A day in the life of a 9th grader...

[Montecfo]

In the spirit of fair play, I would like to point out that today there are problems with students assaulting teachers in the classroom. My wife and I have a number of friends teaching at the K-12 levels in different parts of the country and most of them have been assaulted by their students.

And some of them have been assaulted by the parents in the classrooms, while in front of the students.

In many cases, the administrations are not willing to do much to protect the teachers, disciplined students, or press charges against the parents.

Poor behavior occurs on both sides of the classroom.

Yes the tide has certainly turned. These days some students (and parents) have a sense of entitlement. Disruptive students know they can get away with more and more. Schools cower in fear of lawsuits.

I recall when school reformer Michelle Rhee became chancellor of DC public under the Adrian Fenty administration. One of the first things she did was set up a "hotline" teachers could use to directly contact the chancellors office with problems.

One well regarded teacher made the call and requested a lock for his classroom door-to prevent wandering truants from disrupting his classroom! Imagine that school environment.

Fenty lost re-eletion in a revolt by teachers among others. Rhee was sent packing and DC school corruption either continued or got worse. They falsify test and attendance scores to "improve" graduation rates and juice teacher performance and pay at at least some of the high schools.

Sad state of affairs.

 

[NW-Bound]

Yes the tide has certainly turned. These days some students (and parents) have a sense of entitlement. Disruptive students know they can get away with more and more. Schools cower in fear of lawsuits.

I recall when school reformer Michelle Rhee became chancellor of DC public under the Adrian Fenty administration. One of the first things she did was set up a "hotline" teachers could use to directly contact the chancellors office with problems.

One well regarded teacher made the call and requested a lock for his classroom door-to prevent wandering truants from disrupting his classroom! Imagine that school environment.

Fenty lost re-eletion in a revolt by teachers among others. Rhee was sent packing and DC school corruption either continued or got worse. They falsify test and attendance scores to "improve" graduation rates and juice teacher performance and pay at at least some of the high schools.

Sad state of affairs.

I often wonder who would want to be a high-school teacher nowadays.

 

[Lakewood90712]

Large well funded public elementary school, 1960's baby boom kids. Classes were usually 40-45 kids *, so each teacher was assigned an assistant.

If a teacher was out for one day, the principal would show his face for about 10 minutes , and the assistant would just wing it for the day. If the teacher was out for several days (rare) , we got " Mrs. B" . One of the few substitute teachers the district employed. That lady took no crap from any kid. Period.

What happens when a" Penguin", aka Mrs. B , leaves the church and get's married ? This one took a job as a substitute teacher in my public school district

* 40 plus in a class was not from lack of funding, colleges just couldn't spit out teachers fast enough to meet demand at the time.

 

[braumeister]

Classes were usually 40-45 kids

For me, class size ranged between 50-60. I remember that either sixth or seventh grade was 62. No assistant teachers, just a very strict nun who kept order. Kind of amazing to look back at those days now, and I suspect many just wouldn't believe it possible.

 

[JoeWras]

Went to parochial school too. Times were changing (just after the late 60s riots), so we had the cool, non-habit wearing nuns. Never got beaten in any way. Although the class before us had the old school nun. There were many stories of ruler whacks on knuckles. Even in boy's high school, you had a choice between a paddle and detention. Choose your penalty. Most took the paddle! I was never in trouble so I can't comment on the pain.

However, I did go to public school kindergarten. Our teacher would make the bad boys stand in a garbage can in the corner with the face to the wall. Made an impression! I never wanted to be garbage.

 

[JoeWras]

In my high-school days (early 70's), we had a swimming component as part of P.E. Guys were *required* to swim in the buff. As if the teen years weren't awkward enough. We learned that several years after graduation the practice was ceased. And as far as I know, none of us said anything to our parents at the time.

Wow. You confirmed something a friend said he had to do growing up in Ohio. I never heard of this. This was wrong, wrong, wrong on so many levels.

 

[CaptTom]

We REALLY got an intensive education in the fine points of English grammar. I use those principles to this day and they were invaluable in learning other languages. It's also a curse, of course. I can detect a dangling participle or a split infinitive a mile away.

 

[omni550]

In my high-school days (early 70's), we had a swimming component as part of P.E. Guys were *required* to swim in the buff. As if the teen years weren't awkward enough. We learned that several years after graduation the practice was ceased. And as far as I know, none of us said anything to our parents at the time.

In the late 50s, I was in elementary school in Toronto, Canada. In 3rd grade students were required to take swimming classes as part of the curriculum. Nearby technical high schools had swimming pools. The boys all went to one nearby tech school, and were required to swim in the nude*. The girls all went to a different nearby tech school and wore swimsuits.

*This was in the paperwork that students took home informing parents of the swimming classes.

omni

 

[JoeWras]

In the late 50s, I was in elementary school in Toronto, Canada. In 3rd grade students were required to take swimming classes as part of the curriculum. Nearby technical high schools had swimming pools. The boys all went to one nearby tech school, and were required to swim in the nude*. The girls all went to a different nearby tech school and wore swimsuits.

*This was in the paperwork that students took home informing parents of the swimming classes.

omni

There's something in the water in lakes Erie and Ontario. My friend was in the Cleveland area. Maybe the pollution flowing down from Detroit and the northern mining areas rotted brains.

I never heard of this in Chicago area, but perhaps it happened before my time. I went to the YMCA and we wore suits.

The 50s were not ancient Rome. People knew better. Suit technology was fine for pools. My friend claimed they said it was to keep the filters clean. Right.

Any child, boy or girl, knows the embarrassment of being naked with strangers. It was bad enough changing out among your classmates after pool time.

Frankly, I'm pretty sure there were sick people at work who propagated this tradition. It is very sad.

 

[ponyboy]

Personally, I think stupid people are afraid of smart ones, and try to intimidate them any way they can, even if it's just picking on a kid.

Ehh...I believe its more hard coded in our dna than you think. Look at nature/animal kingdom, the strong survive. The weak get singled out/eaten. Heck, my relative has chickens and even those things will gang up on the weak or injured and peck them to death. Of course they're also vicious monsters too, we're fortunate they're tiny or they would be eating us.

 

[kgtest]

As soon as I realized my 10th grade wrestling coach doubled as math teacher wouldnt be back that year and his sub was a girl I worked with at the retail store I stopped going to class. Continuity is real. When he actually did come back to wvertones surprise I was in a bit of a predicimant. You see I also wasnt going to weight lifting when I learned he had a mental breakdown and wasnt coming back. Well he asked me why I hadnt been to weight lifting in like a month. I sort of just replied.. Wait where have you been this past month? You havent been there either. He says to me if you start coming again I wont fail you. I was thinking to myself...math or weight lifting? I startef to go back to the gym...but never did go back to math. Somehow I passed both classes.