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<blockquote data-quote="Adam Kane" data-source="post: 32467" data-attributes="member: 529">Re: Unbelievable!My wife is a 4th grade teacher, so I get a pretty good look at the way things work. I can tell you that the #1 problem is...PARENTS.She works her fingers to the bone trying to teach these kids, only to watch them go home and sit in front of the TV/game system du jour/smartphone all evening and come back the next day having forgotten most of what happened the day before. Add to that the behavioral issues that result from that sort of hands-off parenting and she&#039;s already behind. Compound that with huge class sizes (30+ is common around here) and she ends up being the &quot;glorified babysitter&quot; that everyone talks about.Actually, I did the math and she could probably make more money babysitting or nannying than teaching, but she has a passion for it...and she&#039;s darn good at it. The 10%-ish of students that actually care (and have parents who care) are reward enough for her to keep going. The big perk of being a teacher is the awesome insurance...definitely not the income, especially considering the hours she puts in (60+/week during the year and 20/week throughout summer...plus taking classes to retain her certification).I remember when I was in school, you could count on maybe 3-4 students in any single classrom being the class-clown sort...the kind that flunked everything, got in trouble, just flat out didn&#039;t care. Now, in a class of 30, you&#039;ve got 3-4 kids that (in fourth grade) can read/write decently and cause you to sit back and say, &quot;That kid actually has a chance at doing something useful with their life someday.&quot;</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Adam Kane, post: 32467, member: 529"] Re: Unbelievable! My wife is a 4th grade teacher, so I get a pretty good look at the way things work. I can tell you that the #1 problem is...PARENTS. She works her fingers to the bone trying to teach these kids, only to watch them go home and sit in front of the TV/game system du jour/smartphone all evening and come back the next day having forgotten most of what happened the day before. Add to that the behavioral issues that result from that sort of hands-off parenting and she's already behind. Compound that with huge class sizes (30+ is common around here) and she ends up being the "glorified babysitter" that everyone talks about. Actually, I did the math and she could probably make more money babysitting or nannying than teaching, but she has a passion for it...and she's darn good at it. The 10%-ish of students that actually care (and have parents who care) are reward enough for her to keep going. The big perk of being a teacher is the awesome insurance...definitely not the income, especially considering the hours she puts in (60+/week during the year and 20/week throughout summer...plus taking classes to retain her certification). I remember when I was in school, you could count on maybe 3-4 students in any single classrom being the class-clown sort...the kind that flunked everything, got in trouble, just flat out didn't care. Now, in a class of 30, you've got 3-4 kids that (in fourth grade) can read/write decently and cause you to sit back and say, "That kid actually has a chance at doing something useful with their life someday." [/QUOTE]

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