
You're rude, demeaning and narrow minded. Why would parents rally for more of... you? |
Honestly, PP, you sound completely ignorant about politics. Teacher unions - the AFT and the NEA - represent millions of teachers across the country and are politically powerful not just at the national or state-wide level but also local. Every politician in Montgomery County seeks an "apple ballot" endorsement from the MCEA. Besides endorsements, teacher unions give millions of dollars every year to candidates oe issue campaigns. And, like all unions, candidates seek teacher union support because teacher unions can turn out bodies - for rallies, for door-knocking, for phone-banking, for GOTV - all of which can make a difference in campaigns. Teacher unions have been part of positive change in the past. The AFT stopped chartering new segregated locals in the early 50s, filed an amicus brief in Brown v. Board in the mid-fifties, and by the late 50s expelled all locals that refused to desegregate. Every election someone tries to hand me an apple ballot on my way into the polling booth, and TBH our family's lengthy, negative and damaging experience with multiple special needs kids has really soured my support for teachers and administrators. Teachers unions today seem to be mostly concerned about their own salary and benefits and completely uninterested in improving the teaching systems and profession. Why on earth are there any K-3 reading teachers in any school anywhere who do not have Orton-Gillingham reading instruction training or similar phonics? Why are teachers wasting time lesson planning instead of being given complete curriculum packages with day by day lectures, activities and lesson plans together with scaffolding and enrichment? How can we, in the 21st century, still be teaching kids using methods that have little to no data to back their efficacy? Teachers complain all the time that they can't teach kids who come to school hungry, impoverished, unhealthy, etc., but I don't see the teachers unions as a major force for community school support, mental health treatment, free bkfst and lunch for all, etc. And don't even get me started about teachers and their lack of involvement in gun control. Teachers and students have been practicing shooter drills for decades and yet it was *students* who organized "March for Our Lives," attended by hundreds of thousands in DC and with hundreds of events across the country. These are the issues that make your job difficult - not the extra IEP paperwork. Imagine how much easier your job would be if more than 1/3 of fourth graders were reading on grade level? Parents cannot fix these systemic professional problems. If teachers want to be a respected profession, then they have to work to better their profession not just their paychecks. |
I’m already working 70 hours a week. But now I’m supposed to advocate for gun control, service my community outside of the school, etc. Blood from stone. |
It makes me so sad that you don't seem to understand the content of the posts directed at you. How are you supposed to teach SN students? |
Umm. No? You're supposed to ask that your union dues - which go partially toward collective bargaining and partially toward advocacy - be used to politically advocate for things that improve your profession and your working conditions and not just your paycheck. For example, the NY state teachers union typically "protects teachers" by negotiating contract terms that make it very hard to fire bad teachers. There are literally multiple centers in NYC where bad teachers go to sit around all day and collect full pay for doing nothing. https://nypost.com/2020/08/15/nyc-pledged-to-ban-teacher-rubber-rooms-they-went-underground-instead/ 1500 teachers at an annual salary of 50k each a year is $75 million. Imagine how $75 million might help special ed students. The fact that you feel like you're the victim and special ed kids and parents are the abusers really means that you are not suited for your profession. |
How are you working 70 hrs a week? Unions have rules against this and multiple layers of contractual protection. |
Wow. Even more shock and disbelief. I am not the ignorant one and no it is not the teachers job to advocate for everything that is wrong in education- policy, funding, staffing, curriculum. So now parents wanna complain at teachers for not being incompetent, not doing enough, not giving enough services, not communicating enough, AND you want to tell the teachers (!!!) that it’s our job to fix education policy and funding and staffing? Y’all are off the charts here. Get real. Wake up. Stop complaining abd blaming the low man on the totem pole. And you think teacher unions (!!!) are responsible and can help? Good lord you have no idea. That’s funny. |
They sure could, they hold a lot of political sway. If they were "aimed" properly. |
These discussions are exhausting. Basically, parents are supposed to do their own jobs around an inflexible school calendar, teach their own kids academic material because teachers are overworked and should not be accountable if they aren't doing that, and then use whatever free time is left to lobby at the state and local level to completely overhaul the public education, which includes efforts to improve teacher work conditions that teachers told us were solely a matter of contract between teachers and administration and therefore, none of our business. Which is it? You seem to think that parents are solely to blame for not doing enough to improve the working conditions of adult professionals, most of whom have union representation. Is that really the hill you want to die on? |
DP. How are parents supposed to lobby/advocate for solutions schools refuse to acknowledge? No school team will ever admit the lack for resources prevents them for implementing IEPs or making IEP decisions based on insufficient resources.. if we were to go forward, as parents, we'd be told our assertion is incorrect. Yet, you complain about parents holding you accountable for what their kids are entitled to. You refuse to do anything to improve your "plight", choosing, instead to bltch and moan. You have no credibility. |
Stop going through your school team! Stop blaming your school team! Call, email, contact your school board, central office, congressmen and senators. The school team cannot make system wide changes!!! Stop!!! I get that you are mad and want more! You’re barking up the wrong tree and wasting everyone’s time and taking time away from kids! Your school team cannot implement any system wide change! I assure you, they are not complaining to the higher-ups. Even if they did, the higher-ups do not listen to the lowly teachers and school team. |
You have got to be a troll. No one who claims to have knowledge of special education can be this obtuse. |
Not a troll. Not obtuse. Just being honest, even if you don’t want to hear it and even if you don’t understand. |
Ah yes, let’s contact central office and the school board. They must not have any idea what is going on, if only they knew kids with IEPs were underserved, then it would change🤢🙄. I wish a teacher would have supported my child, but I guess that’s just a dream in today’s educational environment. Instead they belittled her , I will always be angry about the way she was treated, it was disgusting. |
NP. At least you wrote it out here in a discussion supposed to be healing a rift. Doubtlessly that is going to help the situation. To the teacher: I hear you. I know it's hard. Do what you have to do for yourself. Nobody helps anyone else in the long run by being a martyr. Best wishes. |