Some of y?all should take a look at the new teacher grading rubric used by administrators to grade teachers...you wouldn?t get halfway thru it before you quit reading it and wonder what the hell much of that has to do with teaching. And there in lies your problem in public education, or at least one of them.

I?ll be starting my 12tg yr in the classroom next week...all but two at my current job at a school very comparable and similar to Starkville. And these are some things I have personally witnessed/experienced numerous times. Young teachers hafta get in and learn their style of teaching, college doesn?t prepare you for that. There is a lot of stress involved in that. Add on top of that the job pressure put on them because they could be let go for nothing more than a teacher cut based on budgets. It?s stressful and they don?t want to deal with it. Principals don?t have the option of allowing too much learning on the job because their heads are on the line every state test and school report card. While the reality of those is much more based on socio economics than it is on teacher/administrator performance.

Put all that together with kids and parents who have no respect for anything or any one combined with the wide range of teacher effectiveness and we are where we are. What?s the fix?? I don?t know but some common sense rooted in reality would be a start...and I?m not talkin about at the district level.

All that said...I enjoy my job and specifically enjoy teaching in my current district. But make no mistake, it takes a good long while of being around and seeing the ins and outs to realize the level of enjoyment that I have reached. Some really good teachers have quit or been run off before realizing it and it has hurt our school 10 fold.