Have the teachers gotten worse over the years?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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?

Not likely. It probably has more to do with "gentle" parenting and a general belief that not only that teachers are exclusively responsible for training their offspring but that they also get to micromanage what happens in the classroom.

It's largely a parenting fail, not a teacher fail.

[Anonymous]

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

Naw, that's complete and utter horseshit. They said the exact same thing about personal computers entering the classroom in the 1980s. You sound like an ignorant fool repeating tropes like that.

[Anonymous]

I think it has more to do with NCLB and the evolution away from teaching critical thinking. The demand for "accountability" in schools led to more test-based teaching, which led to an emphasis on rote memorization rather than actual learning.

It's not the teachers. It's the pedagogy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

Not likely. It probably has more to do with "gentle" parenting and a general belief that not only that teachers are exclusively responsible for training their offspring but that they also get to micromanage what happens in the classroom.

It's largely a parenting fail, not a teacher fail.

This, plus screens, lack of reading in the home and the desire to have all children in all classrooms, no matter how disruptive they may be to the rest of the class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

+1 a lot of what happens in the classrooms come from above teachers heads. Instructional coaches, trainer, administrators, professors, etc.. They are all just doing what they are told. A lot of older and experienced teachers just do what they prefer in secret.

[Anonymous]

Yes they are far worse. I have been shocked at the degree of unintelligence, disorganization, and lack of subject matter knowledge in so many younger teachers. The new curriculums over the past twenty years that have been created by equally idiotic individuals are just as bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

Naw, that's complete and utter horseshit. They said the exact same thing about personal computers entering the classroom in the 1980s. You sound like an ignorant fool repeating tropes like that.

I 100 percent agree with the pp. Kids have the attention span of gnats today - largely because of tech, whether phones or chromebooks and so on. I guarantee students would be stronger if they just had books and pencils today.

Also, there are more parents that suck these days. If you don’t read with your toddlers and kindergarteners they are already starting out with a serious disadvantage.

[Anonymous]

Many parents have abdicated their roles as parents and count on their kids day care provider and teachers to parent. Kids are allowed to misbehave at home and they bring that behavior to school. Teachers try and correct behavior and parents complain that the teacher is mean or rigid or not nice to their child. There is little follow up with discipline at home when kids are acting out at school. Teachers spend more time dealing with behavior issues then teaching and that disrupts their ability to teach. Toss in curriculum changes and forcing teachers to use ipads and chromebooks after removing text books and workbooks and you have problems in the schools.

So no, teachers are not worse. Parents are not parenting and kids are more disruptive and that is reflected in behavior issues at school which impacts learning for everyone.

[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.

We aren’t allowed to make decisions about anything anymore. We haven’t been able to do this for at least 10 years. My curriculum isn’t chosen by me. The pacing isn’t chosen by me. Whether to give homework or not isn’t chosen by me. Etc etc etc. I’d love to go back to textbooks, spelling tests, grammar instruction, etc but I’m not allowed to. I’m not the only teacher who thinks this BTW. I guess people think we get to choose these things but nope.

[Anonymous]

Our youngest is about to graduate from high school, and I'll admit I'm glad we're leaving the system that is declining in quality. I'm glad our kids didn't have to use school-issued laptops until middle and high. There were school bullies, but nothing like now. At least the early reading and writing fundamentals were still strong and the older generations of teachers, now retired, knew their stuff and understood classroom management. Grade school is just mostly a babysitting service for parents these days, sadly. I don't envy you guys at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

We aren’t allowed to make decisions about anything anymore. We haven’t been able to do this for at least 10 years. My curriculum isn’t chosen by me. The pacing isn’t chosen by me. Whether to give homework or not isn’t chosen by me. Etc etc etc. I’d love to go back to textbooks, spelling tests, grammar instruction, etc but I’m not allowed to. I’m not the only teacher who thinks this BTW. I guess people think we get to choose these things but nope.

DP as a relatively new MCPS parent who is not a huge fan of MCPS, I can absolutely see that the my kid's teachers are truly wonderful and I am so grateful to them. It is quite clear to me at least that the teachers are not the problem. Thank you for the work you do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

We aren’t allowed to make decisions about anything anymore. We haven’t been able to do this for at least 10 years. My curriculum isn’t chosen by me. The pacing isn’t chosen by me. Whether to give homework or not isn’t chosen by me. Etc etc etc. I’d love to go back to textbooks, spelling tests, grammar instruction, etc but I’m not allowed to. I’m not the only teacher who thinks this BTW. I guess people think we get to choose these things but nope.

DP as a relatively new MCPS parent who is not a huge fan of MCPS, I can absolutely see that the my kid's teachers are truly wonderful and I am so grateful to them. It is quite clear to me at least that the teachers are not the problem. Thank you for the work you do.

The idea that all your kids' teachers have been phenomenal is implausible. We get about half who are decent and half who are bad, like most other jobs. There's no reason to elevate teachers by acting like they're all fantastic, they aren't and they never have been.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

We aren’t allowed to make decisions about anything anymore. We haven’t been able to do this for at least 10 years. My curriculum isn’t chosen by me. The pacing isn’t chosen by me. Whether to give homework or not isn’t chosen by me. Etc etc etc. I’d love to go back to textbooks, spelling tests, grammar instruction, etc but I’m not allowed to. I’m not the only teacher who thinks this BTW. I guess people think we get to choose these things but nope.

DP as a relatively new MCPS parent who is not a huge fan of MCPS, I can absolutely see that the my kid's teachers are truly wonderful and I am so grateful to them. It is quite clear to me at least that the teachers are not the problem. Thank you for the work you do.

The idea that all your kids' teachers have been phenomenal is implausible. We get about half who are decent and half who are bad, like most other jobs. There's no reason to elevate teachers by acting like they're all fantastic, they aren't and they never have been.

DP. We’ve had more fantastic teachers than poor ones. I have two children, and the majority of their teachers have done a Herculean task well.

Nobody is elevating teachers by saying they are ALL fantastic, but we also aren’t going to discredit the many, many people who chose this profession over easier and higher paying ones.

[Anonymous]

In some ways I used to be a better teacher when I started 16 years ago. I was single and my job was the most important thing in my life, so I devoted many hours to schoolwork. But a few things have changed since then:

1.) I have my own family now and cannot give the same amount of time to this job as I used to.

2.) I was burning out and needed to make changes or leave. That meant setting boundaries, saying no to extra responsibilities, assigning things that are easier to grade, and accepting that sometimes I would just do a good enough job instead of a great job.

3.) More students with accommodations. I have nothing against students receiving special education services (indeed, one of my own kids has special needs), but there has been a huge increase in the number of kids with IEPs and 504s, without increasing the number of special ed providers. And because tracking is no longer a thing, most of these kids are in regular (or even honors) classes. About a third of my students get accommodations right now, and it is really hard to give everyone what they need. This kid gets guided notes, this kid only gets work on paper, that other kid has to do all their assignments on the computer, etc. So everyone ends up getting the most simplified, scaffolded version of assignments, because differentiation is hard. Maybe that’s unfair to the brilliant kid who needs to be challenged, but I don’t want to risk legal trouble by not following the IEPs. (And yes, we’ve dealt with a lot of litigious parents at our school.)

4.) Chromebooks and other technology mean that distractions are everywhere, attention spans are shorter, and kids read less. They are therefore less competent than previous students, and the lessons get dumbed down accordingly.

5.) At least in my district, there is a real push to pass everyone. No grades lower than 50%, retakes allowed, all late work accepted. So kids don’t learn to take responsibility because we can’t hold them accountable. Even if they fail all their classes, they will still get promoted to the next grade level.

6.) Behavior issues. And my district is hesitant to suspend anyone who is a minority, special ed, or well connected because it looks bad.

So yeah, I would be a better teacher if my workload were more manageable and I felt more supported. I would love to give more challenging work, but I don’t know how to do that without getting pushback and/or stressing myself out. Some people might tell me to leave if I can’t hack it, and many people do. However, what I do bring is years of experience, classroom management, and a knowledge of my subject matter, so in that sense I am a better teacher than when I started.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many parents have abdicated their roles as parents and count on their kids day care provider and teachers to parent. Kids are allowed to misbehave at home and they bring that behavior to school. Teachers try and correct behavior and parents complain that the teacher is mean or rigid or not nice to their child. There is little follow up with discipline at home when kids are acting out at school. Teachers spend more time dealing with behavior issues then teaching and that disrupts their ability to teach. Toss in curriculum changes and forcing teachers to use ipads and chromebooks after removing text books and workbooks and you have problems in the schools.

So no, teachers are not worse. Parents are not parenting and kids are more disruptive and that is reflected in behavior issues at school which impacts learning for everyone.

This! X1000