Stupid in America

[KnottyLDSMama]

Anybody watching this? It totally reinforces my desire to homeschool. The things I'm seeing is making me sick. UGH. Especially the teacher sending sexual emails to a 16 year old, and yet they couldn't fire him? So they spent $300,000 keeping him away from the children but still paying him.

Sooo, so sad. :( Those poor children. I can't imagine ever having to send my child to public school. I think I'd die.

[presleycaedmon]

Amen sista!

[kittykorat]

As a former teacher, and my DH is a teacher - it is sad to say that some of this stuff does go on in schools. (the cheating, lousey teachers, etc)
In our area (Massachusetts), the unions do nothing to protect the teachers, and we have heard several cases of local teachers being fired for innapropriate behavior. Also within your first 3 years of teaching they can simply not renew your contract for no reason at all. The vast majority of teachers don't only work 6.5 hours. They may be in the classroom for 6.5 hours, but I know when I had to teach I had to correct 96 papers several nights a week, and plan my lessons- that is a 45 minute presentation to prepare for, etc. I spent just about every waking moment on it. (I tought 6th grade science).
It's sad that some schools are great, and some are so inadequate. We used to live and teach in a poor school district. We moved, and we are struggling our heiney's off to keep our heads above water in a tiny fixer-upper house in a good school zone. We both agree with school choice.

[SheilaJoy]

watching it now...so glad I homeschool!

[hollyhobby30]

I watched that too and was shocked about the sexual email thing and not being able to fire him. The parents have no idea about this!

[Abunchofus]

Excellent show! I saved it to our DVR recorder!

The sad thing is our best schools are pitiful compared to world wide! For a nation that is supposed to be so far advanced our schools are terrible!

I'm sorry but Teacher's Unions don't always help the teachers that it should help and it often helps the teachers that it should NOT help (just as was seen on the 20/20 Stupid in America episode) and it certainly doesn't help the students! I watched my ex-SIL get tenure when she was not due tenure. Now she is an ok person but what if that had been someone like that guy on the 20/20 show - now they can do nothing with him and he sits there earning $$ - even if his salary was only $20K a year that is $20K too much to be wasting on someone who is not doing their job and who is endangering children!

I'm sorry - if the govt were to give parents even $2K a year to hs their children they'd be saving $8K per year per student and man oh man the curriculum and school supplies such as chemistry kits and telescopes, etc.... that we could use. I'm sorry but I don't know a single homeschooler who could not do a better job educating their children with even $1K per year per student than the public schools do with $10K per year per student!

[nothing_butt_cloth]

How can i get a copy of this.. I really want to see it, and since i dont have tivo and i work at night i missed it...

cani pay someone here to copy it and send it to me????

[westgre]

I saw the majority of this show, but had to run to the store for milk and missed abnout 20 minutes -- apparently the part about the e-mail business. I would also love to get a copy so I could see the 20 minutes I missed.
It's very disheartening when you know home schooling is not an option at all -- my DH is disabled and I can't quit working since we live on my income.
What's really sad is that I received an excellent public education and I just don't understand why all schools can't be like that.

[Abunchofus]

But Gretchen - it still could be an option - that is the joy of homeschooling - you do not have to do school 8-3. You can do it in the evenings when you get home or have grandma & grandpa do it with the kids if they are who is watching them. I don't know what disabilities your husband has but he could even do it!

[tillers72]

This is amazing to me too! The more I think of it, when dh gets out of the Army, I don't want my kids in PS. We are in Germany right now, and it's quite comical, but my parents just got a forgien exchange student from here (completely unexpected) and he is 16, speaks 4 languages fluently, and is a wonderful kid! I know I can't very well teach my kids 4 languages, but anything has got to be better than some of the stuff going on now...

[Abunchofus]

But if you homeschool you might not could actually teach your child 4 languages but it would certainly be far easier to find a tutor willing to give lessons to private families in various languages 1 or 2 days a week!

We have a lady here who gets about 6 to 10 kids together once a week to do Spanish lessons. If you have more than one child in a family she gives a discount and parents can sit in for free!

The lessons last about 1 1/2 to 2 hours if I remember correctly!

Well most homeschoolers have afternoons free so you could easily do 2 languages!

[SheilaJoy]

This is amazing to me too! The more I think of it, when dh gets out of the Army, I don't want my kids in PS. We are in Germany right now, and it's quite comical, but my parents just got a forgien exchange student from here (completely unexpected) and he is 16, speaks 4 languages fluently, and is a wonderful kid! I know I can't very well teach my kids 4 languages, but anything has got to be better than some of the stuff going on now...


Did you see the one lady who said, "I would NEVER send my child to an American school!"
I think she was German but I could be wrong.

[mommyofnoah]

I didn't see this show but felt the need to speak up for teachers in PS. After all, I was one before becoming a SAHM and am married to one. I am upset with "specials" like the one you are referring to because they focus on the few "bad" apples in the bunch and make everyone outside of the teaching realm "afraid" of teachers and schools. Most of the teachers I know are VERY hard working (MANY HOURS outside of the school day for a million things that most people don't even think about/realize and YES in the summers too!) and are VERY underpaid. They are teachers because they care about the students, not because they are trying to "hurt" kids and then get tenure to hide. Also, teachers are being given "parent" responsibilities such as teaching respect, honesty, caring, responsibility, etc. outside of teaching the academics. Parents are quick to blame teachers for what should be their own responsibilities with their children. Teachers are given a lot of students with a lot of different learning levels AND coming from different (sometimes lack of) family support and told to make them all learn the same! HELLO! Please, all that I am asking is that you get to know a PS teacher (REALLY) or go and observe in a classroom for a day before you judge all PS teachers. Thanks for letting me put my 2 cents in. That said, being HS teachers for your own children, I know that many of you know how hard teaching can be!!!...now imagine you have 25 of them and 1/2 of them yell/kick/are disrespectful, no parent support, some kids are hungry because they don't have enough money for breakfast, they are worried their parents are going to divorce, they don't know where they are going to sleep that night and a million other things that get in the way of learning...and YOU are the ONLY one in the room to deal with it all and you somehow need to make them each feel special & feel that you care and teach them too! :2cents: Thanks for listening:goodvibes:

[~happy2Bamommy~]

I sure would have liked to see what you are all talking about..

As to the PP.. My children went to Kindergarten and there was a teacher that we loved..She was WONDERFUL and I didn't know how hard it was to "teach" until we made the choice to homeschool during 1st grade..

What was sad to me was to see this kind woman do exactly as you say..Handle a bunch of brats for lack of a better word! PLUS since we live in an area with a large Hispanic population she started the school year of with 6 children in her class that couldn't even speak English.. I saw several days a sad scene re-played: how sad she looked as she was trying to comfort one little boy who cried every day in words the teacher did not understand and she tried so hard to comfort him in words he did not understand..

This woman has my utmost respect.. That said,same school next grade and there were not any teachers like her.. After a month that involved heat stroke for my oldest and many other things, mine came home. Teaching them is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life..AND I only have TWO to teach!

[keegans_mommy]

I didn't see it and am unsure if I would be able to sit and watch it as I really take things rather hard. We took our children out for moral reasons as well as the lack of work for our children and our special needs DD they were literally losing and our younger one they physically lost twice! Too many reasons to state here but I am soooooooooooo happy we did!

[katiedidbug]

I teach at a local public high school, and yes, we do work hard and are underpaid. Yes, we have extra responsibilties like teaching morals and decent behavior. BUT, while we do our best, it still seems obvious to me that the KIDS AREN'T LEARNING. Test scores are soooo low, and kids just can't read. Politics gets in the way. Yes, teachers are AMAZING people, but it sometimes feel nearly impossible to get a classroom full of 36 to learn everything because I feel like we spend so much of our time just trying to get kids to listen. I plan on homeschooling my own children, unless we can afford privated school. I know you should never say never, but I would probably NEVER send my kids to a public school.

[lararum]

I did watch that on You tube, after finding a link on here. I know some of it was sensationalist, but a lot of it is true. We have some of the worst schools here in the city, but I'm not moving to the burbs.
I have been researching hsing, and will probably go that route. I will look into some of the public magnet schools, but here they have to have 2 years of preschool at the school, which costs $3k/year, and dd couldn't start until she was 4 since her bday is after the cut off date. She would be supremely bored by the time she hit kindergarten.
There's also state funding for private school, but I'm not sure we can get it. Last year over half the applicants were from our city, out of the whole state of Ohio.