Posts by Steven Evans7

wanderingbadger44 said:Everything. It feels like the whole argument is built on the idea that teachers should be begging parents for support, rather than the other way around.

if you don't finally stand by us this one time, everything will just fall apart.

Actually, it already has.☕

Exactly, the damage is already done. Why not prove it by going on strike?

The next time there's a walkout, I’m not participating unless schools actually close their doors to students and tell parents clearly that childcare isn't being provided. If they want care, they can find their own sitters, take personal leave, call out sick, or pay a nanny—then they'll truly grasp how much childcare costs. This whole appeal makes me sick: "Just bring your kids in, we have staff on duty, yes, the cafeteria is open, no worries..."

A parent drops their kid off at school just like any other day, completely oblivious to the struggles we're facing. And honestly, I can't even blame them. They aren't going to realize our problems are their problems until we make it impossible for them to ignore. To me, the most distasteful part of any strike is the groveling toward parents and the desperate pleading for their solidarity.

The online grading portal is such a blessing. 👋 Everything is transparent now—every grade, every absence, every teacher's note. Parents used to come in constantly to check grades or excuse absences, often using the opportunity for a little bit of free psychotherapy. Now, they rarely show up, and they handle excuses through quick emails. 🎉

It’s absolutely ridiculous to demand that standardized test scores be made public just so parents, acting as "consumers," can judge which teachers are lazy and which are effective. It reminds me of trying to compare the success rates of an oncologist to those of a dermatologist. It’s foolish that this even needs explaining. Apparently, vocational school instructors are considered incompetent because their students score lower in math than students at a specialized STEM academy like MIOC. Because, of course, every single student arrives with the exact same level of genius, preparation, and work ethic.

This logic might fly in elementary schools. But elementary schools and these trendy ideas about high-stakes testing and external evaluations—stuff that education reform gurus like Nikola Jokić dismissed as being far too stressful for young children. 😍

But what reason would they even have to show up?

I have two children, and my oldest actually attended school in three different countries. The first country was tiny, so I won't really go into detail there.
In America, parent-teacher conferences have basically dwindled down to the teacher opening a gradebook, you glance at the marks (which you already knew because your kid told you, or you can just check the portal now anyway), and that’s it. At most, they might tell you how your child is doing in their specific subject, but they won't have a clue about the others, which is totally understandable. Why would anyone drive all the way there just for that kind of information?

In the United Kingdom, they have parent evenings twice a year. A few weeks beforehand, you get a questionnaire asking which teachers you want to speak with, and after that, you receive a schedule.
Physics at 7:00 PM in Room 23, Math at 7:10 PM in Room 35...

The teacher greets you with a smile, their desk is set up with your child's records, and within five minutes, they walk you through exactly where your child stands regarding the curriculum, where their weak spots are, what their projected grade looks like, and specifically what needs to happen to reach or improve that goal.

If you don't excuse an absence via phone or email during the morning roll call, you can expect a call from the school by 10:00 AM at the latest.
If your child is particularly challenging or exceptionally gifted, you can also expect an invitation to come into the school to discuss what steps can be taken from both the school's side and yours.

And keep in mind, I'm talking about public schools here, not private ones.

A teacher in the United Kingdom earns about a third of what I do, just as they did back in America. So, this isn't about the money.

My child almost gave up on a certain subject because of a professor at MIT, but luckily, she only spent one year there before moving on to study at Cambridge.

Honestly, the best move I ever made was transitioning my children out of the American education system.

Henry Cox78 said:Maybe it's because religious education hasn't been part of the curriculum for decades, so we just have to wait for this current generation to grow up and actually take charge of things.

I personally attended religious studies classes from '78 through '86. Which "decades" of absence are you actually referring to here?

Jacob Lewis5 As specified by Jason Ortiz5:
All set! I had a quick chat with a lovely lady there—I’m not entirely sure what her official title is, but she was very helpful. She explained that they generally try to schedule Religion classes during either the first or the last period of the day (and if you take a look at the schedules, you'll see she's absolutely right about that). While it isn't always possible to make that work perfectly, there are certainly some classes where every single student is enrolled in the course. Most importantly, she reassured me that the kids are never left unsupervised.

Looking over the latest schedules, I have to say, I’m not entirely convinced about the level of effort being put into this planning. It feels a bit disorganized; they managed to cram all the extra credit, supplemental lessons, and extracurricular activities into the very last period for almost every single grade level. To make matters even more inconsistent, Religion classes only seem to pop up every once in a while. For most classes, you won't find Religion scheduled at either the start or the end of the day. It just feels like an afterthought rather than a core part of the curriculum!

If they had actually put a little more thought into the scheduling, they could have easily slotted an extra session from a different subject right in the middle of the day and just pushed Religion to the very end of the afternoon.
Both of these subjects are elective courses.