This was reported on MSN.com this morning, and I found it sad. It's a horrible commentary on our society today. A Colorado elementary school teacher wanted to get to know her students better, so she asked them to write down something they would like her to know about them. "I wish my teacher knew i don't have pencils at home to do homework". "I wish my teacher knew I don't have a friend to play with" "I wish my teach knew how much I miss my dad because he got deported when I was 3 and I haven't seen him in 6 years" The teacher, who has been teaching for three years, is now encouraging other instructors to reach out to their students. For the full article, read here - http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/co...rs-wrote/ar-AAb9xP9?ocid=ansnewsNYDailyNews11
It is sad when you hear about what kids are going through as a school teacher. Unfortunately this story is just one of many tha school teachers could tell about the hardship of students they are teaching. I know someone who worked as a teacher and they talked about some of the things they found out about the kids all because kids tend to talk. Some would talk about living in homeless shelters, others would talk about not having anything to eat at home. These are issues that are apparently going on in schools for kids and dealing with it as a teacher isn't easy I am sure.
My niece is a 3rd grade teacher in Colorado....this is only her second year teaching but she's had some stories to tell!! Not a sad story but her first year of teaching she got the Principles son in her class...to be fair though so did 2 other teachers because the principle had triplets. One was a problem child, luckily my niece didn't get that one.
Some careers/jobs are definitely harder to do (emotionally) than others. I remember when I was in EMS and would encounter the relatives and/or parents of a young person that had been seriously injured or killed in a motorcycle or vehicle accident, They wanted to know how their loved one was and all we (driver and attendant) could tell them was "you'll have to ask the ER nurse and/or Doctor". My partner and myself knew how badly the person was, or if they had died, but couldn't disclose that information. I was only involved with EMS for a few years and had to get out of it.
Mid-year of the one when I taught high school Math in MO, I was given an award: the annual "Golden Egg" award as offered to the teacher receiving the most student votes. It was a touching tribute, heart-warming, but not much so, for the old hard-line teachers who then were disposed to dislike me even more! I didn't mind their barely-disguised jeers, knowing I was, and would always be, the "outsider". One of our neighbors, Bob Barrett, had lived there with his wife, who was devout Catholic, for 20 years. He offhandedly had told me he still did not feel accepted in the community. I turned down the request to teach another year, not due to malevolence, but rather the fact that I was teaching without a State Teaching Certificate. I received several notices from the State of Missouri explaining I needed to complete 10 hours of Teachers Education courses, etc., blah, blah, gave them to my Administrators, my boss, the school Principal, and his, the District Superintendent; they poo-pooed, and threw the letters away! Frank
My daughter is an elementary teacher and has for the past few years taught First and Second graders. She's a really good teacher in the public school system and although she has wanted to be a Teacher most of her life...she is finding it really tough at times to "see and hear" what many of her students are going through in their lives. She's a nurturer like me, so she doesn't just teach these children, she nurturers them too...and they become her "children" in her heart. So when they feel pain, etc. she feels that right along with them and does her best to give them what they need with her teaching and caring. School isn't like it was when most of us were growing up. Classrooms are overcrowded with too many students for one teacher to be able to teach and have the time to get to know each student and their needs...or even have the time to try to meet some of those needs. Teachers aren't really allowed to be teachers anymore either, they are mostly instructors told what to instruct. Kids no longer are allowed to be kids either in school, their recess and lunch time is cut to the barest minimum and they are given homework that takes up most of their afterschool hours too. But what bothers me most is that children today are not being taught reading, writing, and arithmetic....instead they are being taught to be robots with their brains programmed with instructions instead of education. And they are being taught there is no right or wrong, no male or female, etc. and basically that their parents do not know what they are talking about so they don't have to listen, obey, or respect them. We think kids have problems now...with what they are being "fed" in our public schools they won't be writing I wish my teacher knew I need pencils, etc. They will be writing exactly what is being drilled into them now...and it won't be a good thing.
I think classes are smaller now....my classs in catholic school in second grade had 60 students. Now they have about 25. My grandkids seem to be getting a good education and have some fantastic teachers. My oldest grandson, a senior in high school in California is still pretty outspoken in his conservative ways in a school that's mostly liberal. He remains true to himself. He's gotten good grades in AP classes and has gotten acceptance letters from 3 universities already and some scholarships. It's not easy for those that want to go on, I've seen how very competitive it is to get into a good school ...need a 4.0 and have 125 hrs community service plus other things. It was easier when I was applying to colleges, that's for sure.
The principle that my principal relied upon was the overall effectiveness of my good pal....the paddle.
Principals still had paddles in the 60's! Forget when they stopped it,even high school I remember boys getting whacked.
I found out much too late that my principal, Mr. Green, also belonged to a local baseball team and had a batting average of around .380. Must have been from all the practice he got with us guys in his office. Lest I get off topic, the saddest thing in today's schools is when a teacher knows what is happening in a childs life but cannot do anything about it. From a child's inability to pay for school lunches to parental bad behavior toward their child a teacher can only do so much and generally it falls on closed ears.
Here in our Lafayette School System there is a unspoken policy that "no child goes hungry" whether they qualify for the free lunch (and breakfast) program or not. Even if a child forgets their lunch money or their home brought lunch they are served the cafeteria meal just as others are. Also right before schools begin for the year people gather extra school supplies and teacher supples and donate them to the schools. Many also adopt a teacher for that school year and makes sure she/he and the students have the supplies they need during that school year. At least there is still some leeway in things like this...