I agree with you on some levels of what you are saying. I understand that you think your child needs to be challenged and thats great. I do believe in trying to teach to the highest level in the group of children. I also believe that every child learns different and as a teacher you sometimes have to try things outside the box to get the attention of the children and make them learn. I do know that my middle child learns about things that aren't standard based. She has learned about many things that I actually forgot about. I think that is great. But every classroom of students is different. When I taught kindergarten, I had students that were reading at first grade level. I would get things off of the internet to challenge those students, such as reading a story and writting about what the main point of the story was. I did this for them when they were done with other assignments. I believe it helped those students further their education.
I also believe that there are several ways that math can be done and different ways that it is taught. Like carrying, I do it my way and my daughter was taught a different way. We both do it right, just not the same. I sit down and help my girls with their homework, but with my 7th grader I have to let her do what she can on her own first or she has me showing her how to do every problem. I know how to do it, she needs to learn. I also don't believe that a child has to have hours of homework a night. As a busy parent, I like having nights with only about 30 minutes of homework. I don't think there is anything that I can say that will make you see where I am coming from. But I do know that the teachers that my girls have had and have are doing a great job!!