A reader sent this comment:
My daughter just started teaching in a Missouri School District known for being a very good school district. She is 2 months in and wants out. Paperwork, test goals IEPs, etc have made her an emotional wreck. If she quits in this state, her license is revoked. It makes me sick. She was so excited to begin teaching, but now she just wants out. And I have to say I can’t blame her. I want her happy and this job is killing her. She said she will use her abilities to help special needs children in a career other than teaching. I am behind her 100% Teaching has changed so much. I taught a special ed. class and was actually able to teach. My daughter feels she is not helping the kids as much as she would like to. Too much other stuff is getting in the way. I would rather her quit now than in a few years. I am just so disappointed in the government and the expectations that they have placed on teachers. They need to spend time in the classroom and see what they have done to good teachers,
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It’s a real tragedy. I’m sorry to say it, but you’re daughter is better off getting out now. I experience what she’s feeling daily, and it’s heart-breaking.
Your not you’re
I’ve been trying to learn more about schools in the St Louis area. I’ve heard rumors that St. Louis city schools are collapsing due to neglect, underfunding, and a mass exodus to the suburbs. Meanwhile the suburban schools outside of St. Louis get good test scores, but they are ruining education for children and teachers, as indicated by this post, with a narrow focus on high-stakes testing and school rankings.
Does anyone know of a resource (blog, parents group, news source, etc.) where I can find more information on what is going on with schools in and around St. Louis?
CC,
I might be able to help you with information on St. Louis, having grown up in south St. Louis County and living in Kirkwood for 20 years before moving out here to southern Warren County, about 60 miles west of St. Louis.
Feel free to email me @ dswackercenturytel.net anytime. Make sure you reference this blog in the subject line so I don’t accidently delete you as spam.
St. Louis City and schools itself are just a fraction of all the towns and school districts in the metropolitan area (which includes the “East side”-districts in Illinois. So a lot depends on where you are as to demographics, SES status etc. . . .
dswacker@centurytel.net is the correct email.
Also, I don’t always check my home email as often as work so it may take a few days for a response.
I do the alumni newspaper for Normandy High School in suburban St. Louis, a school which has lost its accreditation and gotten nothing but grief from the state education folks and certainly no realistic help. I think, however, that is about to change. The state people finally brought in experts who told them no school district serving needy communities anywhere in this country has managed to get its test scores up where the standards demand they be. What is needed is not this myopic obsession with standardized teaching and test scores but an educational philosophy where the talents and dreams of each and every child are identified and educated with that in mind and communities get help TO help children who come from one-parent homes, broken homes, multigenerational homes and blended homes and start school with almost none of the cultural equipment kids in the well-to-do-suburbs have, not to mention parttime parenting, nourishment problems, health problems and emotional problems. The parents are often working multiple jobs to keep a roof over their families’ heads and food in the kids’ mouths and it drives me nuts when THEY are blamed as the problem. They are doing the best they can. I’ve written extensively about this. I am a journalist and a teacher in his 50th year of teaching (look me up on google).
Wayne Brasler
Off topic but does anyone have any experience with “Kagan Structures”?
If so please comment.
I get the feeling that I am going to be professsionally developed by being kagan structured at tonight’s faculty meeting.
Aren’t those the exercises you do for strengthening bladder control? 😉
Very useful for teachers…
I went through it several years ago. Essentially, it is a couple of people, Dr. and Ms. Kagan, who have developed cooperative learning strategies. Like a lot of things in education, i think they took a simple idea and glorified making it possible for them to make a ton of money.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education and commented:
Amen….I don’t believe people outside of education have a clue what the true expectation is of teachers. The reality for most teachers to do every task that is expectec of them and do it to the highest degree it would take about 21 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Would the writer of the story mind to say which district? Would be intrumental in determining more precisely what the problems his/her daughter faces.
I completed my BA with a teacher certification in May 2011. I was student teaching when all the crap was going on with Gov. Walker in Madison. I knew by the time I finished student teaching that it wasn’t for me. There is waaay to much focus on testing, making sure that a maximum of x% of kids fail the class or else, testing, etc. Plus the blatant disrespect for teaching as a profession. I wasted 2 extra years of school getting my certification and a whole lot of $. It saddens me to no end. When someone tells me that they want to go into teaching, I tell them to think long and hard before they dive in. I romanticized teaching and what it would be when I got a job. It is nothing like you think it will be. Nothing.
And the level of educational malpractices and total dominance of standardized test scores haven’t been instituted nearly as completely here in the Show Me State as in many others, although it is coming on quickly between this year and next I think it is really going to start getting as ugly as NY, FL, TN, etc. . . where the edudeformers have had their way.
Duane, I am in southern Jefferson County and teach in the top district in the county. We’ve been left alone for a long time, but now, with new score happy administrators, we’re feeling the heat for the first time. Missouri educators are about to have a real fight with the state legislature poised to revoke the tenure law and rewrite other policies. The paperwork this year alone has doubled over the previous 12 I’ve been in the district. We are now to be evaluated every year, even though our Performance Based Evaluation has tenured faculty on a rotating basis. I am nearly done with the profession, and it’s sad because, frankly, I am very good at what I do.
Special Ed is the whole reason I got involved with this fight in the first place. My family has dyslexia and the public schools in our area have been making some gains in this regard. If charter schooling takes over the nation Special Ed kids are going to suffer the most. Read the chapter in Diane’s latest book about what happened in Florida with Special Ed kids- it’s sickening. I can’t even imagine the turn for the worst this will take when these edu-businesses, who won’t pay for playground equipment, try to take on special needs. Why in the world would they train their teachers in the Orton Gillingham or Wilson methodologies that dyslexic children need? They won’t, We all know they won’t and nothing will make them since they aren’t being held accountable anyway. Best of luck to your daughter. There will always be a need for people who know what they are doing with Special Ed in all it’s forms.
When I was teaching in Lansing, Michigan, the school district had a bond issue on the ballot. The school administrators requested that teachers put on PROGRAMS for the parents in order to show them what we do in schools and how much their children are learning. I decided NOT to put on a program. I wanted the parents to EXPERIENCE what a classroom and teaching/learning is about. So, I called each and every parent and invited, and in some cases begged, the parents to just drop in at ANYTIME. Once they arrived, each parent was put to work. Some lasted not even 10 minutes. Others lasted about an hour. No matter how much time the parent spent in my classroom, they left exhausted. They had no idea about the “ins and outs” of a classroom. I was so pleased that each and every parent who visited my classroom left me with these words: “I am voting for the bond issue.” The parents truly had no idea about the intellectual, emotional, and physical toils of teaching. BTW, the parents were also so pleased that their child(ren) loved to going to school and were engaged. This was an inner city school in Lansing, Michigan and I had just moved from teaching 5th graders to teaching kindergarteners…my choice, I wanted the experience and the fun of working with kinders. Yes, I have taught ALL grades, K-12 (inclusive). I love seeing the range and always learn so much from the students. I like creating a community of learners where my students and I co-create curriculum…always far exeeds what’s expected and I am always surprised. Love teaching, but not in today’s climate of repression and top-down management by those who don’t know.
I am a parent, and I’ll tell you that what you did was invaluable. I’ve volunteered in my daughters’ classes many times, usually for only half a day, sometimes even an hour. My older daughter attends a private school with 16 kids in her class; my younger is in a daycare/learning center with up to 20 in the class. Yes, I leave exhausted. Exhausted and grateful. Those experiences are a large part of the reason I am so pro-teacher. Every parent should be required to do that at least once a year.
Harry Wong used to say that the first few years of teaching was all about survival. It took about five years for a teacher to feel “safe in their skin” (my words). In order to get a new teacher to that point, a school needs to be filled with veteran teachers who have been there, done that, as well as younger teachers who have recently struggled through the same path. It also helps to have a strong supervisor and administrator.
Without the proper support expect to here more stories similar to that of the reader’s daughter. My daughter’s best friend taught in VA for two years, but now she moved back to Buffalo and is selling Tastefully Simple. A far cry from her dream job, but at least she is happy (and successful) in her new career.
Sadly, this is NOT just in Missouri.
At my retirement in 1991, the cry from teachers was: how much longer before you can retire. This from what was once a highly respected school corporation. Things have changed dramatically since “A Nation at Risk” came out. ALL teachers were incompetent, ignorant, etc – not just some. If the nation was to be saved schools must be rescued from these incompetents. So ignorance rushed in where angels would fear to tread. The hue and cry and continued and I suspect that things have only become worse since my retirement so many years ago.
I LOVED teaching but was glad to get out. For perspective: I still hear from my students whom I taught over 30 years ago and have reason to believe I did much more than a creditable job but think that I could not survive in the climate which permeates public education anymore.
to concerned citizen….I would be interested in your reaction to a you tube I made about a situation in the st. Louis schools…..it was 2006…..a former student was murdered with 12 bullets, and other than a short article, which my study indicated might not have been written by the person who was credited, there was almost zero media followup…judge block is the one who had the report of his beating by a prominent basketball coach removed from family services….http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BctOq3y1Lrk this is a good site for the history of the state takeover of slps after school board members were elected and were going to stop the rush towards charter schools…..right now, the appointed takeover board is trying to get permission to trade property to KIPP in exchange for the right to count their cherry picked students’ test scores in the district’s rating…….I cannot get a reporter to answer the question…..how can they pick just one of the charter schools to count…..and not include the numerous low achieving charters…I have studied the st. Louis area a lot……the transfer law passed by democrats two decades ago is causing damage to Normandy and Riverview heights……the republicans are thrilled to death about it…because they can refuse to change the law until they get help passing their voucher—privatization agenda……
good site for the history of the state takeover of slps after school board members were elected and were going to stop the rush towards charter schools……I forgot to include this link……http://pubdef.net/slswatch/2006/07/obrien-and-child-threatened.html the comments lead you to a reaction to the murder, three weeks after the board president had her car surrounded…..http://pubdef.net/slswatch/2006/07/obrien-and-child-threatened.html
My sympathies to your daughter. I often think of how excited I was to take classes, prepare to be a teacher, and then finally be able to teach in Special Ed. and Elementary Ed. Now, as a retired teacher, I could not recommend that career choice for any young person, which is sad. It’s all about the test now — and not the children!
Sandra L. Wickham
Woodland Park, CO
Teaching has always been very hard. It is harder for our young people who may think they know enough coming out of college. EVERY change to a new teaching position had days that exhausted me and brought me to tears–both stressed and privileged schools–both public and private. It IS so difficult. Learn to cope first and then get better and make it better. I was a passionate educator for 43 years–and tired but rewarded over timet. Two months is not enough to know your personal strength, learn and grow or find your passion. Very easy to blame these days! Try 37 or 60 primary students to a class and they only have you all day! (And they were NOT angels (1969 and 1972). Give it a real shot! It is the hardest job that you will love!
I would tell your daughter to hang in until June.
Never quit a job in the middle..
She can hang in no matter how tough as the other teachers are going through the same..
Quitting after one nine weeks is not an option.
She will feel better about herself if she faces this one day at a time..
However..if it is too much emotional stress…try disability..
Have seen that happen from some teachers who were about to have a nervous breakdown..
No matter how bad the situation was in my career..I always hung in there and to my surprise….other teachers were having the same stress….things did get better..as I found out other teachers were having the same stress…
I saw firsthand at one school …a principal…who actually worked at having the teachers go against each other….they stopped working together and they stopped sharing materials…and they stop venting and sharing their problems …that is where it got unhealthy..
But…one of the teachers saw what was going on…This principal is trying to pull us apart…that way…all teachers can be his puppets…and she was so right…
this teacher got sick everyday but she hung in there..and realized what was going on..
You are not going to fire me…I will do this..and she did…
She went through Hell..
Eventually the creepy man was fired for embezzling money..”KARMA IS A B*tCH..”
This teacher went on to better pastures and much success.Has the top notch job in the county now…What a great teacher..
Not every school is the same…..gotta try more than one…
The very best schools have a supportive and positive administration….plain and simple..
I have tasted all kinds..
The very worst schools have Dictator administrators who have more money than sense..
and..they care only about a Test Score and their well-being…
When one says they “teach” so much more is “taught” than the lessons and books. Motivation, coping skills, a shoulder to lean on, buying lunch, buying clothes, listening, tutoring, role model, being there everyday for parents and children, helping other teachers, accepting, discipline, courage, rules, no rules, self esteem, daring, pride, humility, I could go on and on. Add your own.
You say “license.” Could you mean Missouri Teaching certificate? I know of no teacher who has ever stopped teaching or “quit” that had their certificate, or “license” revoked.
There is no penalty for stopping teaching.
I do have sympathy for your daughter. I understand 2 out of 3 beginning teachers do quit their first year. Teaching is a tough job, with a lot of pressures. This is why criticism of teachers who have made it in spite of all the pressures and continued to become experienced is generally a misplaced criticism, and more a measure of the student than the teacher.
Linda, by law in Missouri, if you violate your contract and leave before the end of said contract, the school district can pursue the course of having your teaching certificate revoked. Not all districts go that path, but some do, and legally, they can.
A good friend who started teaching 30+ years ago in special ed worked two months and quit. She was appalled by the WASTE. The mantra was “spend it or lose it” and everyone was willing to spend, spend, spend. She was a wonderful teacher; kind and patient and certainly had ‘the right stuff’ to deal with those physically and mentally disadvantaged kids. A few years later, she tried it again, and again couldn’t abide being part and parcel to burning taxpayer money. So, when the feds got everyone accustomed to spending $$$ like it was leaves falling from trees, they then started in on the micromanaging with required documentation for blowing your nose–six pages minimum. Special ed has been ruined; adult ed is in the process of being ruined. Good teachers everywhere are moving on and the children are the losers.