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> teaching in most schools is babysitting. [Citation Needed] ...but seriously, if you think most teaching is babysitting, you have a woefully narrow view of w

> teaching in most schools is babysitting. [Citation Needed] ...but seriously, if you think most teaching is babysitting, you have a woefully narrow view of what goes on in classrooms.

Grishnakh 10y ago
No, he's correct for many schools. I had to attend a few of these schools when I was young (this was back in the 80s BTW). Even in one of the top-ranked and best-funded middle schools in my state, I had an English teacher who just gave us some busywork and watched soap operas on her portable TV. In the crappier school I went to before that in the poor part of town, most of the classes amounted to babysitting. I don't know how it's changed since then, but I doubt it's gotten any better, though this was before the days of Common Core and statewide testing and all that. From my perspective of what I saw as a kid, some teachers were good and really tried to teach kids well, other teachers were terrible and did the absolute minimum, if that. There was no consistency, though the schools with poorer kids did seem to have more bad teachers. So from my perspective, the problem seemed to be two-fold: incompetent administrators, and crappy teachers who couldn't get rated on job performance and fired. The good teachers hung in there despite the institutional and systemic problems.
- drewbug01 10y ago
  > this was back in the 80s BTW I'll see your 30-year old anecdote and raise you my own 10-15 year old anecdote: that didn't go on in my school at all. As an adult, involved in the local schools, I see something different. I'd invite you to consider it through a fresh perspective, not 30 year old memories of what your life was like as a kid.
  - Grishnakh 10y ago
    I also went to different schools in different places, and another thing I noticed is that they're all very different. Schools are administered at the local level, not the state or federal levels. So they can be run in totally different ways. Schools in richer districts tend to have pretty good reputations, whereas schools in poor ghetto districts are notorious for their bad teaching and conditions. I feel safe in assuming that your 10-15 year old anecdote, or whatever you're seeing in your local schools, does not jive with the experience that some poor kid in Detroit public schools is getting today.

> teaching in most schools is babysitting. [Citation Needed] ...but seriously, if you think most teaching is babysitting, you have a woefully narrow view of what goes on in classrooms.

Grishnakh 10y ago

No, he's correct for many schools. I had to attend a few of these schools when I was young (this was back in the 80s BTW). Even in one of the top-ranked and best-funded middle schools in my state, I had an English teacher who just gave us some busywork and watched soap operas on her portable TV. In the crappier school I went to before that in the poor part of town, most of the classes amounted to babysitting. I don't know how it's changed since then, but I doubt it's gotten any better, though this was before the days of Common Core and statewide testing and all that. From my perspective of what I saw as a kid, some teachers were good and really tried to teach kids well, other teachers were terrible and did the absolute minimum, if that. There was no consistency, though the schools with poorer kids did seem to have more bad teachers. So from my perspective, the problem seemed to be two-fold: incompetent administrators, and crappy teachers who couldn't get rated on job performance and fired. The good teachers hung in there despite the institutional and systemic problems.

drewbug01 10y ago
> this was back in the 80s BTW I'll see your 30-year old anecdote and raise you my own 10-15 year old anecdote: that didn't go on in my school at all. As an adult, involved in the local schools, I see something different. I'd invite you to consider it through a fresh perspective, not 30 year old memories of what your life was like as a kid.
- Grishnakh 10y ago
  I also went to different schools in different places, and another thing I noticed is that they're all very different. Schools are administered at the local level, not the state or federal levels. So they can be run in totally different ways. Schools in richer districts tend to have pretty good reputations, whereas schools in poor ghetto districts are notorious for their bad teaching and conditions. I feel safe in assuming that your 10-15 year old anecdote, or whatever you're seeing in your local schools, does not jive with the experience that some poor kid in Detroit public schools is getting today.