Teacher Helps Students Cheat Because She Says They’re ‘Dumb As Hell’

reply to post by DerekJR321

You mention that the schools care more about the money than the students. That's just not true.
They would get more money from the federal and state coffers if they held these dummies back a year or two.

No child left behind was a good hearted effort to get the slow students the extra help to maintain their grade level.
But the side effects are worse. Schools now have special intervention teachers who handle kids who have no business in schools. I'm talking about severe handicapped kids who have to have their diapers changed during the day. This level of 'students' will never hold any job. Schools are being used as handicapped daycare.

The other dummy kids are mostly kids reaching puberty and their minds shut down the moment they reach the doors and have to turn off their cell phones. You can't teach a kid whos mind is not in the classroom. You can't expect the teacher sing and dance to hold the attention of the students. There is no way to make a quadradic equation a popular lesson.

My fiancee is a spanish teacher. On her third day this year she recieved a complaint from a parent.
The parent said she talks too much spanish and her daughter can't understand and keep up.
Day one lesson: Hello How are you. (hand out books)
Day two lesson: My name is xxx I am fine.

That's two days each class 37 minutes long. And the mom complains about two very simple sentances.

It's the parents!
It's always been the parents!

Yes each school may have one or even two bad teachers.
But that doesn't explain the number of stupid kids. That doesn't explain the variety of stupidity. (english, math, etc)

You can lead a kid to water. But you get fired for kicking his ass in.

It's the parents!
It's always been the parents!

This is the expected result of merit (test score) based pay.

Originally posted by Rudy2shoes
Just look at ATS,
everyone is always willing to give you the right answer,
while they claim your are dumb as hell and need to deny ignorance.

The problem here is that many are not capable of critical thinking and analysis. Most of the people I encounter and have disagreements with refute facts, deny science, cannot produce evidence, or believe in their religion over everything else...

People here regularly use "anonymous" reports and YouTube videos as "evidence". When you challenge them on something fundamental such as proof, they clam up, or accuse you of being "closed" to everything.

Critical and independent thinking is vital to intelligence. Far too many people here on ATS think that because someone says something, and they have a "bad feeling", that means something MUST be fact.

As for the OP, I think this probably comes back to the system in which teachers work. If schools are going to be affected by their level of success - or lack thereof - of course there is going to be corruption of the system. These people have jobs to do, if their resources and funding are based on their level of success, and they have far too many students failing that basic requirement, they are soon in a viscous circle of declining standards where something has to be done to increase the success rate or everyone loses out.

From what I know about the US education system, this is just a minor problem distracting from the larger issue. Standards across the education system are terrible, you don't have the brightest people educating your kids, they're reading out dogma as fact, they're far too restricted in what they can do and say.

The entire educational system needs to be ripped apart and analyzed properly, then rebuilt with the best interests of the kids at the forefront. Forget statistics, educate the kids in what they need to know and provide those who need it with the extra help. It's not that hard!

You can have the best teacher in the world, spend all of the money in the world, but if the parents have no respect for education, it will only go so far. A very small percentage of students will do well, but most won't.

Responsibility, accountability, these are things that should be taught by parents at home, before and after school. What responsibility do children really have growing up in this day and age? Remembering to turn off their video games? Don't go over your text allowance? Giving children a since of purpose from a young age is crucial. They need chores, they need responsibility, and they need discipline. Think of the farming families. Those children had to get up at the crack of dawn to feed livestock, etc, all before school. Every child in the family had a job, everyone contributed in some way, no matter how young. Contributing builds self-esteem, not a trophy from a t-ball game that everyone gets just because they show up.

Geez, when I think about our country possibly going through some sort of collapse, it will certainly be a wake-up call for a large portion of American children.

Parents? We're talking inner city kids here - how many actually have 2 parents? Very few. The children of single parent households typically score lower than those from households with 2 parents. Many of these kids live in poverty as well. Few learn to read before they reach kindergarten and everyone expects the schools to teach them everything.
NCLB has also been a millstone around the necks of educators and students and diverts immense resources to the very dullest of kids in an effort to "keep them up". Sadly, these are the kids who could never keep up regardless of what they do and in the process the brightest are ignored and left unchallenged.
It's the One Size Fits All mentality that Federal government has imposed on schools that is doing our kids a gross injustice. Add to that a culture that does not value education or critical thinking skills and instead pushes worship of sports and celebrities.
Our values as a society play a big part in whether or not our children see education as being worthwhile.

reply to post by Asktheanimals


Parents, yes. It starts at home first.

I understand very well that these are inner city kids. I volunteered at a disadvantaged elementary school few years ago in a reading program. I was assigned two kids who were struggling in school, one had to be held back due to asthma problems, the other was Mexican, whose parents were here illegally and could not speak English. A few facts stood out that I, as well as the other volunteers noted. Both of their parents were not helping their kids at home. The kid with asthma had a Mom who went to trade school, and an alchoholic Dad who could not keep a job. The girl from the Mexican family outright said she could not get help at home from her parents. Her parents were really nice, but they just did not value education. The other kid could not even get to school sometimes because the parents would not get him ready to go, so he just stayed home, and played his gameboy, because even in the ghetto, there are plenty of kids with video games and cellphones. I knew teachers at this school, spent some time with them, some were great, a few were not. Many were just overwhelmed dealing with children who were not prepared for school.

My point is this; that too many children are not getting what they need at home, from every walk of life. The school is not meant to be a nanny, it is meant to educate. As I said, I have many teachers in my family, from wealthy school districts, to impoverished, and plenty more stories from them. What happened at this school is heinous, no doubt about it. This should never have happened. There are bad teachers, but I feel more are good teachers than bad. I wonder about the parents not noticing that suddenly the kids are bringing home high test scores suddenly. If you are around when they do their homework at night, you notice when they are struggling, believe me.

The people in these communities need to band together to help their children if the parents are absent. Too many children a born to parents that have no means to take care of them, and no business being parents. Parenting is a full time job in addition to a full time job. I know from experience, I was a single Mom for six months at a time while my husband was on deployment for many years, while working full time. It is not easy at all.

I grew up in the town I live in now, as did my husband.
When we grew up here it (16 years apart) it was Leave it to Beaver land. Yes, we had problems. Ted Nugent went to our high-school some years back before me and he left a rep behind him. He was definitely a crazy guy.
But in all that, there was still a certain amount of respect that kids were expected to have for the teachers and the adults. Even when I was there 20 years ago same thing.
Little by little, people started moving in from the ghetto.
You hear them still say "you got good schools here."
Right. We do. But what helped make them good schools was the parents. Period.
Now? The high schools are broken and dying. Parents threaten each other with guns, gun fire is fairly regular around here. The mentality is completely different.
The people who grew up here are moving out and going far.

Some of what I noticed with the Stossel video: "boo hoo my kid can't read." Well.... out of all these years it never occurred to you to sit down with him and teach him? Seriously?
In the article itself in the OP, we blame the teachers? Really? Parents we have these things called libraries. And if you have a smart phone (how many of you do?) there are a multitude of apps that you won't even have to make a special trip to the library to teach your kid to read, do math, and science concepts.
It's honestly not that hard to teach your kid.

With that being said, yes there are some teachers, maybe many, who don't deserve crap. I've had the pleasure of having those teachers in my life and in my older daughter's.

But it's not always the teacher's fault.

reply to post by multiple


You can't send your kids off to public school and expect them to get raised up exactly the way you want. It takes countless hours of hands on attention and guidance! Please do not shirk your responsibilities as a progenitor.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


And I suppose these Teachers STILL have their Jobs, right?







That's a scandal also......

One Liners

Originally posted by Pepeluacho
reply to post by Sodium

 

Don't blame the schools, blame the Teachers and their "Teacher's Union."

For New Parents: Always enroll your child at a Charter Public School. The difference between are chartered school and a non-chartered is the Union. Chartered schools do not allow their teachers to be protected by Unions meaning the teachers must teach properly in order to keep their job.

The doco you posted is Fox News propaganda. Fox uses Stossel because its en-vougue to be a raging libertarian right now. The agenda is to turn public schools into a business for guys like Bill Gates and his buds. Another great 'charter school' propaganda doco is 'Waiting For Superman'. Its all about how great Charter Schools are. They are trying to frame opinion. Of course the unions are a problem. Of course Public Schools need to be fixed. No, the only solution is not allowing Bill Gates to make profit out of Public School children and American Taxpayers.

If other nations can get results from Government Schools then so can America. The solution is to fix the problems not scrap Public Schools all together.

I agree that the biggest problem is the Teachers Unions. The Democrats are to blame. But the Republicans will push for Charter Schools which are no solution. If only there was another political party.

reply to post by artnut


I can't imagine how difficult it would be raising a child by yourself, even for 6 months. I have 4 sons, all but one of which are college grads, the exception being our eldest who was recruited as a sophomore by a software developer. It took both my wife and I being there every step of the way, making sure they did their homework, helping them with subjects they found difficult and being involved with their teachers enough to know what was expected of them as students.

It was mostly because we valued education that they all managed to go on to college. I taught elementary art, my dad was a teacher and my wife has 2 degrees so I guess it runs in the family. We also taught them to read at an early age and instilled a love of books that will last their whole lives.

I agree the home is the most important element to whether or not a child can succeed at school. With the right help even the most disadvantaged of kids can excel.

As a generality I do think that tv and video games are harming our children badly by shortening their attention spans and encouraging a sense of instant gratification.

This Is just saddening, I always knew it would come to this. I graduated in 2001, even then it was ridiculous. I can only say that society has failed them, when you start to make things easier and easier, the Parents become dumber, the teachers become dumber, everyone does. I think that, yes technology has made a great leap forward, but technology left something behind, maybe the fact that most kids grow up with Spell check, and Google, with no effort being made by the person individually. I really dont know if this can be fixed, unless we really try to incorporate technology and people thinking for themselves. When I graduated, there wasnt even a computer with internet in my classrooms. I had no problems finding correct answers, because I figured them out MYSELF.

reply to post by Asktheanimals


Thanks for taking full responsibility for your children's education and well being - it seems to have really paid off, and if by some mistake I ever become a father I will hope to employ methods like yours.

Originally posted by Asktheanimals


As a generality I do think that tv and video games are harming our children badly by shortening their attention spans and encouraging a sense of instant gratification.

Funny you should say this. I grounded my son from video games, for lackluster grades ,(B-) in math. Guess what? His grades improved. I question the validity of the "whys" sometimes. I knew he could have achieved these grades, but I think his focus, at times, was quickly do his homework, instead of taking the time to get it completely right, because he wanted to play his game. A little off topic, but what you said, had me thinking about it again........

Originally posted by Sodium
Seems unfair that students be destined to a life of abject poverty because the education system which is one of the only keys to a successful life has failed them.

right...it's the education system...the parents should be crackin' a belt across their little butts, take the cell phone away, the TV, and put a private password on their computer. plus, they are grounded until they get a note from the teacher that their studies, along with their homework, has improved.

The dumbing down of america begins within the home. We live in such a faced paced society now, that we have to carry telephones with us or our spouses cannot get ahold of us, nor can anyone else. With each advancement in technology humanity gets weaker and weaker as technology makes lives "easier" and real life concepts such as work ethics, goes out the window. Now kids get shoved in front of a Nintendo console game or pc and the fixation has gone from learning to playing games like starcraft 2 and league of legends.

The people all get in line for their next meal in fastfood franchise restaurants, like cows chasing a farmer with a bale of hay and America gets fatter and fatter. We are being weakened more and more everyday and when a crisis comes, millions will die because they will be too fat, lazy and complacent to be able to adapt to the situation at hand as they wait in lines for their prescription medications. Technology is a hindrance and a crutch and ultimately it will be our doom.

It isnt really anyone's fault. Not totally anyway.

Speaking as a person who has worked with the indigent for several decades now and who has come from indigent surroundings the plain truth is there are people who are dumb as drunken rocks and people who arent.

It has nothing to do with capitalism or government education. It has nothing to do with politics or economics of any sort.

In my family there are those who were born of the same parents, attended the same schools, had the same friends, eaten the same foods but for whatever reason one would rise above and the other would remain a toothless, illiterate hick incapable of following even the simplest train of logic.

As incapable that person may be he/she is still physically able to procreate. So now we have a complete moron responsible for raising a child. That child may or may not be capable but it is already born at a disadvantage being ignored, poorly treated, or raised as a moron would raise a child with poor diet, lots of television, no structured schedule, etc....

Nothing can fix that. Nothing. Except maybe allowing these incapable people to run themselves into the ground and over time remove themselves from society but society is wracked with guilt and will bend over backwards to enable and coddle those incapable of functioning even at the most basic levels and so this will only get worse.

Humanity will split into at least two very distinct species: a literate and thoughtful master class and a class of grunts.

Depending on how society decides to treat these grunts whichever species is in charge is still up for debate.

As it stands now morons have a lot of sway around here. So much so it is essentially a prerequisite for one to have complete ignorance of a subject before forming an opinion and even writing legislation on said subject.

rofl... damn teachers man. Aint nothing else to bad education but bad schools and teachers, and obviously the bull# "teaching" the government are pushing onto public education... So many teachers and authority figures lack 1 simple thing, mutual respect for the kids. I guarantee anybody that shows mutual respect will get the same respect back.

Originally posted by jimmyx

Originally posted by Sodium
Seems unfair that students be destined to a life of abject poverty because the education system which is one of the only keys to a successful life has failed them.

right...it's the education system...the parents should be crackin' a belt across their little butts, take the cell phone away, the TV, and put a private password on their computer. plus, they are grounded until they get a note from the teacher that their studies, along with their homework, has improved.

I think your trying to make it into the individuals fault where as it seems quite obvious to me to be a social thing.
Trying to discipline one kid is probably not going to do much but isolate them and the problems with the education system are still going to be there.