[Vodstok]

Teaching. You couldnt pay me enough to do this. The hours suck, it's thankless a lot of the time, and the pay is terrible. It is definately one of the most noble professions in the world.



But there are a disturbing number of people in this occupation who should not be in it. growing up, i ran into more (Way more) than my fair share of apathetic, uninterested, vengeful, mean, cruel or just plain hateful people as teachers. I can understand that the nature of the job can mold young, idealistic people into bitter old farts, but people should (should... I know....) know when to call it quits with any job.


Its not like people are lured into teaching by promises of becoming millionaires... We all know the pay is crappy. Do i think they should get nmore money? yes. Do i want to pay higher taxes? Not really, but we could probably stand to fund fewer established businesses and government raises in order to do somehting as measly as ensuring our kids get a good education...

It also kills me that so many of them seem to dislike kids so much. Its like they became teachers simply because it gave them authority over a group. My 11th grade english teacher was one of these. He was a horrible man, arrogant and self absorbed. He had several AP classes and several remedial ones. I was in a remedial class. as you may be able to tell, i didnt belong there. He didnt care, and was not interested in hearing that i was previously in advanced classes, and didnt belong inone where the average student read at a 6th grade level. I was reading 6th grade in 4th.

Of course, this situation was a direct result o fwhat happened at my previous school. My english teacher had a job simply because she was the widow of an american military man. She was Philipino with a horrible grasp of the english language and a thick accent, but claimed she had 2 masters degrees in english... MT Pinatubo had blown up half the island so we got stuck with her.

i was part of the 97% of her students that failed that year, mostly due to homework that was never assaigned, but marked as an F because it wasnt turned in. And no, the school board didnt believe any of us until the end of year numbers. She was fired, but an entire section of the sophomore class that year ended up with ruined english records.

The rest of the school staff is as much to blame. I never had a single principal or vice principal that didnt comeoff as an authoritarian sociopath. We had one that looked like the Penguin from the old 60s batman, who routinely had 2 hour long assemblies simply because he LOVED to give speaches...

I have watched the inept, stupid and even (yes, not exagerrating) retarded children of teachers get away with murder because their parents were faculty...

And lets not even get into the whole "Bullying is part of the growing process of school" bullshit. it is mean, and it is wrong. How many more kids need ot get gunned down before they figure this one out?

The last thing i will rant about is testing teachers. MAssachussets has been doing this for a while, and i think it is brilliant. No offense to any teachers here, but if you cant pass a standardized test on your job every year, you shouldnt have it. The rest of us have to be able to perform outr jobs,m and are often called to task to prove it, it is no different from a regular job in that regard. get over it, if you cant pass, then i dont want you fumbling around screwing up my kid's future.


I will stay firmly planted on my soapbox for now, thank you.