languages (Teachers)

I've got little sympathy for the teachers in in our school system. Many of them may be honest and hard-working, but during the six years during which I spent on the order of 12-15 hours a week in the school building, observing the goings-on and attending various meetings, I saw what I feel is a better-than-average sample of what the teachers themselves, school system issues aside, are all about. First of all, during my second year in this close-up of the system, I had occasion to visit one gym teacher. He had a 5-bedroom, 2-story house with a 3-car attached garage, and a car parked in the driveway because the garage was full of cars. That particular teacher was always complaining about the low pay. He and I met in the context of an accusation made by a number of the gym students, that he spent his time reading the newspaper, while he should have been supervising the locker room in order to help prevent the thefts and violence that had been brought to the steering committee's attention. When he told me what he earned, which I already knew, I pointed out to him that I had paid more than that in state taxes that year. He simply lived beyond his means. I, on the other hand, lived in a 3-bedroom ranch-style house with merely a carport. There were no extra vehicles in my driveway, either. One 6th-grade math teacher openly declared that he didn't have time to look outside while the children were leaving the school premises to help prevent violent incidents and harrassment as had been brought to the steering committee's attention. I observed that he was always one of the last teacher to arrive in the morning, though he was always out of the parking lot before the first 10% of the student body was leaving the building. On one occasion, I protested the frivolous activity that was being pursued in the social studies classes, which was clearly an art project. After the social studies department spent 10 weeks of the semester on this activity, I was accused, perhaps justifiably, of throwing my weight around. The entire social studies department made an appearance at a committee meeting, to register their complaint, and I challenged them to indicate even a hint of how this artsy-project had tied into the curriculum, first by asking what the cultural significance of the item being mimicked was to the Native-Americans of whose history these were a component, and second, by challenging them to (a) show some connection to the curriculum that was worth over half a semester and (b) to show how they had taught the significance of this item to the current cultural environment. They could answer neither question between them. I asked them a few other social-studies-related questions along the way, only to demonstrate the depth of knowledge of our social studies department. This matter had risen not from my concern over the quality of teaching, since I already knew where that was, but over my concern that all 7th grade students were required to carry, among other things, a pair of scissors, which were, by school district policy included among contraband items. The Social Studies department could not justify this breach of policy. The following fall, 4 of the 7 teacher were assigned to different schools and the one's contract was not renewed. I was as disappointed as anyone could be after my public school experience. When I was in these schools (the same ones, by the way) teachers lived in the neighborhood, and I walked to school with a couple of them every morning. The teacher not only knew their respective subjects, but the English teachers could help with questions about math or science, and the principal spoke very elegant Engish. Even the gym teachers were up to date on world events and could tell you what city was the capitol of Burma. Dick -----Original Message----- From: sjm <sethm(a)loomcom.com> To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Date: Friday, March 10, 2000 11:58 AM Subject: Re: Re: languages (Teachers) the