DO teachers even care anymore

Question

I'm a senior in high school, and there are kids in my math class who can barley do basic math and, in English they can barley read. How did they pass???

Answer 1

i wonder that too

last year i had a teacher who would just hand out GIGANTIC workbooks she put together of random questions, told us to pass it or there will be h**l

and then she would go to her desk , sit and play solitare

now thats how ppl pass w/o doing anything

Answer 2

i would say teachers do care, but then students stopped caring as much as they used to, which made some teachers give up on them and just try to let them pass their courses...

Answer 3

The kids today have alot of nerve even asking about whether teachers care or not ( by the way barley is a food,  I think you meant to use the word barely ).  Teachers have to teach manners, they have to baby sit, they have to put up with a-hole parents who will let their kids do anything.  They have to try and teach a class to kids who mostly don't care to even be there. They have to worry about being beaten up. They have to teach kids who don't speak English.  They have to put up with the class clown ( who ends up on welfare ).   The last time I was in a class room it was such a joke, kids on the phone, some just getting up and walking out of class and if you ask where their going you get the hand or worse the finger.  If it was up to me I would end the free education in this country, and give parents back their tax money then you could send your kids to a small neighborhood school where they would actally learn something. So don't ask if teachers care ask if the students care.

Answer 4

We have something called "social promotion" in this country.  It means that the schools think it's less harmful to send a failing kid on to a higher grade than it is to have them repeat it and be embarrassed.  So, up they go, whether they learn or not.

It's stupid.  

Teachers have their hands tied.   Only the best ones can really manage to cut through the c**p and jump through all the hoops they have to navigate.  

Answer 5

Teachers can not do miracles. It's very easy to blame a teacher for some students that do not demonstrate to care, that do not full fill their role as a student but question a teacher's role, students that have no interest in their education. How about questioning themselves what are THEY doing wrong that other students are ahead of them? Even though teachers work with them and give them opportunities, most of the time they do not deserve those chances.  I think that instead of saying that teachers do not care is better questioning ourselves:  HOW IS IT THAT TEACHERS CARE THAT MUCH AS TO GIVE SO MANY OPPORTUNITIES TO STUDENTS WHO DO NOT DESERVE THEM AT ALL?  It is not a matter of teachers wanting to get rid of students, it is  a matter of being flexible, thinking about their future, because as teachers, we know that at some point in their lives they will regret their bad decisions and thank the teachers that gave them the chance of passing the grade and believing they might force themselves in working harder the next year. It is just a matter of believing in students that think no one believes in them, that think that teachers are enemies instead of friends, it is a matter of demonstrating the world that we believe in our students and in the possibility of change.  I must also mention that there are also cases where students are falling behind but because of limitations they have, special education students, and OF COURSE we have to help them and guide them to success.

Answer 6

What you describe is a common problem, and it's highly illegal. The teachers who are doing this should have their licenses revoked!

Unfortunately, thanks to the No Child Left Behind Act (thank you President Bush), schools lose money if they're under performing. As a result, the pressure is on to keep the grades up high, so teachers will do anything to keep those grades up, and therefore keep their jobs.

But there are teachers who still care. Unfortunately, they're the ones who are fresh out of college and still on probation.

You have to understand. Teaching is a very thankless job. Sallaries are low, even though most teachers have IQs to rival rocket scientists and brain surgeons and go through just as much training. Most public school teachers get little or no support from parents, who lately have taken to taking their child's side against teachers, police, and other authority figures, creating a "the world owes me" or "the whole world is against me" attitude.

Young teachers are idealistic, and really do try to make a difference. Unfortunately, they're forced to go with the status quo until they can make tenure, or else risk being fired for political, religious, or phillosophical views.

But there are plenty of us who still care. My mother-in-law has been teaching for more than forty years, and has really turned a couple of schools around, actually making her students do the work. She's the best example I'll have of how to be a good teacher when I finally get my license.

Answer 7

Bravo, Suzwiz, Bravo!  Teachers are fighting an uphill battle day after day after day.  We have to work with the students we are given, and so much has been taken out of our hands nowadays.   NCLB makes it almost impossible to hold a kid back.  If you are unhappy, have your parents talk to your government representatives and stop bashing the teachers.  Teachers have rules to follow, too.

Answer 8

I changed career fields at age 40 to go into teaching.  I did this because I care. I thought I could make a difference. Working with children seemed like the most noble thing anyone can do--I believe children are the future for everyone!

My eyes were definitely opened after I entered the profession.  I still have the passion that I can make a difference. I still try very hard to make interesting lessons, go with student interest, prepare kids to the best of my ability for education (and life) beyond my class. But it hurts when these same students I want to help are so disrespectful to me and to each other. Then when I meet their parents, I understand.

I feel so badly when a child comes into my class barely reading. How did this child get to high school? Because the administration doesn't want this child to endure the emotional scarring of staying back. While I see the value in this viewpoint....personally, I think it is more scarring for a child to graduate from high school unable to read than for this same child to go to a remedial reading class as a Junior rather than a Junior level American Literature class!

As a teacher who cares, all I can do is try my best and hope that it is enough. I am not the enemy--I am part of the partnership for each of my student's education!

You ask a good question that I have to ponder and I really respect your annoyance that you work for your grade---why doesn't everyone have to!!  I think you can just have comfort knowing you are a better educated person for it and you have learned the value of working for something important.  I have another question: why do so many students and their parents not value the opportunity to get an education?  

Answer 9

Of course teachers care.  The problem that has been around for son long, and continues today even with the NCLB policy, is that the system itself moves kids along even if they aren't prepared to move because they fear that it will be damaging to them to leave them behind and keep them away from kids their own age.  Literacy is farther down now because students don't read anymore.  They aren't read to anymore.  It is no longer socially acceptable to do well in school.  You see kids who are so terribly bright deliberately being mediocre or worse in class because they don't want to appear to be too nerdy to their friends.  I completely agree with you that the basic math and literacy skills of your average high schooler is just plain disturbing, but I wouldn't entirely blame the teachers.  I would blame the system more.  It has teachers teaching to standardized tests that supposedly have some kind of affect on the student's progress, but really only affects the monies coming into the school for funding.  If they fail miserably, they are either just shoved along in hopes that they will wake out of their scholastic coma, or encouraged to join the work force.  I do not know a single teacher who doesn't care about making sure a student learns what they need to in order to be successful.  If I did, I would tell that person that they should consider a new line of work.  It's the policies and laws that force the teachers to teach to meaningless standardized tests that mean little if nothing to the students who really don't care if they pass them or not.  Should some blame go to the teachers?  Sure, it's still our job to get around the boring subject and convince the students they need to know these things, but the culture we see today leads me to conclude that fewer students care about being educated, rather than teachers not caring about educating the students.  There needs to be serious reform.

Answer 10

To be plainly honest with you, yes most of us care ALOT. But, grades are meaningless now. You can have an A average and fail the exit exam and guess what! No diploma. Or, you could have a C and nail the exit exam and CONGRATULATIONS YOU GRADUATE!! So, teachers have started to protest this fact by doing exactly what you describe. We get frustrated that we work so hard to help kids move up and no one cares. Because it is all about the test. So, why worry about grades. We have to worry about teaching you the state test or we get FIRED.

Answer 11

I agree with the first person who answered this question. It's true, I wonder why they do this...

Answer 12

These are the kids whose parents will raise h**l if there's too much schoolwork, and will go to pressure groups if their kid doesn't pass. It's usually not the teacher that quit, it was the parents that think their little bundle of joy is a genius because he can use a restroom without notes. True teachers can't stop caring!!