3 ms·

> nobody is really teaching the concept of a symbol in a math class. This was what? 5th grade? What kind of crap teachers never taught that

mschuster91 2y ago
> What kind of crap teachers never taught that It's rarely the fault of the teachers. The problem is, in many MANY MANY schools, teachers are more like social workers that have to compensate for utter horrifics outside of school. You got a ton of children so poor they didn't have breakfast which means their first (and all too often: only) meal will be the school-provided lunch (Covid showed that - a bunch of schools were open at least for lunches). You got children that are literally homeless and living with their parents in some car on a Walmart parking lot. You got children whose parents are in and out of jail. You got children living with their siblings in way too small, pest and mold ridden "apartments". You got children whose parents don't have money to pay for basic school supplies. You got children who are dealing with mental, physical and sexual abuse. You got children where the parents are constantly on drugs or seeking for drugs. You got children with a drug dependency on their own - if they're lucky it's just tobacco or weed, if not it's opioids. You got children with parents or siblings with serious mental or physical health issues. Or you got children with their own mental and physical health issues, or if you want it worse, children with these issues but without access to any kind of treatment. You got children that are being weaponized in nasty divorces. You got children that are being weaponized by street gangs. You got children committing crimes from petty theft to dealing drugs just to survive. You got children that have to literally work (and states like FL pushing to have more working children). You got children having their own children already (either from sexual abuse, from under-education about their own bodies, or intentionally because they fell for some stupid challenge/dare). You got children dealing with bullying, you got some who actually are bullies because they have no other way of dealing with their emotions or getting lunch money. You got children with parents with about zero interest in them. You got children who worry that they'll come home and find out their parents got snatched and disappeared by ICE. You got children who worry that ICE will storm their classroom and deport them. You got children who worry they might not survive the school day because someone will shoot at them. You got children who are constantly on the move because their parents' employment/deployment requires absolute mobility. You got children who are LGBT and have to deal with ever increasing hate against them (and LGBT youth already had significantly higher suicide rates than before the GQP made it a culture war issue). The US doesn't have any kind of system to help these children but schools and libraries, both are horribly underfunded (there's some school districts where teachers gotta take up second jobs because the government can only afford paying them for 4 days a week), and all too often teachers have to pay with their own money for students' school supplies. And on top of dealing with these kind of nightmares, they actually have to try and teach these children something - even if the children in question aren't anywhere near a headspace where they can actually learn.
- Viliam1234 2y ago
  I taught at a nice middle-class school, so most of the problems you mention were not relevant there. And yet, it seemed like half of the kids' families were either recently divorced or in the process of divorce. I couldn't really blame those kids for not paying attention to school. And this seemed like the best case, so probably at most places it gets much worse. Education has a problem with scaling, especially at the elementary level. Sometimes people figure out a nice solution, but when you tell them "great, and now do this in every village" the problem becomes obvious. But there are kids in that village, too, and you want them to know reading and math and hopefully also something more.
  - mschuster91 2y ago
    > Education has a problem with scaling, especially at the elementary level. Not if you actually provide the money. Europe gets this down decently well - although I'll admit, in rural areas in Germany we got some serious consolidation issues thanks to urban flight. But at least our teachers are well paid government jobs and the job is decently attractive.
    - vacuity 2y ago
      There's plenty of money thrown at schools in the US, but the issue is that the students that live in poor socioeconomic conditions tend to not do well. The "simple answer" that addresses the root cause would make individuals not subject to poverty and whatnot. But throwing money at institutions is already on the ropes in the US, let alone throwing money at the "undeserving". (Yes, this is a political opinion. No, do not blame me for that. Politics does not come wrapped up neatly with a bow tie in a box. If you want to debate the veracity of my claim, go do that instead.)
      - mschuster91 2y ago
        > If you want to debate the veracity of my claim, go do that instead. I'd do no such thing because you are completely correct - the only thing I'd add is that poverty, while being very dominant, isn't the only issue that desperately needs to be fixed.

mschuster91 2y ago

> What kind of crap teachers never taught that It's rarely the fault of the teachers. The problem is, in many MANY MANY schools, teachers are more like social workers that have to compensate for utter horrifics outside of school. You got a ton of children so poor they didn't have breakfast which means their first (and all too often: only) meal will be the school-provided lunch (Covid showed that - a bunch of schools were open at least for lunches). You got children that are literally homeless and living with their parents in some car on a Walmart parking lot. You got children whose parents are in and out of jail. You got children living with their siblings in way too small, pest and mold ridden "apartments". You got children whose parents don't have money to pay for basic school supplies. You got children who are dealing with mental, physical and sexual abuse. You got children where the parents are constantly on drugs or seeking for drugs. You got children with a drug dependency on their own - if they're lucky it's just tobacco or weed, if not it's opioids. You got children with parents or siblings with serious mental or physical health issues. Or you got children with their own mental and physical health issues, or if you want it worse, children with these issues but without access to any kind of treatment. You got children that are being weaponized in nasty divorces. You got children that are being weaponized by street gangs. You got children committing crimes from petty theft to dealing drugs just to survive. You got children that have to literally work (and states like FL pushing to have more working children). You got children having their own children already (either from sexual abuse, from under-education about their own bodies, or intentionally because they fell for some stupid challenge/dare). You got children dealing with bullying, you got some who actually are bullies because they have no other way of dealing with their emotions or getting lunch money. You got children with parents with about zero interest in them. You got children who worry that they'll come home and find out their parents got snatched and disappeared by ICE. You got children who worry that ICE will storm their classroom and deport them. You got children who worry they might not survive the school day because someone will shoot at them. You got children who are constantly on the move because their parents' employment/deployment requires absolute mobility. You got children who are LGBT and have to deal with ever increasing hate against them (and LGBT youth already had significantly higher suicide rates than before the GQP made it a culture war issue). The US doesn't have any kind of system to help these children but schools and libraries, both are horribly underfunded (there's some school districts where teachers gotta take up second jobs because the government can only afford paying them for 4 days a week), and all too often teachers have to pay with their own money for students' school supplies. And on top of dealing with these kind of nightmares, they actually have to try and teach these children something - even if the children in question aren't anywhere near a headspace where they can actually learn.

Viliam1234 2y ago
I taught at a nice middle-class school, so most of the problems you mention were not relevant there. And yet, it seemed like half of the kids' families were either recently divorced or in the process of divorce. I couldn't really blame those kids for not paying attention to school. And this seemed like the best case, so probably at most places it gets much worse. Education has a problem with scaling, especially at the elementary level. Sometimes people figure out a nice solution, but when you tell them "great, and now do this in every village" the problem becomes obvious. But there are kids in that village, too, and you want them to know reading and math and hopefully also something more.
- mschuster91 2y ago
  > Education has a problem with scaling, especially at the elementary level. Not if you actually provide the money. Europe gets this down decently well - although I'll admit, in rural areas in Germany we got some serious consolidation issues thanks to urban flight. But at least our teachers are well paid government jobs and the job is decently attractive.
  - vacuity 2y ago
    There's plenty of money thrown at schools in the US, but the issue is that the students that live in poor socioeconomic conditions tend to not do well. The "simple answer" that addresses the root cause would make individuals not subject to poverty and whatnot. But throwing money at institutions is already on the ropes in the US, let alone throwing money at the "undeserving". (Yes, this is a political opinion. No, do not blame me for that. Politics does not come wrapped up neatly with a bow tie in a box. If you want to debate the veracity of my claim, go do that instead.)
    - mschuster91 2y ago
      > If you want to debate the veracity of my claim, go do that instead. I'd do no such thing because you are completely correct - the only thing I'd add is that poverty, while being very dominant, isn't the only issue that desperately needs to be fixed.