My husband is a math teacher at one of our local public high schools-he finds
that he is criticized for having a 60% failure rate in classes with a 50%
absence rate. He stays after school to tutor kids with problems or kids who
have missed class, but out of 30 students he has asked to come in for help,
only 3 or 4 come. Then to add insult to injury, he discovers that many of his
underprepared students passed the previous level of math because their teachers
gave into pressure and started grading on a curve, so the students were passed
on to the next level of math without the skills they needed! Add all the
paperwork because of absent student, gang members who think they're going to
run the class, parents who can't seem to understand that a student is not
likely to pass math class if they never do homework or bring a book, pencil, or
paper to class and you have a teacher's nightmare!
Then of course, there is all the wonderful paperwork for keeping up with the
absent kids, forms to be sent home, etc. How much real teaching and learning
gets accomplished?
In the 30+ years my husband has been teaching the amount of work the students
are willling to do and the amount they come to his class knowing is steadily
degrading, and we're talking about basic pre-algebra and algebra students
here-not trig or calculus!
I could say more, but I need to get back to work! I am glad I left teaching
and went into computing many years ago!
Anita Almond
Tucson, AZ
ALMOND@CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU