Thinking Back over My Career

[cimarrondfw]

Mrdreamjeans has suggested a topic by asking how satisfied I am with my work/job. Of course, I am long past regular workdays. I retired early at age 62 in 2003 at the end of the first semester from an Oak Cliff high school because I was miserable in that particular setting and had absolutely no administrative support. I am not sorry. It was the

Comments

[mrdreamjeans]

Thanks for making such a thoughtful response. I find this all fascinating. I don't know how teachers do it anymore. They really are expected to be teachers, parents, disciplinarians ... The students have so little respect for their teachers, and without administrative support, there is not much teachers can do

[cimarrondfw]

I don't know how much to blame it on race. You certainly handled your pool situation correctly. For a while, I think, white flight following desegregation created its own problems in the schools. Too many private schools were created to avoid the responsibility of keeping quality in the public schools--the very source of America's greatness. I'll have a bit more to say in a later post.

[maxauburn]

I don't envy you being a school teacher.

Kids seem to get worse with each year, and I say this based on:

1) My own experience being a student.

2) How kids in my shitty nieghborhood behave and how they seem to be getting worse by the year.

3) There is no 3, I just like prime numbers!

Seriously - I understand why you took early retirement. Most kids don't even seem human anymore - they are violent, heartless, soulless
monsters.

I blame lack of parental guidance and supervision.

Abuse by their parents, other relatives, etc.

The violent movies & video games the kids enjoy.

And rap lyrics.

Of course this is part of the decay of the American society, but let's not get into that, or this post will take on mammoth proportions that would keep you reading all night long.

[cimarrondfw]

Jerry, I think it's probably correct that kids are much less disciplined than they used to be, but I also think that there are a lot of very good kids who are swimming upstream against tremendous odds.

I will be watching for subtle indicators with my two middle school-aged grandchildren who have moved from the U. K. to Alabama this year.