Re: [SLUG] operating systems and schools

["Aussie" <ifightspam@nospam.bigfoot.com>]

Date sent:      	Tue, 01 Feb 2000 22:18:11 +1100
From:           	Terry Collins <terryc@nospam.woa.com.au>
Organization:   	WOA Computer Services
Subject:        	Re: [SLUG] operating systems and schools

> Hmm, so once again, teachers get blamed for the effects of changes
> made by interferring parents and politicians. We now have a system
> where you have to "look good", so is it any wonder that teachers teach
> for the imposed external tests, rather than teaching standards.
> "Teaching standards"? Did you know that there are not any now. There
> are no curriculum defined the  NSW dept. Each school is supposed to
> develop their own.

You know the "standards" are bad when you write and speak using correct 
grammar (anybody actually know what that is these days?) and your English 
teacher "corrects" you by telling you the WRONG thing. Add to that teachers 
claiming that "nobody under 25 (it was a few years ago) should even know 
Imperial because they weren't even born when it was around". Personally, 
that's absolutely disgusting. My parents use Imperial because that's what 
they were taught and they feel most comfortable with it. If I am not 
supposed to know Imperial because I was born after 1966, how am I supposed 
to understand them?
Unfortunately, this is not actually the teacher's fault. They have had 
their subjects so cut back that some things have been thrown out.

> Where else do you have to buy from your employer a book that tells you
> what you are supposed to be doing? The Dept no longer actually prints
> and distributes enough subject information booklets for all teachers
> who need them. Rather, it gets as many printed as the amount of
> commercial sponsorship allows. 

Typical of (Dis)Hon. Aqualina.

> Sorry, folks, but two things happened in this household. My wife, a
> teacher, is no longer allowed to work more hours in the year than the
> equivalent of a 40 hour per week job. So now she stops work of an
> evening at 9pm instead of the 11pm+ that she previously did.

I don't blame her. Why should she work when she's not getting paid for it?
On the other hand, the current dispute about pay is bad. If you agree to 
work x hours for $X, why complain half-way through the year because you are 
getting paid $X to work x hours? (No flames please, I know many teachers 
work far longer hours than they get paid for, that's not my point)

> Second was I saw the cost of the stationery that the dept fails to
> provide for her to do the reports they require and to do work in the
> classroom. It gets claimed off tax, but it is still a large deduction
> from her pay packet. I've stopped helping with anything to do with the
> school.

Good idea. The employer should be providing the stationery, just like every 
other industry.

> As I continually remind my wife "You can not save children from their
> parents" Not just the ones that spend their money on drugs (tobacco,
> alchohol and the illegals), or abuse their children in various ways,
> or buy them junk food, toys, nintendo, tun on the Tv at 5am and
> totally ignore their children, but also the ones who totally expect
> the schools to educate their child in every way. It is a miracle any
> child learns anything at school with all the special programs they
> have to run to make up for parents who really don't give a toss about
> taking responsibility.

Ahhhh, parent's responsibilities. I'm glad someone else feels the same way 
I do about parents not taking responsibility for their children. I came 
from a good home where if I did something wrong, my parents would take the 
responsibility for me and would correct it. Heaven help me afterwards 
though! I think this is where the current laws fail badly. Once it is 
illegal to punish your children, you lose the respect of your children and 
you also lose control of them and their actions.
Why is it that the best place for children seems to be the child care 
centre, then pre-school, then school? The excuse for this is that they are 
professionals. Well, who gives a shi^H^H^H^Htoss? How many parents are 
professional parents? How many of these so-called professionals are 
parents?

> How much money did you spend on toys as presents for kids last year?
> How much did you spend on books as presents for kids last year?
> Every child that my wife has had to do special intervention reading
> course with has come from a home where there are NO books. Even
> suppossedly good homes are almost book free zones.

This is one thing that I enjoyed in my childhood and still do. I read 
hundreds of books a year, always have and always will. I love reading and 
have loved reading since I was 8. I knew how to read basic words well 
before I started school....my mother taught me how to read a little, how to 
spell my name etc and I cannot thank her enough for the start she gave me 
in life.

> Put your own house in order and accept responsibility for educating
> your children, nieces and nephews and other kids before you start
> blaming teachers, who are being asked to do more and more for less and
> less.

Hear hear!

Aussie


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