How do we expect American schools to turn out smart graduates when most American school teachers are stupid?

Answer 1

I just read some research about a week ago from a study that showed teachers who choose or felt they had a gift for teaching had students who performed 50 percent better than those who did not. That is not just a drop in the bucket.

But....here is the reality in America. The schools are underfunded, the president's program has left education in a shambles, classrooms are too full, no one wants to pay anymore taxes for new schools or even expansions. Teachers are having to be parents, guardians, police and counselors. Their pay stinks. Under those conditions, teachers, even those who are truly gifted become disillusioned pretty fast.

Think about it...it seems a lot of you are still in high school...what goes on in your classroom, is the teacher given any respect, do they have any time to teach or do they have to spend all their time disciplining students and trying to control the class. Your teachers are not dumb, they just do not know what to try anymore.

I expect they are as frustrated as you are as students. Maybe you guys (teachers and students) need to pull together and start telling the people who can make a difference what needs to be done for our schools.

Answer 2

As a teacher, I have to agree with the fact that most people have made here. First of all, there is so much extra responsibilities that are put on teachers, that we often are so exhausted and spend less time on lesson plans and try to make it easy for ourselves. I never did that, but I know a lot of teachers who do. It is much easier to throw a book assignment at the kids, then it is to create something more powerful to learning. I, for one never used the book. I made all of my lessons from the material, but that was it. I taught full-time for 2 years in a high school and the demands from No Child Left Behind was more than I could bare. I now substitute, and will continue to do so until this stupid law is changed, if it ever is. Unfortunately, my school system lost a great teacher when I quit. Most of the teachers now are just hanging in there long enough to retire, or working solely for health benefits. I don't get benefits as a sub, but I don't care. Substituting allows me to be around the kids and to teach at certain oppotunities. As far as teachers being stupid, well, I will be the first to admit that there are more stupid teachers than there are smart ones. Because if they were smart they would get out of teaching full-time like I did.

Answer 3

Go to your district office and find out ways in which you can help at the schools, whether it is after-school tutoring, starting a school club, or literacy assistance. Run for school board member or the parents' council, and start campaigning for local changes. If you're still in school, enlist the help of "smart" people you know to start a program/class, maybe through a community school, to help students to learn more easily (using various approaches such as writing a manga book, or story-booking a video game,), and contact the newspapers and other media -- they are powerful tools. Enlist the libraries to start a contest for students and teachers (maybe the students will do better than the teachers! and that would be great publicity).

***********Edited***********
I'm just adding to the above answer I posted earlier. I also TOOK and PASSED .... the first time around.... aced (got an "A") on the CBEST -- California Basic Educational Skills Test -- for teachers. I am NOT a teacher, but thought I might use substitute teaching as a backup. When I took the test, which I did not study for, I noticed that approximately 75% of the testers had taken the test not just once, but maybe 4 to 5 times already!! And...the test is in three parts....and each part can be taken on separate dates. Because I was driving farther away, I took the entire exam all at once -- and aced it! I never studied ... it was BASIC skills, not ADVANCED skills!! When I walked out of there and realized it was basically a test at a 7th grade level and MOST of the test takers had taken the test over and over again...and failed...and eventually would pass (there was no limit on how many times you could take it to pass) and become TEACHERS, I realized then WHY my child's teachers were not at the same educational level at which I am. Very disturbing.

I am also a social worker, and have worked with delinquent teens -- I well know the social implications of out-of-control and inattentive students. Yet, the reality is that even basic skills have not been taught well in the schools -- at least in our area. It is not all on the parents -- I came from a background where we had outstanding teachers (NYS -- decades ago), and didn't have enormous amounts of homework, and teachers actually TAUGHT, and CORRECTED work. Teachers didn't drive off in their cars even before the kids got on the school bus after school!

Therefore, it's a truce: both parents/students and teachers are to blame. They need to work on the same page. But teachers need to be better-educated in order to teach well. Just reading the posts on the internet is mind-boggling in the lack of English writing skills. Education in the U.S. needs an overhaul -- both students and teachers!!

Good luck.

Answer 4

And who are you?
I take offense at that notion. I went to school in a small town and was lucky ehough to have some very intelligent teachers, one of which is now running for a public office. In addition, my mother is a teacher, and having had her for a teacher and busting my butt, I still got a B in her class.
I think America is full of VERY lazy students, more-so than stupid teachers. Yes, there are some bad "apples", but there are just as many, if not more students who could care less about school, making it harder for everyone to get a good education because the teachers have to DUMB IT DOWN for them AND spend time just trying to keep control of the students who DON'T WANT TO BE THERE, detracting from the time actually spent teaching.
PS- No child left behind is a crock of **** and a total failure.

Answer 5

I don't think we Expect to turn out Smart Graduates. We have given up on that, now we just try to turn out Graduates, that were Smart Enough to just Stick with SOMETHING long enough to get a Degree in Anything in order to get a Job where they can Support Themselves and leave their Mommy and Daddys'. After all, Those Ignorant Teachers are and have done Just That!

Answer 6

The level of education in many teachers does seem to have dropped sharply withing the three sets that I have known. Those that taught me, Those that taught my kids, and those that teach my grand kids. I suspect that this has to do with two factors.

First the increasing number of better paying, higher status jobs that have opened up to females during this period.

Second the declining status of teachers in the job market. When I went to collage - somewhat late in life - Education majors were already beginning to be seen as the bottom of the heap. I am told it is even worse not. It is possibly worth noting that in most Asian countries a teacher is highly respected within the community.

Answer 7

I disagree with you 100% I am a teacher who has gone through college and have found myself on more than one occasion stuck because of the pressures put on teachers to be perfect. Please remember we are all humans who learn on a daily basis and who have many things to keep track of at once. Maybe if the students parents spent their time teaching their children right from wrong and other social skills then I wouldn't have to waste 1/2 or more of my day always redirecting their child's behavior. The real question is am I here to teach them about these subjects or be a social skills teacher.
Also lets not forget the mountain of paper work a classroom teacher has on a given day. If that teacher has even one student who is receiving special services there is daily monitoring and reporting for that. Or how about the student who needs these services, then there is usually hourly documentation as well as lesson plans, grading, meetings, conferences and parent communications, these are just a few of the daily pressures on teachers.
We love our jobs but please don't sit back and tell me what's wrong with the picture unless you are willing to help fix it!

Answer 8

The teachers are not stupid, it is the parents that are not smart enough to help their children with their homework, or don't discipline their children and let them act out in school and they disrupt the whole class!

Answer 9

Excellent question. It may be "too far gone" to turn around the schools systems. Perhaps teachers will chime in on this.

Answer 10

nobody is perfect and when a teacher is teaching they have a rubric and books to teach out of that have the answers all they have to do is explain it and since you have such a major problem with stupid teachers why dont you become one