Today's Rant

Fellow educators, there's something I need to get off my chest and I would like your opinions. As most of you know last year I worked at a small Catholic school. Catholic schools are private institutions that do not offer special education services, though I had a number of students who were obviously struggling. As their teacher I stayed after school every day except Friday and helped them best I could because it was part of my job. By the end of the school year I knew I wouldn't be returning to the Catholic school so I sent notes home with a few students, offering to tutor them over the summer and prepare them for 6th grade.

When the school year started, I heard rumblings from my students that teachers were making comments in front of others about them being tutored by a former teacher. Some students went so far as to say that these teachers were essentially bullying them about having me as a tutor. That was bad enough- but then I find out that these teachers are now being allowed to charge their own current students $25 an hour for extra help.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but is this not a conflict of interest? Isn't extra help part of your job as an educator? And how is it that the principal can justify asking these parents for even more money so that their students can have what should be available to them regardless? I also have to wonder what's going on in the classroom that the students aren't learning in an effective manor. Case in point, a math test was scheduled for today and the students were so shaky on the information that 23 out of 27 students had to stay after for extra help the night before the test. Shouldn't that be a red flag for any teacher that perhaps their teaching methods aren't reaching their students? Instead this same teacher poked fun at one of my tutoring students saying, "Shouldn't you understand this material? I thought you had a tutor?"

Creepy...

For the last 10 minutes that I have been sitting waiting for my mother, the radio has said simply, "Look". I watch too many horror films.