Stuff you wish they taught in school

[MantaRevan]

I agree and I would even say it's generally true for many of the jobs which serve the collectivity: firemen, emergency services, policemen, public health. Many people occupying these jobs work very hard for a very low wage relatively to the energy they invest in them. I have a deep respect for them.

I would agree with her. Those are the people who better society, even though they know that it's coming out of their paycheck.

 

[Disgustipated]

They get paid less than people with the same education and workload. Thulsy they get paid too little.

It depends on how you view education. I may get flamed for this, but I'll go out right now and say most teachers are not very smart. Their degrees aren't nearly as valuable as an engineering or computer science degree. They really are just a step up from liberal arts. Most women want to be a teacher because it is an easy job that pays good, and doesn't require much intelligence. I think their pay is just about right. In theory we could raise their income to get the best teachers, instead of the mediocre people with average grades. But there is a serious brain drain in this country, and that will never happen. Unless you want to pay teachers along the lines of doctors and lawyers, then you might get some damn good teachers into the profession. I'm just not sure if it is feasible to pay them that much.

 

[Disgustipated]

I agree and I would even say it's generally true for many of the jobs which serve the collectivity: firemen, emergency services, policemen, public health. Many people occupying these jobs work very hard for a very low wage relatively to the energy they invest in them. I have a deep respect for them.

firemen in my city make over $100,000 a year. Policeman not as much. Which is strange, because I would think it would be the other way around. Firemen really have a very easy job. Very rarely do they actually get called to fight fires in my city. Of course when they do get called, then their job becomes the most important in the world. Almost nothing catches fire in my city. Mostly just small house fires, and mobile homes which are destroyed by the time they get there.

 

[squall78]

firemen work 24 hour straight shifts. the inconvenience warrants a pay increase, as well as staying in physical shape for their job.

 

[Gurubashi]

I personally find it disturbing that such an important job (education) is a position of such low prestige and pay.

No offense, but what else do you expect for a profession catering to children? I mean to say, they do SERVE CHILDREN. I respect the importance and need for education as much as the next guy, and no one can say I disrespect teachers, but when you serve people with lower intellectual capacity (i.e. children relative to almost everyone else in society), people will tend to think somewhat less of you, which explains the (relatively) lower wages.

 

[Truronian]

It depends on how you view education. I may get flamed for this, but I'll go out right now and say most teachers are not very smart. Their degrees aren't nearly as valuable as an engineering or computer science degree. They really are just a step up from liberal arts. Most women want to be a teacher because it is an easy job that pays good, and doesn't require much intelligence. I think their pay is just about right. In theory we could raise their income to get the best teachers, instead of the mediocre people with average grades. But there is a serious brain drain in this country, and that will never happen. Unless you want to pay teachers along the lines of doctors and lawyers, then you might get some damn good teachers into the profession. I'm just not sure if it is feasible to pay them that much.

What makes you think this?

 

[Gurubashi]

What makes you think this?

Yeah, I disagree with his assessment too. Most teachers tend to be people with a passion for learning and educating others - their job is too stressful (dealing with and guiding difficult children, making and marking exams and essays, etc.) for those without it to survive for long.

 

[azzaman333]

It depends on how you view education. I may get flamed for this, but I'll go out right now and say most teachers are not very smart. Their degrees aren't nearly as valuable as an engineering or computer science degree. They really are just a step up from liberal arts. Most women want to be a teacher because it is an easy job that pays good, and doesn't require much intelligence. I think their pay is just about right. In theory we could raise their income to get the best teachers, instead of the mediocre people with average grades. But there is a serious brain drain in this country, and that will never happen. Unless you want to pay teachers along the lines of doctors and lawyers, then you might get some damn good teachers into the profession. I'm just not sure if it is feasible to pay them that much.

How do you expect to attract better teachers when you're paying them crap all?

 

[MantaRevan]

Most women want to be a teacher because it is an easy job that pays good, and doesn't require much intelligence. .

Umm.... Are you sure that that was a polite(and correct) thing to say?

 

[Verbose]

No offense, but what else do you expect for a profession catering to children? I mean to say, they do SERVE CHILDREN. I respect the importance and need for education as much as the next guy, and no one can say I disrespect teachers, but when you serve people with lower intellectual capacity (i.e. children relative to almost everyone else in society), people will tend to think somewhat less of you, which explains the (relatively) lower wages.

Well, perhaps. It's still dangerously short-sighted. As the neurophysiologists say: "What fires together, wires together." In those parts the message tends to be that society really, really can't skimp on putting the kiddies through the best possible formative and education processes concievable, becuase of the plasticity of their brains.

From a socio-economic macro-level pov there are few things that seems as intimately linked as improved general levels of education and economic take-off. So "smart" societies might not really be able to afford not spending on the kids. If they do, they will eventually suffer. Skimp on education, and you get dumber adults as well.

Of course, the historically well documented "killer app" for education is the personal tutor. Prominent (wealthy) families would hire clever but poor (usually young) educated chaps for the sole purpose of bringing the family sprogs up to a level of intellectual equality asap. It works a treat. Only problem is how it's horribly expensive. Everything public education does really is designed to try to get the same effect in ways much, much more cost effective. It's not easy, compared to what you can get if you spend what's requiered for the personal touch.

Now, this wouldn't be a problem if all a society needed was a "talented tenth" intellectual elite, who could think and invent for the yobbos too dense to do other than eat rocks and procreate. Modern society however requires more, so there we are. We need to spend not just on education for the kiddies, but quality education at that.

There are of course other kinds of incentives, non-monetary, that can be given teachers. Status isn't just about money. The mark of a social elite tends to be that it's members also have control of their own working hours.

 

[NedimNapoleon]

Well I think they should put in some other class instead of Religious studies, more geography or english. I remember having a class in grade school, where we studied emotions, communication and other social skills.

 

[Ayatollah So]

1. More emphasis on social skills (near zero from what I remember)
2. Dealing with emotional issues

These two items are absolutely freaking necessary for effective learning in school even if all you care about is mastering the three Rs. School is a highly social environment, and it needs some lubrication to function well.

Childrearing (again, learned zero about this)

Absolutely - provided that the teaching is based on actual scientific research.

To add to your list:

• How to do research
• How to evaluate research (including survival-level statistics)
• What actually happens at work, for many high-employment careers. Get out of the schoolhouse more often.
• Make science cool by tying it to everyday stuff (how an electric motor works, e.g.)

Edited to add: taillesskangaru beat me to it

 

[Ayatollah So]

Teachers are going to get replaced by robots soon anyway.

Just like the rest of us.

 

[NovaKart]

A lot of people underestimate how difficult teaching can be. You need the skills to keep a class of 30 or more children or teenagers under control. You have to keep track of all those people for every one one of your classes, how are they doing in your class, what are their problem areas, how is their behaviour in class, etc. One of the most difficult things is that you need to be motivated and try to get the students to be motivated. If your students don't do well it reflects poorly on you as a teacher. Between lesson planning, student evaluation, record keeping and actual teaching it's a very demanding job. And there's meetings, workshops, things like that.

 

[Flying Pig]

These two items are absolutely freaking necessary for effective learning in school even if all you care about is mastering the three Rs. School is a highly social environment, and it needs some lubrication to function well.

The thing is that most human beings learn how to deal wiht each other far better from doing it practically than being taught it formally. The British system has always tried to engender 'gentlemanly' qualities into its spawn, but that's probably more to do with the not-always intuitive rules of engagement that we have over here.

 

[Disgustipated]

What makes you think this?

The fact that other than my math and science teachers in school, most were not very smart. I also had two math teachers that weren't very smart. And I won't even go into my elementary school teachers...

The thing is teacher intelligence isn't that important. They should be more closer to the kids in intelligence (and many aren't much smarter than kids, and many less so). Think about it. Would you want someone like Eintein teaching your kids? He would be a horrible teacher. You don't want someone so smart, they go over the kid's heads.

 

[Flying Pig]

The thing is teacher intelligence isn't that important. They should be more closer to the kids in intelligence (and many aren't much smarter than kids, and many less so). Think about it. Would you want someone like Eintein teaching your kids? He would be a horrible teacher. You don't want someone so smart, they go over the kid's heads.

Clearly the English teachers weren't among the clever ones...

That said, seriously it's not a matter of intelligence. In fact, you want a teacher who knows his subject inside-out so that he can deal with any curve-ball questions the class throw up, and is able to stimulate those who are a cut above the rest, but what's important is the ability to explain what's going on in terms that they can understand. Often it takes someone with a lot of understanding to explain things properly, because if you're not completely sure of what you're teaching and a fair bit of extension on that it causes major cracks to appear in your explanations.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Those who can, do.

Those who can't, teach.

Those who can't teach, teach gym.

Not really. Truronian is a teacher and he's a super-clever guy, he can beat me at Scrabble. I wanted to be a maths teacher as well (but skived most [well, 192 out of 200, but those joints don't roll themselves, do they] of my lectures in the final year, so no-one wanted me).

My teachers were pretty good, anyway. It was just the stand-in teachers that were bad (read this page in the textbook and do this exercise). I was quite cheeky and encouraged banter and debate though. All you need to do is raise your hand and ask a stupid question now and again

 

[Zack]

Most women want to be a teacher because it is an easy job that pays good, and doesn't require much intelligence.

Why do you keep playing the "teachers are dumb, they have easy, well-paying jobs" card? It's not true. At all.

EDIT: And that was a pretty blatantly sexist thing to say.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

But he's right about the women wanting jobs that are easy and require little intelligence part though! Or maybe not...