Who feels the teaching style with our children is much different and harder than 20 years ago?
472325
I think these days, teachers are being forced to "teach towards the test" only.  In my state specifically, being an intellectually well-rounded student means nothing as long as your state test scores look good.  Previously, students were learning to successfully function in society, as well as to do well on tests, but the inverse seems to be in practice today.  No one is teaching courtesy, chivalry, or common sense to kids these days, which I think are imperative to becoming good citizens.  Teachers, in my opinion, are really getting a raw deal now.  Reproaching students by calling parents or punishing them doesn't seem to be working either.  OK, getting back to the teaching topic... one excellent teaching technique is to become as personable with students as possible.  That, in turn, will give students an initiative to learn.  I have had some horrible experiences with teachers that just don't care and have expressed this to students.  I definitely think that teachers these days are on the defensive and this a stark contrast from 20 years ago when the teacher acted more like a second mother to students than a disciplinarian only.
520525
I use to teach- and LOVED it (most days)- but then I had my kids.  Now that they are young, I tutor in my house.  \n\nIt is convenient and flexible. I love that I can be more relaxed and that I have the opportunity to meet some great kids. \n\nI do however, miss teaching a class of students- When I taught I worked with the whole class, in small groups and one and one all in a given day.  I DO NOT the miss the stress of the politics behind teaching....still I hope to go back someday.... goodness knows when that will be.  In the meantime- I will have to stick to tutoring and visiting this website :) \n\n\nGreat question !
458849
That's impressive. The youngest teacher I've known was 37. My current teacher is 71. You must have started at a young age!
239232
Regretfully the traditions 30 years ago do not apply to now.  They have changed for many reasons...finance, technology, peer pressure and culture.  I didnt have a great deal of help from my parents seeing that they divorced when i was 12.  I had to learn my own morals early and get to know them\n\nI respect elders, im polite, i do the best i can....regretfully tho media and peer pressure are the worst.  People have now become revolved around themselves instead of their friends and family.  A survey was done on a current affair show here in Australia....a women scraped her knee after falling down.  ABSOLUTELY noone went to her to help.  Im ashamed....But the pressure of ones life has become so great that people have to see it themselves before they get sucked up by beuocracy
726222
As a mother of 3(and a day after all 3 of their P-T conferances!!) I absolutely agree with you..\nToo many parents out there coddle their 'poor innocent children' and don't even know the first thing about teaching them responsability and discipline..I really think that it is a major problem right now but will really come back to bite us in a few years when they are 'adults'.\nMy now 10 year old had major problems with late work and 'forgetting assignments last year. The teacher cared enough to call me and both her and I sat down and developed a plan to work this out together..we checked her work leaving school and I checked everything at home. It was time consuming for both of us; I also NEVER blamed the teacher-i made my 10 year old accountable and wanted her to understand that she needed to become responsable. A year later at her 5th grade conferance(last night!) her teacher this year had nothing but good things to say..how she dives into her homework at study time..asks for help and never has late work this year..plus she had almost straight A's..\nI think teachers are wonderful and are one of the most under-paid professions out there..\nUnfortunately some parents take those things as some sort of personnal insult or don't seem to understand that in a few short years their children will need to enter the adult world.\nI hope knowing that a very, involved caring mom(able to admit that my child isn't perfect!)completely agrees with you will help
400330
As a former educator with 40 years of experience as a teacher and high school principal, my guess is that most teachers are graduates of colleges and universities that are the hot beds of liberalism. Be bolstered, however, by the possibility that many more conservatives are entering the profession. At least that was the trend when I retired five years ago. Some see the flaws of the liberal bible.
643863
Well... I suppose you refer to education school wise vs. at home. I am not sure about how it's going in the States. Here in Spain, it's been turned into a disaster. The new trend is to have everyone move at the pace of the slowest person, so if average reading age is 5, and the slowest kid learns at 7, then everyone has to learn at 7. If you don't pass subjects, you don't have to repeat the whole year as it used to be...you just move on so that some other facts that you will never learn can be piled on you. I guess mental discipline is not in fashion, as it's considered discriminatory. I'm sorry to say this, but the new ways with education are a bunch of crap. \nIf you are asking about education at home (manners and so on), I think parents are generally afraid to punish their kids as if being a child gave them some semi-divine shine that can't be touched. I believe kids need discipline, routine and order to develop correctly: rules help them know what to expect and become nice, charming people. Kids are not charming just because they are kids...more of the opposite. Please train your kids to turn into reasonable decent, bearable people!
277960
I would have to contribute this partly to the parents.  These days, parents are not as involved in their children's education as they once were.  Also, there is a growing number of parents who condone WHATEVER it is that their child is doing (even if it is the wrong thing).  The parents will always come to the child's defense and blame everyone else.  Additionally, there is a lack of discipline in the homes because parents are afraid to firmly (spanking) discipline their children because of legal retort.  And last, I will have to say that the government is doing very little to support educators (teachers and instructors).
909897
Guess you wont know until you try.  I spent four years of college to be a teacher, did student teaching and hated it.  I felt the same as you...loved kids, projected well, had lots of friends but teaching was not for me.  I wish I had been able to do student teaching before I finsished college with a degree in education.  In my days, student teaching was the last thing you did before graduation.  I love the teaching aspect but could not get on with administration.  Because I was sensitive to the needs of kids, I had issues with the curriculum not meeting the needs of individuals.  Only trying teaching will help you know and let your mum eat cake while you try.  Maybe she's right, maybe not..only you can know and you cant know til you try.
288043
Go back to the old fashioned way of teaching reading, writing and arithmetic.  Kids today don't have the basic skills when they graduate....
652251
You know, this kind of info really gets me going. I am old fashioned and it really pains me when people keep pushing things to be accepted by society onto our children. The system was working before, why change it? If it is not broke, don't fix it!\n\nThey push things like "No child left behind" and pushing to get harder curriculum's, but they have not one clue for some idiotic reason that it is at this level that we really need to pay attention to what our children are being taught. Do people not see that society has gotten worse? So obviously things are not working. They need to quit messing things up before it gets so bad that it becomes totally acceptable that our children are being led to believe that it is ok to be immoral because it is what society accepts. Then eventually marriage and the traditional "mom" and "dad" will be phased out.\n\nI have enough to deal with as a parent on issues like evolution and a teacher arguing with my child that it is true.\n\nGot my blood boiling now........I am on board on stopping this, tell me how to help!!!
105769
Hmm, I believe you answered your own question. I would also agree that too many parents think school is too hard on their children, when the truth is that's the way it supposed to be. It's all about "stretching young minds."
275934
Geez, it depends on the teacher. Some teachers heavily incorporate technology while others teach in the same way as instructors did fifty years ago.
838137
I am a High School English teacher, my sister is and Elementary School teacher and our cousin teaches special needs so I think I can answer this with a degree of knowledge.....the answer is a definitive ....YES.  newyorkgal 71 says that she believes that most teachers just don't care anymore but I can tell you that those of us who do care see a drastic down slide in the grammatical structure of most individuals writing and speech. I believe it is because we as a society have made it acceptable to use slang as a substitute for appropriate speech, until we as a whole make a change we as teachers can teach and instruct as much as we can and want but  what is learned at home will usually prevail.
113241
They aren't simple things to learn. They're hard to learn, and it's a long and complicated process, made more complicated by bureacacy. That's why I moved to a different country to teach.
1118923
I think that education is as much a family thing as it is a schooling thing. There are so many parents these days who have no interest in what their kids are learning. A child needs the basics to be supplied at home before any teacher can get them interested in learning.
406722
Yes i have lost faith in the American education system by reading some of these questions. When i went to school during the mid 70s Thur the 80s they taught you how to spell and proper grammar.I do not know how some of these young kids make it through college, because they must write reports with proper spelling and grammar. Sigh, they are going to be our future leaders.