Shining Thru » younger generation

What do you wish other people understood?

cnj222 — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 21:27:12 +0000

The question was posed, what do you wish other people understood? My answer….

I wish people understood that teachers have a life outside of the classroom

That although they care about the students, all 140 students are not their children

I wish people understood that it is not a realistic thought

for a teacher to see a student for one class five times a week and undo 15 years of bad habits or misinformation

I wish people understood that teachers are more than a babysitter

For on a daily basis, a teacher has to play the roles of teacher, mother, father, brother, sister, friend, counselor, nurse, and police officer

I wish people understood how involved a teacher is to their child’s future

….to the future of the country.

I wish people understood that although a school is responsible for the child’s well being during the day,

the parents are still ultimately responsible for the child, and an answer like “they’re your problem until 3″ is just pathetic

I wish people understood that a good teacher doesn’t start work at 8 and leave at 3

That the day begins early to prepare and set up and the grading goes late into the night, and summer vacation without work and preparation, is a far and distant memory

I wish people understood that the disrespect you show your child at home,

or the disrespect you accept from your child at home, gets transferred to the teacher during the day

I wish people understood that a teacher often loves their job,

while not in it for the money, they still has to pay their own bills, provide for their own kids

I wish people understood that not every child comes from a rich family with plenty to eat and love to go around

and that teachers are charged with making up the difference

I wish people understood that along with the academic standards for instruction,

a teacher is also expected to develop character, morals and ethics, behavior, work ethic, etc.

I wish people understood that just because something is announced as a good idea on the news

Doesn’t make it one.

Please check out the details of the new teacher pay bill and consider if we did everyone’s job this way: a five minute survey after a police officer gives a ticket, or how about the police officer gets docked in pay if the same person gets another ticket for the same offense. What if we gave a public survey out on all politicians and based their pay on the results? What if doctor’s lost 30% of their pay because someone came to them with something that simply can’t be cured? What are we teaching with a bill like this?

I believe this will only keep good teachers away from the students who need them the most. And it’s funny how the only suggestion they have for getting the school districts more money is to give teachers less. http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=14222574 It’s also interesting that they say that the pay incentive plan has not been set, but they are not saying that something has been released and circulated in the education world, here is what teachers have been said will determine their pay:

-All teachers will be paid on what they do (subject and content areas will determine your pay base)

-All Teachers will go through SAFE-T (ADEPT) every year – 4 evaluations (2 teacher and 2 administrator) – 50% of your score for pay

-Pre and post test data for your students (probably MAP 75% class growth) – 30% of your score for pay

-School collective test data – 10 % of your pay

-Professional responsibility – 5% if your pay (parents and students will be part of the evaluation process)

-Professional development measured by instructional practices – 5% of your score for pay

All of these points are outlined in the bill. You can gain access to the whole bill at http://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess119_2011-2012/bills/3363.htm

The Rose

cnj222 — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 23:26:05 +0000

But he that dares not grasp the thorn Should never crave the rose. - Anne Bronte

I think there is a lot of truth to this statement and a lot of time we forget, as our society turns more and more towards this feeling of entitlement, that most good things come with some bad, and most bad things come with some good. I don’t know anyone who likes to get pricked by the thorns of a rose as they pick it off of the bush, but some how, we can’t resist picking it anyway and holding it close to smell the sweetness….even if our fingers are bleeding a little bit, at least we can smile and sigh of delight as we breathe in the fresh scent.

How many people today feel that they are entitled to something for nothing? I see it all of the time in the younger generation especially. High school students who feel they don’t need to do the daily work because they should be allowed to have extra credit later….or if they are failing by one point, then it’s their teacher’s fault that they failed because the teacher should have given them that one point. I don’t know how giving anybody anything, especially at that young age teaches responsibility of any kind.

Sometimes we have to be willing to take the bad with the good. You want a better paying job, but don’t like the long hours it requires….sometimes that’s the thorn….you want a cute and cuddly baby but don’t want to be up with them all night….sometimes that’s the thorn on the rose…..sometimes you are feeling depressed but a friend calls and brightens your entire day…sometimes that’s the rose.

I think that most things we encounter have the good and the bad…it’s a system of equality that God or the Universe or whatever you believe in came up with to maintain order….besides if we didn’t know what bad was, how would we know what good was? Have you ever stopped to think if something can exist without an opposite?

Educational Purpose

cnj222 — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 00:59:59 +0000

What is the purpose of an education? Teachers today have to teach their content area, act as a mother/father, counselor, nurse, teach manners, etiquette, coach…and basically just fill in the gaps. Why is it that some parents can be so wonderful and supportive of their children, while others can’t wait for school to start back up because they feel like schools provide free child care and comes with statements like: “let them deal with them” or “they’re your problem now.” It amazes me that some people don’t even want to own up to the fact that they have children, have no interest in raising them, simply give birth and leave it at that.

It’s amazing how some kids can be sent to school without having had anything to eat, no money, and haven’t slept at all the night before for whatever reason. Then teachers are suppose to get that child ready for college when that kid really needs a good home life, not to know his times tables. Not that they don’t need an education or don’t deserve it, but how can we expect these children to concentrate on academic work when all that they can think about is how hungry they are?

Are teachers suppose to work on the character of the student, the academics of the student, the extracurricular activities and abilities of the student, or supporting the student? The truth is that they are expected to do all of that and make sure that the child is ready for college and “the real world.”

Today teachers are held accountable, which sounds like a good idea, until you realize that the people coming up with the standards and the evaluation process have never had anything to do with education. They aren’t putting the students first, they are putting the numbers first, and that is not the way to help our students.

The sad state of things

cnj222 — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 07:00:45 +0000

We wonder why our society is going down hill, why the younger generation is less educated and more demanding…and then we read stories like the one found here http://fortheloveofya.blogspot.com/2010/10/censorship-at-its-finest-honoring-end.html and it all makes sense. It is ridiculous that parents, educators, administrators, and community members would go to these types of extremes to hurt their children and obviously go against what is in the best interest of their children. Stories like this make me sad, knowing that there are people out there who care and are doing everything, literally everything in their power to make a generation and help us to build a strong and educated younger generations, and then to see them get slammed down and attacked for caring and for doing their jobs. Ridiculous that this is the state that we find our society and our education system in. We wonder why we are stuck with the gimme generation as our future, when that is exactly what we are creating them to be…don’t work hard for what you want, simply ask until someone gives in after all you’re entitled to whatever you want because this is America….ridiculous that these are the values we are teaching our children by our examples that we set forth as parents or community members, by not standing up for what we know is right, but not holding them to a higher expectations, even what it is so obvious that is what they are craving the most. My heart is breaking for the students who loss an amazing opportunity to be taught by someone who really cared about their future and really wanted them to learn and love to learn, someone who was indeed getting results….instead they were shut down, and shown by their parents and community that wanting to expand your mind simply wouldn’t be tolerated. Those students may remember that they were taught to love reading and were introduced to new and wonderful things, but they will also remember that those thoughts and ideas persecuted someone who they held in high esteem, who they cared about and recognized that they cared about them. This teacher’s story is one that should be shared and reviewed by everyone, no matter what country, simply because everyone should know that their actions are watched by the younger generation and maybe, just maybe people should give up control long enough to realize that maybe something they didn’t think of is actually in the best interest of their child or children.

Desensitization

cnj222 — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 02:42:37 +0000

I think it’s interesting that people throw a fit over how much violence is in the movies that kids watch today, but they never seem to worry about anything else. I think that we should be more worried about not that kids might watch aliens or fighting with light sabers, but that they are being desensitized to much more realistic things in our every day society, like responsibility or hard work. Today more kids than not are not held accountable for their own actions, and they do not realize that things that you get in this life need to be worked for. I cannot believe how many teenagers and even younger kids that are angry with their parents because they didn’t get the latest IPhone, or whatever they are looking for. Even though they still have nicer clothes, phones, and sometimes cars that I do and I have a job. Many children these days don’t know what it’s like to have to work for anything.

I think that our society is worried about desensitizing our children to the wrong things. I know there is the occasional crazy kid who thinks that the big battles on Star Wars are real, but I think for the most part kids only have healthy imagination and don’t actually feel the need to kill anyone after seeing a movie or playing a video game. I do however think that we are doing our children a huge disservice by sheltering them from the realities of the real world and giving them more chances than anyone will give them as an adult. Kids today get to go to summer school, or protest their grade, or have their parents protest their grades, or do online make up credits, all sorts of things, simply because they didn’t feel like doing the work the first time around and failed. I don’t understand why we keep giving chances like this to children, it would be different if they were actually trying and just didn’t get it, but the ones I know will tell you out right that they simply didn’t feel like it. Too many young people think that the world will bend to their whims and desires…it’s kind of scary when you think about a future of an entire generation that will be shocked when the realities of adulthood hit them…if they hit them….they might just keep going not understanding why things aren’t working out or letting their parents and grandparents continue to shelter them and do all of the work for them.

Fairy Tales

cnj222 — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 23:13:28 +0000

I have to wonder if kids today even know classic fairy tales, it seems to me that the media sources that we encourage today do everything in their power to distort the original work. Like many things these days, it’s not what it use to be. Fairy tales have been altered, and I don’t always think that’s a bad thing. I think it might be a good thing to put Cinderella into a modern story line, even if it doesn’t carry some of the mystery that I feel comes with reading or watching about another time period, it might make little girls find the story more believable and inspire them to think it could be them one day, which I’m also not saying is a good or bad thing. I think that we already entice our youth enough into believing that they can have or do anything that they want, but that’s for another post.

Sometimes I think Hollywood gets carried away by trying to make the younger generations interested in classic fairy tales by adding violence and cursing and just other extremes that take away from the innocence that was once found in nursery rhymes and fairy tales. Maybe we want to see the happy ever after without feeling like we are watching a Shakespearean tragedy because dead bodies are covering the floor of the closing scene. Maybe some of us like reading about the innocent love that the young couple is blinded into thinking will be perfect.

There are plays and movies out there like “Into the Woods,” which I personally enjoy, but wouldn’t watch every day because it takes away the happy ever after part of the fairy tale that makes you feel good at the end of it. Should we encourage such idealistic ideas in our children today? Or should we push that it’s a harsh reality?

Today’s News, Tomorrow’s Future

cnj222 — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:56:41 +0000

I’m not sure where the younger generation is headed, but it doesn’t look good. Legislators keep trying to increase the curriculum and make everything look good on paper, but what it’s actually doing is forcing kids to give up. No child left behind is plowing students over by trying to make them keep up with some made up standards by politicians that have never been inside a classroom, other than as a student. I saw in the news that another student brought another gun to school….I think that it is so sad that we have to worry about such things. As always the comments on the article were much more interesting that the article itself…people say all sorts of things from where are the parents, to that school is for the trash of the district anyway…Even if it is an alternative school how can we possible call children trash….Schools have a lot of issues these days and it scares me to think that these are the people of the generation that are suppose to be running things in the future. If we don’t get it together and start worrying about the right issues I don’t understand how we expect improvements. What good are nice looking standardized test scores in the records office if children are running around on the streets or bringing the streets to the schools. I don’t think that we realize all of the time what kind of issues are in the homes for the young people today, but I also don’t think that we should be making excuses for anyone, I think that the first step to having any real improvement is to hold people responsible for their own actions.

Gimme Generation

cnj222 — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 10:46:59 +0000

What are we teaching the younger generation when you can see a 15 year old throw a full out temper tantrum with stopping feet and slamming of doors? What have we done to make that seem like it is ok past the age of 2. We should be breaking our kids of that habit when they are 2 not when they are 20 and get fired from numerous jobs and end up on welfare because they can’t deal with things that happen in their work place, or when they don’t agree with their boss. What are we teaching younger kids for them to think that if they stomp around, yell, or be rude and think that it will help them in any sort of way. A teenager is way too old to be acting childish and not communicating like a young adult. And yet it seems like more and more young adults are not maturing like they once did. It seems like they are interested in things that are way beyond what they are ready for and try to be too much of an adult while still acting childish in their behaviors. I know that the teenage years are hard for most people, but there comes a point when we need to realize that as a society we are failing to raise these young people in a way that will make them responsible and mature adults. It’s the “gimme” generation. Too many of our young people think that they are entitled to things that they have not earned and if they are not given what they want then they have the right to complain, yell, stomp, and be rude as if they had something to be offended over. If parents don’t begin to raise their kids the way they need to as a parent instead of as a friend, they these problems will continue to grow.

Expectant Younger Generation

cnj222 — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 13:24:12 +0000

I think our society is creating a lazy generation in the younger generation, both physically and mentally….but how has this happened? Who’s “fault” is it that our kids complain about having to walk up stairs and aren’t able to take the elevator, or have to pick up their own mess, or be responsible for their own things and keeping track of them. It also amazes me how the younger generation cannot seem to retain information, or carry it over from one class period to another….but who do we blame…is it any one’s fault?

Why does there seem to be a whole category of reality TV shows that are devoted to showing how parents have screwed up their children? Things like “World’s Strictest Parents” or “Supper Nanny” or “Nanny 911″ Seem to be making a killing in the world of reality TV shows…..when did parents stop parenting, when did parents decide that they needed to be more of a friend instead of a parent? When did it become OK to disrespect your parents or take advantage of the things that your parents provide for you? When did it become OK to not be grateful but always wanting more and whining about everything?

Was it when both parents had to start working in our economy? Was it when technology became available to enough families that it replaced family time and babysitters? What makes some of these people think that they owe their kids the right to be disrespectful, rude, selfish and lazy? What is wrong with kids having to do chores or earn what they get? Instead it seems like the younger generation as a whole seems to think that they are entitled to things and seem to expect things that they haven’t earned or even attempted to earn.

I’m not sure when working hard became a bad thing and now everyone just expects things and seem to think that the things will just appear instead of someone having to work for them….I wonder how many teenagers today understand how much their parents pay for their cell phone, cable, Internet, etc…..

How can we change our kids back to the values of hard work and feeling proud that they worked hard for what they have instead of teaching them to look for the quick and easy way? I really think that our society is slipping quickly downhill and this laziness and expectancy is only going to transfer into adult hood, if not with this generation, then with their kids when the kids today are raising their kids the way that they were taught by their parents. I think that our society needs to be careful before we dig ourselves a hole that we cannot get out of….eventually there will not be anybody left that knows how to work hard to provide for all of these expectant people.

Empty Dreams

cnj222 — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:42:46 +0000

I think that we have sold the younger generation short by telling them that they can do anything and become anyone that they want to be. We make them feel like they are entitled to whatever they want, which is only limited by their imaginations. there is nothing wrong with wanting our kids to be more successful than us, but to make that happen. I think we need to introduce them to reality instead of only letting them dream. Dreams are not bad things, but if the youth of today has never had to work hard for anything and don’t know how to make a plan to achieve a goal, if they simply expect things to happen then those dreams will never be reality. No matter how hard they wish for and blame the world for their problems, if they were never taught responsibility and hard work, they will end up with nothing.

I don’t think it’s fair that we are teaching all kids that everyone should go to college, no matter if they are inclined to academics or not. I don’t think it’s fair that we are not encouraging our youth to follow the trades that they have a passion for and insisting that “No Child is Left Behind” and that everyone should go to college. Maybe not everyone wants to go to college….but what is more important is that we are not preparing our youth for college because we are lowering the standards to the lowest common denominator so that No child will be left behind. It is impossible to think that every child will always learn at the same pace as all of the others in their age group, across the country and across cultures….the only thing we are doing is setting them up for failure as a whole generation. I’m afraid that except for the few kids who are going to work hard to get what they want despite society getting in their way, the rest of the rising generation is going to end up with nothing but empty dreams.