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Show Our Readers Write Education relies on more than one effort the odd numbered problems were in the back of the book, and that since credit is not given unless the method is shown, I was writing down the method she was using on each problem because I didn't know how to work them." His mother looked at me and said, "See, he was not cheating." Parents are placing the responsibility respon-sibility for the entire educational process on the teacher. I was told by one parent that "my son was not prepared for algebra, he did not do the work, and he did not ask for help. But you were his teacher and you did not teach him; therefore, day after school I was in my classroom giving that help to those students who took the time to come in. Even these problems could have been endured if I had been given administrative support. However, administrators who gave me the -highest possible ratings during . teacher evaluation still made me ; prove again and again that I was do- : ing my job if parents called to complain com-plain about any part of my teaching. It was as if teachers are always guilty guil-ty unless they can prove themselves (over and over again) innocent. w An open letter to Utah parents: Seven years ago you paid for me to become a certified math teacher via a scholarship funded by the Utah State Legislature. For the past six years I have done my best. I have received national recognition for innovative use of a classroom computer to make the abstract concepts con-cepts of math more concrete. I have received the highest ratings possible from administrators who have been responsible for evaluating me. I have taught several inservice classes to other teachers in how to more effectively teach math. School starts again in three weeks. For the first time in six years I will not be returning to the classroom. I feel that I owe you, the parents of Utah, an explanation. There are three reasons for my decision deci-sion to leave education: 1) Students who refuse to learn, 2) Parents who blame teachers for their students' low grades, and 3) Administrators who refuse to support good teachers. Let me explain: - - w In my six years of teaching math on a secondary level, I have attempted attemp-ted to teach many students who simply sit in the classroom day after day, paying no attention, doing no homework, and telling their parents that the reason their grades are low is that I am a "bad" teacher. During Dur-ing one unit in an algebra class, 75 percent of the students did not turn in 75 percent of the homework. Math, like most subjects, simply cannot be learned without practice. Homework is a daily necessity. I have been distressed by the amount of cheating that is a constant con-stant companion in any classroom. The student that does not copy someone else's homework has become the exception today. Neither students nor parents see this as cheating. I had a mother incensed when I accused her son of cheating after I took another student's paper away from him. When asked what he was doing with the paper, he said he "was writing down the answers to the even numbered problems from her paper since only the answers to e you are a failure as a teacher and should not be teaching." I found this attitude to be a distressingly common one among the parents of the students I tried to teach. Despite sending detailed progress reports home to parents every two-three two-three weeks, I was constantly called on to defend the grades I recorded for students. This meant that I had to use what little time I had for preparation to repeat the process of creating those progress reports and go over them individually with parents who refused to read them when they were sent home. Parents continually take the word of their children who find that the excuse, "the teacher won't help me," is sufficient to explain low grades to parents who are too busy to visit the classroom and talk with the teacher. Time and again I was accused of refusing to give individual in-dividual help to students while each During my six years of teaching I had several administrators tell me ' that unless I "lowered my stan- ' dards" I would not stay in teaching. They told me I was damaging ' students' self-esteem by honestly ' telling them and their parents that they had not learned the material they were expected to learn and -were therefore unprepared to go on to higher math classes. t My last administrator actually : told me to "let someone at the high school do the dirty work" (that of ' giving students low grades). I have finally realized that it is ' impossible to teach students who ' refuse to learn. Someday, when and if parents realize that it has to be ' students, not teachers, who are ' responsible for education, I would : be proud to again teach math to your children. : Teresa Talbot ; Bountiful : |