I was told by a teacher that it’s not their fault that they can’t teach the children because they’re tardy, or show up high, or have no concept of authority. That’s not entirely the fault of the public school system, that’s just a symptom of a larger problem. 20 years ago when I was in elementary school (various public schools in the south) there were children who failed. If you acted up you got paddled, sometimes in front of the whole class, if you didn’t do your homework or brought home bad grades your parents were called and usually the kid would get a good smack. Now we don’t do any of those things because of some misguided idea about “child abuse”, so kids no longer have a sense of authority.

No, the problem with public schools that was even the problem then is teachers wanting some kind of pity party, “Oh the kids are not paying attention/showing up high, or whatever” Guess what, that’s your job. You fail those kids, and expend your energies on the ones who do give a damn, and you owe them better than cookie cutter lowest common denominator education. And that’s been happening for a long time, even when I was in school. Teachers would come in, give you your lesson for the day, and pass out worksheets or book assignments, spending the rest of the day sitting at a desk getting annoyed if a child would ask them a question about the assignment. I understand that I only had a few teachers compared to the vast number there are out there, but I moved a when I was young and that sample includes 4 states and some 30-odd teachers. The entirety of my usable education came from self study.

When I got to High School it was worse. A LOT worse. Therein we get the teachers who are disillusioned, the ones that already figure the system is broken and all they have to do is show up and get paid. Some of my teachers did not have a basic grasp on the material they were teaching, so any creative thought processes are quickly crushed by a teacher who can only check the material by what it says in the book.

Their priority is testing scores and they actually go so far as to coach people on how to take the tests and in some cases actually provide answers, to give the school inflated numbers for more funding. Hurray for the children right? They’re just numbers to the school system.

Now teachers consistently demand cost of living wages, forgetting they’re in the public sector and aren’t entitled to those higher wages because they’re being paid with public funds, and have undreamed of job security and a massive amount of benefits. Oh and lets not forget about the striking, that teachers still get paid for, and forget about the kids! Let’s shut down a whole system (A public system) because we’re unhappy that we aren’t getting even more of the public’s money, and allow the kids to founder. No big deal, each kid isn’t an individual, it’s one of 30, nameless faces that will change in a year anyway.

Public school teachers should be ashamed of themselves.