What is the biggest challenge facing educators these days? I would love to hear from a variety people in different school settings.
You don't have to look far on this forum to find tons of threads concerning funding cuts. High performing teachers getting riffed, vacancies not being filled, supply cabinets being locked, etc, etc. We're in tough economic times and our resources are being dramatically reduced. Of course, the expectations of what we should accomplish with these reduced resources are the same as they were before reductions. Having more money doesn't solve the world's problems, but not having enough can create a number of new ones.
Student apathy. Educating students who don't care to or want to be educated, or even those who only care about doing the bare minimum, is a whole different ballgame than educating those who view education as an opportunity to be embraced and pursued wholeheartedly. (I recognize that this attitude may have different causes in different situations.)
Same here and add in parent apathy with it - they don't think education is important either and don't realize things have changed.
I think the biggest challenge for teachers is class sizes. A teacher cannot give enought attention to each child in a class of 30. The ideal number would be 15 but I know I'm only dreaming.
The biggest issue my students have is poverty at home. Their parents have to choose which bills to pay and which utilities can be shut off each month. Some of my kids work two full-time jobs because they are the only breadwinners in the home. Others only get fresh milk and cheese in their diets if they are on WIC, and that means they're pregnant or young parents. My biggest issue as a teacher is trying to get these kids to realize that doing well in school is the best way for them to break this cycle. It's a heartbreaking task.
I think the biggest challenge is the ever expanding body of information we're expected to teach. I don't mean academics-- I mean all the material that was once the domain of family or church or someone else. Everything from AIDS prevention to obesity to awareness of sexual predators to you name it. Each of those things, while incredibly important, takes time away from those academics.
Mine does as well. But in all fairness, I'm in a Catholic High school. Discipline is pretty much a non-issue.
I thought dealing with 30 - my case this year- was difficult... But working with 45 kids oHHHH ... I don`t know... I think you go back home everyday more than exhausted...and stressed, I imagine... What will happen next year? 45 children again? please, tell me NO
I guess I should clarify....I am a high school teacher. Having 45 students in a high school class is different from having 45 second-graders.
1Teaching kids that come to school needing love and affection more than anything else. Kids with parents that not only DON"T parent but affect some of their children in terrible ways. 2. More and more paperword from the clueless in our state capitols. 3. MOre and more of our parents that actually care pulling their kids for home schooling/private schooling. 4. The image portrayed by hate radio idiots that public schools are somehow terrible places with all kinds of agendas to indoctrinate kids into some sort of subverisive life style.
