@MrJdhistory
I'm a teacher. A couple of things that need to be discussed are parents. Most are not parents but instead try to be friends to their child. Second is standardized tests. Standardized tests do not make learning more engaging and important to them both while in school and in the workplace. And yet test scores are how schools receive funding through the state, so without them there is no way to fund them (through the current model). Lastly, I can’t stress enough how teachers can’t be all things to all students all the time. I cannot be a parent to your child. I cannot be their social worker. I cannot be their friend. I cannot be their jailer. I cannot be their priest. I can show up everyday and bring the best of my professional knowledge and enthusiasm and use best practices everyday. Under the current model that will not be enough.
@wade8130
I felt this way from the beginning of high school right through my college courses. "Why am I doing this?" What I wanted was simply to be educated, and I had to abandon that dream in favor of following a formula for future employment. In that environment, all distractions are major distractions. We have to get back to valuing intellectual development for its own sake, whether it's in a classroom or somewhere else. We have to love our own minds rather than just feeding them the candy of momentary gratification.
@jeanwinter9929
I retired from teaching. We did a time where we were working on critical thinking skills. My most engaged students were those that were asked their opinion about an issue, and I listened. This was 7 year Olds. Many kids need skills and an opportunity to be heard. Totally agree with this topic, but, unfortunately teachers have to comply with district or state standards that seem to change every few years, always looking for the next best thing, not getting teacher feedback. It's politics and money
@michelsummers6108
Teachers are quitting because they are blamed for everything!!
@autiejedi5857
It seems like a lot of this started when teachers were made to teach kids to pass state testing. It cut out the ability of teachers to be more creative and broaden the curriculum for their students. Poverty has definitely made things worse, but also kids see that despite education only the extremely wealthy get ahead.
@edithlazenby5839
Get rid of cell phones and computers in home classrooms. Don't make your class room look like a room in your house. Get your art, music, creative writing, photography classes and drama departments up and running! Kids need to have a place to work and express themselves! They will get engaged!
@anitrahall8417
My great challenges in the classroom, cell phones and apathy.
@francisryan4956
I've been a teacher for 16 years as a HS history and math teacher. I'm so done telling kids about the problems of the world and then working on some AP curriculum that has no way to address anything in the world we live in. Kids don't want it, I don't want it, but it's forced down our throats. Teachers are forced to teach a curriculum so that students can be judged and placed in higher ed. It's data and scores and bureaucracy. This notion that it's the teachers is beyond unaware.
@davidreninger5093
A certain set of teens will always be disengaged that has to do with many things some include peer pressure, teen anxiety , social status . That said , one of the main problems for lack of engagement by teens is that teachers have to teach to the test and many times the strategies they use and even the words are basically scripted and teachers are monitored by teams of administrators . Teachers are not allowed to teach to the students to motivate them to learn . The teachers have to teach to the test and to the administrators who monitor them. I have seen the rapid decline of autonomy for teachers to teach their subject to motivate their students for the past 2 decades I have taught in public schools.
@kenhunt5153
How many families have dinner together? No phones out? Do families prepare dinner together? More and more employers are looking for certification in very specific areas of tech. The general MBA track is almost dead. In most States with Core Curriculum Standards if it's February in 8th grade math you need to be on this topic. If not, your monthly benchmark testing will show this. Being a parent or an educator today is almost a game of putting fires out.
@abilyn3287
My daughter is a junior and recently moved from public school to online private school. She went from wasting 8 plus hours a day to now getting all her work done in 8 hours a week.she's much happier and more confident .
@RipMinner
The kids are seeing how society and companies take everything and give nothing back. Why would they work hard for that?
@lesleyheller2271
Trigonometry and many other required subjects in high school, even 50 years ago, were completely unrelated to most career paths. Kids need to be super literate and taught how to differentiate between facts and disinformation, and to behave civilly. They also need to understand how federal, state, and local governments work, as well as fundamental economics. Equally important, they need to understand personal finance such as credit, debt, mortgages, consumerism, fraud, saving for rainy days and retirement, Social Security, health insurance, and Medicare and Medicaid. And they need to PUT DOWN THEIR PHONES and engage with people and life!!
@henryt4695
Poor parenting, cell phones, and politicization of the curriculum. What a terrible time to be a student.
@afinn5555
10th graders are treated like 3rd graders this was the biggest complaint my daughter had. She hated that. She needed a hall pass in high school to go to the bathroom. I talked to her like a human person and that didn’t happen at school.
@MARCHp55
I grew up in the Philippines where children literally work while they go to school because everyone in the family needs to pitch in. They have no resources either but their own families, teachers and their classmates in school. And yet many of them get to go through college successfully. What would be the difference in those circumstances when poverty is something shared?
@humorherald
Self motivation is what gets a person started, it's the why. Self discipline is what keeps you going, it's the how, in terms of consistency. From early childhood to young adulthood, the balance of parents providing the motivation and discipline (and teachers) shifts slowly over time until eventually the young adults are fully responsible for them (college, trade schools, jobs, etc.). The number of kids in schools whose parents had a healthy balance (motivation and discipline) over time used to be high. This created mostly motivated, disciplined kids, with a few knuckleheads. Over time, the number of parents with a healthy balance shifted. Now, we have mostly knuckleheads and few motivated, disciplined kids. This has had a major impact on teachers. There is no solving the teen problem, absent solving the parent problem. As divorce rates and absent fathers (single mothers) went up, the knucklehead percentage went up. Distracted parents in a home can be just as bad as absent parents. And some single parents make it work because they're motivated and disciplined. Regardless, can't fix the kids without the parents.
@wootemi
Stop expecting kids to self Motivate!!!! You have to set boundaries! Requirements! High expectations! The whole “if the teacher makes it interesting, The kids will want to learn it” thing is BS!!!! Motivated kids come from parents who place expectations on them. The problem is that the schools now LITERALLY talk about “letting kids lead the way.” It’s not true! Tell them they have to! They. Will. Rise. To. The. Responsibility. This bafflement drives me NUTS.
@reviewguy12
American schools feel like prison for two big reasons: Car Dependent Suburbia - When you live in a car dependent town, there are only two places your children can go, school and home. It's not possible for children to go anywhere else because they need a car to get there and, obviously, children can't drive. When school and home are the only two choices students have, they feel trapped because they are trapped. If, at the end of the school day, children had the option of walking to a park or walking to a burger joint with their friends, school wouldn't feel like prison because students would actually have the ability to go somewhere else, besides home. That's how the rest of the world works. In America, the only option most students have, at the end of the day, is to take the bus home. Lack of Independent Time - In the office, the number one thing people complain about is meetings. "So many meetings, when will I ever get my work done!" Well, think about how school works, it's one endless meeting after the other. Students barley have any time to independently do anything. If schools gave their students one hour of study hall a day, that would dramatically increase the control students have over their time. They would be able to prioritize tasks and focus on things that are more urgent/difficult for them; whether it's studying for a test, working on a project, writing a paper, or simply doing their homework. Teachers could also use this time to provide tutoring for students who are struggling in their class. We're not all good at the same things, we shouldn't force all students to spend the same amount of time on all subjects. Students wouldn't feel so trapped because they would actually have the ability to choose and prioritize tasks, instead of constantly being ordered to do things.
@gsink6509