Family: What teacher learned 2 days as a student.

[mlr52]

Teacher spends two days as a student and is shocked at what she learns. by By Valerie Strauss October 24 Washington post.

Do teachers really know what students go through? To find out, one teacher followed two students for two days  and was amazed at what she found.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/10/24/teacher-spends-two-days-as-a-student-and-is-shocked-at-what-she-learned/

Most of what this teacher learned has been complained about by students, yet ignored.

[RandallS]

Teacher spends two days as a student and is shocked at what she learns. by By Valerie Strauss October 24 Washington post.

Do teachers really know what students go through? To find out, one teacher followed two students for two days  and was amazed at what she found.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/10/24/teacher-spends-two-days-as-a-student-and-is-shocked-at-what-she-learned/

Most of what this teacher learned has been complained about by students, yet ignored.

This sounded exactly like my high school experience -- and I graduated in 1975. It looks like nothing has really changed despite all the money spent on curriculum changes, testing, etc.

[Queen of Wands]

Teacher spends two days as a student and is shocked at what she learns. by By Valerie Strauss October 24 Washington post.

Do teachers really know what students go through? To find out, one teacher followed two students for two days  and was amazed at what she found.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/10/24/teacher-spends-two-days-as-a-student-and-is-shocked-at-what-she-learned/

Most of what this teacher learned has been complained about by students, yet ignored.

 
As a sub and someone who was in high school less than ten years ago, I agree with all of this and more. The school system sucks to the point where by high school, the kids don't care and give up or they want to get it over with and get out.

[Kylara]

Teacher spends two days as a student and is shocked at what she learns. by By Valerie Strauss October 24 Washington post.

Do teachers really know what students go through? To find out, one teacher followed two students for two days  and was amazed at what she found.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/10/24/teacher-spends-two-days-as-a-student-and-is-shocked-at-what-she-learned/

Most of what this teacher learned has been complained about by students, yet ignored.

 
I always feel blessed when I read about standard schooling.  I had the privilege to go to a high school that was focused on not only getting student's ready for college (so much more interpretation based classes and less rote memorization), but that also encouraged alternatives to standard lectures.  

I had one wonderful class (Mind, Nature and Philosophy), where we got to sit on our teachers front porch (the teacher lived on campus) and spend the classes in discussion of whatever our assigned reading was.

Even now, I get newsletters from my school, and they are doing all kinds of interesting things...makes me want to go back to school!

It also makes me sad when I think about my son going to school.  He just started high school, and he is a very active (twitchy) child, so I know that sitting still in the classroom and memorizing stuff is stressful for him.  I work hard to reassure him that he doesn't have a horrible memory, and even if he did that there are ways to keep track of things and not rely on just remembering them.

[Voren]

Teacher spends two days as a student and is shocked at what she learns. by By Valerie Strauss October 24 Washington post.

Do teachers really know what students go through? To find out, one teacher followed two students for two days  and was amazed at what she found.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/10/24/teacher-spends-two-days-as-a-student-and-is-shocked-at-what-she-learned/

Most of what this teacher learned has been complained about by students, yet ignored.

 
This is truly an amazing article, and wonderful read! If my teachers did this, I think I would've learned better in high school.

[HarpingHawke]

Most of what this teacher learned has been complained about by students, yet ignored.

 
It's really no shock to me. The schooling system is broken. What annoyed me about the article was that while the teacher went home exhausted, she had a chance to relax and recharge. Students have 2-4 hours of homework every night, most of which is either busywork or homework given by lazy teachers who won't bother to teach their subjects. Often, they're also expected to do extracurricular activities, and it's a requirement if you want to get into a good college; most high schoolers don't get home til six or seven every night and I know a good many who, on a typical night, do homework until one in the morning.

What I wonder is why the teachers continue to ignore their students. We're exhausted. We're exhausted and nobody cares about grades or learning (two separate things, IMO) because we're bone tired. And yet you need a 4.0 GPA to get into the college everyone expects you to.

Countless studies have shown that teenagers don't function properly until ten and should not be getting up until eight. Classes start at seven or seven thirty. Most teens are getting less than six hours of sleep and don't even get me started on the juniors. They're running on Red Bull and coffee and two hours of sleep a night.

And yet nobody bothers to fix it.

Apologies for the rant. It just frustrates me to no end that people could be learning so much and then they don't because the system is shot to hell.

[mlr52]

What I wonder is why the teachers continue to ignore their students. We're exhausted. We're exhausted and nobody cares about grades or learning (two separate things, IMO) because we're bone tired. And yet you need a 4.0 GPA to get into the college everyone expects you to.

And yet nobody bothers to fix it.

Apologies for the rant. It just frustrates me to no end that people could be learning so much and then they don't because the system is shot to hell.

 
My understanding of the New York City School System (I graduated High School in 1970).

Preschool teach the parents to get the children up early and wean the children away from their parents.
Kindergarten finish the weaning process, and start to teach the children to get along.
First to sixth grade children learn not to outshine the others unless they are the teaches pet.
Sixth  grade to 9th grade learn how to get up early, (at one time homework was given to finish the part of the lesson not gotten to in class).
Ninth to twelfth grad most learn to travel the city by themselves and a trade (?) the rest go to college.
College go into debt so they have to get a 9 to 5 job.

[sailor]

It's really no shock to me. The schooling system is broken. What annoyed me about the article was that while the teacher went home exhausted, she had a chance to relax and recharge. Students have 2-4 hours of homework every night, most of which is either busywork or homework given by lazy teachers who won't bother to teach their subjects.

 
The article sounds like she was at an IB (International Bacculaurate) school.  Supposedly modeled on European rathar than American schools.  From looking at the work load at school presentations and talking to somebody with a couple of kids in one the program seems to put "more work" rather than actual effective learning at the top.  

The article's description was nothing like my high school, or even college. I never had any classes longer than 50 minutes in high school except science labs.  College the only long classes were rowing, English and graphics.

[RandallS]

The article's description was nothing like my high school, or even college. I never had any classes longer than 50 minutes in high school except science labs.  College the only long classes were rowing, English and graphics.

The school was apparently on a block plan where classes were longer, but not every day of the week. I had this in middle school. Classes were longer than an hour (about 90 minutes, I think) but you only had them 3 times a week. What classes you had (and when they were in the day) changed each day of the week.

[HeartShadow]

 
Have you looked into whether he's ADHD?  I say this as someone who is, and the mother of another one - there's signs there that make me wonder.

OTOH, he could be bored.  or both!

[Amphibian]

It's really no shock to me. The schooling system is broken. What annoyed me about the article was that while the teacher went home exhausted, she had a chance to relax and recharge. Students have 2-4 hours of homework every night, most of which is either busywork or homework given by lazy teachers who won't bother to teach their subjects. Often, they're also expected to do extracurricular activities, and it's a requirement if you want to get into a good college; most high schoolers don't get home til six or seven every night and I know a good many who, on a typical night, do homework until one in the morning.

What I wonder is why the teachers continue to ignore their students. We're exhausted. We're exhausted and nobody cares about grades or learning (two separate things, IMO) because we're bone tired. And yet you need a 4.0 GPA to get into the college everyone expects you to.

Countless studies have shown that teenagers don't function properly until ten and should not be getting up until eight. Classes start at seven or seven thirty. Most teens are getting less than six hours of sleep and don't even get me started on the juniors. They're running on Red Bull and coffee and two hours of sleep a night.

And yet nobody bothers to fix it.

Apologies for the rant. It just frustrates me to no end that people could be learning so much and then they don't because the system is shot to hell.

I'm struggling to write this comment, because I have heard of several similar stories from friends and classmates and colleagues, and I completely agree that the system is failing a lot of students, but it doesn't resonate with my personal experience at all.  I never had to resort to egregious amounts of stimulants, nor stay up until 1am because of homework. Usual bedtime was about ten-ish, with the occasional 'watching TV/playing games and didn't notice the time'. I didn't take homework home very much either, because I tended to get most of it done in lunch breaks, free periods, or the bit of 'dead time' between school and my extracurriculars (band, theater, and swim team).

Did I have a perfect 4.0? Hardly. But I wasn't failing classes, either. And I did get into a good college, so...Idunno. Is the system broken? Definitely. It's still possible to work within the confines, though.

[HarpingHawke]

Did I have a perfect 4.0? Hardly. But I wasn't failing classes, either. And I did get into a good college, so...Idunno. Is the system broken? Definitely. It's still possible to work within the confines, though.

 
Hmm. Maybe it's just where I am at the moment. They tend to glorify the busy and ignore the implications to health.

[Tom]

The school was apparently on a block plan where classes were longer, but not every day of the week. I had this in middle school. Classes were longer than an hour (about 90 minutes, I think) but you only had them 3 times a week. What classes you had (and when they were in the day) changed each day of the week.

I had the same in both high school and middle school. So it's a thing that is done.

[HarpingHawke]

I had the same in both high school and middle school. So it's a thing that is done.

 
Apparently it's supposed to prepare you for college.

[Jenett]

Hmm. Maybe it's just where I am at the moment. They tend to glorify the busy and ignore the implications to health.

 
For what it's worth, at schools that are like that, it's usually like that for the *teachers* too.

At the independent school I worked at for 10 years, I remember a faculty meeting where it became suddenly clear that the majority of teachers were either coming in *absurdly* early in the morning (like 4-5am) to get work done (and continuing to work until 5pm or so), or were up past midnight doing it most nights of the week. There were exceptions, but they were maybe a quarter of the people there.

(There was also a lot of pressure not to take sick time, to put off things that weren't urgent in favour of Doing More For The School, and so on, all of which also - well, over time, mean people are just trying to get through the day, not working at their best.)

Public schools also have a lot of pressure to produce 'measurable' results - which both means testing (problematic) and a lot of documentation on the teacher end (which means both having materials they can point at as measures, and lots of time quantifying what that means.)

I agree the system sucks, but the problem is generally not the teachers - it's either parental pressure on 'having the best school' on the administration (and some messed up ideas of what that looks like) or pressure from the relevant government.