(no subject)

[eirias]

Straight from the assmilliner: how we can solve all the education world's problems, including student learning difficulties and low teacher salaries, with nine hour school days.

*pause while I wait for the teachers in my audience to regain their composure*

Just once in this essay I would have liked to see him acknowledge that

A) students (and teachers!) have attention spans, and
B) when teachers ask for "a raise," they are not asking for "three extra hours of work each day, for which you will pay me the same lousy wages I already make."

It's a pretty old editorial that I stumbled upon while taking a break and reading WP archives; otherwise I would totally write to this guy and ask him, as politely as possible, if these things have crossed his mind.

Comments

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

So, little as I get done during my study halls, it's not *that* bad. It's not busywork because most of the teachers assign hella homework, and the behavior management isn't *that* bad because most of the students understand that, if they get 40 minutes of their hella homework done *now*, that's 40 more minutes of Playstation *later*, whereas they do not have Playstations in study hall. Basically, the students have a purpose for being in study hall and they know it. (Compare to, say, the study halls where I went to high school, where we didn't have very much homework so...well, you can imagine.)

And sometimes I even do get things done in my study halls, even though I have apparently done something in a previous life to offend the study hall gods and thus have these ridiculous cursed study halls. I think that study halls are important for students' well-being and I'm willing to do my part to make sure they happen (at least, given that I have real prep periods ;).

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Yikes! That would explain the "no longer a teacher" thing. (I'd kind of assumed from the username and was surprised to see you say in comments you weren't now, but..again I say yikes! I wouldn't be either.)

(And elementary...*shudder* I teach 7-9, so it's not that much older, but it's a totally differently structured day. I have no idea how I would plan an entire day for beings with *even shorter* attention spans. Tons of props to my elementary colleagues.)

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Gah gah gah the suck.

Isn't that the way of it, though? I almost never hear the burned-out teachers complaining about the kids, unless maybe they're older inner-city kids with major violence issues. But all that stuff that gets between you and the kids? Everyone hates that. Yuck.

And I am totally interested in reading instruction :). I know nothing about it and I don't remember how I learned to read, but it seems so primal, and also tangentially related to what I do teach (Latin -- and I continually get the feeling that reading disabilities are manifesting and knowing about reading instruction would help me). Hopefully your work will get to make a difference for more kids, and other people will be doing the paperwork! :)

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

I would love to hear the things you figured out :).