Tell me what you really think.
AMEN AMEN AND AMEN!!!!!!!
Last year HG made a bad decision and cheated on an exam. She got caught. The teacher approached her and the other child involved. The other student said that they were helping each other. Next thing you know HG started spouting off that she they were not helping each other but that they were cheating. The teacher then took them both individually aside and spoke with them about honor and respecting themselves. She also discussed trust and how her trust had been broken and how that felt. Then she was sent to the principal. While that was happening HG was BEGGING the teacher to not call me. The teacher was BRILLIANT! She said simply...,"Would that be loving you?" Of course her answer was no. I was then called in to the meeting. At first I was BLAZING mad. Then I realized as I looked at her that there was more to the story. The principal left me alone to discuss it with her. In the end I learned that she was underconfident in her ability to do math. She was afraid to fail. That day I gave her permission to fail if she had absolutely tried her hardest. I know that sounds weird but I took the pressure off. I told her that I expected her to be an honest person more than I expected good grades. Yes I want her to do well but if she doesn't understand something and is not confident that she needed to confide that in me. We could help her. From that point on she has excelled.
I don't want her to be the weeping adult. I want her to be a confident woman some day. Actually I pray for that.
Thank you for the pep talk. I think I'll quit blogging until after the kids go to bed tonight. They just got up from resting. Time for a little two on one time.
Did I just do a post on your blog OR WHAT???!!
I've been simmering on a low grade seethe all morning since I read Richard Cohen's Algebra piece. How are we supposed to improve education when we've got a major newspaper columnist basically saying there isn't anything in math worth learning after the 6th grade? No wonder the country, and the press, is in so much trouble.
I say AMEN! AMEN! too. We need you permission to copy this email to every newspaper in the country, and hope that the powers that be in school systems see it and take heed.
BOY I agree more people should read what you wrote..it is right on target as usual. More teachers shoudl feel the way you do ..but sadly they dont.... : )
THAT was a beautiful post.
Of course, some of those kids may have been caught borrowing intellectual property before, but had parents with the attitude of "Everyone else does it..." or other sorts of rot.
That makes you want to be ill.
Thank you so much for *teaching* - not for judging. I had friends who cheated: some did it because they were lazy, but many did it because they were so overwhelmed with pressure to succeed without anyone to advise or mentor them. Some were caught, and they did their time as they should. But those teachers who caught them did them a great service by looking beyond the circumstances to what was going on at the core. I so appreciate your willingness to do the same. Can I send my son to you? He's only 17 months, so it may be a few years . . . 
Beautiful. Perfect. This should be printed in the front of every education textbook and parenting book published.
You inspire me, Mamacita!
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Amen to that.
[RANT]
This is something I can really relate to as I was the target for bringing down by one teacher in particular when I was in school (many, many moons ago) but it's something that I've always remembered. The view I formed about these types of teacher is that they know they are probably never going to progress higher up the food chain so they have to get their power kicks from bullying their students.
It is a sad state of affairs that if these people were to gain higher positions then they would probably divert their sadistic actions to their subordinates.[/RANT]
BTW Michele sent me.
One thing you didn't mention that I see a lot is the willingness of so many teachers to accept balatnat plagiarism. I've seen preposterous "book reports" plainly copied from book covers accepted by many teachers.
If they would stop doing that, our jobs would be a little easier.
This is a brilliant post. May I print it out and hang it on my fridge?
You oughta print this up and hand it out at the first of the year to all your students. And offer it to the superintendent as well.
I sure do wish my daughter had had a teacher like you. No such luck.
I'm not sure which is worse--the power trip that Scouser mentions, or the psychologically comforting belief that a power trip is the best explanation for the described behavior.
Misguided, perhaps, maybe inappropriate. But power trip? I guess it's possible, but I don't see it.
I see what Scouser wrote about. In high school, I had a priest - former Golden Gloves, small, smelly, arrogant guy - shove me up against a wall and proceed to bitch slap me for not saying "hello" loudly enough for him. I wasn't combative, but I regret not poking him in the nose. Now I find out that priests do far worse things to boys, then and now. Power trip? Hell yes. He and the likes of him lived for it. And the likes of him are legion.
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