A Sober Look at the Education System

Baiting The Left Children R Our Future 14 Comments

This is technically a comedy video about the American Education System, but I’m hoping some Canadian teachers will chime in about their experiences.

Two of the top-rated comments hit strong chords:

  • A good friend of mine from college quit teaching a few years ago. She had won awards. She told me that she averaged 35 kids per class, with 30 desks. The most textbooks she had for any of her 7 classes was 28. She would go to businesses (law firms were pretty good to help out) to beg for pens, legal pads, post-it notes for her kids. She was living like a broke college student, while being in her 50’s. The day she quit, she was walking out to the parking lot with the principal. He was so happy that his bonus for the year would pay off his new BMW X5, and my friend just stared at her 15 year old VW. Something like 70% of every dollar spent on Education goes to “administrative costs”. Not teacher salaries, not materials for students, not learning programs.
  • The worst part is that public school caters to the lowest common denominator. Kids that are actually way ahead of their classes are forced to sit there in boredom while everyone else catches up (k-12). Personally experienced it. I burned out at about sophomore year of high school and just did what i considered the minimum and still made all As K-12 without really trying. The issue is that since i wasn’t challenged i had a ton of issues in college since i didn’t know how to properly study for anything, and I know i’m not the only one who experienced that.

14 Replies to “A Sober Look at the Education System”

  2. We have a school system that is largely unchanged from the Prussian School Model of the 1780s. Mandatory education of all students to ensure that they believe what the teachers tell them for the best possible office drones and workers.

    School boards need to be eliminated, each individual school can be run by a Principal, a VP, and 2 secretaries who report to a Trustee board of Parents. This eliminates thousand of jobs that are not teaching students. In the case of the Toronto District school board, do they really need 1062 Assistant Curriculum Leaders, secondary, 700 Chair, Elementary, and 563 Assistant Curriculum, all of which make over $100k a year.

    We also need to know why Sean Hume as a Elementary Principal made $471,634 last year, when the average was $156,898.

    But the person who was assigned by the ministry to look at this, is fiddling around the margins on expense accounts (just zero them out and be done with it), rather than looking at the big picture problems.

  3. I am ambivalent about this. Because the education system in the U.S. sucks balls. The teachers unions are some of the most corrupt and 100% Democrat. Then of course there are the crazies. Plenty of anti-right lunatics are teachers, encouraging violence and warping kids’ minds. And then of course, the pedos. I know there are some good teachers out there, but their ranks are rife with the worse scum and their left-wing politics are turning kids into chanting activists with no critical thinking skills.

  5. “Something like 70% of every dollar spent on Education goes to “administrative costs”
    I’d like a link to this. I’m with the sentiment, but we should stay factual.

  7. Both are suspect. Teacher’s union talking points for as long as I can remember.

    Class size.

    The poor teacher spending her meager salary on construction paper.

    Special ed for smart kids means hiring another teacher with advanced degrees.

  8. Note that this article was focused on the American education system not the Canadian system where teachers (indoctrinators) are overpaid and often underworked leftist activists.

    1. This bears repeating. Teachers get paid very well in Canada and are (mostly) leftists. They are also one of the largest groups of whiners I’ve witnessed.

  9. Nearly every issue we have with our education system exists because we gave control of it to our government. Parents and students have no agency. Administrators and teachers don’t ‘work for’ the student or the parent — they work for the state. Public Schools are not practicing free enterprise, and parents and kids are NOT their customers. In some jurisdictions parents are not even allowed the alternative of home schooling.
    If parents had actual agency in the system, then a lot of these problems would be solved. But of course, those who currently run the system are not going to give it up willingly. All that lucrative ‘education’ tax income is just too compelling. And if you think public education is necessary in order to fund schools in lower income areas, just look around. That’s not what’s hapenning under the current system. High income neighborhoods have the best facilities and staff, and lower income have the worst.

  10. Corey DeAngelis posted this data some time ago. Between 2000 and 2022, in U.S. schools:
    # of students: +5%
    # of teachers: +10%
    # of principals/assistant principals: +39%
    # of administrative staff: +95%

    I did a mid-career 3 year stint as a high school science teacher (square peg in round hole). Took a crash course over the summer with others looking to become teachers. Three of us taught summer school algebra to the students who had failed. Meanwhile, our instructors would observe and debrief us afterwards.
    One student, Greg, wasn’t getting it, no matter how much individual attention was given. Our mentor asked us, “You know what Greg’s problem is?” No, please enlighten us. “He doesn’t know the multiplication table.”
    Next day, we had Greg make up his own, and we encouraged him to refer to it as needed. Slowly, he caught on, and he passed easily. At the end of the course, we asked all the students for their comments. Greg said (and I’ll never forget!), “I guess I’m not stupid after all.”
    How did he get to high school without knowing how to multiply? And the school system was OK with that? Never addressing this deficiency, just kick him upstairs. And he thought he was stupid because he failed math.
    If you’re building a brick wall you can’t leave out a few bricks in a row and just keep building. But that’s what they did to Greg.

    1. But, but, but … Roger Waters lectured us that … “all in all, you’re just another brick in the wall”. Why do you insist on building children into walls … instead of doors and windows … open and free!?
      /sarc.

      That’s the reasoning of an “adult” who still pretends the world is a playground for children.

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