Everyone thinks they know how to fix schools because they were students themselves. It's just like a restaurant or any other business. No true profession is ever as easy as it looks to the layman.
First of all, you have ignored simple logistics. How does a junior high kid get from junior high to high school math class and back to junior high in one passing period?
How does the school district afford to pay bus drivers for this extra duty? Our budgets in Texas were frozen since the 2005 Perry school tax cuts and cut below that for this year.
Our mandate is to educate EVERY child and do it extremely cheaply.
As a technology teacher, I have 45 minutes per day with up to 32 students per class ranging in age from freshman to seniors, from Special Ed to Talented & Gifted.
When classes are full, we are paid $1.30 (before deductions) per child per day to not only teach the subject matter but often to teach them life skills their parents should have imparted years ago.
My special ed kids have IEP's up to 30 pages long telling me exactly how to teach them differently than the other 31 kids and I am legally liable if I fail to meet those specifications.
You are talking about mixing middle schoolers with seniors and we already have problems with senior/freshman bullying, sexting and age-difference sexual pressures.
I love Khan Academy, but you need to remember it is just online lecture/drill which is not new or innovative. Only the fact it is available 24/7 for kids with the Net at home is amazing. For the poor kids without the Net, they are out of luck again.
The grass is always greener but just try to do more with less like we teachers do every year lately.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by marcusTX.
sounds easy
First of all, you have ignored simple logistics. How does a junior high kid get from junior high to high school math class and back to junior high in one passing period?
How does the school district afford to pay bus drivers for this extra duty? Our budgets in Texas were frozen since the 2005 Perry school tax cuts and cut below that for this year.
Our mandate is to educate EVERY child and do it extremely cheaply.
As a technology teacher, I have 45 minutes per day with up to 32 students per class ranging in age from freshman to seniors, from Special Ed to Talented & Gifted.
When classes are full, we are paid $1.30 (before deductions) per child per day to not only teach the subject matter but often to teach them life skills their parents should have imparted years ago.
My special ed kids have IEP's up to 30 pages long telling me exactly how to teach them differently than the other 31 kids and I am legally liable if I fail to meet those specifications.
You are talking about mixing middle schoolers with seniors and we already have problems with senior/freshman bullying, sexting and age-difference sexual pressures.
I love Khan Academy, but you need to remember it is just online lecture/drill which is not new or innovative. Only the fact it is available 24/7 for kids with the Net at home is amazing. For the poor kids without the Net, they are out of luck again.
The grass is always greener but just try to do more with less like we teachers do every year lately.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by marcusTX.
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