Bad Teachers

[toddles]

a joke:


some teachers work cos they have passion. Some work cos of the pension.

overheard from a teacher:

the teachers that survive long in the system are those without passion. those who work for the passion get disillusioned more easily and quit. those who treat it like any other job, view things more cynically and last longer.

salary:

seriously, the pay is not bad. mediocre graduates have no way of getting similar pay in other sectors. plus connect plan if you can tough it out for those years… even other gahmen sectors don’t have connect plan equivalents.

[janet88]

toddles:

a joke:


some teachers work cos they have passion. Some work cos of the pension.

overheard from a teacher:

the teachers that survive long in the system are those without passion. those who work for the passion get disillusioned more easily and quit. those who treat it like any other job, view things more cynically and last longer.

salary:

seriously, the pay is not bad. mediocre graduates have no way of getting similar pay in other sectors. plus connect plan if you can tough it out for those years... even other gahmen sectors don't have connect plan equivalents.

sad but true.

[leesf]

There are good and bad teachers. Frankly speaking, its not easy to handle kids nowadays with a class size of 40. MOE should reduce teachers’ workload, that means teachers just teach and nothing else. This may perhaps lighten the teachers’ load. To me a good teacher need not come out with fantastic ideas to teach. If he can interact with his students well, the students will work hard to appreciate the teachers’ hardwork. I am telling from my child’s experience.


I had only met one good teacher in my child’s primary school. She treated the students as her kids & my child told me she is just like a mother to them. Most of my child’s classmates love this teacher. She ever told me because she has 3 kids, she actually treated her students as her kids. I would say she is a very patient teacher. I can see that my child put in extra effort in his work & he scored A star in his PSLE Chinese His teacher told me she is very happy with his result.

As my child is diagnosed with mild ADHD, he can be quite disturbing in class. Teachers who are not able to handle him would give him all sorts of punishment. He was being slapped by a music teacher & when I spoke to her regarding the incident, she said ’ I have been teaching for years and I know what I am doing. I did not slap your child, its just a soft slap. From now onwards I would not touch your child anymore.’ What can I do? I did not bring the matter to the principal as this teacher teaches Chinese and I was afraid she would be my child’s Chinese teacher when he went to upper primary.

Another of his form teacher made him kneel down in front of the class. My child was really embarrassed & my heart really hurt when I heard about this incident. I myself did not even punish my child this way. Again, I did not bring up the issue as I’m afraid my child would be ‘marked’ by the teacher.

So message to all teachers, if you think you can’t handle the students, do not ever punish students in this manner. How would you feel if your own children are being punished?

[3Boys]

With all due respect to mrswongtuition and some of the others, I don’t think it is fair to paint all long-staying teachers are those who have no passion and merely working for the pension.


Granted, there are those who have perhaps tuned out or are jaded, and teaching is certainly a emotionally demanding job, so you have got to be able to insulate yourself somewhat or you will surely burn out. Just because one is cynical about MOE does not mean one is a bad teacher.

I don’t think its possible to maintain the highest levels of enthusiasm over a career spanning 30-40 years, but if a teacher is a steady performer, delivers at least the fundamentals, and can on occasion hit the high notes, that can do for me. The rest I will manage for my kids myself.

[sartisel]

teachers and their classrooms. it is not easy to handle people especially when they are in a group and when every individual is the apple of their own parents eyes.


Definitely, broad based mass education has to make some concessions for quality. Developing a child fully requires much more than what is currently provided or will ever can be provided. Furthermore, broad based education is performed under the imperative ideology of advancing economies.

What is a bad teacher? Probably one trying to fulfill expectations from parents, themselves and the schl.

[ZacK]

DS1: Do teachers speak bad English? (Referring to his English and Math teacher)


Me: Hmm yes if the teachers are not careful with their choice of words.

DS1: Ok. I think Ms XXX spoke bad English the other day. She was replying my classmate,\"Wait let me mark (papers) finish first.\" When she should have said,\"Wait let me finish marking first.\"

Me: *Smile* Way to go! But please make sure you do not correct your teacher when you are in class ok? :nailbite:

[tutormum]

mrswongtuition:

cherrygal:

Today, too many teachers and principals are chasing after promotions that they forget their initial passion for teaching.

Do you know that teachers who choose PASSION over PROMOTION are subjected to very serious 'consequences'?

I am one teacher who chose passion over promotion.
Who cares if my boss is unhappy with me, as long as I know what I'm doing is best for my students (and not against the law or MOE policies)?

However, the fact remains that you will be consistently MARKED and shot with thousands of arrows, not just by your immediate superior but by all who are of higher rank.

Also, do you know that teachers with a poor grading do not get ANY bonus AT ALL? Not talking about performance bonus but the civil service bonus the govt always annouces, they will not be entitled to those too!

I chose to leave teaching with MOE because of all the nonsense thrown to teachers. However, I really love teaching and still teach from home. The satisfaction from interaction with students is something that no other job can give.

At least now I feel better appreciated although I do get parents who are demanding. They learn to take a step back after seeing what I'm doing for their children.

And we don't have to worry too much about finances now. MOE's pay is really really really little and the work hours leave very little time for my family. Teaching from home now gives me more time with my boy and though the pay isn't very regular (if students go on holidays, etc), it still beats working for MOE.


All I can say is, there are teachers who teach just for the salary which is credited into our bank accounts on the 12th of every month.
There are teachers who really love the kids and joined teaching for the passion, only to found out that teaching (referring the to extra work that has no benefits to the students) isn't what they signed up for and leave.
There are also teachers who are so passionate (and usually have rich husbands) that they stick to teaching for veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery long. Imagine, some of my ex-colleagues were my teachers!

Whatever their reasons for joining teaching, students and parents will know who has the real passion.
Cut some slack from the really passionate teachers, else you extinguish that flame and your child gets assigned another teacher who is worse, you'll regret.

Thanks for your insight. I have always wondered if I should have been more thick-skinned and applied again after MOE rejected my application to be a teacher due to my 'irrelevant' subjects (I studied commercial subjects which caused the rejection). Guess as a private tutor I am in a much better position in helping my students academically as well as instilling good values. I rather teach than spending all my time ducking those arrows. :preen:

[Warr]

There are several occupations that are really thankless:


1. Nurses - get scolded by patients, relatives, doctors, colleagues and superiors
2. Teachers - get criticized by parents, snubbed by students, belittled by superiors and ignored by MOE

I am sure there are other occupations that share similar hardships. All you need to do is:

1. Spend a few weeks as a "relief teacher" to know what I am talking about (I did)
2. Talk to a few parents who think that bringing up their kids is the responsibility of teachers
3. Talk to "officials" who think that students and parents are "customers" instead of teachers as the venerated ones as in days long gone and you will see why schools have become what they are today

Sure, there are "bad" teachers. Some people can’t teach. Some people can’t relate well with others. But the fact that they put up with all the #$% above, just for that alone, they deserve their pay.

[Cockroach]

My girl met an English teacher when she was P5. This teacher is terrible to an Indian child. For the worst cases, he told him to stare into the mirror and look at himself and recognize how ugly he is when what he did was merely forgot to bring hwk. He also embarrassed the child by asking him to do pumping and when he did as told, the teacher laughed at him and whilst pointing to him, he said to us," this is what i call my dog" and some of her friends laughed. That boy went to another school in the end and the teacher went to another school as the class wrote complain letters to the principal. Now, they are having a much better teacher and i am glad:)

[coolit]

I am surprised that the teacher can still go to another school! Teachers truly have

thankless jobs but sometimes I find that they can go a bit ‘xiao’ after a while and start
to take out their anger on the kids. Not that I totally blame them but when my child
was under one such teacher, every day she would go to school trembling because she
never knew what would set off the teacher on one of her moods.