Teachers have been speaking up relentlessly about how difficult it is to work in education in our modern times. Many teachers have taken to social media to share their experiences with kids who won’t listen or do their work. Reading comprehension is at an all-time low and kids haven’t been testing as well as they have previously. A second-grade teacher in New York says that she has been experiencing these types of things in her own classroom. Now, she’s fed up with it.
Alison (@amschlein) is a second-grade teacher at a school in New York, whose class had a science test this past week. She did everything she could to prepare them. Some of these steps included teaching them the proper material, a review packet, and giving them extra credit work that could be applied to their test. She said only eight students in her class out of 20 turned in the extra credit, and three of those couldn’t be graded because there was no name on them. She said the children simply didn’t want to “put in the effort,” even though she also alerted the parents about the extra credit assignment.
Alison said that all of the children should have been overly prepared for the test with her help. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as she expected. Of the 18 kids who were present to take the test, only 4 scored above 80%. That means every child received a C or worse. She says on the matter, “When they say you can lead a horse to water but can’t make it drink… I don’t know what to do.” It’s clear that, as with other teachers, she’s incredibly flustered and upset by what she’s facing in her classroom.
Alison says that being an educator in today’s world means that you can provide children with all the materials necessary. However, this doesn’t mean that they will pass. As another commenter responded to Alison’s video, “School/education is not a priority in the home anymore.” Another commenter shared, “The elementary school my kids go to doesn’t allow homework to be mandatory or graded. My kids do it regardless. I was told by a friend who teaches there that the only kids who ever do the homework are the kids who don’t actually even need the extra practice.” It’s hard out there for educators and they’re feeling the immense pressure in their classrooms. Only time will tell if things change for the better.
