Educational Issues to Ponder

How much should “making learning fun” and worrying about self-esteem (pleasing children) be emphasized in schools compared to other possibly more important areas?
Before parents criticize teachers, are they doing all of dozens of things they should be properly attempting so that their children enter school with the correct background, knowledge, attitude, and respect for all that is vital in the learning process?
Should someone be an educator if he/she does not understand that “sometimes in life you are the statue and other times you are the bird” – (probably too often the former)? How vital is it to have administrators who strongly support teachers when necessary and deserved?
Has there ever been any athletic achievement greater than a teacher’s success in positively directing a heretofore “lost” child’s life?
Should a retired public school teacher collecting a state pension and who also worked as diligently as anyone else to qualify for Social Security receive greatly reduced benefits from this program, while non-educators with the exact same Social Security record and even a pension are granted the full benefit?
Are you aware of the negative results children will incur if someone does not properly read to them for at least twenty minutes daily and explain the pictures beginning when the infants are no older than several months?
What do you think of the following statement that I read? “We used to have reading, writing, and arithmetic. Now we have watching, texting, and pushing the calculator.”
What is your view (and why) regarding how student performance should affect teacher evaluations?
Why can’t schools declare every Wednesday to be “Crazy Socks Day?”
As a parent, have you ever been so (choose your own negative word) that you believed every word that your child told you about school, especially that “we don’t have any homework tonight or the teacher isn’t fair?” How much of the truth do you think you know about your child’s educational experience? Have you ever positively praised a teacher with a letter to the principal?
Do you have any idea what you would see and learn if you could be invisible and visit various schools?
Isn’t it sad that parochial school teachers work as hard as or harder than public school teachers, yet receive a vastly lower salary?
What action should be taken to improve what you would label as the biggest problem in public education?
How would you do as a pre-school – second grade teacher with a class of 25 students and no helpers?
Students can certainly reveal their favorite class, but do they truthfully know their best class?
During a one hour classroom period, how many minutes do you think are typically devoted to the stated lesson without any students being disruptive in any fashion? Do you have any idea of all the ways that students could frequently interfere with teaching? How often and where do you think this happens?