Did Trump even say it?

I've also been a teacher, but not a school teacher. Actually wouldn't want that job; I think the frustration would drive me nuts waiting for someone who really was hungry to learn.
I agree that self-confidence is very important. Empowering kids (and grown-ups) to manage their own lives is both wonderful- and something you can't do for them. You can help those who will find the will to help themselves, and I do try to do that.

I also believe you have to start where you are at- and that a person must recognize and accept that reality as a first step. For example you can't tell yourself you are smart and therefore don't need to listen to a teacher, because you will learn nothing despite their best efforts. IF you recognize that you don't know (usually as evidenced by the fact your life isn't working) then it makes sense to listen to someone who can show you how- but most won't. And of course, teachers are fighting the lack of solid parent support and role modeling. Tough road to walk.

The most effective method I have ever seen to change people's mindsets and value was the military. I've seen them change the unchangeable, the dedicated street tough kind of guy. Know how they do it?

First- they take away everything the recruit has that is symbolic of his identity. Shave your head, takes your personal possessions, put you in the same clothes as everyone else, treat you like everyone else- and tell you you are nothing, a maggot, a worm, or anything else the drill Sargent chooses. Then, you have one way to earn any kind of respect, and it's their way. If you do it well, in a couple months you are a new person. Unfortunately, that level of control is not possible in public life. But note that their little miracle only happens because they have taken away the defense of self-delusion first.

I'm saying I agree that we need to give people the strengths that come from the inside, but sometimes you have to lay it on the line, and say- You ARE here. Is that where you want to stay? And, they need to see that place for what it is, as well as seeing the place they could be with the right choices. I'd call that incentive motivation.

My respects go to all teachers, I realize they have a tough job, and have to be doing it for more than the money.

 

I agree with you about the military. My husband lived in the worst poverty I have ever seen and had to drop out of high school. He joined the Navy and it totally changed his life. He ended up a vice president on Wall Street and retired and his 40s But the reality is women didn’t have that option. His sisters married at 16 to get out.
I loved teaching and especially love teaching in one of toughest areas in Brooklyn New York because I felt I was making a difference. People would say to me, “why do you stay there?“ And my answer always was, “how can I not?“. Hearing from kids that I had more than 30 years ago, getting acknowledged by a very famous person, knowing I made a difference has given my life such enrichment. I learned so much about prejudice from my kids.
I tormented my kids about getting out of the rut of the “hood”. I made them k ow the difference between black dialect and standard English. We jad an ongoing joke, when anyone said the word ain’t the class would point and say, “Ms. R is going to kill you”.I would tell them that they have opportunities their parents never had and I’m counting on them. And yes, i was tough on them. I have great joy when I hear from kids who are successful. And my heart breaks when I hear some have died.

 

I don’t know any teachers who do it just for the summers off...most male teachers work in the summers . If a teacher is just doing it for tenure that is a miserable teacher.Those teachers don’t usually last.

 

Well- I'm old, the future is not mine anymore. But it saddens me to see younger people who can't understand that it is theirs- and it will be whatever they make of it. Many believe the world makes them, but in fact it is us that makes the world. We make the immediate world we live in individually, and our combined choices make the larger world we live in. The point is that your life starts with you- nobody has more reason to make it work and nobody has more power. When a person comes to understand that and takes responsibility for that power, then they can control their destiny. If we knew how to make people understand that and do so, it would change the world. I can see you are trying, and I wish you the best outcome for those efforts.

 

I know several teachers that started teaching later in !Ife because they were abject failures at everything else. "Them that can do, them that can't teach."

 

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How nice....I’m sure they weren’t successful as teachers either. But it’s obvious you hang out with failures ...I have met people like your friends and they are usually the ones that leave teaching within a year. Usually men who think teaching will be easy. And I bet you wonder why in June I get so many calls to try and motivate teachers to stay and the main reason is they get so little respect from people like you.

 

NO one can disagree ..but you are being very logical, but not psychological. It reminds me of the kid who is being taunted for being fat and people will say that it’s her fault for letting it bother her and she shouldn’t let it bother her.
Poor kids in most cases like something the rest of us have… Hope. When I grew up I knew I was going to go to college. When my husband grew up it wasn’t in his realm of reality. He comes from seven siblings and not one of them finished high school.
I work so hard with my students to show them all the options they have that the parents didn’t.

 

Never said they were my friends and in fact I disliked all of them. When I was in school most teachers just showed up and collected a check. A handful were great and I remember them to this day. In my experience then as a student and now as an adult I'm not impressed with the caliber of the average teacher not to mention the fact that they tend to be liberals that want to push their agenda on young minds instead of actually educate. A teacher in here once told me teaching AGW was more important than teaching history. What's your take on that statement and the teacher that made it?

 

I didn’t really believe you in the first place but then when you start with the liberals pushing their agenda or on young minds I know you are full of crap. They just follow the curriculum. I know you are upset because they teach science. I wish I could teach what you want. An invisible man in the sky went poof and everything happened in a week.
You may not be impressed with the caliber of the average teacher but I’m willing to bet money you have no idea about the caliber. And as long as people disrespect education like you do, there is going to be a real teacher shortage.Teaching is probably the most difficult and important job and yet it gets a little respect and then you wonder why people are not going into education.

 

Thank you for confirming everything I said about how most teachers are liberals with an anti conservative agenda and I noticed you never answered my question. What's more important, teaching AGW or history?

 

If by "anti-conservative" you mean "fact based" and logical...then yea...you got that right

 

History is fact based but it gets pushed aside to teach a hypothesis.

 

My intent is to point out that the psychology- and by that I mean HOW you think rather than WHAT you think- makes the difference. It's somewhat like optimism vs pessimism; the optimist sees reason to try, the pessimist does not. At the same time, if the optimist tries and fails because he didn't grasp the real nature of the challenge, he may soon be a pessimist. I believe success is possible for anyone, but most will be the cause of their own failure. We owe it to others to not make things worse, and to be role models to emulate. However, we cannot do for them what they can only do for themselves. Showing them the options- the possibilities, is something of value. If you don't believe you can- then you probably can't, solely for the lack of believing it's possible for you.

Sounds like you are a dedicated teacher. If more students came to you with equal dedication, your own goals would probably be fulfilled..

 

All you are saying is that you favor your version of history over actual science

 

I guess crying fake news is easier than being a man and owning up to your failures. Not surprising.

 

My goals have been more than fulfilled. I think I mentioned that 16 “kids” that I had when I was a new teacher found me and gave me this beautiful plaque. To give you an example of how long ago I saw them. They were 12 at the time and now they are grandparents. Nothing is as rewarding as teaching and knowing you make a difference. I was also lucky enough to develop a curriculum in prejudice and One of my favorite stories is a postcard I got from a girl years later ... it said, “dear Ms. R I hate you! My life was so much easier before you raised my consciousness and now I am busy fighting the world to make it better. She is a lawyer now. People think prejudice is only about race but they don’t realize it’s also about looks, about age, about disabilities, about gender, religion, Sexual orientation, life styles etc. and about politics! I am sure of the right wing here will accuse me of trying to poison minds with my liberal believes, but trust me I play devils avocate all the time. I also work with teachers and it is fascinating. I also taught sex education and that’s another book in itself. It’s amazing how much teens don’t know!
I guess you have to really work with kids and see them day to day to realize that some of them have such horrendous lives that they can’t see a future. My daughter is a counselor in high school and she is part of a program called avid. They Imvite kids who are bright but do poorly in school and fall through the cracks. These kids commit to working hard in this program, they have teachers who they work with and this year every single one of them is going to college. They would tell my daughter they never dreamed they would go to college. Sometimes kids just need to believe that they have the ability and it’s for the counselors and teachers to guide them, I wish every school had a program like this because too many kids fall through the cracks

 

What makes you say something so dumb? Do you even know what the curricula are? Or do you just get yourself all worked up over something you know nothing about....be afraid, be afraid, be afraid,,,the bogeyman is coming!

 

It is such a stupid question. We teach both. That’s like asking which is more important teaching math or English?
Probably right because most teachers probably are liberal because it seems that the agenda you want is to teach that an invisible man in the sky did everything and we shouldn’t study evolution or scientific theories.
I realize that teaching science and history is indeed an anti-conservative agenda. That’s why Trump loves the uneducated so much

 

Teaching history and teaching AGW are two entirely different things as are teaching AGW and science. AGW is politics.

 

The media has lost all credibility and you can no longer trust need stories based on anonymous sources.

 

Yet you never answered my question about the teacher in here that told me teaching AGW was more important than teaching history. She even said kids don't need to know who Custer was. Do you agree? Now that I think about it maybe it was you who said it in the first place. By the way every post you make confirms my suspicions that most teachers are rabid leftist like yourself and politically motivated in the class room.

 

Really?

She said that?

You wouldn't mischaracterize (some would say lie) about what she said, would you?

 

In the case of Leftist you'll get far more bang for your buck from teaching them real world math instead of Democratic arithmatrick! Clearly percentages need attention along with "Whats bigger" $8,000,000,000,000 or $1.00 that would be a tremendous help!

 

I told her I was talking to a young nephew of mine that could tell me all about AGW but didn't know who Custer was. She said knowing who Custer was is irrelevant while AGW was extremely important. I think it might have been Renee but I'm not sure on that.