BY JOE DEMARCO – I wish the Star-Advertiser and the think tank demanding teacher flexibility could spend just a few minutes in our schools. What might they see?
They would see a dedicated teacher trying to convey their knowledge to a dilapidated, overcrowded room full of degenerates who are either busy text messaging each other, talking, sleeping, or staring out the window. But wait, let’s make the teachers work more hours without paying them more.
Longer hours should bring up HSA test scores. WRONG. In places like Waianae, Hana, Hilo where 20 percent of the students don’t show up for school and another 20 percent of the students just plain don”t give a rip, you can make them go to school for 20 hours a day and they still won’t learn anything, because they just plain don’t care. They have parents that don’t care and the cycle goes round.
Teachers don’t need to be more flexible, they need smaller class sizes, less behaviorial outbursts and students who actually care about education. I’ve heard people say teachers need to make class more interesting. Again I have to plea, the students who don’t want to be there would be bored if we were going on a rollercoaster to study centrufugal force.
If the system is broken it’s because the parents and students aren’t doing there part. Teachers see students about an hour a day, five days a week, we can hardly correct the behavior of a student who has been conditioned to do whatever they want when they want. If the students aren’t learning, maybe we should start blaming the students.
Joe DeMarco can be reached at demarcj49@hotmail.com