LA Times takes on President Obama and the teachers union

[liehtr]

For example, despite the outcry from such reformers as the Obama administration and the Education Trust, it does not appear that low-income and minority students are stuck with teachers who let achievement slump.





http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-teachers-20100817,0,6793836.story?track=rss

[hoosier_daddy]

i have always thought it was the parents of kids that are the most responsible for them not doing good in school, not the teachers.  but any scapegoat in a storm, I guess....

[mudslinger]

The Teachers Union is the biggest reason for piss poor teachers in this country.

[liehtr]

I agree to a certain extent. Parents need to be responsible for the children going to school and doing their homework. Teachers jobs are to teach.

[hoosier_daddy]

true, but if a kid isn't motivated by his peeps, the odds a teacher can change it, especially since they do not have time to baby sit 5 or 6 unmotivated clowns out of a classroom of 30, are extremely small.  our whole education system needs to be overhauled...not everybody is going to be a doctor or a lawyer or a scientist or an english scholar, we need to teach them the basics for the first 9 years, and then let them take courses they actually like and can do well in- like mechanical techs and plumbing and carpentry and trade school education that will prepare them to make good money in those kinds of fields.  not very many kids want to learn or can learn calculus or want to read shakespeare, so why try to force them?

[mudslinger]

A good teacher motivates students to learn, teaches them and then tests them to make certain they understand. Students learn at different speeds, a good teacher compensates for that.

[littleeye]

Any individual who relys on the state to raise their children is not a parent. The nanny state abets such people.

[hoosier_daddy]

bullshit...a good mechanic makes good dough...a good electrician...a good carpenter...a good air conditioning tech....a good plumber....there is more dough in that there is in being a biology teacher or a research scientist or most other "scholarly" type jobs out there....

[sweetwater5s9]

These kids I am talking about will not even make "a good electrician...a good carpenter...a good air conditioning tech....a good plumber...", they are destined for menial labor.

[hoosier_daddy]

like who for instance?  what do you do for a living, besides talking shit on the internet?  anybody could do what you do, no matter how stupid. 

[lluke47]

There are more problems in our schools than just the teachers..
 
When God was removed from our schools that was the day it started to go downhill and now the results are coming in..
 
We have no discipline and a lot of the kids act like animals because of it...
 
Good teachers are hard to find because of the discipline problems alone..
 
Administrators are stealing the money and the childrens future

[derhund]

If the student didn't learn, the teacher didn't teach!!