School's out for Summer!-AMA

[displacedinMN]

I said I would.

But a few classroom rules.
1. The answer to the obligatory question. No
2. There are no stupid questions-just stupid people that ask questions.
3. Teacher has the right to suspend you.
4. Teacher can take regular quarter and holiday breaks.

[Bowser]

Originally Posted by displacedinMN

Me?
6'1" 270. But with bad knees, ankles I can't take over for Fisher on the line.

Pretty sure that poof was talking about your junk.

[Discuss Thrower]

Originally Posted by displacedinMN

Me?
6'1" 270. But with bad knees, ankles I can't take over for Fisher on the line.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hung_(TV_series)

[Bowser]

Originally Posted by Buehler445

Yeah. My wife taught at a catholic school for several years. When she started I was like “SCORE. You get to beat the kids, right!?”

Nope.

Couldn’t even give detention because they didn’t want to screw up the parents schedule for pickup. Ugh.

However the kids were overall better than the public school kids. Especially where she was at.

We've entered an era of everyone being scared to death of hurting somebody's feelings, bad Yelp reviews and getting sued to oblivion. You know those "None of y'all ever had your ass kicked by a teacher and it shows" memes? Amusing, but they are tinged with truth. Add in how many parents just can't be bothered to be parents these days, and you have this shit storm that is public education. It's concerning for the future.

[tyecopeland]

Public education sucks on so many levels.
Like I've said, I taught for 6 years and my wife taught for 3 years and we will never send our kids to public school.

[displacedinMN]

Originally Posted by Bowser

Pretty sure that poof was talking about your junk.

I would not call mine junk.

Never understood that term.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by Bowser

We've entered an era of everyone being scared to death of hurting somebody's feelings, bad Yelp reviews and getting sued to oblivion. You know those "None of y'all ever had your ass kicked by a teacher and it shows" memes? Amusing, but they are tinged with truth. Add in how many parents just can't be bothered to be parents these days, and you have this shit storm that is public education. It's concerning for the future.

Yeah. Fortunately my town isn’t too bad. But some of the stuff the wife tells me about is ridiculous.

Originally Posted by tyecopeland

Public education sucks on so many levels.
Like I've said, I taught for 6 years and my wife taught for 3 years and we will never send our kids to public school.

So are you looking at homeschooling or private school or what?

[tyecopeland]

Originally Posted by Buehler445

So are you looking at homeschooling or private school or what?

We will home school until probably high school level and then try to figure things out from there.

[Mennonite]

How many of the teachers in your school would you say are actually good at their job?

[displacedinMN]

Originally Posted by Mennonite

How many of the teachers in your school would you say are actually good at their job?

85-90%. There are always a few that struggle. Just like any office.

We have a list of teacher expectations. such as.

one kid out of room at a time-with limited passes out
no passes first and last 10 minutes
no outs during instruction
no phones for students
etc.

There are always the ones that think that does not apply to them. Makes it harder for us that follow the rules.

[tyecopeland]

Originally Posted by displacedinMN

85-90%. There are always a few that struggle. Just like any office.

We have a list of teacher expectations. such as.

one kid out of room at a time-with limited passes out
no passes first and last 10 minutes
no outs during instruction
no phones for students
etc.

There are always the ones that think that does not apply to them. Makes it harder for us that follow the rules.

Uh. Wow. I wasn't the greatest teacher and I still was better than a hell of a lot of my coworkers.

I'd say 75 to 80% followed the rules and did stuff but less than 50% of the teachers were actually good at their job. Most just taught stuff the way the book told them to teach stuff or focused solely on the tested materials with no regard to actual life use skills.

[displacedinMN]

OK maybe less. Look at class management-instruction.

I never claimed to be the best. I did very well.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by tyecopeland

We will home school until probably high school level and then try to figure things out from there.

Don’t take this the wrong way. I’m not criticizing or know-it-all-ing or anything. Just an opinion here. Each kid, school, parent, situation is different. But here’s what I see.

School is very much a social exercise as it is an academic one. There are some baseline skills that need to be picked up, as well as some capacity to learn. But just as much as the academic, kids need to learn how to deal with other kids and authority figures.

This was harder for me. I grew up on the farm so I didn’t have daycare or play dates or anything like that. So I got all my socializing from school. And I was behind other kids. It was also evident in a couple kids in my class that were home schooled. They came in late elementary school and knew way more than the rest of the class but they were weird as all get out. By the time high school came around they were average or behind academically and didn’t have much for friends.

The other thing I see is my kids getting a lot out of non-parent interaction. My daughter does far better at school than she does at home. Even with my wife being a teacher. There is something about the authority the teacher has that matters for her. Even before school, she got a long a lot better when she was with kids from her daycare than just at home. Same with my son who’s not in school yet. Non-family interaction matters for my kids anyway.

Not that it matters for me, being self employed there is no way to live without the insurance from the school (and to a lesser extent her cash wages) so my wife can’t stay at home with them. But even then I don’t think we would.

Just something to consider. Again, not criticizing, just an honest opinion of what I see.

[lewdog]

Buehler is spot on again. I think home schooling is a terrible idea. I’ve never met a successful person who was home schooled and most are just weird as ****. The social aspect of any school is VERY important for adulthood success.

[tyecopeland]

Well, I'm not taking it personally because I also know a lot of home school kids who never should have been home schooled. I've met several parents who said they were home schooling and I could tell they didnt know their ass from their elbow.

But, my wife was a kindergarten teacher and I've done everything from 3rd grade to algebra. So we've got the academics covered pretty well. Side note: my 3 year old reads many books that are a 3rd grade level and infinitely more at every level below that. She has high comprehension and incredible memory but we dont test her because that's part of what's wrong with public schools.

As for socially, while I could argue about the amount of real socialization happening at school, I will instead tell you the social things my 3 year old daughter currently does. She goes to a weekly story time at a library where another adult is in charge and many other children around her age attend (and their parents, so lots of adult interaction as well). She used to go to a program that did hands on steam activities for toddlers/pre schoolers that had a 'teacher' leading the instruction. Once again, lots of kids and adults. That did get discontinued. Another program we occasionally attend is called tinkergarten. Similar to the last one but more nature oriented, you can look that up on google if you'd care to. Lastly for the purposes of this discussion, she does taekwondo in a class with somewhere around 4 instructors and up to about 10 kids ranging from 4-6.

As for being weird as ****, I hope my kids are 'weird'. A lot of school minimizes the differences between kids and tries to push out 'little toy soldiers'. Most teachers dont want kids to ask why or question what they are teaching, my wife and I encourage those things. (I know what you mean by weird as **** and that's not really the weird I'm talking about but I've already discussed the social issue which is what you are referring to.)

Finally, neither my wife or I are insured which I guess is scary but I dont find it to be, probably because the only insurance I've ever had was a HDHP which I had to pay $5000 OOP before insurance really did anything (I'm fairly certain I can negotiate a rate reasonably on par with what the insurance company 'allowed', besides the fact that a lot of places already do an uninsured discount.) My kids are covered through CHIP so I pay a reduced premium for them. I make a thousand dollar mortgage payment every month, have a 2 year old car we bought new, and have never paid interest on a credit card because we pay them off in full each month. And this is with me working as a bus driver with a part time job during non driving hours since the last school year ended. So I dont think its impossible for you, maybe just improbable with your current situation.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by tyecopeland

Well, I'm not taking it personally because I also know a lot of home school kids who never should have been home schooled. I've met several parents who said they were home schooling and I could tell they didnt know their ass from their elbow.

But, my wife was a kindergarten teacher and I've done everything from 3rd grade to algebra. So we've got the academics covered pretty well. Side note: my 3 year old reads many books that are a 3rd grade level and infitinely more at every level below that. She has high comprehension and incredible memory but we dont test her because that's part of what's wrong with public schools.

As for socially, while I could argue about the amount of real socialization happening at school, I will instead tell you the social things my 3 year old daughter currently does. She goes to a weekly story time at a library where another adult is in charge and many other children around her age attend (and their parents, so lots of adult interaction as well). She used to go to a program that did hands on steam activities for toddlers/pre schoolers that had a 'teacher' leading the instruction. Once again, lots of kids and adults. That did get discontinued. Another program we occasionally attend is called tinkergarten. Similar to the last one but more nature oriented, you can look that up on google if you'd care to. Lastly for the purposes of this discussion, she does taekwondo in a class with somewhere around 4 instructors and up to about 10 kids ranging from 4-6.

As for being weird as ****, I hope my kids are 'weird'. A lot of school minimizes the differences between kids and tries to push out 'little toy soldiers'. Most teachers dont want kids to ask why or question what they are teaching, my wife and I encourage those things. (I know what you mean by weird as **** and that's not really the weird I'm talking about but I've already discussed the social issue which is what you are referring to.)

Finally, neither my wife or I are insured which I guess is scary but I dont find it to be, probably because the only insurance I've ever had was a HDHP which I had to pay $5000 OOP before insurance really did anything (I'm fairly certain I can negotiate a rate reasonably on par with what the insurance company 'allowed', besides the fact that a lot of places already do an uninsured discount.) My kids are covered through CHIP so I pay a reduced premium for them. I make a thousand dollar mortgage payment every month, have a 2 year old car we bought new, and have never paid interest on a credit card because we pay them off in full each month. And this is with me working as a bus driver with a part time job during non driving hours since the last school year ended. So I dont think its impossible for you, maybe just improbable with your current situation.

That's all fine and well. I'm not trying to convince anybody of anything, just relaying my experience as a know nothing hayseed.