Have the teachers gotten worse over the years?

[Anonymous]

There are a lot of recent studies showing that student literacy rates are down in recent years with a generally accepted conclusion that the kids are just not as smart and driven as they were in the past.

Is it possible that Millennials and Gen Z teachers are simply not as competent as those who taught before them?

[Anonymous]

Obviously, there are good teachers and bad teachers now, and there were good teachers and bad teachers then.

But an argument I've heard that supports your theory is that back in the day, teaching was one of only a few acceptable career paths for smart women. Nowadays, there are million career paths for smart women. So presumably, at least some women who would have been teachers if they were born in 1945 are instead running companies or working as high level executives, lawyers, doctors, etc.

[Anonymous]

Veteran teacher here.

The younger teachers coming in are just as competent and just as ambitious as those of us who started 20-30 years ago.

The difference is they are under considerably more pressure with considerably less support.

The teachers haven’t changed. The job has.

[Anonymous]

Teachers aren’t the cause of this. Ask any teacher who has been doing this more than 10 years or so. They are not suddenly becoming less competent. Policies have changed, society has changed, parents have changed. And smartphones.

[Anonymous]

Teacher here. I believe the rise of 1:1 devices and educational technology is a major factor. Districts like FCPS cut teachers and invested lots of money in tech and it hasn’t worked.

[Anonymous]

My daughter is an elementary education major. She’s gotten many comments about her easy major and her easy job. (People can be rude.)

As a teacher myself, I know she’s entering into a demanding and potentially soul-crushing field. She’s going to wear so many hats: educator, entertainer, counselor, data analyst, mediator, negotiator, and nurse. Magician, too, since she’s going to be expected to perform miracles with few resources (if any).

When I started, I was simply expected to teach, and maybe counsel a bit on the side. I was also given more time and more support than what she’s about to receive.

We now expect teachers to fix the problems of society that others can’t or won’t deal with.

I’m so proud of her for taking on this job, but I know the reality: over 50% quit in the first few years because the job demands too much. I encouraged her to consider another field, but she’s committed to this idea and very excited. And so I’ll support her.

And the profession will be lucky to have her, even if it’s just for a few years.

[Anonymous]

A lot of what gets taught in education schools is ineffective. All the teachers who were doing balanced literacy/whole language were taught that it was the right way to teach. I think that cohort WAS less competent, not through any fault of theirs, but because they were not taught how to do their jobs correctly. If were spent a decade teaching doctors about the four humors, they'd be less competent doctors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of what gets taught in education schools is ineffective. All the teachers who were doing balanced literacy/whole language were taught that it was the right way to teach. I think that cohort WAS less competent, not through any fault of theirs, but because they were not taught how to do their jobs correctly. If were spent a decade teaching doctors about the four humors, they'd be less competent doctors.

This is absolutely true. Plus they were taught how to teach balanced literacy using apps and individual screens. Many elementary teachers coming out of ed school - if you handed them class books, notebooks, and pencils, without screens… they would have no idea how to effectively teach.

[Anonymous]

It’s the Chromebooks. They’ve killed kids attention spans as well as hindered learning. Lots of studies coming out on this recently.

[Anonymous]

Yes.

Ever since teachers no longer only served as teachers, but a social workers too.

[Anonymous]

The teachers my child has had so far at MCPS have been phenomenal.

But they have to follow the curriculum and other district guidelines and I don't think those are effective. They keep changing the curricula so teachers are always implementing some thing new. Last year my kid was in K and we would get DIBELS scores saying "needs support" and the school didn't offer any support, said everything was fine. We tried to support at home but it didn't work and made DC more frustrated. Eventually we hired a tutor to get DC back on track. With CKLA we get no books sent home at DC's level to practice with. Thankfully our tutor picks books for us and that is helping a lot. Already I am hearing that CKLA isn't awesome and they might change that so it will be a new curriculum again in a few years that I assume they will implement district wide instead of piloting it first.

Next year it will be a new math curriculum that is being implemented district-wide without piloting it first. This whole process seems absurd to me.

[Anonymous]

Yes, they believe that memorization is bad. They no longer practice drill. They just say ‘read’ to the students but no longer have them read out loud in all subjects. They no longer assign chapter questions out of the books after requiring reading it. They do not teach writing properly. They do not emphasize penmenship. They do not use flashcards. They teach ‘simulated’ labs on Chromebooks instead of using hands-on materials. They quit teaching phonics for a decade. They quit teaching copying of notes at a controlled pace bc now bullets are thrown up on Google slides. They do not have students work through spellers each day of the week. Words are not written 3-6 times each week, sentences created on each word, definitions written out with phonetic and parts of speech, etc. Basic grammar has been ignored. Material is not introduced in fun and engaging ways. There’s a real lack of creativity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, they believe that memorization is bad. They no longer practice drill. They just say ‘read’ to the students but no longer have them read out loud in all subjects. They no longer assign chapter questions out of the books after requiring reading it. They do not teach writing properly. They do not emphasize penmenship. They do not use flashcards. They teach ‘simulated’ labs on Chromebooks instead of using hands-on materials. They quit teaching phonics for a decade. They quit teaching copying of notes at a controlled pace bc now bullets are thrown up on Google slides. They do not have students work through spellers each day of the week. Words are not written 3-6 times each week, sentences created on each word, definitions written out with phonetic and parts of speech, etc. Basic grammar has been ignored. Material is not introduced in fun and engaging ways. There’s a real lack of creativity.

All of what you said is why we moved to Catholic school. The public (and many posters here) say that the above stifles creativity. I don’t think it does during K-3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, they believe that memorization is bad. They no longer practice drill. They just say ‘read’ to the students but no longer have them read out loud in all subjects. They no longer assign chapter questions out of the books after requiring reading it. They do not teach writing properly. They do not emphasize penmenship. They do not use flashcards. They teach ‘simulated’ labs on Chromebooks instead of using hands-on materials. They quit teaching phonics for a decade. They quit teaching copying of notes at a controlled pace bc now bullets are thrown up on Google slides. They do not have students work through spellers each day of the week. Words are not written 3-6 times each week, sentences created on each word, definitions written out with phonetic and parts of speech, etc. Basic grammar has been ignored. Material is not introduced in fun and engaging ways. There’s a real lack of creativity.

The new teachers pick all of this stuff up from their college or career switcher programs.

[Anonymous]

In MCPS and most other districts the admin force teachers to fraud the data ie good grades all boosted by cookin books and ignoring all the crime and violence. They make us do these things or we lose our job and they try to ruin our careers.