Most Deadbeats are unemployed, unless they are teachers…
The class bell rings, students file into class two, three minutes late. They have no backpacks, no books, and no paper. Their teacher, lazy in dress, idly makes his way to the front of the class. He doesn’t greet the class, he doesn’t take roll because he doesn’t care who is there. The educator then hands out one paper with a few questions, pushes play on the DVD player, and returns to his desk. This is the reality that many of us faced in high school. Remember that one teacher that could care less, most of us had a few we could think of that only knew the bad kids names. There are many teachers that dislike teaching, dislike school boards, and dislike children. They demonstrate their dislike of things by doing nothing in the classroom, hurting our children! Our children are stupider than ever before, dropping out at alarming rates to become well-fare leaches and burger flippers. The graduation rate of U.S. high school students increased from 72 percent in 2002 to 75 percent in 2008, according to the new data. (eschoolnews). The graduation rate is still bad, roughly 1 in 4 kids will not make it through high school to receive a diploma. This is a problem that can be solved with good teachers in the classrooms. Ones that will spend the time with them so they can understand a subject, pass and graduate, and succeed in life. With out a high school diploma a good job is not in your future. Teachers that don’t care however, don’t care about the children’s future. Sadly, these teachers are still employed, and will be employed till they are able to retire. Even though they do nothing, help no one, teachers unions insure their occupation is safe. One out of every 57 doctors will lose this license to practice medicine, and one out of every 97 lawyers will lose their right to practice law (union exposed). Why? Because we get rid of the bad ones. No one wants to pay thousands for surgery or a lawyer only to get someone who could care less. Yet that’s exactly what we are doing for deadbeat teachers. Every pay check you or I receive has a column that shows how much school tax is taken out. This money is used to fund education, which is supposed to help out children get a education, get a diploma, and have a brighter future. However, this tax is only supporting teachers who do not properly prepare their students. It’s the children, some people will say; the children make current teachers look bad. This is not true at all. A child is in essence a piece of play dough, it is shapeless and undefined until a human interferes. Children have to be molded into successful members of society, ones that are full of knowledge, hopes and dreams. It is the teachers jobs to help mold these students. So if it’s the teachers job to mold how can it be the children’s fault? A study performed by the L.A. Times concluded that, After a single year with teachers who ranked in the top 10% in effectiveness, students scored an average of 17 percentile points higher in English and 25 points higher in math than students whose teachers ranked in the bottom 10%(L.A. Times 1). This study showed children can and will learn if educated properly, which is what every teacher should strive for. I’ve had excellent teachers who would go the extra mile to help me comprehend the material taught. While at the same time I’ve had some who, even I as a child, I felt needed to be fired. One of my math teachers of instance would allow us to do push ups if we forgot out homework. Which was cool at the time. I could just do push ups and still get full credit just like the smart kids. However now that I’m college math classes, the material I needed to learn I don’t know. Due to a bad teacher letting students still pass the class not knowing the material. When teacher unions were first established, they were a good thing. These laws protected teachers from being fired for no reason, and was seen as a reward for their studies and publishing. However, like most good intention agencies, teacher unions have since fallen into the hands of bad people. People who choose to take advantage and make their living off the system. The L.A. times reported that, Even Oprah Winfrey has joined the fray, demanding to know, “why can’t you just fire bad teachers? ( L.A. Times 2). Teacher unions are in place to make money; they make money off the schools, off teachers, and off the taxpayers. They have created a maze of paperwork that must be filled out and deemed worthy enough to terminate a teacher protected by tenure. According to Education Week, the cost to terminate a teacher protected by tenure in New York City, New York averages $163,142 once everything is said and done (union exposed). Most school districts cannot afford such costs, and find it easier to wait out the 20 years till said teacher retires. They are saving money, at the expense of our children’s education. Teachers are supposed to help students, learn about them, be seen as a friend or someone they can trust. However, the deadbeats have taken over. Its no wonder kids are dropping out at all time high. No-ones telling them not to. Schools are dreadful places, where children go and are mocked, and told their stupid. Instead of helping students, the deadbeat teachers are pushing them away. Is this the way school should be?
Final Word Count: 976Works Citedhttp://teachersunionexposed.com/protecting.cfm(1) http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/15/local/la-me-teachers-react-20100816(2) http://articles.latimes.com/2010/nov/07/local/la-me-teachers-unions-20101107/4http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/11/29/high-school-graduation-rate-is-improving-report-shows/
Ed Reform by Undergrads 
This essay is especially interesting to me, because I can relate to it. I experienced many bad teachers throughout school. For example, when I attended elementary school there was still paddling in schools. I had gotten in trouble with my fifth grade teacher for acting up in class and was sent to the principal’s office. The teacher told the principle that she didn’t want to see my ugly face in class for the rest of the day. Do kids need to be treated this way from their teachers? But, the story gets even more interesting. I was sent home with a paper that asked permission from my parents for the principal to paddle me. My parents signed that the principal could not paddle me, but I did get punished at home for my wrong doing. I gave this note to my principal the following day, in which, made him really upset and he said a few choice words that shouldn’t have been heard by a ten year old child. It is my understanding that the teacher and principal remained working for the school until they both retired. How could a principal that loved to beat and curse a child be allowed to keep their job? My parents did report these two people, but it did no good at all. No one will believe a child’s word over their teachers; so, someone should be in class to observe these teachers that are reported.
There were also the few elderly teachers that seemed to really dislike children. They didn’t want us kids to have any options on anything that they taught. The teacher was always right and the students could not have any say so on the matter. Schools should hire younger teachers that are eager to teach, instead of the ones that had gotten their education forty years ago. These teachers that were educated many years ago really are not educated at all on new subjects such as today’s technology. Also, many of the older teachers judge a child by their appearance, and who their parents are.
Teachers really can’t be made to like their job; but why would they want to teacher if they don’t like what they do? Many children fall behind because teachers could care less if any of the students learn anything. For instance, what happens when a student fails to do their homework, or perhaps they may be just a slow learner? Do they not get left behind? In my case, I never learned what algebra was until I dropped out of high school and figured it out on my own. There was no teacher willing to help me understand anything about the subjects I was failing in. One of the reasons I dropped out of high school was because there was no help for students who got left behind. Now that I have been attending MSU, I have met great teachers that are willing to help students with anything they do not understand and most will not let you get behind unless you choose to do so. Why can’t public schools work this way?
Your essay really interested me because I couldn’t agree with you more. No, this is not the way school should be. Teachers are more or less just treating their jobs like a factory job when it should be much more. You don’t just walk into a classroom, routinely teach the same material, give pointless homework, and expect everyone to appreciate your work then go home at the end of the day just to start all over. As a student having a teacher that acted just like this, school was more difficult than it should have been. I had a teacher that would come into class with an attitude that said don’t bother me. She would go over our lessons and treat us as though we should already know everything there is to know about it. When the assignment was given, you knew better than to ask questions if you didn’t understand because the answer would be “I’ve went over it once and I’m not doing it again.” For a child that wants to learn and just so happened to miss out on some of what was mentioned, should just prepare themselves to fail. I still don’t know how I passed that class but I guess I was one of the lucky ones that didn’t get on her bad side.
I also thought that teachers were supposed to be someone that would help you and guide you so you would better understand. Don’t get me wrong, I myself had teachers that did an amazing job at teaching. This one teacher though ran me through the ringer, literally. I completely agree with you, why would schools allow such people to teach America’s future? These so called teachers, especially that one, acted as though she hated teaching, hated children, and really hated having conversations with her students. It is teachers like the one I mentioned and you mentioned that need to be fired from their position as a teacher. They teach nothing but bad manners and some make kids feel like if the teacher doesn’t care why should I? You mentioned having a teacher that had you do pushups if you forgot your homework. Another teacher I had did things a lot differently. I was only in the seventh grade and we were told that there was a new history teacher. Walking into class this man was unbelievably scary. He was standing there with a rubber mallet swinging it into his fist. All I could remember thinking was what is he going to do with that? Two months into the year, I found out exactly what he used it for. If kids were caught sleeping in class, you could hear the thump of the mallet on the desk. I guess his intentions were to get us to focus but I just prayed that I would never fall asleep in his class. It only got worse when the class slacker started mouthing off at him. All I can really remember was a bunch of arguing and then a really loud crack. The teacher had broken the kid’s desk with the mallet while the kid was setting in it. Thankfully the man was fired shortly after but it wasn’t for this reason as far as I know. At the time it did seem like the kid deserved it but we were only in seventh grade! Most of us were just happy it wasn’t us. This teacher had to be the worst example setter I believe I have ever seen. Students should get the help they deserve from teachers and not have to deal with this bad way of teaching.
I can totally relate to bad teachers. When I was in high school there was one teacher who never wanted to do anything with the class. He would pass out a paper with a bunch of questions on it and then set at his desk and talk to his favorite students. Then at the end of the semester he would give grades by how much he like you or how much he didn’t like you. He failed me and when I questioned some of my classmates about their grade, they would day they got an “a” and never turned a paper in. Students had complained about him a lot to the principal, but the faculty never did anything about it because he was a veteran and was ready to retire from teaching in a few years. I’m sure a lot of students fail just because they have bad teachers. I think the school board needs to take a better look at who they hire as teachers. We live in a small town, and there are not a lot of jobs around here, so most people go for teaching. Only because there’s nothing else for them to do. This is not good for our students. They are not getting the education they need to prepare them for college or even the “real world.” I love how you use the doctor and lawyers example. This is so true. I couldn’t agree with you more. There should be harsher guidelines for teaching. I had no idea about how much it cost to fire a teacher with tenure. That is so crazy! The union needs to take a look at dropout rates of high school students, and even college dropout rates. A lot of these could be prevented if only they had a better learning experience. I also love the title to this argument. It totally suits the subject.
I have had my go arounds with bad teachers. I really dont think that these people should be aloud to be teachers. If education is one of the most important things in society these days, then we need to have teachers that actually educates their students. Haveing favorites in the class is not helping the others get a good education, or helping grades progress any. I have been in many class’s where teachers have had their favorites, and they would just help them and when we needed help they wouldn’t help at all. I think that teachers should have expierience with kids, and not be a deadbeat before they get hired.
I also couldn’t agree more, Anonymous College Student. Many students grades, including my own, are suffering because of the carelessness of teachers. In middle school I recall having a new music teacher almost every month. One retired, a few transferred to other schools, one had to take a pregnancy leave and so on. Finally the school found someone who could stay for a while. This had to be the worst decision for a teacher I had ever seen. It was the male version of Ms. Trunchbell from the movie “Matilda”. Everyday of class he would tell us, “I don’t care if you learn anything or not, I’m still getting paid”. If this was the best teacher my school could come up with, then I would have been better off teaching myself. Things don’t get any better either. As the year went on we found out that this man was very violent. In the music class I had, one day he got mad at some students for continuously talking loudly. After he couldn’t take it anymore he jumped up, grabbed a handful of pencils and threw them at everyone! That is not even the worst case. In another class he taught I heard he threw a chair at a student! Not only was this man guilty of being a careless teacher, but a suspect of child abuse! How do people like this get into our school systems? Something needs to be done and not just in high school and lower, in college as well. I have a professor that only explains the material once. If you did not understand it the first time that’s too bad. This professor, as well as many other teachers I have had, only favor the students who excel in their particular study, leaving the students who need more help to fend for themselves. We need guidance, and we need it from someone who truly cares about our future.
I can relate to this situation. In high school I had the same type of teacher and it is very sad that we cannot do something about it. It seems like there is no way you can just fire the bad ones without the good ones being penalized right along with them. The way schooling is now, I believe the problem of deadbeat teachers can get fixed. As an education major, I believe you must love education in order to complete this degree. Being a good teacher is not easy, and should not be, but it can be done. The teachers are a very important aspect in a student’s education. Their first teacher can make or break whether they will be a good student or not. Although I would love to see the bad teachers weeded out of education, I’m afraid that it is too complicated. How are we going to see who is a “bad” teacher and who simply does not have the experience? So many teachers are seen as bad teachers because the schooling they received was just as bad as the one they are giving. There are so many factors in a bad teacher. Of course, we will be able to tell who the teachers are that do not care.
Everything in the world today revolves around money, and that is what is wrong. We so often lose focus on what is important just because of money. The government has stopped “funding” education and now “invest” in education. This definitely has positive points and negative points but basically the government is looking for results. Instead of letting the schools educate the students how they want; the government tells them they need to get better. Like the author said, a teacher is there to mold the students into successful people. With the government watching every move of the schools; this is hard.
Terrible teachers have become a dime a dozen anymore and frankly all of these teachers simply suck. I myself can remember having several of these terrible teachers in high school. They showed absolutely no care for the students, the grades the students received, or even how well the student knew the materials. In my case it seemed that the teachers were only there to receive a pay check. Although, those were mostly the students favorite teachers including myself at the time in high school, now being out in the real world we are faced with several struggles. Now being in college and having college level courses I am soon realized that I am not exactly prepared for college. My study habits were not up to par, my scheduling skills were terrible, and my lack of motivation to do homework was obvious. Lucky enough for me I am starting to adjust to the demanding schedule presented to me in college. Looking back at the teachers that I thought were so cool generally were not good teachers. There were a few teachers on the other hand that were great teachers because they made the material easy to learn and more interesting to me. When the teachers that are doing nothing more than passing out a worksheet, and sitting on their careless butts are still employed by the same schools. In my opinion these great and wonderful teachers are not honored enough for the remarkable impact they have on their students. These teachers are paid the same amount as the teachers who are completely terrible teachers. Why do we have such a thing as tenure? This was the most terrible idea since the invention of techno music. Although this was put in place as a good thing it has turned into nothing more than a way to protect these terrible teachers. It is really quite sickening that some sick individuals would take complete advantage of a system put in effect to help good teachers. This is really discouraging to a student as well it instills a lack of motivation in the students. I mean really can you blame them? If the teacher does not care then why should the students. This is only causing more and more laziness in the students, making them care less and less about their education. I think this causes students to slack off in their other classes because they are not motivated enough to care about their education and most importantly their future. Teachers who simply do not care really do only know the names of the students that cause them problems. The only reason they even pay any attention to these students is because they make take them get off their lazy bums and deal with their bad behavior. Teachers who really cannot teach nor have no desire to teach should not even be allowed to sit foot in a classroom let alone be in charge of molding and ruining the minds of our youth. So let’s do the world and the world and the youth a favor and rid the world of all terrible teachers.
I can very much relate to this. I had teachers in highschool that cared less about their students. We sat around played cards and watched the newest movies. We did nothing and at the time us students appreaciated it. However when something like that goes on all year and you don’t learn anything you realize that Rook and Goldfish or Avatar will not help you the least little bit in college. I came to college thinking I was prepared but truth is that its the most I have learned since 5th grade. Teachers don’t care about their students anymore they care about the money that is being shoveled out to them while they can sit behind there desk and not do anything. I do not think it’s fair for the kids. I was even in Honors classes and all they did will play games and watch movies and if you could beat our teacher at rook or his choice of card game you passed if not you failed. So what I am asking is since when did school become an all day recess?