I teach

Not disagreeing with anything you said, just wondering what triggered it

I had a great English teacher, he made me love reading even more - he insisted on our being attentive in class, gave us homework and did his job to the best of his abilities which was very well indeed, but he didn't give detention if you didn't do your homework, just reminded us that he was on the successful side of the exam process, that it was our future, not his, he could give us the tools for success but he couldn't use them for us!

Very few of his students actually failed English, as I remember

Hugs and bon courage!

Sadhbh 

I agree with you, and I admire your tenacity.  I'm sure that you ARE making a difference because it's obvious that you are dedicated.  A good and caring teacher can make so much difference.

Case in point:  At registration prior to my freshman year in college, I was desperately trying to find courses that met my requirements and that were still open.  (I registered among the very last group, and most everything was full.)  I needed a social science, and all that was available was Geography.  Prior to that, my only experience with geography as a subject was a TV geography course in 3rd grade, I think, and it was BORING!

Well, I signed up for the Geog. despite my misgivings because I was out of options, and I was quite surprised.  My instructor had volunteered in the Peace Corps in India for several years.  He was funny, engaging, extremely knowledgeable, and, probably most important, was totally in love with the subject of Geography.  (Didn't hurt that he was pretty easy on the eyes, either.)  I wound up loving geography and taking about 6-7 classes from him over the course of my college career.  He completely turned me around on the subject.

On the subject of what's wrong with schools today, I'm not naive enough to think there's only one problem, but I have to agree that the parents are a major problem.  In my school years, if I had gotten into trouble at school, there would be much more trouble at home.  There is only so much that teachers can do at school, and after that, it's up to the parents to reinforce the rules and to instill the importance of school and learning in their child.

As my DD went through her public school education, I saw teachers struggling to get parents to do ... anything!  Their kids would be failing, and still the teachers couldn't get them to come into the school for a conference or even to call them back.  When things got bad enough for a suspension, then all of the sudden the parents wanted to come in and get into somebody's face about it.  The ones who did return calls said they couldn't make their kids do their homework.  Well, I'm thinking that if they took an interest and if they restricted access to anything fun until homework was done, that could make a difference.  For the kids who have a learning challenge of some kind, involved parents are even more important to represent the kids' interests and find ways to help them.

We have used a school clustering system in my county to assure integration at our schools, which means that lots of kids get bused well out of their neighborhoods to get to the school they attend.  You might have been shocked at how many 5 year olds were put on those buses to go 10+ miles away to school without their parents' ever having stepped foot in the school and with the kids' not knowing the very basics (like their own last names, the name of their teacher, at what bus stop they need to get off in the afternoon, or anything).  At my DD's elementary school, they'd ask the PTA parents to volunteer in the center hall for the first week or so of school to try to help these kids, and it was heartbreaking.  I have little hope that those kids will succeed in school unless they make an emotional connection with someone who takes on the role of a mentor for them.

I once had a little first grade girl ask me if she could use the phone in the PTA room to call her mother to pick her up after an awards ceremony at which she had been given some academic patches (similar to boy scout/girl scout patches for achieving certain academic milestones).  Mom had just dropped her off, and no one in her family could be bothered to celebrate her achievement with her.  This is the same kid who was dropped off in 1st grade at the skating party the same night she had her tonsils taken out.  She had been absent from school, of course, but Mom dropped her off at the skating rink that evening.  About 45 minutes into the party, she asked me to borrow money to call her mom to pick her up because she didn't feel well.  Needless to say, by the time they got to 5th grade, this child was disinterested and doing poorly in school.

So, parents who don't take the time and energy to actually raise their children are a BIG part of the problem in schools.