Teachers

Teaching used to be a respected and honorable profession. Teachers were dedicated to the education of their students above all else. They were held in high esteem within the community along with the bankers, the preachers, the doctors, and the merchants. They maintained discipline and an atmosphere for learning with the full support of the parents. My very own class in elementary school had forty-four students and one teacher for each grade. How is it they could maintain discipline and teach the kids to read, write, and do arithmetic? They not only had the support and respect of the parents of the community, but also had the respect of the students. Why? Because they earned it. They held themselves to a higher standard. Not any more. Discipline is a constant problem in the class rooms today. Parents often blame the teachers for their children's inabilities, and some times rightly so. The most important thing now is the Teachers Union and its ability to garner higher wages and more benefits. Women teachers seduce their students with little consequence. More and more the kids can't read or write, or understand the significance of learning history and about our government. A few years ago I let a neighbor high school boy keep his show cows at my place. We had ample opportunities to talk while we worked with his cows. He told me one day that he learned more in fifteen minutes of conversation with me than he did all week in class at the local high school. Today the public schools have something called the "Longitudinal Graduation Rate." What the heck is that?