Rant on Fast Food Rocket Scientists

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Not in my regional VoTech HS; enrollment is booming.

Phyllis

Yeayyyy! THat's wonderful. It's very much not so out here in CA, or indeed wherever I look for data. Heartening; thank you, Phyllis.


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"I'm not saying people should beat their kids black and blue, but a good whoop on the hiny can go pretty far. "

"Spare the rod......"

I don't see how that's accurate. Overpopulation is certainly a strain on the environment but so is industrial pollution. China's population is falling but the pollution over there is awful and it comes from industry with no regulation to make them keep things clean.

Pollution is a result of overpopulation. No people, no PCBs in the water supply. China's pollution is not the result of no regulation, but the result of a culture which values face above substance, which is dragging itself up from 18th century tech to 21st in one generation via that self-deluding route.

Our (i.e. American) society has a low birthrate. Yeah, some families have more than two kids but others have none--I know at least three couples off the top of my head who have no intention to ever have kids. Just because my choice is different from yours doesn't mean I can't think for myself! (And yes, birth control is a wonderful thing or I'd be up to my ears in kids instead of just having two. That or hubby'd be real unhappy!)

That's not what I meant. Thank you for using your brain! What I meant was that there is no option given to women -- it's ASSUMED that every woman will reproduce. It's usually a revelation to women when they hear it for the first time.

And a low birthrate is immaterial. There are more humans in the country and on the globe every year. This is because the famous "replacement rate" does not take into account grandparents, or even grandparents having kids.


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If by preparing them for the work force you mean teaching them to conform above teaching them critical thinking I will agree.

Whoa! that's a good one. I totally agree!​

 

[FunnyFarmer]

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That just isn't my experience. I know there are cultures where that is true, but in my experience that just isn't true here. Maybe it's because most of the people I know are well-educated and middle or upper class.

Also, not to open another can of worms, but there's a world of difference between spanking and beating and I think that most people (including children) who have been *spanked* know the difference. I was spanked as a child and usually richly deserved it. My dad was beaten. He did not beat me. (I doubt we'd be on speaking terms now if he had.)

 

[Buster]

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Finding teacher contracts for Idaho was a bear. It is almost like they feel the need to hide the contract.

Anyhow this is what I found, start pay is $31,750 with a B.S. If you get a M.A you get an automatic raise.

Extracurricular compensation is based on a percentage of salary. Ranging from 2% to 16% of base salary. http://www.snakeriver.org/sr/pdflibrary/7132 supplemental contracts for extra-duty assignments.pdf (PDF warning)

Not as good as the other contract but not a stick in the eye either.

I almost forgot to add the fully paid medical, dental, vision and life insurance. That is worth $578.11 a month. ($6937.32 a year)

Quick math $31,750 + $6937.32 = $38,687.32 worth of compensation per year for a first year teacher.

Sorry the underpaid overworked argument fails in my eyes.

Funny you should post that. My dad took a HUGE pay cut moving from Texas where he was a teacher to Idaho to be a counselor. He had 10 years teaching experience and Idaho would only give him credit for 5. You can say what you want but I make as much as a construction worker as my dad does as a junior high school counselor.

 

[Buster]

Just talked to my parents and with an M.A. you get about $1000 extra per year than with a B.A. Also because of the way they do the pay schedule, you can work 5 years and make as much as teachers just starting. My mother started out making 25k a year and the 5th year she worked she made 31k and that was the same as the people just starting. She also had 36 graduate credits to go with all that.

 

[SewingDiva]

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If by preparing them for the work force you mean teaching them to conform above teaching them critical thinking I will agree.

No I'm not all talking about conformity, in “prepare them for their working life” I mean it in an office politics sense. We live in a capitalist society and work in the United States is, to me, really about “do lunch or be lunch” in many ways. I’m totally confident their school curriculum (I’ve been to curriculum night, I see their homework, I know the teachers) will develop their critical thinking in math, science and liberal arts, and their critical thinking vis a vis politics, ethics and religion must come from me and my husband obviously. But I have yet to be convinced, after 30 years of working full time, that being a working adult in this country, regardless of profession or industry you work in, is any different than the cliques, wannabes and have not angst of middle school and high school. Now if my kids decide to opt out of the work rat race then that's their decision, but at least I they will be prepared for it because its so much like school.

Phyllis

 

[plot_thickens]

Quote:
That just isn't my experience. I know there are cultures where that is true, but in my experience that just isn't true here. Maybe it's because most of the people I know are well-educated and middle or upper class.

Also, not to open another can of worms, but there's a world of difference between spanking and beating and I think that most people (including children) who have been *spanked* know the difference. I was spanked as a child and usually richly deserved it. My dad was beaten. He did not beat me. (I doubt we'd be on speaking terms now if he had.)

I'm glad your experience was not like mine -- but class or financial divisions may not be a factor as I was private schooled, by married parents, one an MA (psych) and one a BS (health care), in one of the most liberal areas of the country. Hmmmmm... maybe I was just hardheaded and didn't hear it?

And about discipline: an FYI from the other side of the hand does not come amiss. As a matter of fact, I think that comes under the heading of 'more information, from which one can make an informed decision'. Some children, when beaten, do not improve... same as dogs, only they get to choose your nursing home. *evil grin*

Either way, getting the word out to help make informed decisions is not a bad thing. Kinda like: I didn't know I could have CHICKENS! Wow, cool!

 

[debilorrah]

I know a gal that is a 17 year math teacher at high school. She makes $80k. THAT is ridiculous!

 

[redhen]

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because i am a dope here..is that alot for a teacher or not?...just wondering...

 

[debilorrah]

On a national average yes. CA teachers can make quite a bit of money depending on what district you are in. I don't have much nice to say abou teachers up here...... I have only met one that I felt was in the profession for the love of teaching children.

 

[FunnyFarmer]

But I have yet to be convinced, after 30 years of working full time, that being a working adult in this country, regardless of profession or industry you work in, is any different than the cliques, wannabes and have not angst of middle school and high school. Now if my kids decide to opt out of the work rat race then that's their decision, but at least I they will be prepared for it because its so much like school.

Yowzer, you must have worked in some nasty places. Office politics certainly exists and I've more than once wondered why people couldn't act more like adults and less like teenagers, but I never worked anyplace that was remotely as bad as high school. And middle school was even worse.​