H.H posted:

quote:

I'm a somewhat well-known poster. I met my girlfriend on Whisper, not on OkCupid like I tell everyone. It happened after I messaged her about a post asking if anyone had any experience being knotted. We both love that idea and are planning to eventually get a dog together. Nobody else knows. I pretend to like cats more, but both of us know just how much we want to get hosed silly by a big, wolf-like fluffy dog.

quote:

I'm a teacher and it never ceases to amaze me how hosed up education is in the US. Imagine going into a profession wanting to help people only to start hating everything about it in less than five years. There are a lot of people who go into education to do good, but there's also quite a few who are well meaning idiots and often cause more problems than they solve. It doesn't surprise me why there's so much burn out, it's impossible to do the job well without killing yourself in the process. Unless you're lucky enough to get into a decent district.

So many parents have no loving clue what to do with their kids and either enable the gently caress out of them into special little snowflakes or ignore poo poo they do because they don't want to be bothered. Yeah, they might care about their kids, but most of the time parents don't have the balls to actually parent. I truly wish it were possible for the state to take kids away from parents who can't handle their poo poo (more so than current systems).

In teaching classes, much of what I end up seeing usually is students not willing to work for any number of reasons; but by my estimate at least 50% of those are truly just lazy or being enabled by parents into learned helplessness. It is true that there are students who truly need extra help, but there's a lot who are just gaming the system. I'm sorry but missing at least 2 days a week all year it not a disability and no matter how bad your situation, going to school should be a priority. For gently caress's sake, there are kids in Africa who have it way worse off and yet walk +10 miles a day to get an education, you can get your lazy rear end off the sofa and put down the video game to learn something for a few hours a day. Having taught middle and high school, it becomes very obvious in a short span of time who is going to be working dead end jobs or end up in jail later on in life. The number of psychos I've had to deal with, having no access to resources or alternatives is criminal in my opinion. I've spent tons of money out of my pocket to try and do things for students and the public treats us like poo poo. Half the time I want to spit in their faces when they start bitching how I didn't give their special snowflake special treatment (read: enabling them to get a good grade for no work). I dunno...maybe turn in your work like everyone else and actually earn your grades?? It's unbelievable the bullshit that parents try to justify that is somehow my fault.

The hosed up part is that I do truly care about teaching, have a real love for my subject, and want students to be successful. But with the state of education, it's a complete nightmare to go to work most days. I get paid 50% of what I'd be paid in a better district. The only thing that keeps me in education are the few times I'm actually able to reach a student, but 90% of it I could walk away from in a heartbeat if I didn't need some kind of job. I hate that I can't imagine doing anything else, yet hate it so much.

H.H posted:

crazy right winger

A Strange Aeon posted:

Really interested in the teaching situation.

Are the problems inherent in the structure of public education, or does it have more to do with individual parents? It's sad to think you can see a child's destiny from 7th grade on.

What would make it better? As someone who wants to be a parent, what could I do to foster a child who doesn't break his or her teacher's heart every day?

Also, teachers don't get paid nearly enough. Everyone talks about getting summers off as some huge perk, but honestly, that's time they don't pay you for, right? So, unpaid days off isn't really a great perk, in my opinion.

abigserve posted:

She reckons most parents dont want to discipline their own kids so they expect the school to do it, which means they can also blame the school for all the kids problems.

Haier posted:

The problem with kids is the same like with dogs. On their own at home they might be just fine and calm. When you put two together, they start getting rowdy. 20-30 of them and there's no way you're going to get them all to calm down just by shouting at them or expecting them to behave.

But parents are also really poo poo, so it's a combo of the two.

Solice Kirsk posted:

Remember, please spay or neuter your kids. Maybe we should take after Childhood's End and send all our kids off to an island to be raised by aliens and not allow any adult contact with them until they evolve into energy and get meshed into the galactic hivemind/existence. Be easier than trying to fix the US educational system at least.

Hedrigall posted:

Everything I know about American schools I learnt from TV. Is it true that you talk about prom all year and everyone's a quarterback and lessons go for two minutes then the bell rings and everyone gets up while the teacher shouts out "Don't forget to read chapter three tonight!"?

Bonzo posted:

I graduated over 25 years ago but to answer your questions
1) only when it is a few months away. Sr. Prom was the biggest because that's a huge party. Even the people not dating anyone would pair off for platonic date. You high level nerds or druggies wouldn't go.
2) our school sucked, so no and we were also a basketball state.
3) sometimes. The closer you get to graduation, the less the teachers give a gently caress. I had quite a few that would teach a lesson for 20 minutes and then just let you work on your own. Most didn't care if you slept or doodled, as long as you were quiet.

A Strange Aeon posted:

Everyone talks about getting summers off as some huge perk, but honestly, that's time they don't pay you for, right? So, unpaid days off isn't really a great perk, in my opinion.

curlingiron posted:

I dunno, it's def possible to teach without being an alcoholic or depressed (I'm neither, but I may just be a freak of nature), but it's gotta be the right circumstances, I think. My admins have always backed me up on stuff, which I've heard is sadly unusual. I also have a super high tollerance for student bullshit, and I think teenagers are hilarious. My students aren't worse than I was, they're just different, and I don't think that's bad.

I don't think that anyone should do the job unless they love it; not all the time, certainly, but at the end of the day if someone consistently hates it I really hope that they're able to find something they like more because everyone deserves that (and also the kids will eat them alive). Who knows, maybe I'll feel different in 20 years (I'm only on year 5, so I guess I still have time to be a burnout statistic), but I loving love what I do, and I want to keep doing it as long as I can.


FYI, we do get paid during the summer, but it's for work we already did; technically the state holds back some of our pay so we get paid roughly the same amount every month, extending it through summer.

H.H posted:

I broke up with my girlfriend after months of arguing over one thing that seems petty - tipping.

I believe in always tipping at least 15% unless service is exceptionally bad, and will tip as much as I feel like. She believed 15% was only for completely perfect above average service.

Every time we went out to eat we would argue over this. I bought the food and believed the tip was my right. She would always grab some of the money I left and discretely put it in her purse.

The final breakup happened after an excellent meal at a BBQ place. The waiter was awesome - got us refills before we had to ask, explained things on the menu to the both of us, and even let my girlfriend try the different types of BBQ sauce to see what she liked most. At the end the bill came and I planned to tip really generously.

My girlfriend goes "That guy sucked, he kept hovering over us way too much" and wanted to leave just 2 bucks (on a 70 dollar bill). I calmly explained that he was just helping us out and deserved a good tip, and left him 30 dollars. As we got up to leave she tried to grab the 20. I caught her, told her to put it back, and we left in silence.

On the ride home she didn't say a word. At home she went right up to bed and locked the door behind her. I slept on the couch. The next day I told her why I felt the way I did (grew up poor, worked a lot of jobs like that, barely made ends meet and struggled to make it through school and better myself). She just laughed in my face.

Automatic Slim posted:

My father was a teacher.

He said he would disinherit me if I became a teacher.

ArmZ posted:

empty threat. since he was a teacher there won't be anything for you to inherit, except alcoholism and depression.

ArmZ posted:

empty threat. since he was a teacher there won't be anything for you to inherit, except alcoholism and depression.

Golem II posted:

I'm gonna kill myself, screw this guy.

Golem II posted:

No one cares, good.

quote:

If it weren't for CJacobs and his friend Fae I would not have amassed a collection of toys. By toys I mean anthropomorphic dildos. I'm not even joking. So this is probably the closest way to say thanks, your dong chat about where to buy dargon dildos is pretty helpful.

quote:

Education chat reminded me I should share this for the gently caress of it.

I was homeschooled, and I guess homeschooling is alright. Except if you're one of the few who fell through the cracks, like me.

Here's some poo poo that went on til I was 18.
Pulled from public school from 2nd grade
Rarely worked for more than three or four hours a day, every day.
You know all those 'classic novels' like moby dick or scarlet letter? Yeah, never read them.
I had my own laptop for some reason--though no internet [thankfully??]--so I'd watch a lot of movies instead of doing school type poo poo.
Never wrote an essay. At all. Ever. Kind of hosed when I got to community college and was faced with 'wtf is double spacing? How do use microsoft word?'
A Beka books. Not actually informational, but that didn't stop my mom from using them.
We did bible studies more than science, art, etc. She'd quiz me on poo poo that happened in the bible, like giving mini paper exams.
Never did homework. Or turned in homework. When I did I'd just do unruly scrawl in between legit words and she'd just accept it.
Homework consisted of filling out biblical quizes, copying answers from the ends of chapters from 'school books'. [Again, never wrote an essay or read novels, did science experiements, etc. or had to do critical thinking.]
Had no friends. Never was signed up for extra curricular poo poo like sports teams, scout camp, etc. So I rarely interacted with anyone not a family member.
Never learned math, by the way. Kind of surprised and hosed when college classes expected you to know poo poo like multiplication.
My own aunt called me 'socially inept' which I thought was cruel, but honestly she was right. I've gotten better, I swear. You can't fault me for not know social poo poo when I've been isolated as gently caress.
I graduated myself from 'high school'. Like, from about 17-18 yo I did no homework, schoolbook reading and the like so why the gently caress not.

Oh, and unrelated to the homeschooling thing: she'd phsyically drag me across the house [from living room, through the hallway, to the backyard door and back] because... reasons? I guess I was misbehaving, can't remember. I've also been beaten with an extension cord, tv remote, and wooden spatula, among other things. She's also thrown things at me, like heavy pots, costco sized bottle of ketchup, etc. And screamed a lot.


My older sister was homeschooled too, with p much the same experience. Today she's a self declared asexual with zero friends, a room full of sailor moon collectibles, dildos, and a fear of men [bc tumblr taught her that among other die cis scum thinking and poo poo]. Goons told me she was most likely raped, but that's kind of impossible when a) she's rarely been without me or my mother's company, and b) never goes outside anyways. [Dad is kind of out of the picture so. And it's doubtful my mom's a pedo, just really hosed up in other ways.]

tl;dr christian homeschooler mother hosed up my education and attempted to softcore 'genie the feral child' her own offspring. It's been a long road to unfuck myself. I contemplate suicide a lot in the meantime.