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Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate on Record

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Re: Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate on Record

#341

Post by yason »

village-idiot wrote: post #60
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That may or may not be an accurate characterisation of the circumstances. And it’s hard to argue with working harder / smarter / longer to achieve better outcomes as an option.

Riding your kids too hard also causes burnout and rebellion

That's perfectly fine too and encouraging your kids to be not overly ambitious probably leads to a better life for them. However, at that point the parents should also stop demanding better grades from the kid and especially stop asking the teacher to do something about it.

Re: Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate on Record

#342

Post by chupasaurus »

concerned_user wrote: post #329
chupasaurus wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Russia we use Excellent, Good, Satisfactory, Unsatisfactory and Weak from 1837. The worst grade wasn't used for some time scools but is coming back in common practice for missing work ([0]English Wiki doesn't have it but states that it's a 5-point grade system). [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grading_systems_by_country#Rus...

Lithuanian schools in up to about 1998 (might be wrong on exact year) had same system, then it was changed to 10 grades, but the lowest grade - 1 was ever used as a disciplinary action. Lowest you would get for failing assignment or homework was a 2. But even when it was 5 grade system the 3-, 4+ or 5- was quite regular occurrence and depended on teacher and subject mostly, as +/- were not accounted officially so 4-…

A few of my teachers who'd used +/- signs added them to differ between a strong qualification of work to the grade and a one step for higher/lower grade respectively, i.e. 3- converts to "almost 2", which is just a written clarification.

I saw once a 2+!

Re: Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate on Record

#343

Post by xanipher »

xamuel wrote: post #312
iheartpotatoes wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh hell, software dev is so, so very overloaded with underskilled programmers with fragile egos. They come out of college knowing a little python and javascript and can't do jack shit for at least a year, and just come to a screeching halt with every tough issue they encounter. I'm a project manager box in an org-chart to help un-flatten the management hierarchy (I manage 20+), I am constantly having to re-assign tic…

Unless your shop literally hires every warm body that walks in the door, you're still seeing things through survivor bias lenses. Even those inept kids are better than what you'd get if you opened the floodgates.

But since not everyone that would be or could become a good software developer takes that path there are also a lot of people out there better than the CS grads described here.

Re: Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate on Record

#344

Post by djrobstep »

robertAngst wrote: post #110
djrobstep wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's sad is that all this desperate competition by parents to improve their kid's grades is zero-sum: A noisy but pointless rearrangement of positions on the socio-economic ladder. One kid getting into Princeton means another misses out. Very little of it results in actual useful learning or eventual public benefit.

As someone who went to a University you never heard of, I'm the highest paid in my group. I wont forget this in the future for my children. Your skills are more important than the prestige of your school.

The exact same phenomenon applies to access to skilled jobs.

Re: Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate on Record

#347

Post by RikNieu »

I have three friends who were teachers for a decade who changed careers within the last 5 years. One moved into banking, another became a tatoo artist, and the last teaches dancing privately.

They all quit because of low pay and long hours, litigious threats from parents, and being faced with constant accusations of being abusive/racist/whatever-other-random-excuse students could come up with to deny their own failures and behaviour. The schools always side with the accusers by default.

This is in South Africa, not the USA, so it seems to be a world-wide phenomena - at least maybe in the English speaking world.

Re: Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate on Record

#348

Post by gaius »

allcentury wrote: post #14

There's much more to this story. My mother, a high school calculus teacher for the last 22 years is so ready to retire. I didn't think my mom would ever retire, she spends countless hours coming up with unique lesson plans for the kids - they usually involve games, real world use cases and many ah-ha moments. She lives for those moments when a kid lights up when they understand the value of what their learning. Now t…

she told me that parents have ruined the job she loves

One of our guests for Christmas was telling us stories about this, she teaches art, and says it’s normal for her to check her work email on Monday morning and find that parents have sent a series of increasingly angry emails over the weekend demanding an instant response. This is in the UK.

Re: Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate on Record

#349

Post by barry-cotter »

RikNieu wrote: post #347

I have three friends who were teachers for a decade who changed careers within the last 5 years. One moved into banking, another became a tatoo artist, and the last teaches dancing privately. They all quit because of low pay and long hours, litigious threats from parents, and being faced with constant accusations of being abusive/racist/whatever-other-random-excuse students could come up with to deny their own failur…

Teaching has always had quite a high outflow. More than half of people with qualified teacher status in England and Wales don’t teach. Most people can’t do it. Of those who can plenty decide they can’t do it any more. Long holidays and a fantastic pension aren’t worth a job you hate.

I doubt South Africa is worse than the U.K. The Guardian’s Secret Teacher is awful. https://www.theguardian.com/profile/the-secret-teacher

Re: Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate on Record

#350

Post by djrobstep »

esturk wrote: post #84
djrobstep wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's sad is that all this desperate competition by parents to improve their kid's grades is zero-sum: A noisy but pointless rearrangement of positions on the socio-economic ladder. One kid getting into Princeton means another misses out. Very little of it results in actual useful learning or eventual public benefit.

But that's how most of society works. Only one elected official is selected. Only one co-worker is promoted. Etc. I don't think society cares who fills the position but said individuals care.

Hmm, sounds bad, perhaps it's time to rethink having such a stratified socio-economic ladder?
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