Teachers: Did anyone see the Dateline exclusive 'American Children are Stupid'

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Posted by mbtieds

When the teachers are not supported by their community , the students do not take us as seriously as they should. There are too many issues that are getting in the way of actual learning these days.

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I agree!

I don't think this is even just about the community or the students or the parents....I think it says a lot about our society! Kids are not taught that an education is the most important thing! They are taught that you should behave like a moron to try to get on tv. That being rich is more important than being smart. How can a teacher possibly compete with that in 40 minutes a day?

Yes, we could increase the curriculum and make the classes more intensive and difficult, but if the students don't take it seriously, what's the point?

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Posted by SomethingBlu

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Posted by Goldi1021

I also find that no matter how much effort teachers put into what they do in the classroom, without support from home, its almost useless. If the parents have lack of interest, the inability to read or do not speak the language in which a child's assignments are given, how can you expect a child to excel? The answer? YOU CAN'T.

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I agree with the lack of interest thing, but I disagree about the language thing. This is not true for every child. I came to this country not knowing a lick of English and was placed in a regular 6th grade class because the school I went to didn't have ESL (and I refused to go to another school that did! ) and I picked it up so fast that within that year I was reading and writing and was a runner-up in the classroom spelling bee that year. I graduated 6th grade in the Honor Roll. My brother came here and was placed in 9th grade (also regular class) and mantained a 95 average without speaking the language. My sisters and brother recently moved to GA and were placed in regular classes (9th, 11th and 12th grades) and are also steady 'B' and 'C' students even though they speak no English and no one there speaks Spanish. So it's definitely up to the child...the fact that the parent doesn't speak the language is not as important as the child's desire to learn. So you can suceed without support from home - you do need school support and teachers that care. I had much help and tutoring from my teachers and hope today's students are as fortunate. I will never forget my 6th grade teacher and how amazing and generous with her time she was. I was treated like every other kid, spoken to like every other kid and eventually I learned and excelled.

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Dully noted. It is possible for a child to do well. But I think teachers get offended when a bulk of the blame is placed on them. It helps us a great deal when we have parental support. No parental support or back up makes our jobs that much harder.

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Posted by palebride

I don't think this is even just about the community or the students or the parents....I think it says a lot about our society! Kids are not taught that an education is the most important thing! They are taught that you should behave like a moron to try to get on tv. That being rich is more important than being smart. How can a teacher possibly compete with that in 40 minutes a day?

Yes, we could increase the curriculum and make the classes more intensive and difficult, but if the students don't take it seriously, what's the point?

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yes.. you're right...society as a whole in this country has placed priority on being rich/cool/famous rather than happy/healthy/intelligent, etc.

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Posted by jes81276

What gets me is that they focused on the lazy teachers, but what about all of the politics involved, or the ignorant parents who won't agree to test a child because they don't want them to be labeled?!?!?!!? Alot of kids get pushed along or fall through the cracks for those two reasons. None of that was mentioned last night....there are so many more factors that come into play with regard to the success of a child in school. Before they aired that they really should've taken a look at the bigger picture. I found it very offensive and one sided, but I guess that's reporting for you!

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Agreed!

I found it hard to accept the one sided view that our education is failing due to unions and the minority of horrible teachers that are in the system.

I actually find it pretty incredible that there are so many brave, selfless and educated people who are willing to sacrifice future earning potential to be classroom teachers. Most of the teachers I know could go into many different fields and excel, yet they CHOOSE to teach. Rather than blame the system for the actions of a few, why not look at the system as a whole for change. My hat is off to what teachers do each day. As a high school dean, I see what they must deal with to educate our youth. While I despise the idea that removing disasterous teachers is so difficult to do, I do think we ignore the ones who are out there every day doing their very best. How do we think we are going to continue to attract these wonderful people if the very profession is seen in such a negative light.

i didnt see the show, but IMO i think that the our culture is somewhat to blame. look at other countries, and you will see the culture is very different. i hate to say this but what country has 100 channels of tv as a basic service? most countries have 4-5 channels.

another issue is money. the funding in some schools is crazy! there is none. keep in mind that schools in Europe receive funds from their government. they receive better funds. our government has no extra money b/c of other efforts etc.

and one can say that the parents can do more and maybe they can and maybe they cant. maybe they dont make enough money and have to work alot, meaning they are not home; with our minimum wage that could be the case. they have to work hard to get health insurance, meanwhile other countries give you insurance for being a citizen.

i really think it comes down to how different our culture is (excessive at times) to money to our government.