1970's Don't Tell ... 2000's Don't Touch!

This short episode is comparing being a teacher in the 1970's, 80's and 90's to teaching today.  It mainly focuses on discipline at home and in the classroom and how it affects learning.  Whether or not you agree, it still is something to think about.

Please share my podcast website at: https://hangonkeepcool.buzzsprout.com Thank you for listening! -Mr. S

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Hey there, welcome back to Hang On Keep Cool. I'm Mr. S, and today I'd like to talk a little bit about being a teacher. You know, I was a teacher back in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. And it was a lot different back then than it is today. And I'm not saying it was easy back then, but it was a lot different. For instance, discipline was a lot more prevalent in the schools than it is now. And when children got discipline back then, they would lots of times beg you, please don't tell my parents, because they knew when they got home, they would be disciplined more than they got at school sometimes, and they didn't want that to happen. And that was pretty nice. And the parents had your back. Today the parents don't have the teachers back so much. A lot of them are against the teachers. And now a lot of the rules in the school and a lot of the laws, the teachers can't even touch a kid. If two kids are fighting, the teacher can't go up and grab them and pull them apart and tell them to stop that. They're not allowed to touch the kids. And the parents, they'll go right after the teacher if they do. And a lot of times the kid will say right to the teacher, don't touch me, my dad will sue you. Or my parents will sue you, and a lot of times they will. And the way I look at it, discipline starts in the home, and people have to start taking responsibility for their actions instead of always blaming it on somebody else. And there's got to be discipline, and there's got to be consequences for people when they do wrong. And a lot of times right now, it's just not there. And back in the uh 70s, it was there, and that made it really good. And we uh we were able to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic. And as the years went on, I started seeing things were changing. And by the time I retired from teaching, it had changed quite a bit. For instance, they didn't have uh kids in the lower grades didn't have to spell their words right. Just so they were close, they called it inventive spelling. And in math, they didn't always have to get the right answer just so they were close. And I don't know about today because I haven't been teaching, but I know it's not a lot better. In fact, I think it's a lot worse because these kids are going on, graduating from high school and going to college, and the colleges are finding out these kids aren't ready. They can't do their basic math, they don't know how to write cursive, they don't know their history. So things have to start changing, and they have to start changing fast. And a lot of that has to start in the home. Kids have to be disciplined, and then when they get to school, the school's got to be able to have discipline rules also and consequences for when they're out of hand. I'm disturbed about what's going on right now, and I feel this has to change, and it has to change fast before it gets out of hand, and we're not able to change it. So hopefully it will. People are working on it, I know. Uh teachers want to be able to teach. They don't want to have to be a parent, a counselor, a babysitter. They want to, they don't want the parents feeling like, raise my kid, but don't discipline them. We want to get back to the way it was. Discipline in the home, discipline in the schools, let the teachers teach and teach their reading, teach their writing, teach their arithmetic, teach their history, and that'll make better citizens out of everybody. So that's just the way I feel about it. I thought I'd pass it on to you. Maybe some of you don't feel that way. I hope you do, but if you don't, you're you have a right to your own opinion. The next time I'll talk a little bit maybe about what we're teaching now, but that's a whole different story than today. So we'll tackle that some other episode. So in the meantime, thanks for listening, and don't forget to hang on and keep cool.