posted on May 9, 2002 09:28:48 PM
Hi, I was just watching TV and heard some of the teachers in the poorer school districts buy books for their students. One went to Barnes & Noble and bought her students copies of Huckle Berry Finn. Teachers could save their own out of pocket spending if booksellers gave teachers books near cost. And would spread good will at the same time. Its okay, toot your own horn!
posted on May 9, 2002 10:51:08 PM
Teachers spend alot of their own money on many things in most school districts, poor or not.
Some store will give teachers 10% discount, but thats not much.
I know some teachers that even bring an extra lunch or 2 from home because their students would go without and of course they don't eat a breakfast either. One teachers keeps a loaf of bread and peanut butter & jelly in her class for the hungry kids.
posted on May 10, 2002 08:39:48 AM
There are federal programs to help hungry students. Any teachers bringing extra lunches for hungry students need to get educated about the federal programs.
The state of public schools is deplorable. Not the lack of money as much as the way the school officials run the schools. It seems like every other day is teachers workday where the school hires substitute teachers while the regular teachers have a quaint workshop. The schools have no money because they waste so much of it on their egos.
Now if that isn't kicking a hornet's nest. Flame away you teacher lovers.
posted on May 10, 2002 09:07:03 AM
I'm in agreement with you, schools in general are over adminstrated, there is a huge pay disparity between administrators and teachers, there is a huge level of corruption whenever money is raised via taxes for schools (I escaped from Los Angeles, where the LAUSD is possibly the worse example of this, we are talking about bonuses to contractors like houses and boats, and the money was spent without accomplishing ANY of the orgiginal main goals)
I would not take a teacher to task for bringing in extra food, that is nice of them. Federal programs are not the answer in this case, because the teacher can not make the child (or the parent) apply.
There are schools where no supplies are provided (like tissues, pencils, etc.) and the teachers either provide them, or they are just not available. Hard to learn without pencils. I blame the administrators, not the teachers.
posted on May 10, 2002 02:51:54 PM
All of the local high schools where I live now have these very expensive electronic signs in front of them flashing worthless messages. At the Dollar Tree stores you can buy 20 pencils for $1. The school district chooses the the $150,000 signs over the pencils.
The federal free luch program was just reported to have 20% of the users not qualified to receive the free lunches because the users had too much income.
The schools want the parents to think that they are poor Oliver Twists so they will vote on school bonds and against school vouchure bills ( I can't believe that I'd ever back a Republican Party mainstay ).
There is no equality in the schools whatsoever. In the wealthy neighborhoods, the schools are showplaces of learning while in the same city the schools in the poor areas are nothing more than decaying prisons. There is nothing equal about those facts, only disgrace.
posted on May 10, 2002 03:40:07 PM
i am not born in good old usa and i attended grade school and high school in a different place under a different education system.
education was not free,neither is school lunch or supply.
every month our class teacher collected the tuition from each student,we walked up to the teacher and handed over the cash which was prepared by our parents the night before.
every month there were always be a few students who cant come up with that dough because their parents just dont have it,eventually these students just dropped out of school,once i ran into an ex classmate of mine with his dad the street hawker,they are both working to sell kitchen ware on the street!! and he was only 8 years old!!
lunch is prepared by the parents ,it could be anything?? mostly nice leftover.
the students with good report cards are always the students who come from good family,never late with payment,packed a good lunch and have neat and clean school bags filled with clean books,supplies etc.
all these are not handout from the govt,they came from their parents who placed great emphasis on education and made sacrifice to afford the tuition,books,supplies.
children cannot strive in school if they are absorbed in many adult mundane issues like where will the next meal come from??or is mommy divorcing daddy and in rich neighborhood they have to take off to testify in divorce courts.
Parents have to accept some responsibility too for the school situation-is it too much to pack a lunch for your kids,buy them some paper and pencil at kmart ??
teachers and adminstrators can only do so much,they have their own problems too at home.
