languages (Teachers) - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

10 Mar 2000

I didn't see Seth's remarks.  I'm sure he makes a good point, and the
remarks I've put forth certainly don't apply to every teacher.  However,
I've had ample oppurtunity to sample what's out there, and it's a dreadful
shame that there's so much evidence of what I've said.  The extreme cases
are the ones that catch the most attention, and that applies to my attention
as well as anyone else's.  I'm as sorry as anyone that this is what we see
when we take a long look, though.  I certainly had hoped, when I ventured
into this territory, that I'd find something different.  It has not
encouraged me to be optimistic.

My elder son, by the way, has gotten the message that this is an easy and
fun profession.  He's dropped out of Harvard and attends a state teachers'
college, having declared that he didn't really want to work so hard and
didn't want to spend as much time working as he observed that I did.  I'm
not proud of that, but it certainly fits, both with my observations and my
conclusions about them.

Dick

-----Original Message-----
From: Craig Smith &lt;ip500(a)roanoke.infi.net&gt;
To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org &lt;classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org&gt;
Date: Friday, March 10, 2000 1:45 PM
Subject: Re: languages (Teachers)

...
 Bravo Seth,
Dick's comment just went too far. my neighbor is an Art teacher in a
local High School and believe me---if she's not at work, she's either
grading papers, planning next weeks work or staying after class to work
with other kids. SOME are really dedicated to the profession!

sjm wrote:
>
> On Fri, Mar 10, 2000 at 08:58:43AM -0700, Richard Erlacher wrote:
> > Another thing to keep in mind about these jobs is that not only is the
> > summer vacation long, but there are plenty of days without kids in the
> > building, when most teachers go skiing or golfing, or hot-tubbing, and
the
...
 > > workday for most of them is less than 6
hours.
> >
> > Dick
>
> I think it's extremely unfair to label all teachers like this.
> You make them sound lazy.  I know only one highschool teacher today,
> but I do know he works his ass off.  He does NOT take the summer off,
> he takes summer teaching contracts to make ends meet.  After teaching
> his classes he has, further courses of his own to attend, papers to
> grade, lesson plans to work out, staff meetings, conference meetings,
> parent-teacher meetings, and inbetween tons of shit none of us
> would want to deal with dumped on him.  Sometimes he doesn't get
> home until 11:00 -- and neither do I, but at least I get paid for it.
>
> I attended public school between 1979 and 1992, in both California
> and Connecticut.  We moved around frequently,  and I was in 8
> different schools during that time.  That's a lot of different school
> systems, and a lot of different teachers.  Yes, I had some that were
> merely doing their job, not going the extra mile.  And I think I
> can probably put my finger on exactly one who I would honestly call
> lazy (everybody has a teacher horror story to tell).  But those who
> stand out in my mind were the genuine heros.  They were IN to what
> they did.  They LOVED the kids.  They latched on to us and energized
> us and really taught us.  They made us solve problems, they made us
> work together, they made us look forward to their classes every day.
> They had a passion for what they did, and God bless them for it.
>
> I can't think of a more honorable profession.
>
> -Seth 