If you find yourself wondering why you have to interact with stupid, uneducated, ignorant, and otherwise useless people, please blame school boards, school administrations and parents. Yes, I said it. PARENTS. Not all parents, but enough of them. As a teacher, I have been told to give a student a packet of work and if he/she completes it, give him/her a passing grade. I have refused stating that I have allowed this same student the chance to make up work, re-do work, re-take tests, turn in late assignments. I have stayed after school, given up lunches and come in early. Yet, I have not once gotten a parent to call me back, attend a conference, email me or otherwise contact me. The school board threatens NO SUMMER SCHOOL every year. Every year, the students can attend 16 4 hour days and that is supposed to make up for the class they failed. They can do this for up to two classes. I promise you I have seen the worksheets they do, and there is no way they learn anything other than “Hey, I don’t have to do shit all year, and I can come get a free lunch, and they’ll pass me”. Then they get to high school and don’t know shit.
I can promise you when we get them from elementary school, they are already two, three, four years behind. I have had students who are reading on a 1st and 2nd grade level. You can only hold that struggling child back so many times in elementary school before you have to socially promote him. The same goes for middle school. You can fail them once. After, they get socially promoted. For the kids who are “too old”, we now have a computerized program that students take a year or less to complete. The district and the administration determines which lessons they must complete. NO, it’s NOT all of them. They are taught no research skills, which are higher level, critical thinking skills. Mind you, if I am evaluated and found to NOT be teaching this skills, I can at the least be chastised and at the most be written up or fired. Teachers are NOT failing your kids. The “powers that be” are.
I am teaching high school summer school this year. It is all on the computer. Basically, I, and another teacher, re-mediate as needed. Otherwise the students are on their own. they must complete a mere 50% with a 70 or better and they can be finished. If they do that in a week, they’re done. If thy do it in five weeks, they’re done. The group we have consists of 9th, 10th, and 11th grades. The DISTRICT (which I will be happy to remind you is made up primarily of men and women who have not sat in a classroom in YEARS), determined the content. It is maybe half, MAYBE, of what they should be learning for the year. I do think it will take most of the students the entire time to accomplish their 50/70 goal, but then what? Next year they’ll be sitting in their next English class completely unprepared.
School boards need to quit letting a handful of high-maintenance parents control them. They should also be made up of a broader range of stakeholders. We have a school board member who was a clerk of court for her entire life. WHAT does she bring to the educational table? People voted for her, a familiar name, so we’re stuck. There are no teachers on the school board in my district, and it is my understanding that this is how it is in most school districts. If you think this is only done in my district, you are SORELY mistaken. It is an epidemic in America. It is why we have fallen behind “lesser” nations. Our entire school system needs to be scrapped and revamped. I have no problem with computer learning, virtual classrooms, etc. What I do have a problem with is the dumbing down of a curriculum by the district and administration, but when test scores roll in, it will be teachers to blame. If my students who are with me every day don’t do well on the PASS test or if i taught high school the HSAP and EOC, it will be unspoken that it is MY fault. So, who is at fault when the student who did NOT pass MY standards in my class is passed along?
Know thine enemy. Teachers and most parents are the only people looking out for your children and their education.
Incoherent Ramblings 
Nah. I had lots of great teachers. But I also went very high in college. VERY HIGH. And when I came down off of all those drugs, I found I had a number of degrees. I also found that the level of dumbass you have to deal with on a daily basis in a place where everyone has advanced degrees does not go down even a small bit.
I also suspect that adults in general make too much of a mental separation between themselves and kids, thinking somehow they know so much more and act so much better. I know no less than 10 people very well that would likely not do well in high school right now because they’d goof off too much. If you need any more proof, just read the comments section of any article on USAtoday.com. (Don’t do this near any sharp objects or open windows).
I don’t know the answers. Your guess is as good as mine.
I’ve got the boys in a charter school. I wish you’d come out here; I’d love to know what you think. We picked this school because Jonah was going to be the youngest in his class, and is a bit on the “high energy” side, and would never have survived in a place where he had to sit and be quiet all day. So, he is learning research, and has to do it for several projects a year. He is learning critical thinking. He is headed in to 5th grade, and he still loves school. But, his writing skills are still pretty poor, and his actual handwriting is horrendous (yes, worse than mine). He is really bright at math, but I think he can (and should) be doing much more. They don’t believe in homework for homework’s sake (and neither do we), but when he does have it, he has no idea what to do, and getting him to work on it is agonizing. And now Sam is starting to do the same things.
All you can do is supplement their classroom learning with at home teaching in the areas you see a weakness. Also, the more they read, the better their writing will become. Read a novel together as a family, like a book club or as a group. I require my students to re-write assignments that are illegible. Not making them accountable, just validates that it is okay to not write neatly. I was a VERY messy writer as a little kid, the only low marks I received. I hade a teacher that forced me to write neatly or she would make me re-do it. Being the lazy person I am, I only wanted to do it once, so I learned to accomodate her. 🙂