Monday, September 26, 2011
South Korea and Education
Today, I read an interesting article from Time magazine entitled "Teacher, Leave Those Kids Alone". Originally, I was attracted by the title of the article wondering what thing we are attacking teachers on now...come to find out that it was about South Korea. As a teacher and as a person that follows the news, you always hear about how the United States education system is behind everyone else in the world...we often hear about countries like Finland, Singapore, and South Korea. But honestly I am glad for our teenagers and our teachers that we are NOT South Korea. I have never heard about how long these kids study...our students think that they do so much homework but these students really are at school from 8 am until 10 pm...WOW! People want us to be like South Korea in terms of how much we know....but I ask at what cost I ask.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
What Teachers Really Want
As many of you know...or will figure out in a few seconds...I am a teacher. I have wanted to be a teacher for as long as I can remember...partly because I had great teachers in my life and to a young mind you "want to be just like them". Now that I am actually a teacher, there is SO much behind the scenes that you don't know even know happens. This brings me to what I read today...an op-ed piece by Ron Clark (read it here). Ron Clark has been talking a lot recently about the teacher's perspective on things and I have read a bit of his work. I always felt that he was writing to teachers and thereby preaching to the choir...however this op-ed piece really hit home for me. Parents are one of the hardest things a teacher has to deal with.
I am just going to highlight a couple of things that Clark touched on that stick out in my situation.
And parents, you know, it's OK for your child to get in trouble sometimes. It builds character and teaches life lessons. As teachers, we are vexed by those parents who stand in the way of those lessons; we call them helicopter parents because they want to swoop in and save their child every time something goes wrong. If we give a child a 79 on a project, then that is what the child deserves. Don't set up a time to meet with me to negotiate extra credit for an 80. It's a 79, regardless of whether you think it should be a B+.
Okay so because I work at a therapeutic boarding school, these kids get in trouble a lot...that is to a point how I know them. However...some of them aren't at my school because they did drugs/alcohol/sex etc. it is because they have a horrible relationship with their parents...and sometimes these parents are helicopter parents. Their kids become so handicapped by them that they don't know how to do it on their own..so they come to me unable to complete an assignment completely on their own. Some days I come home so sick of helping one student with their assignment...and you could argue its because their parents influenced their decision making ability to be zero.
Some parents will make excuses regardless of the situation, and they are raising children who will grow into adults who turn toward excuses and do not create a strong work ethic. If you don't want your child to end up 25 and jobless, sitting on your couch eating potato chips, then stop making excuses for why they aren't succeeding. Instead, focus on finding solutions.
If your kid wants to be an exception to every rule you've got your work cut out for you....and my students sure like to be exceptions. Executive skills=jobs you learn in school to help with life: organizing, planning, working, being proactive...I bet you could guess how many of my students understand these skills.
We know you love your children. We love them, too. We just ask -- and beg of you -- to trust us, support us and work with the system, not against it. We need you to have our backs, and we need you to give us the respect we deserve. Lift us up and make us feel appreciated, and we will work even harder to give your child the best education possible.
All I can say is ditto. Even though I can come home from a long day and wonder why I still want to wake up and do it tomorrow--I do it for the kids. I love them...and I know other teachers do too...so give us the benefit of the doubt.
I am just going to highlight a couple of things that Clark touched on that stick out in my situation.
And parents, you know, it's OK for your child to get in trouble sometimes. It builds character and teaches life lessons. As teachers, we are vexed by those parents who stand in the way of those lessons; we call them helicopter parents because they want to swoop in and save their child every time something goes wrong. If we give a child a 79 on a project, then that is what the child deserves. Don't set up a time to meet with me to negotiate extra credit for an 80. It's a 79, regardless of whether you think it should be a B+.
Okay so because I work at a therapeutic boarding school, these kids get in trouble a lot...that is to a point how I know them. However...some of them aren't at my school because they did drugs/alcohol/sex etc. it is because they have a horrible relationship with their parents...and sometimes these parents are helicopter parents. Their kids become so handicapped by them that they don't know how to do it on their own..so they come to me unable to complete an assignment completely on their own. Some days I come home so sick of helping one student with their assignment...and you could argue its because their parents influenced their decision making ability to be zero.
Some parents will make excuses regardless of the situation, and they are raising children who will grow into adults who turn toward excuses and do not create a strong work ethic. If you don't want your child to end up 25 and jobless, sitting on your couch eating potato chips, then stop making excuses for why they aren't succeeding. Instead, focus on finding solutions.
If your kid wants to be an exception to every rule you've got your work cut out for you....and my students sure like to be exceptions. Executive skills=jobs you learn in school to help with life: organizing, planning, working, being proactive...I bet you could guess how many of my students understand these skills.
We know you love your children. We love them, too. We just ask -- and beg of you -- to trust us, support us and work with the system, not against it. We need you to have our backs, and we need you to give us the respect we deserve. Lift us up and make us feel appreciated, and we will work even harder to give your child the best education possible.
All I can say is ditto. Even though I can come home from a long day and wonder why I still want to wake up and do it tomorrow--I do it for the kids. I love them...and I know other teachers do too...so give us the benefit of the doubt.
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