School costs and parent involvement

[jelli]

Originally Posted by Melissa

My guess is that teacher's are very in tune to which kids can or cannot afford supplies and which kids have parents who are active in their learning and which kids have parents who can't or won't be involved in their learning. It could be that the project is mandated and the teacher has little control over it?

M

I have been volunteering in the public schools, in two different states, on 5 different grade levels at a time, for 20 years now. I have had the extreme pleasure of meeting some of the best teachers.

I totally believe many of our teachers have a good grasp on their class and what the individual students are capable of and some obstacles too.

I've witness students take a failing grade because they didn't want to ask a parent(for various reasons) to take them to the library to use a computer. Students who really struggle with a math concept and there was nobody around to help them at home or the math was even beyond a level the parents could comprehend.

Nowadays, our teachers are not just teachers. Teaching is a big enough task as it is, but they have taken on the roles as counselors or at least getting these kids "other needs" to the appropriate person that possibly can help them.