If you haven't been in a public school lately - please just don't say anything about them. If you haven't spent more than a day in a public school lately - you don't know what you are talking about. Having a child attend one might give you a little credit, but until you have worked or volunteered for a couple of weeks, you really have no idea what is going on in our schools today.
Prior to a recent levy vote I was informed that the school is not allowed to tell voters exactly why they need money. That might sway their voted. Well duh! So the voters were never told that without the levy money the school was going to loose 10 teachers. That is one teacher per grade level. So where are those kids going to go? Into the other teachers classes of course! That is 30 kids that will now be divided into 3 other classes of 30 - which puts each class at or near 40 kids! With those same cuts there is no room for any aids to assist those teachers either. But we can't tell the voters this.
On top of this lack of funding, there is the current public opinion on schools and teachers. Things like, 'our schools already waste tax dollars,' and 'teachers are paid plenty considering all the time off they get!' 'Teachers need to quit complaining and asking for more money, they have no idea what it's like to work a regular schedule.'
Well, here are some thoughts from a mom turned special education assistant who has spent the last 12 years as an active parent in multiple schools and an employee for the last 5. To start with, my plan was to return to school and get my own teaching certificate once my youngest was in school. About three years ago I realized you couldn't pay me enough to become a teacher!
Today's teachers start each year off with 25-30 new faces. They are given limited information about each of them and charged with finding out where they sit academically, and which ones need help because of their home life. At least one child in each class will qualify as special needs and need to have their schedule altered so that they can get the necessary help from special ed. At least one or two other kids will be medicated for anything from depression to ADHD. There is likely a homeless child (or several depending on where the school is), a child who isn't getting enough to eat and may not have the supplies they need, and another one or two who's parents the teacher will never be able to reach. In a typical kindergarten class there will be kids who don't know what a letter is and kids reading at a 2nd grade level or higher. Every single child will have to be evaluated within the first month of school to see where they sit academically. This is to be done during the school day and by the classroom teacher - not a volunteer, and will take roughly 1/2 a day per child. While the teacher is testing each child the rest of the class is left to fend for themselves. So if there were 28 kids in a class that would be 14 days in the first month of school that the teacher is not able to give quality instruction! Once all of the evaluation is finished, a plan has to be made to get each child to where they need to be in order to pass state tests in the spring.
