I feared the other day that some of the comments that would be written after posting This should not happen would blame the teachers exclusively while others would blame the students.
It is probably fair to say that the students were not interested in learning the subject and that the teachers did not see to it that they learned.
Without regard to who is at fault in these cases the students should not have been given passing grades.
Our democratic republic requires informed citizens.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
It seems that not blaming the teachers is the biggest reason the problem is so prevalent. Teachers consistently escape blame while they present the proximal issue in education today, that of not educating.
You might as well have said you were afraid someone would blame the drunk driver for killing the innocent family traveling home from a movie.
Teachers are the core problem with public education. Unions are the secondary issue, with administration a close third. Teachers and unions constantly beat the drum that politicians are the problem for “under funding” education, that they are paid far less than other groups. While they constantly take from the taxpayer, they deliver poor results, encouraging children to protest anything against teachers as well as become politically active. The most recent bond elections are the best examples of this, children were inundated by the schools and their teachers with “information” to take home, registered to vote if they were seventeen, given grades for voting, etc. This was an undue influence in an area where a few dozen votes makes a tremendous difference.
If you can’t blame teachers for not teaching then I don’t know what to tell you.
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Are there bad teachers in the system? Yes of course. Are there bad accountants, bad mechanics, bad plumbers? Yes of course. Let me begin by stating that I am NOT defending bad teachers. They need to removed from the system. But I must ask, when is the last time any of you spent even 5 minutes in a classroom? Do you have any idea what the educational system deals with? There isn’t just one type of student. We have students who truly don’t know when they might eat another meal outside of school. We have students who don’t know if one of their parents isn’t coming home tonight. And, believe it or not, we have students who are so defiant that having them in ht classroom alone is literally scary. Teachers have almost no rights. They can be assaulted or threatened by a student nothing happens. And, believe it or not, we have students whose parents grew up in the “everyone should get a trophy” era who are so entitled that ANYTHING they do or produce should be regarded as the next masterpiece. Those kids are the worst. Kids who actually ask why they should be “forced” to do activities that they don’t want to do and then cry about it when they don’t do it and actually get a bad grade. A grade that was “given to them”, not earned. I will say that there are also teachers who treat students with disrespect and verbally assault them as well with no consequence. It is a systemic problem. The problems don’t lie with just the teachers, the students, or the administrators.
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Anonymous Says: Well you could tell us that you have no idea what you are talking about when you talk about education. The teachers today are told what to teach, how to teach, and when to teach and if they do not follow these administrative instructions their jobs are on the line.
If you were evaluating an army company that had been ordered top attach with their bayonets backward before making a charge against an entrenched enemy and suffered great losses, you would say they were terrible soldiers. Some positions you just have to follow orders and teaching is one of them.
You badmouth Unions, and in Texas, they have as much power as a fart running a gas-operated power plant. They do one thing and that protect the due process rights of their members. Surely you do not object to this constitutional right.
You also mentioned administrators, well most of the administrators are in the same boat as the teachers, they follow directions from the top. And believe it or not, there really are people at the top running everything. These are the for-profit, pro vouchers, pro-choice, pro-charter school people like you whose job is to complain and downgrade public education and teachers in order to destroy what has made this country great. What other countries have put a man on the moon 50 years ago?
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The above was by Dan Wever don’t know what happened
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Is government on the TAKS test???
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The 8th grade has a Social Studies test that they do very badly on every year. I think last year only 27% achieved MEETS grade level.
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Yes, the 8th grade are tested in Social Studies and last year about 27% of them MEER grade level on the test. That means 73% did not MEET grade level or were not up to par.
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Based on the preponderance of negative comments that are constantly made here about teachers and especially the first diatribe today, if people here are representative of El Paso I would not want to be a teacher in El Paso. Comments here prove that teaching is a thankless job. I have never seen an entire group of people shown so little respect or appreciation. Why would someone even want to choose a career in a field that is so disrespected. Most negative comments here condemn all teachers, not just some. The sweeping accusation that teachers are not teaching proves my point.
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