National Achievement Test Scores Fall Short Due to Inadequate Teachers?

Today's teachers are being told they are not doing a good job teaching the youth of America based on national test scores, and I for one, am sick of hearing this. I know several teachers, some friends, some just through my grandchildren, and many people would change the way they think if they heard some of the stories these teachers tell me. Teachers today work well beyond the school hours, and give more to their students than just instructions on how to do math, reading, spelling, and other courses. They buy coats and shoes, they make sure students are fed, and they show them love, and that someone does care. I do not possess the patience or strength needed to be a teacher, but I do possess a high regard for them. Any person, who can sit six hours in a classroom with 20 to 30 children, has my respect.

Teachers Feed Students

When I was in grade school in the 1960's, we had not government programs that provided free breakfast or lunch. We ate a bowl of oatmeal in the morning before school or maybe some eggs, two PBJ sandwiches was our lunch (today I cannot eat a PBJ sandwich), and on rare occasions, a bag of chips or candy bar would be in the bag. I remember my mom telling me she would go through a loaf of bread a day just on lunches alone. My parents had seven children and although times were sometimes hard, to my knowledge they never were on welfare or used food stamps. My parents were raised with the knowledge that you work hard, provide for yourself and your family, and you make do with what you have.

When my sons went to school, they ate the same, except they got juice with their oatmeal or cereal, and their lunches included a piece of fruit, bag of chips, cookies, or a cupcake.

Today my grandson's mother packs his lunch, even though he would qualify for free school lunches. Of course my grandson never eats, as eight years olds often are fussy eaters, but never the less, she packs him a nutritious lunch every day. He might drink his juice and eat his pudding or fruit, but the other stuff goes untouched. When I questioned him about this, he said he was not hungry because he just had a snack in class. Upon hearing this, his mother and I questioned his teacher about the snack. She said she provides a snack one-half hour before lunch break in the form of two cookies or two graham crackers or other treat. We realized this was why my grandson was not eating his lunch and voiced this to the teacher. She said all kids get the snack, because for some, that is all they get all day. They do not have to eat it, but I feel obligated to provide it (she buys it with her own money). I asked if parents do not send a lunch with their child, why they do not sign their child up for the free breakfast and lunch program. Do they know about it? She said every parent is made aware of the program, but parents tell her they are too busy or they forget, or her opinion is, they just do not take the time to fill out the paperwork.

Teachers Clothe Students

My mother made sure we were up and dressed properly for school, even though we sometimes slacked in those areas, as kids often do. I remember one time in high school I came downstairs wearing a rather short skirt, and upon seeing it, mom sent me right back upstairs to change.

When I became a mother, I made it my mission that my sons would have proper clothing for school and the seasons, and that those clothes would be clean and well mended. I made sure they had ample time to get ready for school in the mornings and ate a good breakfast. Sure, there were times we ran late, but not very often.

I have had teachers tell me they have bought coats, shoes, socks, gloves, hats, and a number of other clothing items for kids who need them, using their own money. They may buy new or get the items from a second-hand shop, but the clothing is still serviceable. Children come to school in the dead of winter with no coats. They come to school with no shoes, or shoes that are so small; they hurt the child's feet. They wear shoes that do not match and shoes that are for the same foot.

One teacher related to me that some children are tardy almost every day, because the parents fail to get them up because the parent sleeps in. She related that one parent called wanting to know if her child was in school, because when she woke up at 11 a.m., she could not find her 9 year old daughter in the house. The girl had gotten up, dressed, and walked multiple blocks to school all on her own.

Teachers Safeguard our Children

When I went to school, there was not worry, or very little worry, about us being snatched by some pedophile-psycho or sexually or physically abused by anyone. I am not saying that abuse did not happen, but it did not seem as rampant as it is now. We were taught at a very early age to stay together with family or friends, and not to wonder off alone. We were told never to talk to strangers for any reason and never, ever get in a car with anyone. We were never told why we could not do these things, but our parents would tell us these things in such a way that it would scare us enough to heed the warning.

With my children, the threat and fear of child abduction and abuse escalated and I became more protective than my parents were with my siblings and me. I still used the same rules as my parents about being cautious around strangers, but I never let them venture far from home until they were in their early teens. When my sons were teens, we had three questions we always asked when they were going out for an evening. 1. Where are you going? 2. Whom are you going with? 3. When will you be home? If any of these answers were, "I don't know." Than our response was, "You don't know! You don't go!" Also if we did not like the where, who, and when, my sons were not allowed to go.

Teachers today have become investigators when it comes to physical and sexual abuse. They are bonded by law to report any suspicion of abuse to the proper authorities and if they do not, even if they did not notice it themselves, may be held liable. Some teachers will question every scratch, bump, or bruise they see on a child. They are required to observe a child's behavior and to notice if the behavior could be attributed to some type of abuse.

Conclusion

Teachers are also expected to make medical recommendations, in order for parents to get their child on SSI when they want it deemed their child has a disability, such as ADD or ADHD. Teachers have told me that parents actually want them to fabricate a child's symptoms in order to get the government supplement. Teachers are also expected to be babysitters and are verbally abused by parents when they fail to make a child behave.

Not all teachers, children, and parents are like what I described above, and the stories I have related do not pertain solely to inner-city schools or depressed areas. I only suggest that before anyone thinks a teacher is not doing their job, because a child cannot complete 100 math facts in three minutes and falls below the national average, to look at the other ways that teacher is helping that child.

I, of all people, can understand poverty to a certain extent, but with the government programs and charities available today, there is no reason for children in public schools to go hungry, or without adequate clothes and shoes, and teachers should not feel as if they have to buy these items for children.

Many other areas can be attributed to children not passing national averages such as uncompleted homework or homework not turned in at all. However, this article is long enough and I will save those issues for another time.

Source: ED.gov