It’s not easy being a public school teacher these days. Not only must they contend with often-conflicting demands from school boards and parents, but they are frequently unable (or not permitted) to discipline unruly students, must contend with a huge variety of culture and language distinctions, and must often intervene in instances of physical or psychological abuse. Teachers are also facing a massive influx of migrant children, making classrooms even more complicated.
“Teaching has turned into behavior management day care,” said one teacher. “It sucks the joy out of you all day, and then the parents are calling to suck out some more joy. A select handful of kids are incredible and fantastic. So many kids won’t turn anything in as in earning a literal 0 for the semester. While all of this is going on you’ll have admin and the network telling you the kids are failing because you didn’t set them up for success, you didn’t invent a new wheel, you didn’t take enough data, you didn’t love them into behaving better.”
Another person observed, “I feel like most teachers are stuck between a rock and a hard place. The school administrators fail to protect their teachers from those overbearing parents demanding good grades for their child, regardless of whether or not they earned it. They can’t teach anything anymore for fear of some parent getting mad or taking offense. It’s a mess.”
Teaching is a tough job.
Simply, there are no consequences for unruly students anymore, and teachers have been telling anyone who would listen that discipline in schools has long passed a crisis tipping point. Then the “Defund the Police” crowd chimed in and look what happened. No consequences for criminal behavior or a slap on the wrist, anarchy in the streets of many cities, and business closing or moving because of it. To everyone who voted for Biden, this mess is of your making.