News-Record.com

Remember fans, "C" gets you praise, a raise, and San Dieg ! Don't knock it.

D+

I think a "C" is generous. With all the pointless bureaucracy teachers have to put up with, I'd give the system a "D-." I'm honestly surprised they still have teachers willing to work in Guilford County. We're on our way to becoming the next Charlotte-Mecklenburg as a result of a slew of horrendous decisions by Mr. Terry Grier and his inept cronies known as the School Board.

I think a D or C- at the very best, and both my wife and I work in Gilford County Schools. There are way too many workshops, conducted by overpaid stooges on a Dead Poets Society kick. Most do nothing besides parrot information all teachers know already, or worse, give ridiculous surveys that break all educators down into three or five broad categories a la the personality test in ladies magazines.

Who knows how much these workshop bozos make to be as useless as about 80% of them are, but that money should be re-routed to programs that benefit children directly (i.e. arts, decent pay for after school tutors, etc.).

When teachers spend more time attending workshops, that's less time they have to dedicate to their students and improving their own lives so that they can become the kinds of inspirational people that students would want to emulate.

I also believe that if principals were not so busy coordinating workshops for their faculty, that they would have more time to organize their schools. The biggest problem in many of our schools now is that everything is disorganized. Teachers have no idea which students are absent, suspended, or placed in ISS, resulting in a lot of kids who skip class because of how easy it is to skip through the ever-growing tracks.

"Sensei" is right. The number of teachers willing to teach in Guilford County will continue to drop if the people on the top don't stop making it so needlessly difficult. My must administer no less than 15 benchmark exams per year for English. That means you have students who've lost three weeks of potential study time to tests which do nothing to prepare them for their futures.