OK I'll take the bait. Disclosure, I am a teacher. My all means I'm not posting to argue, simply to share an opinion or two. Any of you watch Scott Van Pelt on Sportscenter? I was watching an interview with him a while back and he stated, "Two things I will never debate or argue about with someone is politics and religion, who am I to argue with another that I am right and they are wrong when there's millions of other people that think just like they do". I agree with that, I'm not here to argue with what your thoughts are of teachers and public schools. Everybody has an opinion.

Very rarely will I entertain a conversation about teachers and teaching in general. Opinions vary, this has been discussed before. In all walks of life there's good and bad. Good doctors and bad doctors, motivational speakers that can captivate an audience and some that will put you to sleep, priest that have you hanging on every word and some that lose you before they get started, Enthusiastic hunters that do things the right way and slob/lazy hunters that give every hunter a bad name, landscapers that can make your yard look like Amen Corner at Augusta and some that will make it look like a freshly plowed field, and yes some teacher that are unbelievably gifted with how they can reach out and connect with kids and some that are only there for June, July and August. The list of good and bad can go on and on and on.

I have no idea what schools and teachers are like in every corner of the country. But I can say this, in my little corner of the world I'm quite certain the majority of teachers don't think they're better than everybody else, teachers and faculty do not make up the rules and get their way, and every teacher I know would much rather have their kids in class over distance learning. It really does amaze me how some people think they know what teachers do and say and think when they've been removed from a school setting for years. And it amazes me how some people can lump all teachers as worthless, when in fact many teachers provide their students (your children) with necessities that some parents can't provide. I'm not talking about just school supplies either.

A few months ago, for the very first time I posted some thoughts on a thread that was about teachers and teaching. I simply ended with this.....If teaching is so easy and teachers are so grossly under-worked and overpaid, why wouldn't you become one? Think about it, it really is a no brainer. I does make me wonder why colleges are getting less and less students majoring in education. 24 years ago I applied for my teaching job. 168 people applied. 8 years ago my district needed to hire 4 elementary teachers, we had 10 applicants. This year we needed to hire 2, one of them went unfilled until a retired teacher agreed to be a long term sub until a full time teacher could be found. Again, if it's such an easy profession and teachers live like kings and can basically get what they want....It surprises me people aren't beatin down the doors to get in!

I have no problem with what your opinion of teachers is, that is completely your right. Just keep in mind there's good and bad. Quick thought, take a look at yourself and the profession your in, How would you rate yourself? Good at what you do, go above and beyond, or do you just show up, do your job and go home? Then...Think about how your co-workers would rate you. Trust me, in every walk of life there's good and bad. You fall on one side of the spectrum.

2 in elementary 1 in mid school they are doing school at home.
Private schools can go in person.

First year homeschooling. The covid hysteria was the last straw.

My 4 grandkids are going to school. Two different districts.

I don't think anyone has ever said it's an easy job. I think there's a lot of people that got into it thinking it was easy .

Nobody should major in education it's a throw away area of study like history. Teaching is something you either have it or don't. And it should really be something you do in retirement after working in the private sector rather han your life's job. Especially in the post secondary world. The exception maybe for k-3 teachers where by the time your retired you don't want to be a babysitter for that age group.

Another thing is at least when I was in school, education is a really crowded field with a low attrition rate so getting a job in teaching was far and few between.

Most complaints about teachers I'd really about the system as a whole. People know who the teachers are more than they do the school boards and administration who enaxt the policies. The system props up the bad teachers that you can't fire them without going through a lot of hoops unless they brought a gun to school looking for the principal, my 9th grade history teacher did that, or molested a kid and even that isn't guaranteed.

rvsask if you’re really interested in Indiana you should read what the governor is saying. He is saying that his goal is to get schools up and running, which is great. The problem is in his final statements, the schools ultimately can make the decisions on their own. Our community has never made it to the red level, when it gets to red that’s when they shut down and go to all virtual learning. So we’ve never made it to red but our school continues to be shut down. It is 100% percent the teachers that do not want the school reopening. I stay informed with what’s going on at our school through the school board, it’s definitely the teachers.

The Covid mess just reinforced our inclination to withdraw the little one from public school and go to online home school. We are in a position that it works for us... I work, wife stays home and helps with schooling. The little one has shown vast improvement. She still struggles in certain sujects but still is one of the tops in her class in both curriculum and pace. She is usually finished with her school day by about 1:00 pm or so and has more free time to play, read, or if I'm home she can hang out with me... We usually go to the shop and mess around doing leather work, making powder horns/muzzleloader stuff, or if the weather cooperates we go shooting or hunting.

It isn't "easy" and it requires some adjustment. You may also have to sacrifice some things but it has worked well for us.

Mike

With the education degree candidates falling dramatically I would not say that getting a degree in education would be a waste in these modern times. Getting a degree in education can open a whole host of doors. If you are a hard working young teacher with 4-5 years of education and maybe a master's degree and you teach for 3-7 years and can handle the students, the parents, the system and the politics and the constant references to not being able to do real work you are extremely employable in the management areas of almost all service related companies which is the rapidly growing sector of our economy. I know from my 38 years of teaching experience that had many offers that looked very attractive and did consider several but kept on teaching at the tech college as I enjoyed to challenge and the work. I taught in a program that was dependent on my enrolling a specific number of students every year to maintain the position at full time or at all. That was a challenge as the number of farm students declined every year and many were grads but I was able keep that going for decades. I doubt many understand that many teaching positions are numbers based or performance based as they choose to believe one would make a large salary teaching a handful of students. In some cases that may be true but I was able to avoid that situation. I also had the experience of serving for 10 years on a K-12 school board and was able to learn a lot about how schools run, are managed and also found out how important it is to hire the best administration staff you can afford.

Bryce

Funny I still have to pay school taxes(that are actualy MORE than my land taxes) even when the kids aren't allowed in school !!Government sure knows how to put the screws to us.