I recently read a post on Linked In - High School Chemistry Teachers Group - it was as follows:
"Came into a teaching situation 8 weeks ago and am ready to quit already!
I was hired to teach chemistry at a local high school.
I have previous experience teaching the subject (to a student body with similar demographics)
plus a number of years of actual lab work. I had been working in this district for a year and
a half as a sub while in grad school so I thought I was familiar with the climate of the school
and that this endeavor would be something I could handle. After 8 weeks, I have discovered that
many of the students apparently have been conditioned to "not care" so they think it is ok to eat,
use cell phones, sleep etc no matter what I attempt to do to correct the problems. I've had AP's
come through and obviously the problem corrects itself momentarily but nothing permanent. I am so
frustrated with one class in particular, I nearly walked out today. I've never seen such apathy in
students in my life and am wondering if anyone has similar experience and/or suggestions as to how
to at least make it to the end of the school year. Thanks!
Lorraine"
I sent my reply -
"The sad part is that the "educrats" that run the public schools keep telling teachers that they must
be "engaging" and "make the subject fun" in order to be a "good teacher".
I did forty years of chemistry and physics teaching and performed many exciting demonstrations such
as the dust explosion, the wax explosion, etc.
After these events I would always ask the class - "Why do you think that happened?" and the constant
reply was "Let's see it again!" and rarely an attempt to explain why.
Essentially then, the students wanted more entertainment, not more understanding !
I think children have been convinced that the teacher's job is to entertain and cajole them into
learning on a daily basis and if the teacher can't do that he is a "poor teacher" and undeserving of
their attention.
My concluding comment about this situation is "If you can use a piece of chalk and make pH as interesting
and exciting as a Rolling Stones concert you certainly shouldn't be a high school chemistry teacher, you
should be on Broadway !
Walt"
What do you think?
"All Pigs are equal but some Pigs are more equal than others" - George Orwell - Animal Farm ** Please take a look at wsautter.com for more of my stuff. Thx.**
Many teachers I know let their kids listen to music during class. They are tired of fighting the students. The attention span is very short (5 minutes max!) In Korea they teach students to focus on a dot on the wall for 40 minutes before they start teaching. American students are terrible, and now they are blaming the teachers for failing grades, etc. It isn't fun being a teacher now, is it? It was fun when I started 13 years ago. It's only going to get worse. Don't take it personally. America is in a period of steep decline, and this whole civilization won't last too much longer. This is the end phase.
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