Crafty Mom Catches Teacher on Tape

[MistyM]

omg i got so many 'spankings' in grade school! and that was the late seventies too!... we called it 'the strap', meaning you went to the principal's office and bent over his desk and got a leather belt whipping.

i'd rather have that kind of punishment than being called names and cut down though. i think that does alot more harm in the long run.

 

[Beyond Belief]

I went to school in the years 1954 thru 1967. Never and I mean never was a child struck with a ruler, spoon, or paddle of any kind. You stood in the corner, put your head down on the desk, wrote sentences or essays, or went and stood in the hall, next step was to the principals office. But in the homes of kids, they were being spanked and hit with dear old dad's belt, and lots of slapping of the face.
If a teacher made a wise crack like calling someone stupid, most kids back then went with the 'sticks and stones" expression, at least on the surface.
I do want to tell you about about my 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Warren. She actually ended up being the vice principal.
Kids in that class ranged from 11 to 13. Yes, we were growing up. She would walk into the class and boldly state "IT STINKS IN HERE". Then some sarcastic thing about deodorant. I didn't even know what deodorant was.
We prayed in those days. My turn. Great prayer, some of the things I had heard at church on Sunday. She was all over me sweet and all.
I had long hair to my waist that I wore in a pony tail everyday except one. She made a big issue about why it down, why it looked better in a ponytail, why i hadn't taken the time to put it up that morning and on and on. Of course I hated her.
We were playing kick ball, it was kicked, i put my hand up too stop it. Well, I broke my finger. She said "oh, its ok, go home and soak it". This was one time my mother was furious. The next day teacher and school had to send me to their doctor to get my finger fixed.
Thats just some of the unpleasant experiences I had with her. I'm sure she called people names.
The only positive thing I remember about that whole year of school is reading a book on the life of Knute Rockne.

 

[BarnGoddess]

I have had similiar bad experiences with teachers. My son, who is by far the most sensitive of my three children, had the kindergarten teacher from h*ll. No matter how I tried, I could not get her to understand how important it was to me that she encourage him rather than criticize him. She told me that she did not believe in "babying" children. I moved him to another school for first grade and made sure the principal knew what kind of experience we had in Kindergarten. She made a point of putting him with a very kind, nurturing teacher. He blossomed, he came home sometime the first week and said to me, Guess what mom, I'm not dumb, I can learn a lot of new things! Broke my heart to think how he had been feeling about himself. He has gone on to do extremely well!

I am an early childhood special education professional, I KNOW how important it is to make school a good experience for young children. Seems like there are some people working with young children that should not be, just don't seem to have the right temperament. I am sorry to hear of the bad experiences you all have had. I urge you to share these experiences with your prinicipal, and if that does not bring you the results you want, go above to district personnel.

Thank you for being the teacher you are!!!!!

My oldest son was as smart as a whip. His second grade teacher had this marvelous technique for the kids. She had a "treasure box" on her desk. The kids did well, they got to pick a treasure. Not trinkets, oh no, but privileges. Such as extra time in the library to explore books, time in the back with simple science experiments, time with the encyclopedia. The kids responded well to this treatment. And to think, unknowingly, they were learning more and it was painless. I always admired Mrs. Rose for that. She was Prince George's County teacher of the year once. Now my very smart son moves on to third grade......gets a teacher right out of college. Her philosophy was that kids need to start at the bottom of the grade scale so they can work up to an "A". Imagine my reaction when he came home with a very bad report card. His papers during the term were almost always perfect. Grrrrrr, conference time. That was the way she did things and that was that, even if it hurt a kid in years ahead. Then, she had a rule about classwork. When you finished your assignment, etc., you sat with your hands folded until everyone finished. I thought it silly, so to keep my son's very active mind busy, I sent junior crossword books with him. Kept him from being bored and he loved those puzzles. She confiscated them. So, he learned to procrastinate, big time. He'd goof around and eventually misjudged the time it would take to finish an assignment and had to stay in from recess to do the work. I was distressed when I couldn't get him transferred to another class, but forced bussing came in and he was transferred to a school a long distance away. It worked out great, because he got a very good teacher, but he never got over the procrastination. He still does it to this day! He's still smart, very smart, but really puts things off way too long.

 

[southcitymom]

I hate hearing these teacher stories.
I know I'm going to get flamed for this, but a part of me thinks that if teachers were paid/respected more, these things wouldn't happen so much. Professional, smart, dedicated people work at jobs in which they are paid well and recognized for their work.

It's an embarrassment - what we pay our teachers. We give a lot of lip service to kids and education being so important but we do not put our money where our mouth is.

I had many excellent teachers and certainly none that were abusive. So far so good with my young sons.

 

[sherri79]

I hate hearing these teacher stories.
I know I'm going to get flamed for this, but a part of me thinks that if teachers were paid/respected more, these things wouldn't happen so much. Professional, smart, dedicated people work at jobs in which they are paid well and recognized for their work.

i disagree. i think most people who become teachers do it for the love of teaching and low pay is a burden they are willing to suffer with. i think if it was a high paying job then more people who did not enjoy teaching or children would seek it out. having said that i think teachers should be paid more but based on performance like all other jobs and omg we should be able to fire the freaks that teach because it gives them helpless people to abuse.

 

[deanws]

i disagree. i think most people who become teachers do it for the love of teaching and low pay is a burden they are willing to suffer with. i think if it was a high paying job then more people who did not enjoy teaching or children would seek it out. having said that i think teachers should be paid more but based on performance like all other jobs and omg we should be able to fire the freaks that teach because it gives them helpless people to abuse.

Tell you what Sherri, ....when I get to pick the kids in my classroom, then I will accept performance pay. I am not responsible for making sure that YOU as a parent do YOUR job so YOUR child will be successful. It is comments like this that make me glad I am now retired.

:bang:

 

[absinthe]

xoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxo deanws! Wasn't quite sure how to respond to that one. Wow. I should get paid bupkes because I love kids?

 

[Texana]

i disagree. i think most people who become teachers do it for the love of teaching and low pay is a burden they are willing to suffer with. i think if it was a high paying job then more people who did not enjoy teaching or children would seek it out. having said that i think teachers should be paid more but based on performance like all other jobs and omg we should be able to fire the freaks that teach because it gives them helpless people to abuse.

Unfortunately, people who enter teaching wanting to teach, and willing to take the low pay, find after a few years they just can't make the sacrifice to their family that is required. Some, like myself and my sister, are fortunate to have spouses who earn good salaries and can compensate--but others are not so lucky. It is almost impossible to accept a salary 1/3 of what your math/science skills can command in the private sector, for example.

For some reason, the people who believe in the market economy do not entirely support it for teachers. If they cannot find enough math/science graduates, for example, they accept less qualified candidates and say simply that is good enough.

Would Boeing, or Microsoft accept employees who did not have a minimum of those skills?

Yes, teachers have some time off in the summer, but it is not a full three months vacation as it once was. Most of us prepare lessons and are required to take courses--or want to take them--during that time.

As for performance pay, most teachers are against it because as it stands, the latest "bonus" pay is given to teachers whose students achieve grade level competence based on standardized tests.

This means that if you get a student two years behind "grade level" and you are able to bring them to close to grade level but not entirely, you get...nothing. That's right, two years of progress crammed into a year, and you still get...nothing. Meanwhile, the teacher next door who works half as hard makes the same salary you do.

I don't have all the answers, but I can tell you that low pay is a huge factor here.

Again, as an economics major, I can tell you--if you aren't getting qualified candidates, you aren't paying enough. It's the old supply/demand curve.

Substitutes are a perfect example of this. We don't pay them enough to make an actual living at their job, we expect them to walk into a classroom and teach just like the regular teacher would, and we are frustrated and amazed when it becomes obvious they are either incompetent or "just waiting for their real job."

 

[sherri79]

Tell you what Sherri, ....when I get to pick the kids in my classroom, then I will accept performance pay. I am not responsible for making sure that YOU as a parent do YOUR job so YOUR child will be successful. It is comments like this that make me glad I am now retired.

:bang:

i worked 7 years in retail and it was for crap pay. i did not take the work because i loved it yet i managed to never hit, slap, pull the hair, or call names to any1 who came to me for service. even without the years of school that teachers need i knew it would be wrong to abuse those that entered my store. i didnt get to pick who i waited on. why is it when teacher succeed it is because they are good people but when they fail it is because of the parents? in every other job we expect pay to be based on a evaluation of the performance and we expect the person to be fired if they do not perform well. currently their is no difference between how the best teacher and the worst are paid. go into a class and abuse the students or work while at home to prepare for the next day and their is no difference. both are equal because they teach. as for YOU the parent I am a volunteer 3 days a week in my sons 3rd grade class. both of my children are on honor roll and my daughter is in NJHS. i have seen good teacher, bad teachers and those that are OK. i still believe that the better teachers should be paid more despite the strong argument you put up otherwise.

 

[sherri79]

Unfortunately, people who enter teaching wanting to teach, and willing to take the low pay, find after a few years they just can't make the sacrifice to their family that is required. Some, like myself and my sister, are fortunate to have spouses who earn good salaries and can compensate--but others are not so lucky. It is almost impossible to accept a salary 1/3 of what your math/science skills can command in the private sector, for example.

For some reason, the people who believe in the market economy do not entirely support it for teachers. If they cannot find enough math/science graduates, for example, they accept less qualified candidates and say simply that is good enough.

Would Boeing, or Microsoft accept employees who did not have a minimum of those skills?

Yes, teachers have some time off in the summer, but it is not a full three months vacation as it once was. Most of us prepare lessons and are required to take courses--or want to take them--during that time.

As for performance pay, most teachers are against it because as it stands, the latest "bonus" pay is given to teachers whose students achieve grade level competence based on standardized tests.

This means that if you get a student two years behind "grade level" and you are able to bring them to close to grade level but not entirely, you get...nothing. That's right, two years of progress crammed into a year, and you still get...nothing. Meanwhile, the teacher next door who works half as hard makes the same salary you do.

I don't have all the answers, but I can tell you that low pay is a huge factor here.

Again, as an economics major, I can tell you--if you aren't getting qualified candidates, you aren't paying enough. It's the old supply/demand curve.

Substitutes are a perfect example of this. We don't pay them enough to make an actual living at their job, we expect them to walk into a classroom and teach just like the regular teacher would, and we are frustrated and amazed when it becomes obvious they are either incompetent or "just waiting for their real job."

i can agree that there are fundamental problems with teaching from the start. if you do not offer a starting pay equal to the education required you will either need to lower your standards or leave the job empty. since we must have a warm body in the class room they simply lower the standards. despite the fact we claim children are the most important thing in this country this continues to happen. the option of raising the pay would require more cash from tax payers and amazingly kids seem less important in tax season. pay is not why this woman abused these kids. i can support more pay for good teachers but not the fact we are hard pressed to fire teachers like you read about in this thread. i also agree that the teachers evaluation should not be on where the child is at the end of the year. it should be based on the progress the children have made over a year.

 

[BarnGoddess]

I'm not so sure if I disagree with giving merit pay. My experience with my sons' early education experiences and teachers make me wonder if it wouldn't be a good thing overall.

Many years ago, it was discovered and reported in the Washington Post that many DC School System teachers couldn't even pass a 3rd grade math test. Around this time, 1976 to be acurate, I received a note from shcool asking me to sign a permission slip for a field trip. It was the Freedom Train, that contained documents and exhibits traveling around during the Bi-Centennial. I had a very difficult time trying to figure out what the note said. "Your child.....they" (violation of a pronoun must agree with it's antecedent). I had no idea if the train was coming to the school, or they were going to the train. It wasn't clear if the $.50 for the bus included lunch or was separate. It was so frustrating, I sent it along to the post columnist, Bill Gold, who was really fighting for teacher competency back then. He published the note. I then went to the school and asked them to clarify the field trip requirements for me. When I pointed out the grammatical errors and my corrections, they told me the person who wrote this was the assistant principal and I should be grateful she was promoted and not in the classroom any longer. They were fully aware that it was an embarrassment. I never told them I had sent it to the newspaper.

I just want teachers to be competent in their subject matter. If a high school math or English teacher can't pass a test on their specialty, then they shouldn't be hired. I know someone will say that's discrimination, but darn it, kids need to learn properly. I actually heard a local teacher utter a major grammatical error, several times in a conversation. I was horrified! "I told them kids......." I really wanted to stop her and let her know it was "those kids", not "them kids", but didn't. And, no, they don't teach grammar any more.

 

[Taximom]

I honestly don't think the amount of money you make as a teacher has anything to do with whether or not you choose to hit or talk smack to a child. I'm sure there have been cases of teachers making more than average salary that have done the same or worse things to their students.

 

[BarnGoddess]

Re prior post: Please don't think I'm anti teacher. Both my parents were teachers. Very caring and dedicated. Dad was Army reserve and taught math, biology, chemistry, trig and calculus as well as remedial math. He went to bat for many a student that needed special help and gave it lovingly. Mom taught Jr. High English. She actually had Bob Graham in one of her classes. He went on to become Governor of Florida as well as serving in the Senate. She was a good teacher and never hesitated to correct anyone's speech or spelling up to the day she died, LOL I do respect teachers and understand the difficulty today. I just want quality.

 

[Sally]

Tell you what Sherri, ....when I get to pick the kids in my classroom, then I will accept performance pay. I am not responsible for making sure that YOU as a parent do YOUR job so YOUR child will be successful. It is comments like this that make me glad I am now retired.

:bang:

:clap: :clap: :clap:

 

[Texana]

I do think there should be some component of merit pay. So far the bonuses are built on very complex formulas involving test score and student data that can be very error prone (incompetence is not always limited to district classrooms) that no one can really figure out.

Bonuses for teachers to work in underprivileged areas also haven't proved to be successful. They do attract enthusiastic new teachers (sometimes coming from other fields or alternative certification) but they are not bringing in the experienced and proven-record teachers. Why? Because a couple of thousand dollars is not enough to entice a really good teacher away from their school.

I'm fortunate in that at my school, poor teachers do not last very long. However, after one lawsuit, the administrator had to make "group" statements about needed corrections--exactly the kind of approach we know is ineffective and demoralizing in the classroom!

One more thought: Let's say that I (hypothetically speaking, of course) have six special needs students in my classroom. They each have an individualized education plan--IEP, as mandated by law and as they deserve. However, that means that for their their social studies lessons, I might have to prepare as many as six individualized tests. I have to modify the assignments and that does not just mean shorten them, etc., etc. I have to spend at least an hour every grading period providing documentation that I've done that, which means collecting and keeping up with six sets of paperwork. I have at least one ARD (annual meeting with all the personnel and parents who work with that student) for each student yearly in addition to regular conferences with the parent. If the student is having problems or ther's an issue, the conferences will be two or three times more frequent.

I also have to make sure those students get a little extra support in terms of home/school communication. One student might (hypothetically of course) be taking things OUT of his folder...without telling his mother, that he doesn't want to do or doesn't like. His mother may call or email me back that I'm not sending things home, etc, etc. We might go around a few more times before we figure out that the student who keeps saying "I don't know" really DOES know where that study guide went (the one I prepared especially for him.)

I will have an aide come in for a few minutes daily to help with these students, but on testing days, I won't have the aide. The aide or paraprofessional might be really good or might not be, and I will have to direct the aide as well.

For all this I will receive no more pay than the teacher next door, and I will get to see that teacher leaving early when I'm staying to make my documentation copies because the copy machine was broken, or staying to finish the lesson plans I couldn't complete because I had a two hour meeting that day about the student.

I will also have the students who are lower in the same classroom. If I'm lucky one of them will have a parent who can be involved and act as room mother. Otherwise, I'll take on those responsibilities as well. The other parent volunteers from the other classes will complain about not being with their children on field trips, because they have to help with my students.

That's the hidden factors that are not being considered in the pay system. Teachers who get the most difficult students, are often the best teachers in the school, and so they are given the difficult and challenging students every year. We need to figure out a way to support and reward these teachers as at the same time more and more challenging students are entering the public schools.

Which still doesn't excuse the teacher who was recorded saying such ugly things.

My sister is a teacher, too, and we are both more frustrated by the poor or incompetent teachers we work with than we are by the students or parents. She should have been terminated after slapping the student and placed on probation/improvement plan, and monitored intensively. I can't believe the rest of the staff and administration was unaware.

 

[deanws]

i worked 7 years in retail and it was for crap pay. i did not take the work because i loved it yet i managed to never hit, slap, pull the hair, or call names to any1 who came to me for service. even without the years of school that teachers need i knew it would be wrong to abuse those that entered my store. i didnt get to pick who i waited on. why is it when teacher succeed it is because they are good people but when they fail it is because of the parents? in every other job we expect pay to be based on a evaluation of the performance and we expect the person to be fired if they do not perform well. currently their is no difference between how the best teacher and the worst are paid. go into a class and abuse the students or work while at home to prepare for the next day and their is no difference. both are equal because they teach. as for YOU the parent I am a volunteer 3 days a week in my sons 3rd grade class. both of my children are on honor roll and my daughter is in NJHS. i have seen good teacher, bad teachers and those that are OK. i still believe that the better teachers should be paid more despite the strong argument you put up otherwise.

You don't have the education or the experience to make the claim that a teacher should be paid on performance. I have a kid in med school too...but that doesn't make me qualified to be a doctor.

 

[deanws]

i also agree that the teachers evaluation should not be on where the child is at the end of the year. it should be based on the progress the children have made over a year.

This post shows that you lack the education to make valid judgments concerning the teaching field. A child that has learning disabilities makes progress at a slower rate than a child that is average, even when the teacher is top notch. A child that is above average makes faster progress despite having just an "average" teacher.

 

[deanws]

That's the hidden factors that are not being considered in the pay system. Teachers who get the most difficult students, are often the best teachers in the school, and so they are given the difficult and challenging students every year. We need to figure out a way to support and reward these teachers as at the same time more and more challenging students are entering the public schools.

Which still doesn't excuse the teacher who was recorded saying such ugly things.

My sister is a teacher, too, and we are both more frustrated by the poor or incompetent teachers we work with than we are by the students or parents. She should have been terminated after slapping the student and placed on probation/improvement plan, and monitored intensively. I can't believe the rest of the staff and administration was unaware.

Exactly. I taught the low reading and math group for 20 years. It takes a lot of prep time for those classes. I loved those kids. They were so eager to learn and enjoyed the "You CAN do it!" teacher that I was. They were already discouraged because they knew they were behind. I changed the way they thought, the way they acted. When a child left my room, they were PROUD of what they COULD do and wanted to work on what they COULDN'T do. At times, I miss teaching. When I read some of the comments here, I am glad I am OUT of it and retired. I agree with your comment about the slapping of the student. If she doesn't have any more control over herself than to slap a child, then she is mentally unprepared to teach any student. It makes me sad for the children in her classroom. All children deserve a teacher that loves them and wants them to succeed.

 

[Taximom]

dean, you are the kind of teacher our family LOVES. :blowkiss:

 

[deanws]

xoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxo deanws! Wasn't quite sure how to respond to that one. Wow. I should get paid bupkes because I love kids?

Sad how the public views us isn't it!?!?