Good evening readers and thanks for joining me again! If you are one who has kept up with a newbie blogger like myself and find what I have to say to be interesting please share this page with your friends. I have big goals for this blog, and that is to get the life of a teacher out for the world to see. The more people who read this the more who will hopefully understand.
Aside from my PSA and advertisement for my blog tonight I want to talk about the movie "Waiting for Superman." While I have not watched the movie myself (because I am sure it will anger me) I have heard much about it and read different things concerning the premise for the movie. It seems to me that our society is quick to point the finger at the educational system for producing poor test scores and for running a system that doesn't work. One of the first things that people point out is the dropout rate. If one were to take the time to look at this they would see that the dropout rate has actually been steadily decreasing since at least 1960. Along with this student scores on the NAEP or the National Assessment of Educational Progress in reading test have been steadily increasing since 1998. These upward trends seem to be a positive thing in my book.
With scores like these it makes me wonder who really is to blame for educational problems in the United States. If we look at countries around us, those with the best educational systems are those who value education and teachers the most. In a country that looks down on teachers and degrades the educational system, students will definitely feel the effects. No wonder students do poorly if all they hear is how incompetent their teachers are. In connection with this is the breakdown of the family unit. In many cases today students grow-up in homes where education takes a back seat to making money and doing family chores. I can work until I want to pass out but if there is no parental or familial support at home all of my efforts will be in vain.
References:
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0779196.html
http://nationsreportcard.gov/writing_2007/w0002.asp
I want to know how the drop out rate has anything to do with teachers. If a kid doesnt go to school or decides they dont need school, thats on the parent not a teacher. Some kids just dont like school, or they dont feel like they need it. And test scores? Really once again back on a parent or the child their self! I didnt study for anything and that was on me not anyone around me. Also somce kids just seriously suck at standardized testing. Not everyone learns the same way and as much as teachers try to teach things various ways but really. If a parent isnt invoved and doing what they can at home there is only so much a teacher can do an hour a day.
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