[thechat] Jan 18 peace march

aardvark roselli at earthlink.net
Tue Jan 21 08:08:01 CST 2003


> From: Jonathon Isaac Swiderski <jswiders at cs.oberlin.edu>
>
> I knew teachers at my high school (three years ago) who would get to
> the building at 6 or 7 am, teach from 745---215 or 315, and then would
> be at the building till 5 or later.  that's 45--50 hours a week, most
> of it surrounded by screaming, yelling, fighting hormone machines.
> Not to mention the time in grading, writing creative assignments, et
> cetera.

that'st he profession they've chosen... and while this thread spirals
out of control, somehow i don't complain about the first few years of
my company working 80 (or more) hours a week and taking home *no*
pay... it's what i chose for myself... and i didn't get holidays,
summer vacations, or assorted other holidays... if you figure an
average 40-hour work week with two weeks of vacation yields 2000
hours, then do math on teachers -- they still aren't working that
time, and if they are, then it's their decision to cram it into 9
months instead of 12... as for the kids, that's a character issue...
i've seen many teachers who *can* control a group of kids and many
who cannot control the exact same group...

no, i've got friends who are now school teachers, and i've got family
who *were* school teachers... the former teachers are a huge drain on
the public funds thanks to their pensions and the like (but there's a
whole different tirade about who they determine those figures) and
the new teachers can't even *spell*...

> This isn't to say all of them did that -- reportedly, bringing one of
> the Biology teachers a bottle of Jack (Daniels, cheap Tennessee
> whiskey) would get you large amounts of extra credit.  But most of the
> ones I knew did. So when they struck, at the beginning of my 7th grade
> year, and when they almost struck again when I was in high school,
> yeah, I was out there with them.

i wasn't... in my family, i was a dissenter as well... in fact, now
that i think about it, we all were... among my current friends, i
have no pity... they make good money, thehy've got lots of time off,
and they still can't form complete sentences... and *they* are
teaching our youth... hell, i went to school with a girl who was in
the most basic classes and couldn't ever stay awake in those classes,
and now she teaches at the same school i went to... she doesn't
teach, she reads from a book while students, smelling her
incompetence, do their own thing...

> Public-school teachers should be the highest-paid people on the
> planet.

i would agree with that if they were required to have a minimum of
skills as well, but until they stop letting anyone teach our youth,
i'm not buying it...

now, if they *do* raise wages to that level, i would only support if
there were all-around tests to make sure dolts don't get in...

--
my latest book project:
  Web Graphics for Non-Designers
  http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1904151159/evoltorg02-20
  ISBN: 1904151159






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