The Cellar » The modern plight of schools

Clodfobble · 5/05/2025 1:33 pm

You want to know how bad it's gotten, trying to hire teachers since COVID?

My kid's school (kid singular now, since the older one is off to college) had an upper level math teacher who was retiring last year. Cool, fine, he gave plenty of notice. Only they couldn't find a qualified replacement. At all. With the new school year approaching, they begged him to come back for one more semester. He agreed, but made it very clear that this was just for one semester.

So they lowered their standards to look for anyone who was even medium-qualified for this level of math, figuring they could train. Still absolutely no candidates. They couldn't even find anyone who could teach lower-level math, in the hopes that they could force one of their existing teachers to upgrade.

With January now approaching, they started looking at completely unqualified people--i.e., folks who had never taught students before, but at least had some kind, ANY kind, of math credentials. And finally, they hired this guy, we'll call him Mr. Bob.

Now, Minifobette has been telling me stories all semester about how weird Mr. Bob is, but mostly it's seemed like he's just very awkward, with a deadpan sense of humor that the kids don't get. Like, when he said he doesn't listen to music because it's the gateway to the devil, that's just him trolling the high school kids, right?

But no. A week ago, one of the kids saw a handwritten list of students on Mr. Bob's desk. The kid asked what the list was for, and Mr. Bob had a full fucking meltdown in front of them. Turns out Mr. Bob is severely schizophrenic, and the list was of certain students in the classroom that he believed weren't real.

So now the class is going to be covered by a substitute teacher for the rest of the school year, and no more math will be learned. And they still have no teacher for next year.

griff · 5/05/2025 3:45 pm

FFS

griff · 5/05/2025 3:53 pm

I'm retiring at the end of the month. They only have staff for 6 of my 24 current kids and already had a wait- list. Thankfully we have an administration that hates teachers so things will get turned around right away.

monster · 5/05/2025 7:56 pm

Don't worry, RFK is an expert......

monster · 5/05/2025 7:57 pm

....and most schoolkids will be at home/dead with smallpox anyway...

griff · 5/06/2025 5:21 am

Keep on the sunny side, always on the sunny side
Keep on the sunny side of life
It will help us every day, it will brighten all the way
If we'll keep on the sunny side of life

Flint · 5/06/2025 11:22 am

jeez

glatt · 5/06/2025 11:41 am

My wife was an elementary school based sub for years and quit during the pandemic.The lack of respect administrators in this school district had for teachers was really shocking to me. My wife would occasionally read emails to me that were blast emails sent out by the administration to all teachers, and it blew my mind how uncaring and harsh the emails were. And I feel like Arlington is supposed to be one of the good ones.

tw · 5/06/2025 5:57 pm

Unfortunately that is subjective and vague. Does not provide any facts, concepts, or examples to put meat on the bones. Therefore says nothing useful for or about living people. Might be useful to Paleontologists.

Last edited by tw (5/06/2025 5:58 pm)

Anon · 5/06/2025 7:09 pm

One’s journey towards the objective truth is not a solitary endeavor. It’s a collective pursuit. Our subjective experiences, when shared, compared, and contrasted, lead to the collective wisdom that forms the foundation of objective truths. Each individual’s subjectivity contributes to a broader, more nuanced understanding of reality.

tw · 5/06/2025 8:00 pm

"Objective truth" means something "objective" exists. Subjective experiences are NEVER an 'objective truth'. Is only an opinion.

Whereas an administration could be posting nonsense, we have no examples or testimony so as to know what that is. Only some concern or belief exists. No meat on those bones.

What the administrator ordered is 'meat'.

Each individuals "subjective and unjustified belief" is never an "objective truth". But explains why some are also easily duped by left and right wing extremists. At best, it is only speculation or an unjustified hypothesis.

None of that says glatt is right or wrong. Only says we have no "objective facts" to understand what is really being discussed. Therefore no 'objective truths' yet exist.

A most glaring example of "objective truths" that were not: Saddam's WMDs. "collective wisdom that forms the foundation of objective truths" created a glaring lie. Facts that proved that obvious lie were the "objective truths" promoted only by a minority.

Apparently some need a euphemism explained: put meat on those bones.

Last edited by tw (5/06/2025 8:02 pm)

Anon · 5/06/2025 8:59 pm

tw wrote:
…A most glaring example of "objective truths" that were not: Saddam's WMDs. "collective wisdom that forms the foundation of objective truths" created a glaring lie. Facts that proved that obvious lie were the "objective truths" promoted only by a minority….

The lie and eventual truth were both subjective before the process of sharing, comparing and contrasting revealed the facts. That it took longer for some than for others neither diminishes the process nor the value of input from all to team players. But then, you’re not a team player. You’ve always been on the fringe. It’s understandable that no meat on the bones means they have no value to you; but, others will use them to flavor soup that can be shared with a team.

griff · 5/07/2025 6:30 am

glatt wrote:
My wife was an elementary school based sub for years and quit during the pandemic.The lack of respect administrators in this school district had for teachers was really shocking to me. My wife would occasionally read emails to me that were blast emails sent out by the administration to all teachers, and it blew my mind how uncaring and harsh the emails were. And I feel like Arlington is supposed to be one of the good ones.

We had a Team Meeting last night and I had a side conversation about Covid breaking education. The OT I was talking to supports 74 kids in a local school district. 74 students in multiple buildings on one brand new OT's caseload. He's got kids who have missed 30+ days of school and expect to move up to the next grade level. It feels like everyone in the system is kinda broken, kids, parents, teachers, administrators, and school boards. If people pull together it can get sorted but empathy is a bad word now.

On a side note, Lil G's administrator, who has always had her back, was quietly removed by the district without explanation.

glatt · 5/07/2025 8:12 am

How do you support 74 kids? What is that, like half an hour, twice a month?

griff · 5/07/2025 2:57 pm

I don’t think you do. You can teach strategies and hope the kids follow through. It gives the district some cover but the reality is there are not nearly enough OTs available. I assume he shows teachers and aides what to do, but obviously you’d rather a lower caseload. We didn’t talk specifics so I’m making a lot of assumptions.

Clodfobble · 5/07/2025 4:57 pm

Worse than that, when an OT (or speech therapist, or physical therapist, etc.) is operating through the school district, they can't even realistically assign exercises to do at home, or communicate with parents about more that could be done, because those actions imply an awareness that the kid "needs" the additional exercises, which legally means that the school should be providing them.

Back when my daughter was in a half-day of special ed preschool, our school at the time was willing to have the school bus drop her off at a daycare center for the rest of the afternoon, but NOT at the therapy clinic that was literally next door, because even dropping her off at a clinic that I was already paying for could be seen as an acknowledgement that they knew she needed it.

griff · 5/07/2025 5:14 pm

So much avoidance of responsibility. With the Fed Gov bailing out Special Education is in deep trouble.

footfootfoot · 5/07/2025 9:03 pm

I think you guys are missing the main takeaway and that is that owning the libs requires a little sacrifice and belt tightening, stop being such snowflakes and embrace the new dystopia.
Hint: it's the same dystopia but now the veil has been lifted and we can see who it is we're married to.
Or if you like, a farming analogy: This harvest didn't spring up voluntarily, the fields have been being prepared for years...

tw · Yesterday 9:29 am

All these sound like problems at the local level. Is that not what a school board is for?

Clodfobble · Yesterday 2:07 pm

The school board has nothing to do with funding, or the unfunded legal requirements imposed at the federal level. In Texas, you can propose a "bond" to local voters, in which residents may agree to pay some amount extra in property taxes for a few years that goes straight to the schools--but aside from the difficulty of getting people to vote for higher taxes on themselves, those bonds are specifically prohibited from ever covering teacher salaries. And that's how you end up with nonsense like the local suburb voting to build a fucking pool in 2 of the high schools, when they simultaneously cannot afford to hire more teachers for those schools.

tw · Today 9:59 am

But again, that is all traceable to problems at the local level. And I do not see how funding is the primary reason for that and the other above problems. Maybe a secondary reason. But the common denominator remains a problem at the local level. Where do Federal laws created these problems?

Is special ed needs more resources, then the board takes then away from other student programs. Again a problem only at the local level.

Last edited by tw (Today 10:01 am)