If you have a High School diploma and a training class you can be hired as a Teacher now in Oklahoma.

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Gunbuffer

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I don't want to come across like I'm anti teacher, I'm not. Working around the school & getting to know other district staff for years now I've just a lot of daily things that the public doesn't see.

One thing I wish we'd do is put cameras in the classroom. Not online accessable mind you but like our other cameras where it can be viewed from the office live or played back. We make police do it let's do it in the classroom and see exactly what's really happening.

If you have a bad kid or teacher it would let the parents see exactly what is happening.
No way would parents go for that. I’m 1000% for it.
 

Gunbuffer

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My wife has had this one kid who is an absolute jerk to some of the others in the classroom. She's had him removed 2-3 times and has complained about him multiple times to admin. Sometimes they help and sometimes they act like they don't have the time to deal with him. One kid can very easily disrupt a classroom and cause issues for the other kids.
I’ve had a kid make threats to their family and yet there he is, still. In my class
 

montesa

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I’ve had a kid make threats to their family and yet there he is, still. In my class
I think it’s not really fair to place all of the responsibility on teachers or schools. It starts with parenting. If the kid doesn’t show up with some discipline and willingness to learn, how much can you do?
 

Red Dirt Walker

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I didn't read all of the comments because many became repetitive but here's my take on the teacher subject.

Having worked with "educated" people for 3 decades, having a diploma is no indication of ability, skill, or knowledge on a subject, so I'm good with this change.

It is also extremely difficult to get rid of bad teachers and I don't mean like beat a student bad, but just not a good teacher. I would think most people have met a person that is extremely knowledgeable in a field, but could not teach the field worth a tinker's damn. I have family in public education and was told of a situation where all of the "bad" teachers in the district had been pushed to the same school and the school was suffering, so they dispersed them all throughout the district because it was harder to fire them than it was worth.
A family member was also acting as a mentor to a student teacher as part of the college education process of getting a teaching degree. The trainee was terrible and my family member advise the college representative for the person that they really shouldn't be a teacher. The college representative told my family member, that the person had paid for the education so they couldn't withhold the certificate.
This same family member who has been a public school champion since they started teaching told me this summer that if they had kids in school still, they would probably look at Private Schools.

Now some stats and info.
One of the largest growth areas in Public education spending is administration and it's not even in the ballpark compared to teachers. Chart of the Day: Administrative Bloat in US Public Schools

As a country we have dumped more and more money into education with little to nothing to show for it. Quote from the article "Over the last 30 to 40 years, the United States has invested heavily in education, with little to show for it." The declining productivity of education

The family member in teaching also has done some homework to compare children's books from the 1950s and 60s to children's book of today. Their conclusion was that either kids were smarter then or we expected more from them then. Along those lines there is a noticeable dumbing down of our schools and mind you this article is from 2004 so this isn't a new problem and it doesn't seem to have gotten better. https://www.washingtonpost.com/arch...schools/14608fbf-c002-477a-904e-5f1953eb5d30/

Why are teachers leaving. Different to what you hear in media I don't believe it is over pay. I have watched numerous (at 50 or so) videos on YouTube and TikToc by teachers that left and the reason they left. Of all the videos I have watched pay was only mentioned approximately 25% of the time. What was consistently mentioned was Administration, student problems, Parents, and over all stress. More pay will not alleviate any of those problems. This video is from a teacher of the year publicly resigning and with limited time to speak he had to chose what I would think were the major problems in teaching and he didn't mention pay. Now, before some says "that's not from Oklahoma though", the teacher shortage is nation wide and all blame pay according to the media.


All that said, our education system and really the west is a train wreck, as this article points out. So, while some want to point fingers at the left and others want to point fingers at the right it can't be either of those groups if this is not an isolate problem for the US. Teacher shortages: A common problem throughout Europe's schools

As I don't believe in pointing out the problems without solutions here's what I have to offer.
1. Money needs to follow the child and allow parents to pick the school their child attends. Whether that's a government ran school, private school, Charter school, homeschool, or whatever.
2. Parents need to be better. They need to be more involved with their kids in general, but in their school is the topic. The stories my family member could tell.
3. Kids need to be better. This ties back to the parents though. We need to raise kids that show some respect and listen and mind.
4. Electronics need to be left at home. Alternatively, they can be turned in at the office or left in a locker. If it comes into the classroom and is discovered, its immediately taken and the student can pick it up in the office.
5. Schools have to have the ability to punish a kid and make it mean something. There are to many stories of a kid crossing the line and a teacher sending the kid to the Principle to have nothing or virtually nothing happen to the kid.
 

Gunbuffer

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I think it’s not really fair to place all of the responsibility on teachers or schools. It starts with parenting. If the kid doesn’t show up with some discipline and willingness to learn, how much can you do?
Little to nothing. In fact, they make it harder for the kids who want to be there
 

BobbyV

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Homeschoolers have been doing this for years without degrees/certifications with great success.
Yes many have. Especially today with all the resources available. My wife has been saying that she'll gladly homeschool our grandkids when the time comes.

It's just a little different learning environment when you're working with 3-4 kids at a time compared to 25+.
 

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