Editorial...soapbox...my gripes about education

New SAT results released today show Texas students improved their math scores but received slightly lower reading scores this year. Nationally scores declined on both parts of the exam. Texas Education Agency August 29,2006

So, students aren't reading as well as they were....hmmm. I don't think any parent or any taxpayer has a right to complain about our schools and school systems unless they go up to the school and ask some pertinent questions. 1. Do you make your teachers teach to the TAKS test? 2. Is your library budget higher than your athletic budget? 3. Do you pay extra for your teachers who have earned their Master's degree?

Everyone has an opinion of our school system and I am about to give mine. Remember, I have been in the education field for 28 years. I get so tired of people griping about our school and our teachers and why teachers shouldn't get a raise. "They get off during the summer". "Oh, it's an easy job" and on and on and on. I vote our representatives and our esteemed governor needs to go and try teaching a class for a week (making the lesson plans, attending ARD's, bus duty, etc on top of teaching - remember, this is all with a 30 minute lunch time.)

So, gripe one is for the government stay OUT of teaching - let teachers teach. Nearly every year the state wants teachers to "try" a new technique - thinking it will raise the scores. They then spend thousands and thousands of dollars sending teachers to workshops to learn this new technique and thousands on the supplies needed for this new technique (which some person probably invented and offered the governor a kick-back if he would use it in the school system). After a couple of years, they say this technique didn't work, so they should try this next one. All the while, the teachers are suffering and the students are losing. They have taken the fun out of teaching. In the good old days, if a student brought in a catepillar, you could read all the students a book about catepillars, research catepillars, make charts and graphs about catepillars, write a story about catepillars and take a hike around the playground to see if you could find some more catepillars. Not now !! Oh, no !! Today at 9:05 you better be teaching math - if I walk in and want to observe you, you better be doing exactly what is in your lesson plans (which I approved of in the first place) and do not vary from them at all !!

Gripe two - pay teachers what they are worth. Ever thought of this....a doctor would not be where he is today if it weren't for a teacher?? A lawyer?? The richest man in the world had to go through school - taught by the poorest paid profession. It's sad that in America, the very people who shape our future, our children, are so poorly paid. Trash collectors in New York make more money than Texas teachers. Someone said that NY is not a good example because of the high cost of living in NY - my point is - Texas teachers are poorly paid and New York apparently thinks more of their trash collectors than Texas thinks of the very people who work with their loved ones - their prize possessions - their children.

Check to see how many teachers have a second and even sometimes a third job.

If you want to gripe that "teachers have the summer off", then insist on year-round school. If you will look, most teachers are working summer jobs and/or going to workshops to become better teachers.

Last year the average school teacher spent $468 of their own money for student necessities --
workbooks, pencils, paper -- supplies kids had to have that they could not afford. That's a lot of
money from the pockets of the most poorly paid teachers in the industrial world. Schools don't
teach values? The critics are dead wrong. Public education provides more Sunday School teachers than any other profession. The average teacher works more hours in nine months than the average employee does in a year.

Ever think of it this way.....what do you pay your babysitter? Let's go low and say $5.00 an hour - isn't even minimum wage, is it? But, we will stick to $5.00. Ok, let's say a teacher has 20 students...hmm,,that would be $100 an hour....8 hours...$800 a day...times 5 days a week...that makes $4,000 a week....$16,000 a month....times 12 (ohhh,,,we can't be off during the summer anymore!!)...oh, let's see ...that equals to $192,000 a year. $192,000....not even minimum wage - what the teachers do for your children. Think about it. After 28 years in the education field and earning my Master's degree, I make $40,000 a year.

Gripe three - and it's a biggee. I don't want to hear of anyone complaining about a school until they have gone up to the administration building and asked to see the budget comparison between the athletic department and the library budget. Aren't we in school for academics? Don't you want your students reading? Reading is a lifelong skill - throwing a ball is not. At my school, the athletic budget is $89,000....the library budget is $5,800. Yep, you read that right. I get tired of people saying "well, athletics brings money in"...well if athletics brings money in, then why do they need a budget? Or the other gripe "oh, kids would drop out if we didn't have athletics"...I disagree. I feel that a student if a student wants to drop out, then they will drop out. We need to offer more technical trades for the students who are not college-bound. But, let's spend the money on academics - teaching them basic skills, such as reading, math and writing - instead of athletics. But, if you don't mind your child playing with his balls instead of reading a book, then don't even bother doing anything.

Solution?? Ever notice how the big companies sponsor race cars and sports gear? Why couldn't they sponsor a school or a library? We could name our library Cheetos Library or Gatorade Library. Ok, I am smart enough to realize that companies would rather sponsor the football team - so, we could become the Cheetos Cheetahs, Gatorade Goonies, or the Valero Vultures - and then the school district could take the money that they previously gave the athletic budget and give it to the libraries. Everyone is happy.

Why not on a smaller scale? How come companies can't adopt a classroom? People would be amazed to learn how much money teachers spend out of their own pockets to keep their classrooms in working order. Companies could donate supplies, unused furniture, laptops that they no longer want or need, and even money. All of this would be a tax write-off. The companies would get some benefits and the students and teachers would get even more benefits.

Bottom line - do not complain that "Johnny can't read" or that our students are falling further and further behind until YOU do something - attend a school board meeting, check the budget, visit a classroom, volunteer, or donate.