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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am a teacher and I have been trying to figure this out this year.  Something has changed.  I've been in teaching for ten years and I've noticed the change on several levels.  They are stressed out.  Part of that stress comes from a fundamental lie they are being told:  they won't be successful if they don't get into the top school.  I pointed out that they could go to NOVA, save money, be in smaller classes, and  then go on to the four-year schools and they'd have the same degree - and they were shocked! They are over scheduled, which leads me to another point:  as a whole, they are not better students as the kids ten years ago.  Of course I have very good students that are the exceptions, but most of the students in my honors level class procrastinate, make excuses, etc...There were always some students like this, but they understood that they didn't earn an A, and there was no argument.  Now, they try to pressure you into grades they didn't earn, and when that doesn't work, they get their parents involved with pleas that usually involve getting in to colleges.
Where does that pressure come from?  Probably society, but I think it is a parent's job to let them know that they love them unconditionally and help their kid overcome that pressure - not add to it.  I had a kid tell me at the beginning of the year that he must earn A's because when he didn't get into TJ, his father didn't speak to him for a month.[/quote]

I tuink you said it best of all the posters, yet it doesn't seem as if this is the message the posters want to hear.[/quote]

Yes we do. The problem is that a lot of teachers aren't like this teacher. And the ones who aren't? They have tenure and they can't get rid of them. What I was told, is that all administration can do is try and make the teacher's life difficult so they go to another school.[/quote]

You obviously did not even read her post, or you're so fixated on the roles of the school that you missed the whole point.

PARENTS ARE THE PROBLEM. They pressure their kids and then intervene when their child doesn't get the grade they (the parents) want. The kids themselves are whining excuse-makers because that's how they've been raised. Mommy and Daddy can and will come to the rescue anytime a threat to the child's "success" is involved.

This has nothing to do with teachers who have tenure, the administration, or anything else.[/quote]

I understand you are a teacher so you are biased.

Can a tenured teacher be fired like a private school teacher? No. You have unions that make the parent's life hell if we even complain.

It's not about success, it's about stress. Stress that doctors and mental health providers recognize all too well. Langley especially is legendary. My kid's doctor told her that she was working the equivalent of two full-time jobs and to get the hell out. He called the environment abusive and it's known that way throughout the medical community in the area.

Again, it is up to the administration and the school board to put the brakes on any parents that are pushing beyond. The parents will then take their 'brilliant' child and pay for private. They don't WANT to pay for private. They want to force the administration to do their bidding. In this sense, yep, it's the parents. You speak like the administration and the school board has no control. They sure as hell do. They don't want to exercise it because the benefit to them is inflated numbers. They make the list. I would not be surprised to find out if there were financial incentives. I intend to find out.[/quote]

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