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• How the Choice Not to Homeschool Made Me a Better Parent

  Agree with them or not, the Bad Parent essays are food for thought. Yesterday’s post by “unschooling” mom Joanne Rendell put a whole new spin on children’s education. Or should I say un-education?   As a some-time Bad Parent author myself, I’m always interested in the feedback. Some of it makes me think, and some makes me stick my hands in my ears and wiggle them at the screen. Yet anothe reason why it's good that my daughter enrolled in two mornings per week of nursery school earlier this month. Some time away from the 3-year-old is probably needed about now. Read More... Posted Sep 19 2008, 09:07 AM by JeanneSager with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: homeschooling, teacher, Bad Parent, Jeanne Sager, formal education, nursery school

• 10 Ways to Schmooze Your Kid's Teacher

  School is starting this week.  School is starting this week!! Hoorahs are heard around the globe as the fun but also tiring summer draws to an end.  Teachers are often absolutely wonderful and self-sacrificing creatures, but in their new role as parole officer/ behavioral management cop/ no child left behind drill sargeant/ they sometimes need extra loving care from parents -and unfortunately this goes beyond a nice crisp Red Delicious left on the desk. Your life and your child's will run much more smoothly if you remember a few key ways to love their teacher:   Read More... Posted Aug 30 2008, 05:09 PM by Rachael Brownell (Redsy) with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: teacher, back to school, loving your teacher, fall break, kids start school this week, parents love teachers, school starting, this week

• Foster Care Worker Pregnant with Teen's Baby

  In extremely depressing pregnancy news, an Ohio teacher named Carolyn Hatcher is pregnant with her student’s baby. While working as the house mother and teacher for six children in a foster care facility, Hatcher, who is 27, started having marital troubles and ended up getting a bit too close with a 16-year-old boy under her care. Read More... Posted Jul 16 2008, 01:41 PM by Hannah Tennant-Moore with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: foster care, ohio, teacher, Statutory rape, female sexual predators, sex scandals, double standard, teacher-student relationships, welfare children, sexual battery, carolyn hatcher

• Not So Hot - Male Strip Tease Teach Suspended

  If you heard that a teacher did a strip tease in front of their class, you probably would think of a Van Halen-esque scene ("I got my pencil -- give me something to write on." Ah, the 80's.) At least that's what I would think of. But, once again, I would be wrong. An English teacher at the Sudbury Upper School in the U.K. was trying to get his students to calm down. They wouldn't, so he threatened to take his clothes off. The teacher is not, shall we say, in the best physical condition. When the wild rumpus continued, he made good on his promise, "whipping off his shirt…before flexing his muscles…topless for a few seconds then spending half a minute getting his shirt back on."   Read More... Posted Jun 16 2008, 11:00 AM by Brett Singer with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: youtube, news, school, van halen, united kingdom, england, video, wtf, teacher, UK, U.K., daily mail, Daily Telegraph, great britain, Brett Singer, british, strip tease, strip

• Substitute teacher shows up drunk

  During my time going to school in New York City, I saw a lot of things. However, I never once saw a teacher pull a kid to the front of the class so the other students could berate him. I also never had a substitute teacher show up drunk. In Richardson Texas, Thomas Brownlee arrived at school with liquor on his breath and, one assumes, sadness in his heart. Another teacher figured out what was happening and the drunken doof was removed from the class. Once you get past "wow, that's really terrible" and move on to "that would make a great SNL skit" ("1+1 ain't 2! It's misery! You try being married to that woman!" etc.), it makes me wonder how many times this sort of thing has happened. In fourth grade, I remember... Read More... Posted Jun 04 2008, 12:00 PM by Brett Singer with | with no comments Filed under: school, drinking, alcohol, texas, teacher, drink, SNL, Brett Singer, drunk, Thomas Brownlee

• Caught On Tape: Teacher Calls Kids Stupid

  It's been kind of a disturbing couple weeks in education news. What with teachers patting down students and coaches spiking drinks and schools suspending kids for hairstyles, it sort of makes you rethink the whole homeschool idea. And now in Houston, a pre-K teacher is under investigation for calling four- and five-year-olds "stupid" and telling them she could be mean to them. And in case you think the kids might be fabricating that one, this teacher was caught on tape.  Who set up the wire and the sting operation? Read More... Posted Mar 03 2008, 12:32 PM by Kelly Mills with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: children, preschool, education, discipline, abuse, teacher, elementary school, stupid baby products, pre-kindergarten, pre-K, name calling, insults

• Teacher Suspended for Being a Porn Star

  Anna Cirani is a teacher in Italy. She's also "Madameweb", an internet porn star. (No offense to Cirani, but the porn star name I came up with playing those porn star name games was waaaay better. Just call me Bootsy Santa Ynez.) The Italian press just calls her the "porno-prof". Anyhow, school authorities recently decided that her two jobs were not compatible, and suspended her. She says, "My behavior at school has always been professional and irreproachable...I am a normal woman, with my family and my work as a teacher. I am (also) looking for transgression and sex." Now there's a sentiment I can get behind! She used to teach Italian lit at a secondary school, but when students covered the toilets with naked photos of her from the internet, she was transferred and taught evening classes to foreign adult students. Okay, I don't think she should have been suspended for her film career.... Read More... Posted Nov 27 2007, 08:03 AM by Kelly Mills with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: pornography, Italy, teacher, suspension, internet goodness, porno prof, porn star

• Educators Brought Down By Porn, Death Wishes

  I think people who use a computer for work and also view Internet porn should probably just invest in separate machines for both. Especially if their work is anywhere near a school, or children, or schoolchildren, or teachers, or an overhead projector. Case in point:   Read More... Posted Oct 26 2007, 10:10 AM by Madeline Holler with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: education, school, computers, pornography, teacher, suspension, Madeline Holler, school attack

• Hot for Teacher: Cheering Coach Suspended Over Video

  When and how does a teacher cross the line from being a role model to (inappropriately) being one of the guys (or girls)? That's the question that was apparently explored, albeit briefly, when a Gilbert Arizona high school English teacher and cheer coach was suspended after a student made and distributed a video showing her demonstrate a new cheer routine to her class (video posted after the jump). Read More... Posted Oct 09 2007, 06:24 PM by Karen Murphy with | with 23 comment(s) Filed under: teacher, Gilbert Arizona, YouTubee, cheeleading teacher

• Hey, Teacher, Leave Those Kids' (Parents) Alone!

  Don’t get me wrong, I love reading and writing and thinking and talking and everything about learning and mind expansion and all that. And I love supporting my kid’s school, helping the teachers, setting a good example for my daughter. I even feel a little crushed when I see the same faces at school meetings, wishing more parents would just get involved. So I’m not sure why, but I’m really irritated with this New Jersey high school teacher ... Read More... Posted Oct 05 2007, 06:23 PM by Madeline Holler with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: high school, teacher, homework, PTA, parent and kid fun

• Mean Teachers Beget Slutty Kids

  This might explain the whole Catholic schoolgirl thing. According to a recent study, there is a direct link between teacher verbal abuse and early onset of sexual intercourse. Mother of God, those sharp-tongued Sisters of Mercy are causing more than bruised knuckles! Canadian researchers were looking for a link between peer rejection and teacher verbal abuse when they came up with these findings. Read More... Posted Oct 01 2007, 12:37 PM by Madeline Holler with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: teens, teacher, verbal abuse, elementary school, sexual behavior

• Boy "Wins" Great Award and Whines About It

  I don't know why this kid is getting all excited. At least he won something. Some people go their entire lives without winning anything. Anything at all. ever. Right about now, I bet some people would be happy to win the "Most Likely Not to Have Children Award." I'm just saying. But sixth-grader Matt Porter and his parents aren't all that happy about it. Matt's teachers surprised him at a school function with the no-children award and the "Sir Clowns a Lot" honors, and now the family is demanding an apology. "They (were) putting us down and everything," he said. "That is not what their job is for, to put kids down. They are supposed to teach us." I would have just accepted the things and said something along the lines of "You like me. You really, really like me." But maybe that's just me. Posted Jun 14 2007, 12:31 PM by Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: teachers, teacher, teachers behaving badly, awards

• School Bathrooms Locked; Unintentional Hilarity Ensues

  The story itself is bizarre. Students desecrate school bathrooms. Principal overreacts. Locks all bathrooms save for one. Two thousand students are forced to use the same bathroom -- meaning some wait up to 20 minutes for relief. Or, they take to peeing in bushes and bottles. Sorry. Sad. Disgusting. Principal should unlock the doors. The story gets better, however, when a local news station investigates. I've watched this video a few times now, and I still can't tell whether the reporter is using a tongue-in-cheek tone or whether he thinks he is that. freaking. good. From the opening line -- "They attend 'Freedom' High School, but students here say 'freedom' ... is in short supply." -- to the interviews with giddy students, I almost believed I was watching a Daily Show fake news story -- not a real-life inquiry into a sad situation. The principal has defended the locked doors, and I'm beginning to hope this standoff continues -- just so I can watch more. Posted Mar 08 2007, 02:01 PM by Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: education, news, school, teenagers, child safety, teacher, teachers behaving badly