wut the problem for elemenetary school teachers?
473754
Elementary school teachers get the same pay scale as every other teacher in the district.\n\nHowever, the elementary classroom requires a greater variety of materials, decorations, activities, etc., and there is minimal help from districts in buying those things.
677989
The biggest problem in the US as far as school is concerned is the language barrier.  If the schools I have experienced are any indication, there's not much being done about the language problem.  There seems to be this policy of "Learn English" or fall behind, because we teach in one language and one language only.  Its not good.
365162
I'm a teacher.  I never have unrealistic rules in my classroom and I try to lead by example.  If I am polite to children and never shout, then I accept the same from them.  I don't usually have disciplinary problems although there is the odd exception.
368095
In California it's a big problem.  Did you know only 30 something percent of the education budget is spent on teacher's salaries, only 3% on supplies and just 1% on books.  It's in a Claremont Institue study.  The problem is bureaucracy -- the rest of the money is going to a multitiered bureaucracy with a district bureaucracy, a county bureaucracy, and a state bureaucracy.\n\nTo fix it you need to streamline the bureaucracy!  You probably didnt even know there was a county educational bureaucracy -- most people don't -- i say totally eliminate that layer and streamline the rest.  The Claremont study found that when they did that in Texas performance actually went up.  Then use the money you save by cutting the bureaucracy to build new classrooms and hire more teachers, thus reducing classroom size.
1073327
Definitely! As a high school English teacher, I KNOW that nepotism is hurting our schools. Constantly, highly-qualified teachers are passed over simply because a new hire is related to (or, not strictly nepotism, but because the new hire "knows" someone-this seems to be the major problem) a higher-up. The students suffer because the best teachers are not being hired. \n\nAdministrators should look for highly-qualified teachers (and not only "highly-qualified" because they passed the required tests, but because they are motivated to teach, and by a love of the students and the work) and they are the ones that should be in place in our students' classrooms!
163018
I am not a teacher but I think teachers have to put up with a lot of crap from students. There are so many kids today that are just plain lazy and disrespectful and then they whine because the teachers are mean. I personally think that "discipline" should be brought back into the classroom and home. If I said or did half the stuff kids do today I would have gotten my butt kicked!
105060
Problems at home is a, unfortunatly, big cause of it :(\n\nI hate saying that.  Also, lack of interest in the subject/course/class is a cause.  That lack can be caused by poor teaching where the student is not involved enough, to just not wanting to be there because it is *not cool*
296330
THATS HARD BUT U SHOLD TAKE THAT UP WIT THE BOARD OF EDUCATION IF THE TEACHERS AND PRINCIPLES AREN'T LISTING TO  CAUSE THE TEACHER CAN GET FIRED FOR THAT
197564
Teachers are underpaid and underrespected and overworked, its no wonder that there are going to be problems finding GOOD teachers in the coming years.
656716
First I think that 20% is a low estimation.  Second, teachers work incredibly hard to ensure that lessons are tailored to meet the needs of varying skill and ability levels.  Finally, even though teachers do what they can with the limited resources that they are given to work with, it remains difficult to reach all students (particularly with the levels of apathy at an all-time high).  There is nothing inherently wrong with the public school system.  The flaw however, is that not enough financial resources are put into a potentially great system.  With sufficient resources (financial, physical, and human), the percentage of students that would not understand their lessons would drop significantly.
142095
Ask one of the teacher's for help.
155793
Every child and adult in America falls under some kind of learning disabled label.  Apparently, EVERYONE has something wrong with them.  Its unrelated to your article, but I've got this sneaking suspicion that the problem doesn't lie within the student, but the teacher.  Remember when one classroom for all grades was the pinacle of education.  When people didn't fit in there was something wrong with THEM.  Ponder please.\n\nHappy trails.
1183597
Get rid of tenure, have a merit system for teachers, if they don't meet certain standards, they can be fired. Smaller class sizes, don't let the teachers, and their left wing union brainwash these kids with their liberalism.
53616
*sigh* Ok I need an hour to address this one. \n\nThere are so many factors to consider. School environment of course is a huge factor in a child's education and success. I agree that teacher's have a huge responsibility in making sure the students not only learn the skills but also the processes of learning. But just as a doctor's responsibility is to diagnose and prescribe the best cure, a teacher must diagnose a child's learning style and adjust their teaching style to accomodate those of the students. If a doctor has tried several prescriptions and the patient's body is not responding, do we blame the doctor? Therefore, why do we jump to blaming the teacher after he or she have tried several methods of teaching the material to the student? Do we blame the lawyer for not getting the serial murderer off the hook despite the evidence? Definitely not. \n\nDo we blame the policeman when crime is still on the streets? Hmmmm.......seems like we do. Do we blame the butcher for selling us tough meat when we overcook our steaks? Hmmmmm.......yes again. Do we blame the President of the United States when all domestic issues just don't seem to go according to plan? Yep......we surely do. So why is this? Could it be that society has gotten to a point where we refuse to accept our responsibilities? Are we spending more times placing blame on others instead of finding ways to make improvements starting right in our own households?\n\nTeachers, as all other professions, carry a heavy burden. But parents need to realize that the way their child learns is greatly influenced by the standards they set very early in life. If children know they are responsible for their behavior.....they behave. When children know they are held responsible for their learning......they become a student in every sense of the word. Teachers can teach and teach and teach and spoon feed and coddle and still a child that is not motivated to succeed will make no progress. \n\nIs it the fault of teachers that students don't always score high on tests? All cases are different........but indeed if we put our faith in the firemen, policemen, doctors, lawyers and politicians of the community.......we should surely lay our faith with the educators of today. \n\nLet education start at home.
238906
I think it helps.  Depends on what student see as the problem. Students don't like strict teachers at first, but hopefully see that that teacher cares about them.
341432
I've dealt with a lot of mean teachers and I know they can't get fired for that. My Freshman science teacher was mean to only Freshman. Now, whenever she sees me, she's always extremely nice. Some teachers are just mean because they don't like their jobs. Nonetheless, if your teacher wasn't teaching properly or was beating the kids, that would be a good ticket out of there. But just "being mean" could be a  matter of perspective and I don't think there's anything you can do.
1107083
I absolutely hate it when my teachers are unprofessional. They sit around with their feet on the desk wearing flipflops and sweatpants and drinking a Coke. They just yell orders, make threats, etc, but nothing happens. Basically I hate it when the class is a joke.