I'm not sure if this really belongs here... but... whatever.

See, I've been noticing this year that the teachers at our school don't teach. Most hand us worksheets and homework and tell us to do them out of the book.

One teacher gives us homework, doesn't teach us anything and expects us to do the homework well, and AFTER we've done the homework, he actually teaches us the material. It is incredibly infuriating, and he complains about how we don't understand anything. Maybe because he doesn't teach.

Another one NEVER teaches. He shows a video, he gives us about 234983724093827 worksheets due the next day, he shoves a book into our face and calls it teaching. The only time he even says something that relates to the lesson is when he does his lecture, which he does only about once or none every month. And then he grades us so harshly... I wrote about 3 pages for an essay on the last chapter test, and I got a 50% on it even though I believed it covered all major points of the topic and then some.

*twitch*

Sorry if it's in the wrong forum, move it if you must XD

liz, i couldnt agree more. maybe its the california school district, maybe its just the schools we go to... but i have to agree with you. a couple of my teachers really dont do much, just toss a work sheet in kids faces, and says when we are wrong, and doesnt really help us be right.... and in chemistry.. well... that isnt good... but lets face it, with the over crowded class rooms that many schools face, and having to teach to the state-wide tests that teachers usually teach to (meaning they have ALOT to cover and little time to teach it), it makes it hard, so they have to get all the work out there and hope that students catch the information....

That's so sad.

There were a few teachers like that where I used to live...but not many. Then I moved here for high school, and I didn't have any like that.

I was rather lucky to attend such excellent schools. Even in my old town...teachers like that were definitely the minority. However...since I've left, they've apparently become more like what you're talking about due to enormous budget cuts. In my old high school, for instance they cut about 1/3 of the classes offered (some of the best ones..bastards) and changed from a block schedule (where you get 90 minutes of class time and have 8 different classes each semester...they rotate so you have 4 one day then the other 4 the next) to a 6 class a day schedule that allows for only 60 minutes of class time. I always personally felt like I learned more in the block schedule setting..because I only had to take in 4 classes worth of lectures a day vs. 6. But maybe that's just me...

Here a teacher's wage is a fairly good living..because they make the same amounts as teachers on the west side of the state...where the cost of living is considerably more. But in most places in America..they're so ridiculously underpaid that I can hardly blame them for losing their passion for teaching after awhile. =/

True. But still, even so, they should put more enthusiasm in their job. What they do today can affect us later.. or so they claim. ^^;

Not so they claim...it happens.

I'm a very different person today because of a few very influential teachers from high school. I still keep in contact with them, even. Of course what they do affects us later. Most students spend more time around their teachers than they do around their own parents. I know I did.

Let me put it this way...you go into a line of work that you're very passionate about. You expect to be shaping young minds...teaching them new things..it's all very exciting. 10 years later...your students have gotten less and less respectful with each passing year. You get denied your loan application for a house because you don't make enough to buy one in the city you live in. The building begins to fall apart, and it isn't fixed...you don't have enough books for all of the students to use thanks to some of your previous students who decided to vandalize your supply of books...so they have to sit in pairs. You try teaching, but no one pays attention. Half the students don't even come to class.

Would you still be "enthusiastic" about your job? I don't think so.

And that isn't an imaginary scenario. That pretty perfectly describes the high school that my husband attended. I commend any person who teaches in that school, by the way. They could take a short drive to work and get three times the salary by teaching in Connecticut. Seriously. But they stay in a broken down school, where the vast majority of the students don't even care about what it is they're trying to teach. I'd like to see anyone try that and not get discouraged.

Good point.

*twitch*

And I see a lot of my friends being disrespectful to teachers that don't deserve it ;

Well I think I'm gunna be the one with the very different opinion in the issue. Having a mother who is a teacher I can tell you it is probably one of the hardest jobs there is.

Teachers spend a ton of time doing school related stuff, my mother used to spend until like 8pm marking stuff and making prints of stuff for her class. Teahcers have it much harder now-a-days compared to when I was in school. They are being given larger classes, less resources and more curiculum to cover.

And judging from the day that i got to teach her class for my TESL course I will say alot of the students have changed. Theres some (about 3 out of the 32 students) who like you elf care about school and put effort into it. But for the most part all the kids in her class were lazy brats. And after school one parent came and yelled at my mother for suspending a kid who gave another child a black eye. Not only do teachers have to deal with a large amount of lazy children that seem to think video games are real life, but they then get yelled at for taking action against the kid.

Personally I feel sorry for the teachers, they are vey underpaid for the work they do. And for the work load teachers are being given these days its no wonder they dont have time to spend close up with the students anymore. I think more teachers need to start gettting hired, its really the only way classes will improve.

By the way elf, have you gone to your teachers and asked for help. All the teachers I've met or had never mind giving up time for a student that real wants to learn. If they dont want to help you, why not trying to go to the department head, usually they can help you.