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Rant about writing skills

6K views 93 replies 28 participants last post by  NorthernMama 
#1 ·
I know that I have better writing skills than a lot of people. I have always been a fan of language. That may come from my childhood. My parents learned English as their second language. They took great pride in being able to speak correctly, despite their heavy European accent, and great pride in their children not being looked upon as "children of immigrants."

I also know that many people have difficulty with language. I know three dyslexics (four if you count Endiku :)). One is a teenager, one is 40 and one is 50. Not one of them can compose a proper letter without assistance. The 40 and 50 year olds can make it work. The teenager has decided he can't do it. He has basically built himself a mental wall and, IMO, will not improve at all until he is willing to exert some extreme effort and diligence. Too bad, because he's as smart as a whip. Then we see Endiku who has invested some serious time and effort into being able to communicate well. Granted that Endiku must be an over-achiever :-p as evidenced from how much she does for herself and the world around her, but nonetheless, it shows what determination can accomplish.

But, honest-to-purple-frogs, I am tired of posts that are multiple lines of run-on sentences. I have tried to read them. I have tried to understand them, but I just can't. So now I'm the one giving up.:-( How is that right?

More importantly, how do we help fix this? I surely don't know. I have tried working with the aforementioned teenager. We had real success but it was hours and hours of work over several months. That just isn't going to happen on an open forum.

Nyaaat. Rant over. I feel better now.
 
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#37 ·
Ode to My Spell Checker (author unknown)

Eye have a spelling checker, it came with my pea sea
It plainly marks four my revue miss steaks eye kin knot sea.
Eye strike a quay and type a word and weight for it to say
Weather eye yam wrong oar write, it shows me strait a weigh.
As soon as a mist ache is maid it nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite its rare lea ever wrong.
Eye have run this poem threw it I'm shore your pleased to no
Its letter perfect awl the way, my checker told me sew.
 
#38 ·
There was one school exercise that "got my attention" w respect to the value of writing skills, and I never forgot it. Like muppet, I am a bit afraid to write it out b/c of the grammer nazis afoot. :D Anyway, the teacher named one of two or three simple tasks (e.g., properly fold a letter and stuff it in an envelope), and each student had to write "how to" instructions for one of the given tasks, and do so in class directly after it was assigned. Being a kid at the time, my initial response was, "can it get any more boring than this?". During the next class he (the teacher) read each set of directions out loud and tried to perform each task according to the individual set of directions before him. It was really funny! He was unable to complete any of the given tasks correctly by following any of the written directions he had recieved. It took him all of two or so hours to "teach" a group of kids the importance of written communcation skills -and have them laughing whilst he was at it. The public school system does not need more money, it needs better teachers and a lot more discipline.
 
#41 ·
There used to be people who would teach for the love of it, but I agree that they need better pay. However, I do believe that there will be some fantastic potential, and indeed ex, teachers out there, who would not set foot in a school these days because of the lack of effective discipline. We also lose those who want to teach to open up children's minds and help them think, because so much of modern eduction is about simply reaching targets.
 
#42 · (Edited)
The average annual income for a teacher in Arizona is in the neighborhood of $20,000. Where I work now, making minimum wage ($7.80/hr), I would make $15,000 in a year. I work Monday through Friday, 8am to 5pm with a mandatory one hour lunch every day. When I go home, my work does not come with me. A teacher usually is at the school from 7am to 5 or 6pm. They bring their work home with them on almost a daily basis. There is no overtime and the benefits are minimal, at best. They also have to deal with rowdy and belligerent students (my mom had a chair thrown at her by a student when she was substituting a first grade class) and upset, often irrational parents on a daily basis. They are not, however, allowed to discipline the children who get out of control...and the kids know it. Why on earth, then, would any SANE person want to be a teacher when, for slightly less pay, you can have better hours, better benefits and none of the stress?!

One of my very good friends was a kindergarten and first grade teacher before she got married. Her annual income when she started teaching was $18,000. She was at school from 7am to usually 6pm. On the rare occasion that she was able to come over to my place and hang out, she would always bring a large stack of papers to be graded. We'd make popcorn, toss in a movie, and sit on the floor grading papers, usually until midnight.

Usandpets, you may not have wanted to be a writer or a journalist, but at least you tried to learn enough about the written English language to communicate effectively.
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#49 ·
Usandpets, you may not have wanted to be a writer or a journalist, but at least you tried to learn enough about the written English language to communicate effectively.
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Actually, I only learned enough to pass. However, more must have sunk in than I thought. LOL Either that or I've become a perfectionist in my old(er) age. I hate to admit that I'm in my 40's (I know not that old), because in my mind I think and I act like I'm in my 20's. Slowly, my body is trying to tell me my real age

I think that I make an extra effort now because it irritates me to read something that runs on. I know everyone makes mistakes now and then. Yes, even me. Haha. Almost every post I make, I'll read through a couple times before actually posting. Just to make sure it's what and how I want to say it. I'll even reread it after I post and edit it if I missed something. Maybe I'm just being picky.
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#45 ·
Start pay for a teacher in UK is: £21,588 to £31,552 - more for London areas.
($33,117 - 48,412) which is not bad by my book.

My niece has just done her final year. She was out in schools teaching and had three pretty rough ones to go to. She has a natural flair for teaching and although some of these children were disruptive she had little difficulty in getting them to want to learn.
The reports she received were far higher than any others in her group. I asked her how she kept control with the disruptive students and she answered "Same as you get control of an ill mannered horse stop it before it starts."

I have never been a high wage earner. The only time I ever had a job with a bonus was after I broke my back and went into a job at an estate agents. Only thing was I got colds, hated getting up in the morning, found majority of the time boring and generally was miserable.

I say teachers (good ones) are born not made. They deserve good pay and payments should be given to those that are best at the job regardless of what they are teaching. By this I mean the teacher who is taking children that are having problems because English is not their first language or learning problems and getting their grades up deserves paying as much as the teacher who is taking the A streams.

Job satisfaction counts for a lot.

As an aside I just wonder if things will go a full circle and teachers will be allowed to discipline once again!
 
#46 ·
I don't think you can look at just the days and hours that are technically in the teacher's job year. They have a ton of training they have to do, and the homework and testing means a LOT of time spent at home. Also, the job is much, much more stressful than many similar jobs earning a similar salary. It requires a lot more creativity to deal with the diverse students that will be thrown at you, and the sometimes woeful lack of support they get from home.

If you consider the way that teachers are paid in countries that score very high on education ratings (rating the success of the students), you can usually see that the teacher is paid a lot more than they are in the US.

I think that a lot of this paying the teacher a very small amount stems from the way that teaching children has been seen as a job for women, and in the old days, single women, thus it was "OK" to pay a lot less. Often the women who taught at elementary/secondary shools lived at home with their parents, so a living wage was not needed. Once they married, they were expected to quit and live on their husband's salary.

anyway, I think a certain amount of that has persisted in the way that we value a teacher's education, as opposed to a computer programmer, or a engineer. They probably all took about 4 years to complete their higher education, but their value to society isn't measured equally.
 
#47 ·
Drafty, people that have a passion for teaching, or anything, do not necessarily determine if they will pursue doing "x" based on what someone else w a four year degree in another field makes.

Are the figures you cited adjusted for today's dollars? Just curious...not being poopy, here. How about their (IT workers in your example) retirement plan, how does it stack up? How Calstrs invests, for example, can significantly affect the stockmarket - it is huge. CA's teacher's retirement plan is pretty good and they can retire after 30 years. Many other states offer pretty darn good retirement packages as well.

I have nothing against paying qualified people a good wage, however, the way the public school system is set up and the power of the teacher's union do not lend to "the most qualified" individuals getting hired or remaining employed. As it stands right now the argument from teachers is that if they were paid more they would become better teachers. They aren't asking to be replaced by more qualified people that will be paid more than the current wage. Based on this "how well I am able to do a job depends on how much you pay me" logic, if you pay me enough I can perform brain surgery w the best of them.

Also, like I said above, a public school teacher's salary depends on which county in what state they are employed. So one can only talk about their salaries "in general". Private schools are the best "comparable" w respect to salaries, IMO, b/c the salaries offered by private schools are, by and large, no higher than those by the public school system and their benefits are definitely not as good. Yet, many of the private schools operating in all 50 states somehow manage to offer a much better education.

The reason I personally feel public schools do so poorly overall and in general is a pretty simple one. The monies they collect per attending student is not spent on students equally. By and large, a bright student that behaves and tries to learn will have the fewest dollars spent on them. Not a formula for success.

Sorry this is so long...but the current state of affairs w the US public school sytem really irritates me.
 
#48 ·
I haven't read the entire thread, so I apologize in advance. I just wanted to throw out the fact that in high school from grade ten through twelve I took honours English and Advanced Placement Literature and it wasn't until college that I learned the technicalities of grammar. Commas, semi-colons, all of that fun stuff. I'm the queen of over-using commas, and run on sentences and I STILL managed to ace those classes without this correct knowledge.
 
#50 ·
Missy May, the numbers I quoted for teachers pay are accurate to within the last couple of years. I can't imagine they've gone up much, if any.

My brother and brother-in-law both have great retirement/401K plans available to them. My mother (who, granted, retired over a decade ago) is pulling a meager $300 a month from her retirement. My friend who was a teacher until recently (within the last two years) couldn't afford to pay into a retirement/401K account (much in the same way that I can't afford to pay into a 401K and still bring home a livable wage at my current job).

I do agree that people who get into teaching don't do it for the money, they do it because they love to teach. However, how backwards has our society become that those who play professional sports or fix computers make many times more what those who educate our children do? How can we expect those who do love teaching to continue doing so, when many of them barely make enough money to live on (yes, you can live on less than $20K a year, I'm living proof of that, but not when you're expected to provide your own supplies, the cost of which keeps going up)?
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#51 · (Edited)
One thing my mom is extremely picky about is grammer, so I pretty much know it all. And WELL. I write well for the most part, though sometimes I let it go in the chat room. :hide:

I always proofread my posts before posting them, too. I usually catch quite a bit because I type quickly.

My biggest grammer pet peeve? A paragraph with nothing save exclamation points for punctuation!
 
#52 · (Edited)
HCT, we all "let it go" sometimes. When I'm in a hurry, I've been known to write in shorthand (shorten my sentences, etc). What we're talking about is wen ppl aint gots no clue whut there doin or typin or jess plane dont care.

If we're going to talk pet peeves, mine is using the wrong spelling of a word. For example, using "there" instead of "their" or using "your" instead of "you're."
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#53 ·
Teachers in the Ontario system are limited in what they are allowed to teach, how they are allowed to teach it and how they are allowed to grade it. They have very little freedom to do what many of them know would be much more successful. All in the name of "province wide consistency." Blah.

Drafty - I here you. I gave a caret to my hoarse today after I put the reigns over his neck :lol: Homonyms are a pet peeve of mine as well. Another one I have is not knowing if you need to use a subject or an object. As in: "Me and Tommy went to the store." Arrgggh... Everytime I hear someone say that, I ask them, "If you went to the store alone, would you say, 'Me went to the store'?"

What about local dialect? If you can't speak properly, how in blazes are you ever going to write properly? Up here, the word isn't "supposedly" it's "supposebly". And the locals "berry" their dead, not "bury" them. Also, the ratio of adults in my neck of the woods that can't conjugate verbs is shocking.

Then there is the regional accent. That became very interesting when I was teaching word sound structure based on letter combinations to a dyslexic teen. I had many interesting conversations with my coach and sometimes there wasn't a clear answer. Ever try to breakdown the pronunciation of a word that is pronounced differently in different countries, and then back up what you say? Sometimes it's impossible to do.

So, while language is definitely something that can be studied to death, I just wish more people would take pride in how they speak and write.

We don't knead to be purrfeckt, but we can try.
 
#64 ·
Teachers in the Ontario system are limited in what they are allowed to teach, how they are allowed to teach it and how they are allowed to grade it. They have very little freedom to do what many of them know would be much more successful. All in the name of "province wide consistency." Blah.

Try being the first year of students that went through all the new changes, before they were completely solid. I graduated the year of the double cohort.

To clear things up a bit for those who are outside of Ontario, in 1997/1998, a new way of grading came out. We went from grades (A through F, like normal, or a percent value) to a level system of one through four, with four being the highest. Level one was basically saying you didn't have the comprehension of whatever subject, with level four being you had the required knowledge and possibly were above it. Along with changing the way of grading, they added a Grade 10 literacy test.


I posted a thread about the importance of spelling and grammar some time ago, and while it did end up getting derailed and closed, there were some good points made in it. I still feel the same way as I did when I posted that thread. Yes, spelling typos happen, but when you make errors and don't correct them because you don't care, that is when I have the problem.

Spelling is such an important life skill that so many of the younger generation is missing out on, and it is a horrifying problem. Trying to find a solution to fix it is not going to be easy, because I truly believe that the majority of them just do not care to spell properly.
 
#54 · (Edited)
O. i sea wat yu meen now, Drafty. And yes, that bugs me to death, too.

One thing that also probably doesn't do anything good for people's spelling or grammer is texting. Most try to just get it written in the fastest, easiest way possible. And it would be one thing if that was limited to texting, but it will usually transfer over to regular writing as well. Heck, I have a friend who can barely spell, and a lot of it is due to the fact that she texts constantly.
 
#55 · (Edited)
I'm "cursed" that I LOVE to read and have a very high retention of what I read. Because of this, I have a large vocabulary. I don't feel that I should have to "dumb down" my vocabulary and the language I use for the people around me. If you don't know what I'm saying, ask me. I don't mind explaining what I'm saying, especially if it helps expand your vocabulary. My boyfriend hates it when I use words or phrases he doesn't know and he refuses to ask me what I mean.

HCT, I can type almost as fast on my iPhone's little tiny screen as I can on a regular keyboard. Okay, maybe not "almost as fast," but close. I write all my posts on my phone (no Internet at home and no computer access at work) and I still take the time to proofread and make sure everything makes sense (although sometimes little mistakes slip through and I correct them as soon as I see them).

Another thing I've noticed lately on the forum is the rash of posts that make absolutely no sense. Not just run on sentences or poor spelling, but they simply aren't coherent. It's difficult to read them, much less answer them.

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#56 ·
I was exceptionally lucky in all aspects of the whole grammar and spelling movement. I went to a very small school (my graduating class consisted of 12 students, counting myself and it was one of the largest in school) so there was more one-on-one time with the teachers. The teachers actually cared whether we learned or not, they didn't pass anyone just to pass them, the students were required to do well enough to earn a passing grade.

BUT, even all that was only part of my life. I grew up in a family of voracious readers. My parents and older brother read to me when I was little and we would often spend evenings with books instead of the TV. We didn't even have cable from the time I was about 8 until I was in high school. I would often go to the library and check out up to 10 books per week. I would purposefully check out books that were above my level because they challenged me. If there was a word I didn't know...well, I had a dictionary. If I didn't understand a sentence, I would either ask a parent or a teacher or re-read the entire paragraph for context clues until I was able to get the gist of it.

Now, all that being said, my Mom works in a local school (not the same one I went to) and she often spends days in the library checking out books. What she told me is that at the beginning of each year, the students are tested and assigned a "reading comprehension level". That I can understand, but those levels are kept on file in the library and the students are not permitted to check out a book that isn't on their level. While, on one hand, I agree with part of that to keep kids from checking out books that are 3 grade levels below them, I guess I don't see what's wrong with letting a kid try to struggle through a book that's a little bit above them.

For example, she said there was one kid who had a reading level of about 3rd grade (this was a teenager) who came in and wanted to check out one of the Twilight books. Because it was above his reading level, she couldn't check it out to him. I suppose I just don't understand that. If he has the desire to read something above his level, why not let him give it a shot? It might encourage him to buckle down and better himself.


LOL, NM, I get tired of people around here that spell phonetically. I mean, the southern accent is hard enough for non-southerners to understand when it's spoken. When it's written? Fat chance of anyone understanding that.

Anyway, enough of my rantings now LOL.
 
#59 · (Edited)
Close. It's perspicacious. It means having a keen understanding.

Smrobs, I totally agree with the reading level thing! That's ridiculous. They should have it set up so that they can't check out books below their level, but are ENCOURAGED to check out books above their reading level and challenge themselves.
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#61 ·
SMR - I wasn't referring to phonetic spelling. I was referring to the breakdown of correct spelling into individual sounds, but it's difficult to do when teaching people from different regions.

Potato is a good word to use as an example. Some regions say a short "a" and some a long "a" - how to discern the difference if you don't know the word itself? You can't; it's impossible. Then look at the final "o"; how can it be pronounced as a long "o" when there isn't a trailing "e"? It makes no sense. So it becomes a "special" word. There are pages and pages of special words.

And reading isn't the answer, although it does help a bit. I think that we believe that reading is the answer because usually those that love to read already have an ability with letters and words.

We have a house full of readers here. Voracious readers. Including my son: the dyslexic teen I mentioned earlier. He loves to read, but he can't spell worth a dime. The letter symbols just don't connect to sounds for him. He has mostly learned to read by recognizing entire words, but makes no sense of the phonetic breakdown. He's better than he was, due to the course we did almost 2 years ago now, but the only way he will ever learn to spell is by drill work or buckling down and completing the course we started. And he refuses to do it. <sigh>
 
#62 ·
There are certain accents I just love to listen to – including some of the “mispronunciation” of words that goes with them. I think regional accents add “spice” to language. And, I especially like nifty colloquial phrases, none of which one would be likely to employ in any sort of important document. People often do not always use correct English in casual conversation (written or spoken). I know I don’t. No harm done. It is just the fact that if one is unable to “switch gears” from informal language to correct English, then they have limited themselves. That can be a rather sad thing if they have something really important to say. Which goes back to - what to do, what to do?

And their, their all you “they’re” Nazis.
 
#66 ·
I agree with a lot of what is in this thread, the writing skills of many people now are pretty bad. The fact that I can say that is telling; I am dyslexic, and managed to get into a Ph.D.
Part of the underlying problem with the problems people have concerning language, I think, stems from the philosophy many people seem to have regarding how to rear and educate children. Think of all this nonsense where children can't get failing grades, where they can't have papers marked in red pen, where they all win a ribbon in a race, even if they come last. These are all examples of an effort to somehow make life easier and, apparently, provide the child with some sort of validation. As far as I can see all this kind of stuff does is create self centred little narcissists who think the world is there to serve them.
However the problem goes much deeper than simply limiting people's language skills, it limits comprehension and critical thinking skills too. For example, I am a great fan of having children read classical bourgeois literature, the prose found in Walter Scot, or Dickens, Cervantes or Dumas, you will rarely find in a modern book. It has a complexity that forces one to concentrate on the writing and think through language in a much more complicated way than something like a “Twilight” book (excuse me as I go and vomit due to the admission that I know of the existence of such drivel).
The kinds of books that children have had to read, since before I went to school, are so basic and straight forwards in their use of language that they are both indicative, and a result of, a general dumbing down society. Reading those kinds of books encourages basic and straight forwards thinking that conforms to a lowest common denominator and creates people who cant even think outside of the confines of docile conformity (perhaps a little harsh,??? but possibly true never the less).
My experience is telling in that I was diagnosed as most likely dyslexic at about the age of 8 or 9, but my mother was struggling to keep a roof over our heads, so the testing and treatment stopped there. And I cant spell to save myself, always get left and right mixed up and have the mathematical ability of a newt. I can, however, read. Yet due to atrocious spelling, teachers always thought I was a little slow. Bullied at school I sought refuge in the library, in a book; and I learned to love to read doing it. I learned, not only to love to read, but also to think in much more abstract ways than what is normal and by the time I was 12 was reading classics that most adults have difficulty with. I still cant write anything without proof reading it numerous times before submitting, or posting it, and spell check is a two edged sword. Yet, I cant help but think, “If I can overcome this, how on earth can someone who can actually read the word, as it is written, not get it right?” Boggles the mind.
Basically get rid of all this “OOOO little children, you are ALL winners” nonsense; some of them need a hefty dose of reality.
 
#67 ·
Oh Anrew, how I agree with you.
I haven't ever had a child of my own but have always had a lot around me.
A neighbours boy 10 years, told me he was stupid because he couldn't read. he was anything but that.
His parents weren't bad parents but neither of them showed any interest in education as both had got by without bothering themselves.
I took it on myself to teach him to read. Didn't have a clue as to how I was going to do it. early reader books would be boring so, I bought comics. Pictures and helping him with phonetics he soon caught on. After all, KERPOW and ZAP are easy to pronounce!
He was keen to learn and most evenings we spent at least an hour reading.
This lad was very unconfident. He stuttered badly and was keen to put himself down.
The stutter lessened after a while and then stopped when he was reading. Next thing was the school wanted him to attend a special school for backward children rather than high school. He was in a special class for reading three times a week with 25 children for 30 minutes each lesson. How can any teach that number of children who find reading hard?

By this time his favourite book was Treasure Island and he found pleasure in the classics.
I went to the school with his mother and met with the head and his teacher. I tell you how I never thumped her I do not know!
She did nothing but call the lad, thick, backward, lazy and inattentive. I was gripping the side of my chair as I was so angry.
The head had a bookcase with leather bound classics on it. I called the lad in and picked up Treasure Island. Opened it randomly, handed it and told him to read.
He couldn't get a word out for such a bad stammer and I immediately told him to turn to the wall, close his eyes, breathe deeply and to imagine we were in my house not the school. I finished sternly with "Don't you dare let me down."

He did as he was told and read, with barely a stammer, from the book.

I turned to the teacher and said to her "So he cannot read?" to which she replied "Well, he has probably learned it by heart."

I turned to the head and asked "Why the hell do you employ someone like this who undermines rather than encourages?"

The lad went to High School worked diligently and took all his exams with good passes.
I moved away and hadn't seen him for many years until my father's funeral three years ago. He is working for himself, travelling all over the Far East and is married with three children. By the car he was driving and the house he showed me pictures of, he is a wealthy man.
It was good to see him and he told me that he still loved to read the classics. His favourite author being Thomas Hardy.

As for all children being winners - well I attended a couple of sports days with my sister's (Primary) children. How boring it was. The school was divided into eight teams of all ages and they moved from one boring game to the next gaining points for their team.
Kids were bored as were parents. Head told me that it was not right that children had to loose. I told her that it was important they learned to loose so they could learn to win with good grace. I also asked about the child that was athletic but useless at written work, and she had no answer.

By the time my nephew attended the school the format was the same but they had proper races for those that wanted to have a go.
What a difference in all the children and the parents. Everyone cheering and urging the children on. Little ones being helped by the bigger ones, lots of laughter and no tears. Even those that came last were cheered and encouraged to continue.

Even I, representing my sister, entered the 'mother's' egg and spoon race. I have never been able to run but that is not the point - it is the trying that counts. I proudly say I did not come last, I managed to beat a mother who was heavily pregnant with twins that she delivered the next day!

Life is not fair and the sooner children learn this the better they will get on.
 
#68 ·
Going to pull this back to pay because it's a pet peeve of mine. Schools in Oregon constantly complain about not having enough money to properly teach the kids. A study came out on how much government employees are getting paid, they didn't do all classifications but instead did 6. One of those 6 studied was teachers and it was broke down by county. Our top paid county has a starting pay of 36k/year which is just below overall average pay in the state. Benefits paid to that teacher is about 50% of base pay so total package is 54k/year. Those teachers top out at 76k/year and benefits explode to about 80% of base pay. That means pay plus benefits ends up at 136k/year.

Now lets look at budgets. There are two different budgets they play with one is the all funds budget and other is general budget. All funds is all the money they take in from all sources, a number they don't want to give out. General budget is how much of that money is actually allocated to teaching the kids. For the same school system above general budget is about 7k per kid per year. Now when you wrestle the all funds number from their grasp and divide it by the total number of kids in that school district guess what the number is. Just over 14k per kid per year. What they wont tell you is where that other 7k per kid is going but it's not going to the classroom.

This school district also has a horrible drop out and failure rate, about 50%. So you have teachers making upwards of 76k/year which is almost double the states average pay and still have terrible results. Toss in gold plated benefits package and these guys are making more than 3x what the average Joe worker makes. I submit that pay is not the problem with our school systems.

Before jumping me and giving examples of poorly paid teachers, yes I believe there are a lot of under paid teachers out there. The point is paying more will not solve the problem with a secondary point of some school districts spend a lot of money on non teaching related expenses which is just wrong.
 
#70 ·
I submit that pay is not the problem with our school systems.
Pay IS the problem, but not just an across-the-board problem. Tenure, seniority, and unions are the problem. Whether it is a teacher, a government worker, or any other worker, a system in which pay is not based upon merit and that neither rewards excellent performers nor permits discipline and termination of nonperformers is doomed to failure, which is quite evident in our teachers as a group.

I mean, what else would we expect? Our students can't be flunked, breeze through grade schools with low standards, attend colleges with low standards, take an education curriculum that is arguably the easiest curriculum there is, and take a job with tenure and union protections that ignore performance. Duh...
 
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#71 ·
That being said, I feel the education system is kinda of a "one size fits all" type thing which does not work.
Quite the contrary. You are far too young to have come under a "one size fits all" public education system. Turn the clock back 50 years, and 90% of students were far better educated than today. It is true that the lower 10% did not receive close personal supervision and attention, however we have lowered our standards to the level of the minority at the expense of educating the majority. Math, science, and communication skills are appallingly low, and those that worship "modern" education methods are blind as bats to reality...the proof is in the pudding...
 
#72 ·
Darrin, I completely agree that there are states out there that pay their teachers a decent wage. I know Oregon, Washington, and Alaska are among them (I know about Washington because I wanted to move there lol). However, if you look at their test scores, they are correspondingly higher than states where teachers are not paid well. Again, I use Arizona as a reference because I live here and know the numbers (well, not exact numbers). Arizona has one of the lowest test score averages in the country. We also have the second lowest-paid teachers in the country. Coincidence? I think not.

Anrew, I couldn't agree more about the classics!! My son's favorite book is Treasure Island and has been since he was in the second grade. When I asked him if it was a simplified version, he acted offended and showed me his copy. It was the regular version. So, I bought him the Harry Potter books for Christmas (not exactly classics, but well-written nonetheless). He loves them and has read them twice (this was Christmas of 2011). When he was little (before he started school), I didn't have many kids' books in my library at the time), I used to read him Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. He had to ask what things meant a lot, but it did help him learn to figure out the meanings of words on his own (and how to look up words in the dictionary).

I taught my niece to read, as well. Her teachers, her mom, and even my mom (the fourth grade teacher), had given up on teaching her to read. As a last ditch effort, my sister had me come stay with them over the summer (they lived about two hours away) to try to teach T how to read. I approached it similarly to how Foxhunter did, letting her choose what she wanted to try to read. Over that one summer, she not only learned to read, but developed a love of reading. That's why when I proof read her paper for her sophomore English class, I was appalled at how poorly written it was. Her spelling was fine, but her grammar, punctuation, and the use of text speak made me cringe. It made me realize that not always does a love of reading equate to the ability to communicate in writing effectively.
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