I have become very defensive about teachers lately and was thinking about how incredible some of my teachers were in the Anchorage School District. I was getting prepared to write a long post about it, which I still might do, when somebody sent me this.
I was struck by the sound of frustration in his voice, as if he has dealt with this question his entire career. How cathartic it must be to stand up in front of an audience at to just let it rip like this.
I guess that is why I started blogginig.
Yesterday, I heard about a friend of a friend who recently graduated from ultrasound school (I think it was an 18-month program). She learned the material so poorly that she had to take the certification exam three times. She worked for a doctor for six months, but he fired her because she just was NOT getting the process.
ReplyDeleteYet yesterday she was hired by a hospital. She gets the standard $40 per hour to start.
Wonderful!
ReplyDeleteTeachers are a national treasure. Any country would be a wasteland without them...
ReplyDeleteThis guy is great! Please do your article on teachers.
ReplyDeleteO/T Palin forgot to wish us all good Purim! How can Queen Esther forget her own holiday?
ReplyDeleteFabulous!!!
ReplyDeleteBut don't stop with this one. Go to the YouTube page and sample more of Taylor Mali's work. He's a gem.
I posted this clip on my daughter's FB page over a year ago. She's a teacher and she and her friends just loved it. I think his message applies not just to teachers, but to members of other professions (nurses, paramedics, firefighters, cops) who are bypass higher-payin careers to truly live a life of service.
ReplyDeleteI think this commentary also says a lot about what we value in this f-ed up society.
Thanks, Gryphen. Great video.
ReplyDeleteWhat an effective presentation of what its like from the teachers' perspective, to have some ignoramus spew out criticisms about teachers.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that most people who have that bad attitude, didn't pay much attention in school, so don't have any stories to tell of how some teacher changed their life.
OT, but thought I wouldn't be able to stop laughing when I read the following quote below from Sarah's speech in India. This leads me to believe that Todd isn't going any where even if she does plan a move to AZ.
ReplyDelete"Next time, I want to visit the Taj Mahal with my husband, Todd. Considering how patiently he’s endured during my political career & been so supportive, it would be nice to reinforce our teamwork/commitment before that monument to eternal love. Todd is here with us tonight."
I never appreciated teachers that much as an adult -- until I had children of my own going to school. Because after all, my one view of teachers up to then had been as a snotty little know-it-all kid and teen.
ReplyDeleteBut now I saw people who took responsibility for my children's learning things beyond what I could teach them -- how enormously valuable is that? To have someone trying to do the best for my most precious ones. On a regular basis. Wow! Now I see it all from a whole different perspective.
I wish teachers would make double their salaries -- top, top dollar. For two important reasons: because they are worth it. And to attract the very best to the field; to have talented people clamoring to become teachers instead of having to sacrifice financially to do so.
O/T Palin takes off her cross and puts on a Star of David necklace...
ReplyDeletehttp://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/
03/20/article-0-0B43014A00000578-388_634x463.jpg
I'm with whoever said to check out Taylor Mali's other videos.
ReplyDeleteThey're all terrific.
O/T Where's Sarah's "eternal love" ring???
ReplyDeletehttp://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/
03/20/article-0-0B43056C00000578-401_634x573.jpg
Taylor Mali has his own channel on YouTube. Anybody who doubts his "cred" as a teacher, need only listen to a few of his poems to realize that this man KNOWS what teachers deal with on a daily basis. The kids are the least of their problems.
ReplyDeleteRepublicons don't want people to believe in themselves, so they can control them...Republicons don't want an educated population because they won't have mindless automatons to fight in their war machine... Republicons simply don't care what anyone else "thinks" and that is the most difficult job those on the side of "caring about one another and the fate of the world" have in front of us.
ReplyDeleteAs a teacher, I have seen this already and love it. He is spot on. Thanks for posting. =)
ReplyDeleteHow disgusting that teachers would come under fire -for not working hard enough- from politicians who have the cushiest non-workaholic jobs themselves.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this. Knowing the extra hours put in by teachers all over, extra curricular activities, grading papers until 2 A.M. in the morning, extra time after school with students needing it, compassion for those sick and needing extra help to catchup showing the love for the students they work with, and most important their wanting their students to achieve by doing their best, I appreciate this.
ReplyDeleteOh!
ReplyDeleteYou must listen to his The The Impotence of Proofreading.
I love this guy.
And that What do I make has got to be the best example of answering at a dinner party I have ever heard. I love it.
But he left out one.
I can make a kid get up, go to the wastebasket, spit out his gum and return quietly to his seat by just LOOKING AT HIM.
O/T This is an article about Palin in Israel.
ReplyDeleteNotice it's under the "Entertainment" section and they used her "blood libel" picture. What a joke she is!
http://www.kgw.com/entertainment/
118325989.html
Bravo Taylor Mali! Thanks for sharing this with us Gryph.
ReplyDelete~physicsmom
As a former teacher, I can totally relate to this speech. It sums up the entire profession in 3 minutes.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I coined the phrase, but "You've gotta REACH 'em before you can TEACH 'em". Those lawyers, and politicians have teachers to thank for their power and their wealth.
Fascists don't want an educated population.
"She learned the material so poorly that she had to take the certification exam three times."
ReplyDeleteshould be more like nursing school - fail the test once and you're out. No second tries.
Wonderful.
ReplyDeleteRe Palin's photo wearing a Star of David necklace: I have never seen a Jew wear one that big. I find it very offensive.
ReplyDeleteOT, I admit, but Gryphen, as a loving father, I thought you'd want to made aware of this outrage because Pennsylvania doesn't have all the nutsy fundamentalists. I hope this is not going to be a trend amongst the more mentally disturbed of the lot.
ReplyDeleteWe all need to watch our for our homosexual family members and friends (as well as community members) because the Crazy for the Lord lot is increasingly hostile. They ignorance is not only deplorable - it is dangerous.
http://tinyurl.com/4j5gm46
(About the stoning death of a 70-year old by a 28-year old in PA because the younger man thought the older man was gay and the Bible and his prayers told him he was supposed to stone all gays).
http://tinyurl.com/5ukklln
(A good editorial on the incident and how the western translations of the Bible have perpetuated this error and call for death)
Goodness, these people are stupid - and deadly. The various versions of the Bible need to be revisited by competent translators.
I loved most of my teachers and wanted to be one (I would probably have not been very good, though). Just wanted to emulate those I admired.
ReplyDeleteI saw them as as people who were invaluable to me for the most part, almost as substitute parents but stand-ins who taught me far more about the world and how to live in it with others.
I still have fond memories of them 60 years later.
I wish my teachers had that much passion and commitment.
ReplyDeleteI wish my children's teachers were forward-thinking enough to do a poetry slam.
I wish my baby grandson's teachers could appreciate his poetry and beautiful spirit. I wish they really knew what "giftedness" and what it feels like to love to play chess (for real, not like the Gifted Program kids who brag a lot but actually hate to play and can't think strategy).
But instead, we have teachers who watch the playground from the window and deliver discipline sanctions because they didn't play "right" and went up the slide instead of down.
For 20 years, I've endured teachers who consider parents an unpleasant consequence of career choice. They complain bitterly and generalize that parents aren't attentive and have no parenting skills (we're all drug addicts and social deviants, of course, and none of us possess the ideal parenting skills that newly-graduated 24-year-old does). And when I show up at school to have lunch with my baby for the 3rd time this week, they snicker and call me "a chopper" in the teachers' lounge and suggest that I'm suffering from separation anxiety.
They make earnest report that my child reads too much in the classroom but then reassure me that he's reading "at grade level"; when I respond by asking if they've noticed the adult piece of literature he's lugging around the classroom, they think I'm being defensive.
My daughter's 6th-grade MATH teacher passed out deodorant and suggested to her that we must not have plumbing and running water.
Her science teacher openly scolded her and made her cry in class when she pointed out that earth's orbit is elliptical and not circular.
Teachers don't think about where they fit in the community at large. They don't consider what jobs the school's parents are employed in. They seem to have no experience with "at-will" contracts, performance-based evaluations, the allowable absence in parents' jobs, what it means to be subject to "two weeks paid leave".
They don't seem to understand that they have guaranteed wages, medical insurance and a whole host of other tangible and intangible benefit because they are union, and that most of us are not.
They thumb their noses at parents.
I have to disagree with you all on this one. This is the guy that makes me dislike teachers. He thinks way too much of himself. You don't teach by making someone do things over and over and over again, that does not teach, that makes someone conform.
ReplyDeleteI would not waste my time looking at even one more second of this guys rants.
mlaiuppa - 12:25 wrote "I can make a kid get up, go to the wastebasket, spit out his gum and return quietly to his seat by just LOOKING AT HIM."
ReplyDeleteDo you really want ANYBODY having that much control over your child? Shame on you! Shame! Shame! Shame! I would never do that to my own child, let alone allow somebody else to do that to them.
Where are the independant thinkers?
BTW, this is the same thing on Taylor Mali's YouTube, straight from the source:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xuFnP5N2uA
I also love "I'll fight you for the library."
Anonymous at 4:30.
ReplyDeleteAt the time I was a choral teacher.
Do you really want your child choking on gum, which is against the school rules and my classroom rules, because he inhaled it? But I guess your taught your kid that rules don't count and he can do anything he wants whenever he wants because he's allowed to be a free thinker and nothing the teacher says or does matters.
Teachers teach discipline. Self-discipline. It's essential since a child won't have a teacher or a parent standing over them their whole life, warning them of the consequences of their actions or doing their thinking for them.
As for Anonymous at 3:39 (same Anonymous?) I have only two thoughts.
Catholic school.
or
A non-union school in one of the southern red states that is on the bottom of the list nationwide.
That sort of "teaching" has been extinct in my state for over 50 years.
(Or maybe Anonymous is 75 years old and relating an ancient story of the good old days when their child went to school?)
Sorry, Gryphen. I know I shouldn't feed them.
Yes, I DO want someone who is teaching my child to have that much control over him. Can you imagine a classroom with a teacher who can't control the kids? I teach, and you had better believe that I can quell disrespect with a look. If you can't you shouldn't be teaching. I can get kids to do stuff in public just by looking at them, while their parent is standing their yelling at them. Happens ALL the time in our local stores.
ReplyDeleteHi mlaiuppa,
ReplyDeleteYou missed the point. It's not that the student should not be made aware that he may choke on gum, it's that you seem to take great pride in the fact that you can control an adolescent with a mere "look".
Since you brought it up, I have four sons that self directed their own education. I am talking about teaching themselves. Yes that's right - reading, math, social studies all on their own. The oldest two completed apprenticeships before they were 19 years old, are in high demand because they are the best in their fields, are currently earning more than $70 thousand and are negotiating the purchase of their own homes.
The third decided he wanted to go to highschool, started in the tenth grade, and has been on the honor roll ever since. Oddly enough, he would like to be a teacher. The fourth is perhaps the most advanced and is currently teaching himself how to build computers.
The boys are HAPPY, well adjusted, love their lives and make an impact where ever they go and with whom ever they meet. I have a scrap book filled with cards and letters from people that are so impressed by them that the felt compelled to let me know in writing.
No, I am not a troll. I had parents that raised me to be independant thinking and the person that had the biggest influenc on my life is writing this letter.
5:10 - Alaska public schools.
ReplyDeleteFrom my own ancient experience (In 8th grade I was taught to make quilts instead of math and listened to Seventh-Day Adventist story tapes for "reading").
Two Alaska schools - "bush" and urban. 1990 to 2011.
Hannah@5:20 sounds like one of our teachers :). Yep, all parents are idiots and all children are undisciplined trainwrecks that we just send to school 'cause we need free babysitting.
My parent was a teacher and a very good one. And made a VERY good living in the Alaskan teaching system. Perhaps my expectations are too high. She never seized anyone up with a "look" and kids had rich learning experiences. She actually provided educational services and tutelage.
They feel they should get paid the equivalent of doctors and lawyers? The superintendents do. Perhaps they should get out of the classroom and into administration?
Perhaps they should rethink their career goals from a financial perspective and go to 8 years of law school followed by several years of clerkship. Or 12 years of med school followed by residency.
I think there are fabulous teachers out there. But like any field, not everyone, not every school. Exceptional, few and far between. One every once in awhile. Worth their weight in gold.
That is exactly why I want to be a teacher. I want to make a difference. :)
ReplyDeleteI am a student from India getting my PhD at Rice University, Houston.
ReplyDeleteI am disgusted at the fact how the society treats its teachers in US. In India, a good teacher is revered, considered at a position higher than God. But here in US, no one cares. I have many teacher friends and they all work hard but everyone thinks they have easy jobs.
This attitude must change if US wants to continue to be the leader of the world. A society can't florish which doesn't treat its educators with respect.
Just my 2 cents. And, don't worry about Sarah Palin visiting India. She is a bimbo and will remain so. Indians are very perceptive and can tell difference when someone really visits India with noble intentions in the heart and someone like Palin who just wants to padd up her resume.
mlaiuppa - 12:25 wrote "I can make a kid get up, go to the wastebasket, spit out his gum and return quietly to his seat by just LOOKING AT HIM."
ReplyDelete----
THANK YOU!
"Independent thinking" does not mean disrespect and disobedience. If there is no gum-chewing in class, there is no gum-chewing in class.
That mlaiuppa can communicate that s/he knows what the kid is doing, the kid knows that s/he knows, and the kid responds with the appropriate behavior, is not killing independent thinking. It's not mind control.. it's a dialogue. A dialogue in which it's recognized on both sides that the teacher is in charge of the class, not the children.
If you want the children to be in charge of the class, then you can send them to some sort of private school, or just do like SP does: don't bother schooling them at all. They'll survive.
Using a look instead of a sentence does not make a teacher authoritarian. Good teachers come in many flavors and styles. What makes them good is their ability to maintain discipline AND learning AND give the kids the desire to learn more. Some of my favorite teachers were the ones who could use just a look. Other favorites had a more playful style, or a free-wheeling-let's go-sit-on-the-lawn-and-read style.
ReplyDeleteI come from a family of teachers, and I used to be one. Teachers SHOULD be proud of what they do and have major passion about it.