I wish I could read this and doubt that it was genuine, but unfortunately, I’m all too sure that it’s a real letter.

What a sad statement regarding the educational system. Not only was the teacher wrong, but they also took the time to write a letter to the parent. I hope that the parent was kind enough to bring a copy of this letter to the principal.

The one thing that surprises me is that only one student noticed the problem and spoke out. Usually if one student speaks out, all the others who were looking at the board in puzzlement join in the protest.

Magnus, I’m not trying to get into a fight with you on this issue, and I definitely like your posting, even though I often disagree with your view on things. You always seem to speak what you’re thinking, regardless of what others may think. I respect that.

However, having been a teacher myself in the past, I can say that it’s not a “plan B” for everyone. I know some really amazing teachers that do a great job of helping their students get prepared for their lives. Teaching was my “Plan A” but life has a strange way of sending you down a different road. For now, I do something else, but I would like to go back to teaching someday in the future.

That said, I also know that teaching is a “Plan B” job for a lot of people. A lot of them get out into the world and when they realize that they don’t like what they are doing, and they figure that they can always go teach. The people who chose to be teachers as their “Plan A” typically are very resentful of those people, and watch them come and go every few years.

While some teachers are probably close to worthless, most of them, even the ones that aren’t great, are far from worthless; some are even invaluable.

We live in a world now where parents do so little parenting, that states are adding “Character Education” to their curricula because the kids have no sense of morals or values.

I agree with what Tyler said. The root of the problem isn’t the teachers, it’s the system. The system allows people who have gotten tenure to become complacent, and the younger teachers that actually give a damn usually get so frustrated that they quit and move on to something else before they implode. It’s always fantastic when a parent calls to tell you what a worthless piece of shit you are, but tells you you must be a liar when you inform them that their little Johnny cuts class 2 days a week and that’s why he gets shitty grades.

If I ever got a call home from a teacher when I was in school, after I got my ass beat, I MIGHT get asked for my side of the story. Nowadays it’s the complete opposite. Views like yours, that “teachers are worthless” just make it worse. Some are, but most aren’t.

I suggest you try teaching in a public school for a few years. Urban, Suburban, Rural, whatever suits your fancy. They all have their unique good and bad sides.

I’m plenty pissed about the attitude of the particular teacher who wrote this, and I have plenty of issues with the educational system. There are reasons I’m not in a rush to go back to teaching: my disgust with the system and dealing with crappy parents are right up there at the top. They tell you what you need to accomplish, but many times they allow you very little creative license in how you are to teach the material, and to me, that takes all the enjoyment out of it. It’s great to see some of your students really catch on and learn things, but our public schools shelter them too much and don’t prepare them very well for what lies ahead when they leave. Many parents are just as guilty of doing the same thing.

Unfortunately, it’s not something that will change quickly if ever. All we can hope for is that enough of the teachers that do give a damn stick with it long enough to have some of their students say “wow, Ms. so-and-so really was awesome, I want to be like that” and that they don’t become the teachers that just use the same dated stuff again year after year and just go through the motions. Hopefully also, the system will realize that they are stifling many good, promising educators.

I had the opportunity to go to both public and private schools, and to teach in both settings also. No, I’m not silver-spoon fed, I paid for almost all of my own tuition for high school through work and scholarships, because I wanted to go to a better school. The biggest difference in the private/public schools was the teachers. They mostly made way less money at the private school, so the two groups of people you’d see teaching there were new teachers that needed to get experience, and veteran teachers, who didn’t care about the money as much as they cared about working in a place without the public system restrictions in place, where they could actually do what they thought was the best thing instead of what the district said.

I had some amazing teachers at the private school. There were a few good ones at the public school also, but at the private school the majority of them were excellent teachers. The ones that weren’t didn’t last long.

Anyway, Mag, I’m sure there will be a witty, curse-filled, one-sided response coming to this, and I’m sure it’ll be an interesting read. Don’t disappoint me.

Before you write it, though, take a minute to remember your own education. Somewhere, I’m sure there was at least one teacher, whether yours or just another one in the school, that made a difference in the lives of their students.

If you think you know the way to make the system better, I’m sure you could go just sign up and become a teacher. If you have any kids, and you think that teachers and the system are worthless, I sure hope you’re doing something more about it than just posting on MCS.