Picking up the pieces - how do we address problems were are facing in education?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't trust schools any more. That means I don't trust that they will educate my child. Maybe I should never have trusted they would do that. But I also don't trust that they will stay open in the future and not repeat the damage that school closures did to my child and myself.

What does that mean for anything? Well, it matters to how I vote. It matters to whether I give money to PTO. It matters to whether I invest in anything related to the school beyond my own child's individual needs. It matters to whether I support vouchers and charters.

Does any of that matter? I suppose not.

PP, I understand where you are coming from. If you read any explanation of gaslighting, it's obvious that this type of psychological and emotional abuse is rampant in school discussions. It's not about whether the closure decisions were right or wrong - they are history. But it's hard to heal without acknowledging some of the fallout from the pandemic (and school closures). We are told to get therapy, called crazy, told that we are overreacting, and not credible. What happened to our kids was our fault, and if we were better parents, we would not have anxious, depressed, or failing kids. You can't be in a healthy relationship if you are being gaslit, and that's a problem.

The pandemic happened. It sucked.

Trying to blame the fallout on teachers though is misplaced. Your anger towards them is irrational.

No one mentioned teachers. No one blamed teachers.

You must be new here.

In this thread. This thread has not been slamming teachers for school closures, nor are the comments that you are directly referencing. I understand that people have indeed done that, but the only person that seems stuck on that is you in this thread. Perhaps you need to move on?

+1 Some of the proposed ideas directly support teachers, such as reduced administrative burdens and more planning time.

Yes, some posters clearly don't hate teachers. Or schools, teacher unions, school boards, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't trust schools any more. That means I don't trust that they will educate my child. Maybe I should never have trusted they would do that. But I also don't trust that they will stay open in the future and not repeat the damage that school closures did to my child and myself.

What does that mean for anything? Well, it matters to how I vote. It matters to whether I give money to PTO. It matters to whether I invest in anything related to the school beyond my own child's individual needs. It matters to whether I support vouchers and charters.

Does any of that matter? I suppose not.

PP, I understand where you are coming from. If you read any explanation of gaslighting, it's obvious that this type of psychological and emotional abuse is rampant in school discussions. It's not about whether the closure decisions were right or wrong - they are history. But it's hard to heal without acknowledging some of the fallout from the pandemic (and school closures). We are told to get therapy, called crazy, told that we are overreacting, and not credible. What happened to our kids was our fault, and if we were better parents, we would not have anxious, depressed, or failing kids. You can't be in a healthy relationship if you are being gaslit, and that's a problem.

The pandemic happened. It sucked.

Trying to blame the fallout on teachers though is misplaced. Your anger towards them is irrational.

I’m not that PP but wow what an on-point example of the gaslighting that PP correctly identified.

That's not "gaslighting" - you better re-read the definition.

You want an "apology"? Schools aren't here to manage your emotional state. If you want to express your irrational anger about the pandemic/schools then go start a new thread. This one is looking for solutions.

Lack of trust =/= anger.

The only person who seems really escalated here is you. And the lack of trust comment that you are reacting to 1) wasn't about teachers, and 2) didn't call for an apology. You seem to be projecting a lot of stuff onto that comment that isn't there.

If you don't blame schools then why don't you "trust" them?

I am not interested in blame any more. I am reacting to a situation that occurred. I stated what I am doing now that that situation has occurred.

You seem really invested in regurgitating old arguments, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't trust schools any more. That means I don't trust that they will educate my child. Maybe I should never have trusted they would do that. But I also don't trust that they will stay open in the future and not repeat the damage that school closures did to my child and myself.

What does that mean for anything? Well, it matters to how I vote. It matters to whether I give money to PTO. It matters to whether I invest in anything related to the school beyond my own child's individual needs. It matters to whether I support vouchers and charters.

Does any of that matter? I suppose not.

PP, I understand where you are coming from. If you read any explanation of gaslighting, it's obvious that this type of psychological and emotional abuse is rampant in school discussions. It's not about whether the closure decisions were right or wrong - they are history. But it's hard to heal without acknowledging some of the fallout from the pandemic (and school closures). We are told to get therapy, called crazy, told that we are overreacting, and not credible. What happened to our kids was our fault, and if we were better parents, we would not have anxious, depressed, or failing kids. You can't be in a healthy relationship if you are being gaslit, and that's a problem.

The pandemic happened. It sucked.

Trying to blame the fallout on teachers though is misplaced. Your anger towards them is irrational.

I’m not that PP but wow what an on-point example of the gaslighting that PP correctly identified.

That's not "gaslighting" - you better re-read the definition.

You want an "apology"? Schools aren't here to manage your emotional state. If you want to express your irrational anger about the pandemic/schools then go start a new thread. This one is looking for solutions.

Lack of trust =/= anger.

The only person who seems really escalated here is you. And the lack of trust comment that you are reacting to 1) wasn't about teachers, and 2) didn't call for an apology. You seem to be projecting a lot of stuff onto that comment that isn't there.

It's kinda funny that this is actually what gaslighting looks like

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depressingly, I think the only thing that will work is to rebuild trust. And I don’t know how to do that. God knows I don’t trust educators any more, not after watching the gaslighting that went on (my kid has severe dyslexia, and will probably have lifelong impact from the closures). I don’t see how kids learn from educators they don’t trust. And many of them do not trust educators at all now.

Sure sounds like PP is blaming teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pay teachers more. We’re going to need the best and brightest, or at least the better and brighter, to tackle this.

Pay more and give more respect and autonomy to the profession. The best and the brightest are not going into teaching anymore, they're doing other things where they can be paid more and do less work, while not having to deal with needy kids or entitled parents.

Stop the excessive mandates from Central office. Stop the paperwork, the meetings, etc. Get more substitutes and more paras. Get more special ed teachers. The only way this will happen, is paying more.

What will teachers do to earn more respect and autonomy, and to build support for more pay?

Sure sounds like this PP also blames teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't trust schools any more. That means I don't trust that they will educate my child. Maybe I should never have trusted they would do that. But I also don't trust that they will stay open in the future and not repeat the damage that school closures did to my child and myself.

What does that mean for anything? Well, it matters to how I vote. It matters to whether I give money to PTO. It matters to whether I invest in anything related to the school beyond my own child's individual needs. It matters to whether I support vouchers and charters.

Does any of that matter? I suppose not.

PP, I understand where you are coming from. If you read any explanation of gaslighting, it's obvious that this type of psychological and emotional abuse is rampant in school discussions. It's not about whether the closure decisions were right or wrong - they are history. But it's hard to heal without acknowledging some of the fallout from the pandemic (and school closures). We are told to get therapy, called crazy, told that we are overreacting, and not credible. What happened to our kids was our fault, and if we were better parents, we would not have anxious, depressed, or failing kids. You can't be in a healthy relationship if you are being gaslit, and that's a problem.

The pandemic happened. It sucked.

Trying to blame the fallout on teachers though is misplaced. Your anger towards them is irrational.

I’m not that PP but wow what an on-point example of the gaslighting that PP correctly identified.

That's not "gaslighting" - you better re-read the definition.

You want an "apology"? Schools aren't here to manage your emotional state. If you want to express your irrational anger about the pandemic/schools then go start a new thread. This one is looking for solutions.

Clearly the solution is to give families as many ways to opt out of public education as possible since public education has demonstrated that is is uninterested in actually educating children.

No. Defunding public schools is not the answer to fixing public schools.

This thread is about how to fix problems, not how to destroy public schools.

But which problems? My own personal problems? There's clearly a teacher in this thread that just wants to solve the problem of behavioral issues in his/her own class/school. That person doesn't care about the child or the parents or any future school the behavioral issue kid will go to. They don't care what that potentially means for increased crime. That person doesn't care about the collective, just their own experience.

So yeah, the solutions offered are going to necessarily be myopic to our own circumstances.

I don't think you can solve the 'collective' issue until everyone actually agrees to recognizing themselves in the 'collective,' and listening to all issues of people in the collective. Until then, the lesson is to focus on individual needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't trust schools any more. That means I don't trust that they will educate my child. Maybe I should never have trusted they would do that. But I also don't trust that they will stay open in the future and not repeat the damage that school closures did to my child and myself.

What does that mean for anything? Well, it matters to how I vote. It matters to whether I give money to PTO. It matters to whether I invest in anything related to the school beyond my own child's individual needs. It matters to whether I support vouchers and charters.

Does any of that matter? I suppose not.

PP, I understand where you are coming from. If you read any explanation of gaslighting, it's obvious that this type of psychological and emotional abuse is rampant in school discussions. It's not about whether the closure decisions were right or wrong - they are history. But it's hard to heal without acknowledging some of the fallout from the pandemic (and school closures). We are told to get therapy, called crazy, told that we are overreacting, and not credible. What happened to our kids was our fault, and if we were better parents, we would not have anxious, depressed, or failing kids. You can't be in a healthy relationship if you are being gaslit, and that's a problem.

The pandemic happened. It sucked.

Trying to blame the fallout on teachers though is misplaced. Your anger towards them is irrational.

I’m not that PP but wow what an on-point example of the gaslighting that PP correctly identified.

That's not "gaslighting" - you better re-read the definition.

You want an "apology"? Schools aren't here to manage your emotional state. If you want to express your irrational anger about the pandemic/schools then go start a new thread. This one is looking for solutions.

Lack of trust =/= anger.

The only person who seems really escalated here is you. And the lack of trust comment that you are reacting to 1) wasn't about teachers, and 2) didn't call for an apology. You seem to be projecting a lot of stuff onto that comment that isn't there.

It's kinda funny that this is actually what gaslighting looks like

No, it's not. Let's re-read the original comment:

"I don't trust schools any more. That means I don't trust that they will educate my child. Maybe I should never have trusted they would do that. But I also don't trust that they will stay open in the future and not repeat the damage that school closures did to my child and myself.

What does that mean for anything? Well, it matters to how I vote. It matters to whether I give money to PTO. It matters to whether I invest in anything related to the school beyond my own child's individual needs. It matters to whether I support vouchers and charters.

Does any of that matter? I suppose not."

Is there anything in there about teachers or asking for an apology?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't trust schools any more. That means I don't trust that they will educate my child. Maybe I should never have trusted they would do that. But I also don't trust that they will stay open in the future and not repeat the damage that school closures did to my child and myself.

What does that mean for anything? Well, it matters to how I vote. It matters to whether I give money to PTO. It matters to whether I invest in anything related to the school beyond my own child's individual needs. It matters to whether I support vouchers and charters.

Does any of that matter? I suppose not.

PP, I understand where you are coming from. If you read any explanation of gaslighting, it's obvious that this type of psychological and emotional abuse is rampant in school discussions. It's not about whether the closure decisions were right or wrong - they are history. But it's hard to heal without acknowledging some of the fallout from the pandemic (and school closures). We are told to get therapy, called crazy, told that we are overreacting, and not credible. What happened to our kids was our fault, and if we were better parents, we would not have anxious, depressed, or failing kids. You can't be in a healthy relationship if you are being gaslit, and that's a problem.

The pandemic happened. It sucked.

Trying to blame the fallout on teachers though is misplaced. Your anger towards them is irrational.

I’m not that PP but wow what an on-point example of the gaslighting that PP correctly identified.

That's not "gaslighting" - you better re-read the definition.

You want an "apology"? Schools aren't here to manage your emotional state. If you want to express your irrational anger about the pandemic/schools then go start a new thread. This one is looking for solutions.

Lack of trust =/= anger.

The only person who seems really escalated here is you. And the lack of trust comment that you are reacting to 1) wasn't about teachers, and 2) didn't call for an apology. You seem to be projecting a lot of stuff onto that comment that isn't there.

It's kinda funny that this is actually what gaslighting looks like

No, it's not. Let's re-read the original comment:

"I don't trust schools any more. That means I don't trust that they will educate my child. Maybe I should never have trusted they would do that. But I also don't trust that they will stay open in the future and not repeat the damage that school closures did to my child and myself.

What does that mean for anything? Well, it matters to how I vote. It matters to whether I give money to PTO. It matters to whether I invest in anything related to the school beyond my own child's individual needs. It matters to whether I support vouchers and charters.

Does any of that matter? I suppose not."

Is there anything in there about teachers or asking for an apology?

Schools aren't empty buildings. They're filled with people (teachers) who you stated you don't trust to educate your child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depressingly, I think the only thing that will work is to rebuild trust. And I don’t know how to do that. God knows I don’t trust educators any more, not after watching the gaslighting that went on (my kid has severe dyslexia, and will probably have lifelong impact from the closures). I don’t see how kids learn from educators they don’t trust. And many of them do not trust educators at all now.

Sure sounds like PP is blaming teachers.

Well, it sounds like a parent talking about how their kids were let down by the education system and educators, and therefore lost trust.