Martin Baxter wrote:
Albert Frankenstein wrote:

Misconception about teaching...Mr Sails does not get a lot of time

off, and neither do most other teachers..

Truths:

1) Teachers get a lot of time off
2) Teachers make a lot of money
3) Teachers don't work that hard.


Certainly truths up here in Ontario, the Ontario Teachers Federation
Pension fund is one of the largest in North America with assets of
around $90 billion. Pay is great, hours are great, a really powerful
union.

You have to live with universal health care, which means if you're not
really sick, i.e. about to die, you'll most likely wait a while to get
something done.

Oh, and it's frozen about 6 monthsof the year up here. Ontario, 6 months
of good snowmobiling, 6 months of poor snowmobiling.

Cheers
Marty

Frankenstein comes from a state with a teacher's union, which is not
the case for most of the US...teachers are well paid inisloated
places in the US but for the most part, they are not. There is a
general misconception that teaching is easy. It is not. You are
dealing with children whose parents don't show up for conferences
but are the first to complain about a bad grade. last week, Mr
Sails needed to speak to a parent about one of his students. All
three phone numbers provided to the school office were either
non-working or went unanswered. What if that child was in an
accidnet??? Finally, after the vice principal paid a visit to the
home, a confernece was set up with the guidance office, the cive
principal, and the student (who happens to be very bright but has
some unique behavior probelms). They didn't show, didn't srnd a
note, and the kid was subsequently suspended (which wouldn't ahve
happened if the parents had shown up). This is not an isolated
incident. And the school is not a poor inner city school. In his
Environmental Science class, Mr Sails has resorted to Robert's Rules
of Order (juniors and seniors..have the maturity to understand) for
open discussion and debate rules (no debate class or team at the
school) for argiments. This has stemmed attempts to make discussion
free-for-alls and the kids test grades improved dramatically once he
changed to that system. the kids complain, but the results are
there to prove that a disciplined environment makes for a better
learning platform. He can't do that in his Earth Science
classrooms. he has too many kids with aftive learning disabilities.
He has 2 kids with Asperger's, 2 girls with babies at home who are
more concerned with that than school, and several with things like
CP and other mobility problems. He has a visually impaired child
and a deaf child in one class. Mainstreaming all these kids with
special needs makes it very difficult for the average kids in school
to get an education. Aides are forever interripting, or doing their
kids' work for them rather than assisting. No wonder so many people
burn out. No wonder there is a teacher shortage over most of the US.