Coronavirus SZN Forever

[dcm1602]

Sorry you have to deal with that excrement.  My mom was a 2nd grade teacher.  Even aside from harassment like that, I don't know why anyone would want to be a teacher.  One of the most important jobs in our society and we kick them in the balls and excrement on them every chance we get.

One of the most important in theory.

But in the United States these fuckers just read off the god damn slides given to them by the text book manufacturers

(this isn't a rant about political bias of teachers)

I think they just do a excrement job actually teaching

Not that I remember HS but I can certainly speak for college professors sucking

[bojanglesman]

One of the most important in theory.

But in the United States these fuckers just read off the god damn slides given to them by the text book manufacturers

(this isn't a rant about political bias of teachers)

I think they just do a excrement job actually teaching

Not that I remember HS but I can certainly speak for college professors sucking

You are generalizing.  Forced standardization of learning has also taken away teaching freedom over the years.

[Badger]

Sorry you have to deal with that excrement.  My mom was a 2nd grade teacher.  Even aside from harassment like that, I don't know why anyone would want to be a teacher.  One of the most important jobs in our society and we kick them in the balls and excrement on them every chance we get.

I was somewhat interested in becoming a teacher when I was a kid but was discouraged by 2 things: having to deal with parents and having to assign/grade homework.

[dcm1602]

You are generalizing.  Forced standardization of learning has also taken away teaching freedom over the years.

It is a generalization and anecdotal.

But the data on how shitty/stupid kids have become is well documented.

Debate the placement of blame will never be agreed upon

[delavan]

Per your TL;DR summation: yes patents are crazy, unreasonably crazy, and why the landscape's littered with former Little League umps who've quit. 

That said, a few 'colored comments' shoehorned in below.

I know I've posted stuff like this before, but a few recent examples from my personal life that I think of whenever I hear conversations like this:

1. My spouse is a middle school foreign language teacher, a relatively high ranking union rep, and one of the advisors of the school's lgbt+ club. She was recently moved to a portable classroom which was put up at the last minute because of a labor shortage, her usual school-provided US flag wasn't hanging for the first week of school. But she decorated her classroom as much as she could, and put up a pride flag that included black/brown stripes on the wall for her club. While recognizing Mrs. On's reciting the pledge record (in bold below), since she was going the "as much as she could" extra mile why not simply include an American flag as well?  The optics whether fair or not are going to read to the more reactionary types as "in lieu of" and the resulting tempest imho could've been avoidable altogether. A simple goose/gander applied here would've nipped that in the bud.  A few days into the school year, the principal of the school received a call from a concerned parent that she is forcing the students to pledge allegiance to the "gay, black lives matter flag" and that as a Christian and taxpayer, they find this deeply unsettling and want an explanation.

She has always stood at the front of the classroom and recited the pledge of allegiance to the US flag every morning for the past eight years, and has explicitly invited but not demanded her class do the same. She ended up spending over an hour on the phone with this parent for a conversation I got the privilege of hearing one side of explaining that no one is ever forced to pledge allegiance to any flag in her classroom, but she invites all students to make the traditional pledge to the American flag if they want to and are comfortable doing



2. In teaching a foreign language, she often goes over relevant news articles to try to increase engagement. On George Floyd's birthday, she spent the warmup discussion talking attempting to engage her class about why he was in the news again. She has a strong belief in two things in this exercise: if students care enough about a topic to talk about it in the target language, it's a great thing for language acquisition, and she really tries to get students to express different ideas so they can have an easy, low-stakes place to start to think critically, communicate respectfully, and hear each other's thoughts. A couple days later, she receives a long, rambling email from a different parent accusing her of indoctrinating their child, bringing up George Floyd's various criminal offenses, accusing her of 'failing' the child because of their family's political beliefs, and saying that they have to have a several hour conversation every night to discuss what has happened in French class (the kid is doing fine in class, and has told my spouse how much he French - she is generally pretty popular with the kids).  A parent particularly an emotionally engaged parent is probably not going to be very succinct but instead prone to run-on sentences, etc., which is probably their way of emphasizing or reenforcing points most important to them (however clumsily expressed).  As for the "current events" discussion, fwiw, here were the news headlines from Oct. 14, 2020 (Geo. Floyd's birthday) courtesy of the NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/issue/todaysheadlines/2020/10/14/todays-headlines

She ends up meeting with her principal and drafting an email with the support of admin and another teacher to try to communicate that the child is doing well, how proud she is of the child for engaging in class every day, that she takes this feedback seriously, and that they are doing what they can to keep the kids engaged with a focus on language acquisition and communication, which are some of the main state standards they are focusing on in this class.

Additionally, there have been lawsuits for access to all school district emails and records containing the possibility of evidence that the district is using taxpayer money to fund CRT ideology in the district (as well as a similar lawsuit alleging the district was intentionally sabotaging efforts to have kids in school full time last year) The school has apparently spent significantly more of that taxpayer money hiring lawyers to defend themselves than budgeted, leading to budget shortcoming in other areas.  Why not a simple "FOIL" (freedom of information act) request which would've avoided costly, needless lawsuits? 

That said she seems over and above the teachers I had....tru dat. 

[ons]

Per your TL;DR summation: yes patents are crazy, unreasonably crazy, and why the landscape's littered with former Little League umps who've quit. 

Haha, I really appreciate you actually taking the time to read it and comment - I realize the irony of complaining about rambling emails in the context of the post.

As for the American flag - she was using mostly free/already purchased materials since they didn't have access to their classrooms until a day or two before class started, the district had already told teachers American flags would be arriving later, and my partner typically only spends her own money on primary resources in French. (there has also been a subsequent issue with the superintendent declaring that covering over 25% of the walls is a fire hazard, which means the pride flag is now down because the only wall space they are 'allowed' to use is occupied by white boards and high-frequency-word charts - American flag is still up, of course)

As for the NYT headlines on George Floyd's birthday, yes, there are absolutely a huge amount of other topics she could have chosen to talk about, but letting kids have nonstructured discussions in the target language requires the kids to have some thoughts about the subject, and touch points like George Floyd actually generate conversation.

As far as I understand, there have been multiple FOAA requests (Maine state version of FOI), for which a lawyer was paid to parse exactly what information was needed to collect and distribute, and then there were two subsequent lawsuits after the parents determined what they gathered from the FOAA requests weren't adequate.

[ons]

Sorry you have to deal with that excrement.  My mom was a 2nd grade teacher.  Even aside from harassment like that, I don't know why anyone would want to be a teacher.  One of the most important jobs in our society and we kick them in the balls and excrement on them every chance we get.

Thanks, I appreciate it.

DCM - I kind of agree, actually, hardworking teachers tend to burn out really quickly due to a lack of administrative support, and lazy teachers tend to get by because of a lack of administrative oversight. Of course, my answer is that schools need way more funding to provide actual professional development and ongoing teacher training, and there needs to be a culture shift toward a more collaborative and education-focused relationship between admin and teaching staff. 

[Johnny English]

It is a generalization and anecdotal.

But the data on how shitty/stupid kids have become is well documented.

Debate the placement of blame will never be agreed upon

So you're looking at data showing that kids are becoming increasingly shitty and stupid, and your conclusion is that it's the fault of the teachers? Please show your working.

[dcm1602]

So you're looking at data showing that kids are becoming increasingly shitty and stupid, and your conclusion is that it's the fault of the teachers? Please show your working.

I didn't say it's the fault of teachers, though I did give one very specific example of the reliance on teachers relying on universally prepared  content (which I understand, to a degree)

I'm a strong believer that the overwhelming vast majority of problems in all things is usually system problems and the education system is no exception.

But because problems are happening at a systems level doesn't mean that many teachers aren't doing a excrement job.

Here's a horrifying statistic

According to the U.S. Department of Education, 54% of U.S. adults 16-74 years old - about 130 million people - lack proficiency in literacy, reading below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level.

Though for something that bad hell I think you have to go past looking at the education field and start checking the US water supply for freaking lead or something

[dcm1602]

Thanks, I appreciate it.

DCM - I kind of agree, actually, hardworking teachers tend to burn out really quickly due to a lack of administrative support, and lazy teachers tend to get by because of a lack of administrative oversight. Of course, my answer is that schools need way more funding to provide actual professional development and ongoing teacher training, and there needs to be a culture shift toward a more collaborative and education-focused relationship between admin and teaching staff. 

I'm past the simplified mindset of blaming big teachers unions or politicians and all of that nonsense. I think as a nation this is an area we will continue to seriously fail at, and I have no freaking idea what the solution is. But I do believe that culture is among if not the biggest part of the problem

[Badger]

But the data on how shitty/stupid kids have become is well documented.

 

[Badger]

What we do have is documentation, going back to ancient Greece, of people complaining that every subsequent generation is worse than their own.

[Badger]

https://www.fedsmith.com/2021/10/29/court-action-temporarily-halts-mandatory-vaccinations/

[Miamipuck]

I know I've posted stuff like this before, but a few recent examples from my personal life that I think of whenever I hear conversations like this:

1. My spouse is a middle school foreign language teacher, a relatively high ranking union rep, and one of the advisors of the school's lgbt+ club. She was recently moved to a portable classroom which was put up at the last minute because of a labor shortage, her usual school-provided US flag wasn't hanging for the first week of school. But she decorated her classroom as much as she could, and put up a pride flag that included black/brown stripes on the wall for her club. A few days into the school year, the principal of the school received a call from a concerned parent that she is forcing the students to pledge allegiance to the "gay, black lives matter flag" and that as a Christian and taxpayer, they find this deeply unsettling and want an explanation.

She has always stood at the front of the classroom and recited the pledge of allegiance to the US flag every morning for the past eight years, and has explicitly invited but not demanded her class do the same. She ended up spending over an hour on the phone with this parent for a conversation I got the privilege of hearing one side of explaining that no one is ever forced to pledge allegiance to any flag in her classroom, but she invites all students to make the traditional pledge to the American flag if they want to and are comfortable doing so. Parent conceded, ranted for a long time about not wanting to be appear homophobic, but is really concerned by public schools promoting sinful behavior, and suggested she will be closely scrutinizing the curriculum to make sure her son isn't being targeted for his beliefs.

2. In teaching a foreign language, she often goes over relevant news articles to try to increase engagement. On George Floyd's birthday, she spent the warmup discussion talking attempting to engage her class about why he was in the news again. She has a strong belief in two things in this exercise: if students care enough about a topic to talk about it in the target language, it's a great thing for language acquisition, and she really tries to get students to express different ideas so they can have an easy, low-stakes place to start to think critically, communicate respectfully, and hear each other's thoughts. A couple days later, she receives a long, rambling email from a different parent accusing her of indoctrinating their child, bringing up George Floyd's various criminal offenses, accusing her of 'failing' the child because of their family's political beliefs, and saying that they have to have a several hour conversation every night to discuss what has happened in French class (the kid is doing fine in class, and has told my spouse how much he French - she is generally pretty popular with the kids). She ends up meeting with her principal and drafting an email with the support of admin and another teacher to try to communicate that the child is doing well, how proud she is of the child for engaging in class every day, that she takes this feedback seriously, and that they are doing what they can to keep the kids engaged with a focus on language acquisition and communication, which are some of the main state standards they are focusing on in this class.

Additionally, there have been lawsuits for access to all school district emails and records containing the possibility of evidence that the district is using taxpayer money to fund CRT ideology in the district (as well as a similar lawsuit alleging the district was intentionally sabotaging efforts to have kids in school full time last year) The school has apparently spent significantly more of that taxpayer money hiring lawyers to defend themselves than budgeted, leading to budget shortcoming in other areas.



Which is all to say, I'm sure there are plenty of examples of parents finding horrific indoctrination and overt ideology in public schools. And it is definitely true that all choices that a teacher makes regarding what they teach and how they teach it are somewhat political, so there is almost no way to teach in a truly 'value-neutral' way. Even in subjects like math, different pedagogical models are politically influenced (do you teach to the bottom of the class to make sure everyone has the same basic proficiency? do you just teach your curriculum and let floundering students keep on floundering?) In French class, choosing which articles and stories to talk about by default will always contain some bias and some awareness of a larger politicized world. My spouse does focus on media with more black and brown people in it; her school district is ~90% white, and she considers it part of her job to prepare her students for interacting with more diversity after they graduate. This is a political choice, and she is aware of the consequences of that choice.

All the teachers I know are extremely, extremely vigilant around trying not to overtly politicize their classrooms, because all the teachers I know have a strong sense of idealism, a strong value in their content area, and a lot of pride in their ability to teach their subject. And because they are acutely aware that if they leave a tiny bit of flesh on the bone that might reveal some left-leaning bias, they are going to be targeted by a group of litigious parents with a lot of time on their hands, and no teacher I know ever wants to participate in a prolonged conversation with parents in their free time to defend themselves against allegations of bias.

For some additional context, my spouse has been informed by administration that she is likely on a 'list' going around a certain group of parents and will likely be targeted professionally in some capacity in the coming years. Pictures of the doors of particular teachers' classrooms have been posted on social media by parents with threatening, violent language. An image of a left-leaning school board member in crosshairs was put up just outside the entrance to the school administration's building, proudly erected by one of this group's self-proclaimed leaders. This group of parents has so far failed to elect a single school board member that they have supported, despite claiming to speak for the silent majority of parents in the district.

tl;dr: parents are crazy, no idea what kind of teacher will willingly jeopardize their precious free time to indoctrinate students. They are mostly just trying to get get through the school day

Good post and why I wouldn't want to be a teacher and why I quit coaching hockey a long time ago.

[ons]

Back to coronavirus news:

Via: https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/coronavirus-excess-deaths-tracker?gclid=CjwKCAjwoP6LBhBlEiwAvCcthNQeF-88ojbpHMqr7xy-6MdTBtQJGyZ6ehyaZtHUaSfx4XZJ7WCCtBoCbh8QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Apparently lot of states, including big ones like California, Texas, and Florida, have so far have seemingly significantly underreported covid deaths from summer 2021, by upwards of thousands a week. The numbers of this pandemic are still hard to parse, but excess death is this country over the past two years has been pretty horrific.

In terms of potentially underreported stories, Russia is probably the biggest country that has been hit hardest by covid. Despite a population less than half of the US, it has almost the same number of excess deaths, and over double the US's excess deaths in terms of a proportion of the population. However, it seems like it's severely underreported covid, with only around a quarter of those deaths officially classified as covid related. And they still have a terrifyingly low vaccination rate, with cases rising aggressively again this fall and a nation-wide stay-at-home order just instituted. Scary stuff over there.