Jeopardy: Is anyone else appalled by the lack of what should be basic knowledge of the teachers during the teachers contest this week? And we wonder why our children know so little and...

Keldon Loc: Yukon, B.C.

Is anyone else appalled by the lack of what should be basic knowledge of the teachers during the teachers contest this week?

And we wonder why our children know so little and perform so poorly.

fantom Loc: Colorado

Keldon wrote:

Is anyone else appalled by the lack of what should be basic knowledge of the teachers during the teachers contest this week?

And we wonder why our children know so little and perform so poorly.

The quality of US education has been steadily declining for a long time due to teachers who, among other things, think teacher competency should not be measured.

Get this: Some of my grand kids go to a county charter school. They are learning long division in second grade, they will take a foreign language in sixth grade. They have been exposed to astronomy, map reading and the use of a compass. One second grader can point out several constellations. All the kids in the school appear very motivated and are glad to be there.

There is a large faction among teachers in other schools who want to shut these particular charter schools down. The reason they give is that these schools put too much emphasis on PATRIOTISM AND THE CONSTITUTION---so yes I am appalled at the quality of teaching in general.

dirtpusher Loc: tulsa oklahoma

the smart teachers are bailing.... .gov cuts in education. states cuts in education funding.

cuts from 2012++++++++ all way to 2015

Report: Federal Education Funding Plummeting
http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2015/06/24/report-federal-education-funding-cut-by-5-times-more-than-all-spending

AlexG Loc: Caldwell, NJ

I don't watch during the Teacher's Tournament--too painful!!

grillmaster5062

My kids have had some great teachers. My son is autistic, very high functioning. He was teaching his 1st grade teacher stuff that she didn't know! Brilliant kid, but all over the map emotionally speaking. Not easy to work with, so his teachers earn their pay! As far as I'm concerned, the teachers make too little, the administrators make too much. Things are much different than they were when I was in school.

Carl D Loc: Albemarle, NC.

Today's teacher's are the first crop of bad educational teaching practices that were instituted back in the 80's and 90's. As the say in the computer game "garbage in, garbage out". I feel that we should go back to the standard old ways of teaching, after all the material for grade schoolers hasn't changed why has the teaching method ? Computers should be banned up through 11th grade. Teachers need to teach and not just monitor a class.

leopz Loc: Texas

In the great state of Texas it is not rather the teacher knows her subject matter or not, it's the politician who rules the Star test. Every subject is depends on the Star Test if you pass or not. Teacher do not control what the students learns it is how fast can you pass the Star test.....I might be wrong.

Kenneth Pierce Loc: Campbellsville, Kentucky

Teachers should be able to teach children to be inquiring, how to research a question, curiosity, etc. not information. Teachers can not be an expert (even in a particular field). There is way too much information available, but if a teacher can teach children the ability to search and read, then he/she has succeeded as a teacher. BTW, this goes across all curriculum areas.

JamesCurran Loc: Trenton ,NJ

fantom wrote:

There is a large faction among teachers in other schools who want to shut these particular charter schools down. The reason they give is that these schools put too much emphasis on PATRIOTISM AND THE CONSTITUTION---so yes I am appalled at the quality of teaching in general.

I'm quite sure the real reason they give is that it is essentially a private school, funded in part by tax payer money, and drawing funding away from real public schools.

lenben Loc: Seattle

Part of the problem is that with expanding opportunity for women, women of quality opt to go to medical school or law school, etc. Teachers are currently drawn from lower down in the intellectual pool. There is no easy solution for this /

Carl D Loc: Albemarle, NC.

lenben wrote:

Part of the problem is that with expanding opportunity for women, women of quality opt to go to medical school or law school, etc. Teachers are currently drawn from lower down in the intellectual pool. There is no easy solution for this /

I'm not sure whether the same isn't true for them too.

fantom Loc: Colorado

Carl D wrote:

Today's teacher's are the first crop of bad educational teaching practices that were instituted back in the 80's and 90's. As the say in the computer game "garbage in, garbage out". I feel that we should go back to the standard old ways of teaching, after all the material for grade schoolers hasn't changed why has the teaching method ? Computers should be banned up through 11th grade. Teachers need to teach and not just monitor a class.

Very good comments but we need to keep in mind. that teachers are no longer as concerned with education as they are with indoctrination.

Shellback Loc: North of Cheyenne Bottoms Wetlands - Kansas

dirtpusher wrote:

the smart teachers are bailing.... .gov cuts in education. states cuts in education funding.

...

It's a crime they way the schools are underfunded.

I have also noticed more Governors are being sued by the state school boards/districts for failure to maintain the state mandated school funding.

Our Governor (Kansas) has been ordered by the State Supreme Court to increase funding to meet the state law and he refuses - keep coming up with BS excuses and saying he is meeting the requirements - meanwhile school districts are closing schools and dropping programs due to lack of money.

One of the problems across all enterprises is that when money gets tight, the first thing to be cut is training...

fantom Loc: Colorado

Shellback wrote:

It's a crime they way the schools are underfunded.... (show quote)

I am not familiar with the situation in Kansas but the waste here in education is sinful. If educators and administrators cannot perform zero based budgeting they should be replaced or forced to justify, specifically line item by line item, what they are spending and why. They might also explain why union dues are so high and why the majority of the dues go to political campaign contributions.

Carl D Loc: Albemarle, NC.

It's sad state of affairs when we now spend more money on education and get in return a less and less educated generation of children who will become our leaders of the future. Perhaps all this "modern" type education is a step in the wrong direction and we need to step back and reevaluate the whole process without the so called scholars intervening. Let the general populous make the deciding outcome of how are teachers are to teach. We have let ourselves slip into believing these so called experts, some of which are from the vary generation in question. Ultimately our generation is to blame for letting this go this far.