I recently looked at my second grade class picture and counted 32 of us and one teacher. Aides were unheard of and so was being disruptive. The disruptions were things like tornado drills, fire drills, half the class being absent for measles or chicken pox. The things kids got in trouble for were chewing gum, bailing out of the swings, and one boy had to stsnd in the corner in the trash can for eating his crayons!

Funding for public schools is based on local taxes with help from the State and Fed govt sometimes. It's a really unfair system. I taught for 38 years and watched the modest community struggle to provide really good schools for their kids. Your bright, extroverted kids will be fine in a class of 32 unless they get bored. But not all kids learn the same way. Quiet kids get lost and confused kids become disruptive.
I think the best you can do is develop a real partnership with your child's teacher. Read all summer. Read anything. It really helps. Write a journal TOGETHER. Draw & collage.Use the computer creatively, not just to play games. Oh you know...

i am so sorry for you. we feel your pain....

My DD is a 3rd grade teacher . they told her 3 weeks ago, that they are closing her school down for good. she will have to head to one of two other grade schools in the city. at least she will have a job. they pink slipped 10 other teachers.

I am also employed by the school board. We had no teachers lose their jobs yet but, no new hires. On my job, the school board installed GPS monitors on the buses to track our every move.

Pam, that is sad...I have been having fits for days now. I live close to Fort Wayne, IN and they are cutting jobs right and left. Now they are going to out source the janitor jobs to save money. What really makes this bad is that the Head honcho of the FWCS is paid over $220,000! She is the highest paid in the schools in Indiana. Even Indy doesn't get paid that much! Cut her pay in half and maybe the schools can make it.....

One of the sad facts of life is: some parents aren't teaching and disciplining their kids, bc they never experienced it, so they don't quite know how...the other half to this sad fact:
some of these parents WERE taught and disciplined and still don't pass those teachings and discipline on to their offspring :shock:
That group should really be ashamed of themselves.
Appropriate, loving discipline from parents, becomes
SELF-DISCIPLINE once the kids mature.
So many in this country have no self-discipline, so that gap is filled with all sorts of machinations and trouble.
I hate to see our school systems affected like this.
Some teachers give what parents don't.
One day we are all going to be REALLY old and these kids are going to be running the country and be our caregivers! :shock: yikes!

I feel for each and every one losing school positions. Our kids need you. Parents will have to become more involved if they want their children to get a good education. And I realize that few parents want to take the time and some just don't have the time. I grew up in a rural area where we had about 30 kids in each class, no kindergarden, just first through twelveth. Teachers did a wonderful job "policing" and teaching. We had no teachers' aids, but we did have "classroom moms" who came in now and then to help out, not everyday. My grandchildren are the fourth generation to this same school (their father, me, my mother all attended this school) At the end of this year the board had to make decisions to cut expenses. Instead of cutting people they voted to do away with some programs. There will be no summer school this summer; there will be no child work days this summer, when school starts in the fall children who play sports will need to pay a fee to do so. This is not the first year expenses had to be cut. About every 8 to 10 years the economy and schools in this area see this happen. We will get through it. Reinstate programs and live "high on the hog" again.

This is a difficult time of year for so many people who work in school systems. I'm one too.

Our school district actually did cut at the top but of course the bottom gets it too.

I wish that parents would be more involved with schools. There are problems in schools, and problems in homes, so both need to come together and start collaborating.

That is sad. Losing a job is devastating and when it involves teaching children, really sad. Our children are so important.

I was in grade school in the 40's. We had 35+ kids in the room and many times war refuges who did not speak English. There was no special help for them and no federal aid for education. Amazing what we learned anyway. The discipline was strict.