Back to school season is batty

I am a little miffed at my sons kindergarten school, I bought him a backpack for $15.00 and now I get a letter in the mail saying kindergarteners are not allowed backpacks they need a bag of somekind, so now I have to hunt one of those bags down.
 
I am a high school music teacher. When I taught in public school, I spent a great deal of money. I had a couple hundred dollars to put on 4 major concerts, teach voice class and music theory. It's shocking how little the schools have. Now that I am back in a private school, I don't have that problem anymore.

Public ed. needs a complete overhaul. The social and educational needs are very different than they were when this system was developed. When I was in school (graduated HS in '79) school was the majorly important part of the day for me and my fellow students. Now, school is a small part of the day for many students with their lives outside of school (whatever they may be)as they have jobs, take care of siblings etc. Lots of my kids had no homelife, which was very sad to me.

It would take a great deal of creativity, courage and money to transform our ed. system. I wish the powers that be would understand that our society depends greatly on our kids. ok - I will stop now!;-)
 
I haven't found it to bad yet.School doesn't start here until Sept 7th so we have a little time.We did go shopping for school clothes yesterday.I managed to spend $200 on clothes for her.Thank God she is an only child.I did get alot of clothes though.3 shirts,2 sweaters,2 skirts,2 pairs of pants.Not bad....
Lori:)
 
Lori....September 7???!!!! Where are you from....I want to teach there....LOL!!! When do you get out for the summer?
Angela:7
 
I knew people in the States go back to school earlier then us b/c a lady I know just moved to Florida.She had to go last week b/c school was starting soon.
I live in Canada.The kids get out here in June.Somewhere around June 23rd or so.They probably still get the same amount of time off though.
Lori:)
 
LOL- What a laugh about a couple of posts. For those who made comments about Bush. DON'T EVEN BOTHER! Bush does give support to schools. Ever think of the Board of Education?? A lot of them are thieves believe it or not. I live in a town where people donate millions of dollars a year to schools and these kids sure had "brand new" text books. The classrooms look like sh*tholes, the kids are not being taught right, etc and there sure isn't a teacher shortage here. They only care about money. The BOE stole a lot of money from the people. I'm sorry if Bush doesn't think public schools are not on the top priority at the moment. If you bitch and moan about the salary and all, why don't you complain to the BOE. They're the ones who deals with salaries and all. You'll be surprised to find out how many of them are weasels. It's just not here in NY, it's all over the country. When my children reach school age, they are going to private school. At least they will get better education and the teachers at public schools won't poison their minds with liberal babble jabble. I'm not being a snob here. I'm just tired of teachers whine about these. What are teacher's union for??? Blame it on the president is a cheap way to do it. I'm not trying to get political here but you people had to shoot it out of your mouths. Enough already, ok?
 
This summer.. my son suffered some major health issues... and I have been truley amazed at how caring some of the teacher, headmaster have been. They really do care. The teachers check school email during the summer and have been in touch with us.

I commend these teachers who give so much to these kids. Other than patenting I think teaching is the toughest job and makes the biggest impact.

Re the calculators.. yep they are 83$.. sophmore year in HS.. My daughter is heading off to college this week.. and yep.. the dorm stuff is soooo expensive - but hey it only happens once - so we are splurging...

(and to the post above... ummm i believe you are the one making this a political forum)..

Re the public/private school debat. We live in an afluent are where my 60 out of 165 kids went to private school ... She is going to the same college that 3 other kids from our town are going to (and they all went to private school! Granted there are a lot of reasons for private school besides going to a good college.. but it made me feel good nonetheless.
 
Hotspur,

I am not sure what your post is referring to. After 12 years of classroom experience and a masters degree (plus 30, close to getting 60), I make a very good salary with good benefits. I will not apologize for that, and I will not be ashamed of that. I earn every dollar I make. I never complained about my salary.

Additionally, there is no one "Board of Education". Each school district across the country has its own BOE. The Federal government does not have a Board of Education, so I am not sure which BOE you are talking about when you say, "The BOE stole a lot of money from the people."

I do not "poison children's minds with liberal babble jabble" and I know of many excellent, open-minded teachers who are personally very conservative. I resent the blatant insult to my profession. Teachers are too often easy targets for the public's frustration. Please do not make gross generalizations about teachers as a group. As in any field there are good and bad and everything in between and exceeding. It is truly unfortunate that there are bad teachers out there, but then it is also very unfortunate that there are bad doctors and bad police officers and bad anything.

I resent being accused of "shooting it out of your mouths". I have been "in the trenches" for 12 years. I have had incredible successes with my students as well as a few failures where I was sure I made the wrong career choice and didn't deserve to teach. I am very well aware of my responsibilites in my classroom to my students, their parents, and to society at large. I have been around long enough to have endured every crazy new teaching method visited upon the public school systems. I am also experienced enough to understand that No Child Left Behind is a very misguided approach to education and that more testing of children is not the answer to what ails the public education system. Bush does not understand the problems of public education as much as you would think. He does not understand what the children and parents I work for go through every day just to survive.

I wish I knew what the answer was to public education, but NCLB is NOT it.

A veteran teacher,

Susan L.G.
 
Gee, I thought we were griping about school supplies, not the teacher woes. Susan, I come from a different perspective. I live in a wealthy school district. If it weren't for all the time and financial support that us parents give to the school, our children wouldn't get the educational experiences that they do. I sometimes feel that every time I turn around, they are asking for something from us parents. I give alot of my time to the school and my wallet seems to always be open. Sometimes it's too much. Teachers do have a tough job, but I have a tough job too and I don't get the summers off!
 
robyn6002---We are doing the dorm thing for the second time (and last time--whew!) He is a boy and it is surprising how LITTLE boys )men-;-) ) want to take. I actually had son#1 IM me and say---you were right, Mom, I need this/that, and then I was shipping stuff to him! :p Guys are such minimalists. But, it still costs alot becasue the stuff they DO want to take is very expensive. Techno-junk. Both of my boys actually went oout and got wires of some kind and splicing equipment and are going to do something with their computers which escapes me. I don't even want to know after what we've paid for their computer equipment. Then there is the cost of being on the crew team at college. Wow.
 
As a matter of fact, I don't take the summers *off* - I work in the ESY program (Extended School Year) working in our school district's autism program. I use my ten weeks to learn something new about teaching, to try something different. When the new school year starts, I am refreshed and ready to take on a new year, as corny as that sounds.

I have worked every summer of my teaching career.

And the "at least you get the summer's off" accusation is really old and cliched. Do you know how many times I have heard that? In reality the 10 weeks in the summer (for which teachers do not get paid) are often filled with mandatory training classes and post-grad work required to keep their certificates current. They don't get paid to attend the trainings and $$$ for college classwork comes out of pocket. Around here, college coursework is about $350 per credit hour.

It really hurts when people fling the "summers off" accusation in my face. Anyone can become a teacher, and yet most people choose not to, despite the "summers off", and even then many of the ones that do become teachers bail out after a year or two. Most teachers don't make it to ten years.

I am very sorry that you are compelled to spend so much money on your child's "public" education. Where does you child go to school? I teach in the DC/MD/VA region of the country, so you *know* everything here is mucho $$$.

The cost of EVERYTHING about education is outrageous. But as the saying goes, "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance."

Susan L.G.
 
All I want to say is I think teachers are one of the most unappreciated professions, and the first others turn a finger at when things are not up to snuff educationally wise. These people are responsible for the education of a child..how much more responsiblity and pressure can be put on a job. Most truly love their jobs and are not paid and recognized as they should be. I was merely complaining about the cost of starting up for a new school year ( this is certaintly not the teachers fault..blame state, local and federal government) There is simply not enough funding being supplied at these levels, and there should be..what is more important than the minds and education of our country's future.??? Cant think of anything.. I have nothing but the upmost respect for teachers..I cant think of a more important job other than parenting.
 
Thanks for the kind words, groundhog. I personally cannot think of a more high pressure committment than parenting. I wouldn't even know how to begin to raise a child these days - which is why I never started.

Susan L.G.
 
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