Plane load of school teachers. 4

[arunmrao]

An interesting development is taking place quietly. While lot of sound is being made about BPO, schools in US are quietly bringing in teachers from India to US to teach science and maths!!!. No one is apparently interested in getting into teaching in US I suppose. Classes are going empty in some schools for want of teachers compelling the management to import teachers.
Please correct this anomaly in your system.

 

[rhodie]

The education fiscal climate is so bad in my part of the country that no teachers are being hired right now, domestic or otherwise. There is a large population of unemployed teachers (math and science included) for the US to select from right now.

I would think that the NEA would have a lot to say about importing teachers, and oppose such a practice at every turn.

If you are talking about college-level professors, then I can only suggest to you the fact that the vast majority of graduate-level students in US colleges come from abroad. If they can be taught in the US, then what is illogical about them coming back to teach in the US?

 

[arunmrao]

They are high school teachers and not college professors.The Us labor departnent is concerned about these shortages and predicts a much higher shortage in 3 years time.

 

[TheTick]

I think it's a good trade. The foreign teachers get a better standard of living, and we get better teachers.

All this machinery making modern music can still be open-hearted.

 

[corus]

I don't think that people who are taught in a country necessarily go back to teach there. In the UK the same problem occurs with a lack of teachers in science and maths, and similarly there is a large population of graduates who come from abroad (India, Iran, etc.) to be taught at the Universities when they generally return to their own countries. Some schools have been known to try and recruit people from other countries, though with what success I don't know. Mostly they've tried to recruit from english speaking countries, such as New Zealand etc.
The lack of teachers is generally due to lower salaries, the high cost of housing (in the south), and generally bad kids. Whether that's the same in the US I don't know. Given the choice most graduates will try to get work in industry where there is more opportunity for promotion, higher salaries, and no kids.
Whether the lack of teachers in the sciences has lead to fewer students taking up engineering, and engineering jobs moving abroad (as with the US) is debateable.

 

[funnelguy]

Quote - "The lack of teachers is generally due to lower salaries, the high cost of housing (in the south), and generally bad kids. Whether that's the same in the US I don't know. Given the choice most graduates will try to get work in industry where there is more opportunity for promotion, higher salaries, and no kids."

A more succinct description of the problems in the US could not be written, IMO. Perfect!

Two solutions are required to bring qualified math and science teachers back to the classroom.

#1 - Bring discipline and control back to the classrooms. This should be the responsibility of the administrators, not the teachers. The teacher's responseability should end after he/she has pushed the intercom button and expressed concern to the administrators.

#2 - Schools must find a way to compensate math and science instructors differently from the rest. Otherwise, industry will continue to hire away the better talents.

 

[BJC]

funnelguy
Item 1 is the responsibility of PARENTS not teachers or adminstrators.
If parents don't teach their kids to behave and respect their teacher then the kids should be thrown out.
They can alway emigrate and get jobs weaving rugs or sewing Nikes in Bangladesh.

 

[funnelguy]

BJC
I agree completely with you WRT parents. Now, having said that... I caused a minor amount of mayhem for a few high school teachers in my day. Did I know better? Sure. Were my parents derelict in their duties? No. My father was president of the school board and had told me very specifically how much misery he would cause me should he be contacted by the school WRT my behavior.

I have asked some of my old teachers why they didn't simply remove troublemakers from the classroom. The response I got was that administration didn't want to deal with the problem, and so labelled any teacher who sought help/support as lacking in the ability to maintain control over a classroom! This particular point made itself visible in the teachers' performance reviews.

This was the point I was trying to make. Teachers should teach. Their ability to maintain order in a classroom, I feel, is directly related to how much support they get from their administrators. Maintaining order should be as simple as pushing the intercom button and saying, "Excuse me, but could you send someone to remove 3 students from my class? Thank you."

Post Script... It occurs to me that even students lacking in respect or proper upbringing could benefit and possibly learn from well defined and enforced boundaries.

 

[pablo02]

In my opinion, most schooling occurs at home -- if the kid doesn't know the alphabet and can't read simple words before they start, they'll never catch up... unfortunately, at least when my kids were in (US) grade school, the teachers had been relegated to babysitters -- and there was little effort to hire decent teachers; my daughter lost ALL interest in art, photography, Spanish (all of which she was extreemely good at) because of poor teachers...

and, yes, the pay was the main reason -- most decent teachers were leaving "education" for other jobs that have less stress, fewer hours, and MORE pay...

we really have our priorities screwed up when we reward pro atheletes and snobby actors (actresses) [oh, and greedy CEO's] and stuff it to our those who teach our legacies...

 

[Binary]

The funny thing is that most teachers earn a much better hourly rate than most engineers.

The problem of lousy teachers is much more about tenure, life-time job security, and standard contracts that guarantee increases and offer no incentive for excellence.

 

[buzzp]

Teachers salaries are only based on around 9 months out of the year. So to compare their salary with a normal 12 month positon you need to multiply the salary times 1.33 to get a real comparison. Still the salaries are incredibly low for a position with so much influence on our societies future.

Childrens behavior has definately gotten worse in the last 15 years. I am fairly young with an 11 year old son. The behavior is not due to the schools (in most cases) it is due to the parent/s lack of parenting skills. Parents simply don't care and if they do, they are afraid to swat them on the butt because they damage them forever-give me a break.

Now about the schools. They are taking a turn for the worse as well, ultimately affecting childrens confidence level and behavior. I went to lunch at my sons school and was extremely shocked that they had to raise their hand to talk (this is lunch time). What is up with that? Also, the feminist movement is taking over most schools because the pay is low so you don't have that many competent (psychologically and credentially) teachers. They can not handle the stress of dealing with young kids' obnoxiousness. So they stress out and take it out on the kids or kid (generally the boys since most teachers are female and do not understand boy like behavior) or recommend they visit the school psychologist and try to prescribe ritalin (or whatever its called).

It is plan to me that society is on a exponential moral decay. If it is not plan to anyone else then you had better open your eyes. The trend will be almost impossible to stop so brace yourself as we are near the 'knee' of the curve. This does not only apply to the US but every other country out there.

As far as bringing in teachers from other countries, do it. It can only help the situation since poorer countries appreciate the salary being offered.

 

[Maui]

In terms of the salaries I disagree. In upstate New York, I believe that you would find that the average high school teacher with ten years experience earns more per hour than the average engineer with the same amount of time on the job. Teachers here are compensated well for what they do, although the salaries may be lower in other parts of the US. They have the summer off every year (which I would love to have), and if they survive the first three years of teaching they have tenure as well. So they are more or less guaranteed a job for life, and don't have to worry about the next round of layoffs that the rest of us know are coming. Not bad. I'm considering making the move into teaching myself for these very reasons.

I do agree that the public behavior that I see in children has been on the decline for many years. There is a sense of entitlement and basic lack of respect, and these characteristics seem to be much more pervasive than they were 20 years ago. The teachers are not to blame for this. It is the parent's responsibility to instill in their children a common sense of discipline, mutual respect and what is and is not acceptable behavior. And parents who sit back and expect the teachers to do this for them are not only negligent in their duties, but they are failing their children badly.

 

[arunmrao]

I agree with Maui about kids behavior,I recently taught(honorary basis) at a school physics and maths. This I did to instil some sense of liking in the kids to take up a pure science or engineering career. But they were not interested in my way of teaching where I would relate with physical examples. They needed solved assignments and worked examples which I refused to provide. This behavior I attributed to MTV and Star TV culture which has corrupted our younger generation.

Parents too are helpless as the society is becoming materialist with no or a different set of value systems. The parents are busy in the pursuit of elusive and illusive material satisfaction which leaves them with very less energy to attend to the kids.

 

[buzzp]

Last paragraph well said Arun!

 

[CRG]

Hello,

I have problems with many foreign college professors because of their communication skills; however, I found that the professors from India used better English than their American counterpart. So, if the best candidate for a position is from India, and they have excellent communication skills, I hope they are hired. Even at the expense of American professors unwilling to put in the long hours.

Communication skills and knowledge are the paramount skills required for teaching. What I object to are professors from non English countries that have not mastered the English language being hired in the US. This puts a burden on the students until the professor gain command of the English language. I am not interested in seeing students penalized for an instructor’s poor communication skills.

CRG

 

[arunmrao]

CRG on behalf of all Indian professors a thanks to you. Yes most of us in India are proficient in English as we had opportunity to learn under AngloIndian(a mixed race of Indians and Britishers) teachers. The Britishers ruled us for more than 3 centuries and we got our freedom only 56 years ago.

Additionally the Indian Professors now in US are from premier educational institutions in India which are internationally recognised.

 

[zqew05]

Ya gotta take the bad with the good. I immigrated here 25 years ago and never looked back. I'm proud of my heritage and also proud of my U.S. citizenship, I even served in the Navy for 20 years. There is a reason why millions of people immigrate over here. There is also a reason why so many foreign students consider it a great opportunity to study here. Yes, many elementary schools in the U.S. are not good, that is why I sit with my kids when they do their homework. One thing separates U.S. education from others (painting others with a broad brush here), students in the U.S. are encouraged to independently think for themselves, a lot of high school and elementary schools overseas practice route memorization. People all over the world would "break a leg" to live here, and we also have the best universities in the world with a high ratio of foreign students, because we are good. America is not perfect, but it's the greatest country in the world. Why are hordes of people NOT immigrating to India, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Pakistan, etc? THERE IS A REASON.... PIENSA

 

[toolmantwo]

Great input and very well written ZQEW05. The parents must be involved. I think some of the schools in the USA need to also make sure one child can work with another child. Many times I see people that cannot work well with others, yet they are very intelligent.

On a different note: Sometimes I see people protesting the USA's actions and I want to tell them if they are so unhappy with the USA please leave. Our great country will let them have the freedom of speech so it is expected and allowed, yet I hate to see them dwell on only one issue that they see as a large problem and write off all the other great things of the USA.

 

[EddyC]

My past experience with my teachers and professors has been excellent. I found them to be highly competent and highly motivated. (I went to high school 2 hours from New York City. My college was 1 hour from New York City. This was 20 years ago.) I don't feel that they are overpaid. I also don't feel that the educational system is supposed to babysit the students. School is for learning. Period. Those that don't want to learn shouldn't be there and are disrupting the efforts of the students that take their education seriously.

 

[zqew05]

toolmantwo,

I grew up in a country in Asia where you could go to jail for criticizing the people in power. Every time I see people demonstrating here in the U.S. on how evil this country is, it verifies to me how great this country is. The right to speak freely is openly practiced in only a few countries like the U.S. I just wish they leave this country they hate so much so my barefooted relatives can take their place in the good 'ole USA !!!