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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The new batch of teachers are really mediocre. They complain about the workload, teach with videos and computer quizzes, and are not really knowledgeable. The more experienced teachers are way better.[/quote]

Any of our teachers who joined since 2020 seem to be in it for the lifestyle, not the career. Post-Covid, our school brought in a lot of teachers who are American but had been teaching abroad at international schools (they returned due to long COVID shutdowns or legitimate worries about getting stuck in certain countries) to backfill retirements.

Originally I was excited because I thought they might teach with more rigor and could bring different perspectives to our pretty homogenous community. Unfortunately, I can now see that we got stuck with a bunch of people who pursued international school roles as a way to prolong travel in their 20s or because they aren’t suited to more intense jobs. Our school also gives teachers tons of independence to make the curriculum their own, which is not great for teachers used to working off a very specific, standard curriculum.

My child has spent most of the past two years bringing home teachers pay teachers nonsense worksheets and watching videos. They are not staying at their school for another year.[/quote]

Until you start paying the true cost of your kid’s education, you’ll get what you pay for. Actually, I’m sure you’re currently getting much more than you pay for. Yeah, I’m sure they’re in it for “the lifestyle” of getting paid near-poverty wages to work in insecure at-will environments with no protection against bad bosses, ever-changing workloads, and angry parents who have no appreciation for what goes into educating their children. Here’s an idea: get rid of idiotic administrators, “brand communicators,” “associate directors,” “division coordinators,” etc…, push teacher salaries up 100 percent, invest in their long-term development and appreciate that they get 6-8 weeks off in the summer to make up for their insane workload during the year. Ask any teacher, they’ll tell you that they get to school at 7:00 am, don’t even have time to scarf down a banana during the day, are made to attend pointless meetings that distract from grading and planning, have to go home only to do said grading and planning there, take care of their own families, and often lose sleep at night thinking about their students’ challenges. [/quote]

I hear what you’re saying.

To answer that from my perspective, which is very different from what you’re describing, we’ve given over $275k to support financial aid and professional development over the past 5 years at my child’s school. It has a very lean administration, so I feel ok about that but on the other hand, I know some teachers probably have insufficient support. To answer the “lifestyle” counter argument: I regularly see teachers arriving after I drop my kid off and walking out of the building at the same time that I am walking out with my kid. I serve in multiple volunteer roles at school and am frequently one of the last to leave the building after meetings.

Every school probably has different expectations and culture, but ours doesn’t or can’t hold teachers to a very high standard and it shows. My child is on their third teacher in 3 years who will be leaving after a lengthy PIP process. This year’s teacher has my kid “tutoring” her classmates while she plans travel on her laptop within full view of the classroom.

I won’t go on because my situation and our school is hopefully the exception.[/quote]

If this is the case, and I don’t doubt it is, the problem is the school and the administration it hires. It should be out of business. And that would be ok. Many of these “schools” shouldn’t exist. They are run by boards that have no educational philosophy or insight, and that lack of direction filters down into every decision and cultural imperative. [/quote]

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