Louisiana public schools

Before I start my rant I want everyone to know that I am in no way shape or form grouping ALL public school teachers or all teachers in general in this rant. I am very aware that teachers have a lot to deal with day in and day out and there are excellent teachers in both public and private schools. This particular rant has to do with Skylar's honors English teacher and others like her. With that said hold on cause here I go. 

Skylar, as bright as she is, does make poor grades in some classes. She's not perfect and does except her grades good or bad gracefully. If she recieves a poor grade she usually knows the reason why. This particular case has to do with a poetry assignment she was to write for class. She did the assignment as instructed and being in talented art, to her black and white is color. Her assignment was to write, illustrate, and color a poetry book. Skylar wrote all but one required poem, illustrated all the poems written, and chose a black and white theme for the illustrations. When she got the assignment back she had a poor grade for "lack of style." Even I thought "lack of style" had to be a blatant mistake. When I hear "lack of style " on a poetry assignment my thought is style of writing, which I know for a fact that Skylar has "Style" when it comes to writhing. The public schools in the area we live in has what they call M.P.C.'s (multi paragraph compositions) that all the children are required to write. One of these M.P.C's that Skykar wrote last year in the new format that the school board had implemented was so good, according to her English teacher last year, that she showed it to a school board member who was also equally impressed and decided to use it as a teaching tool for all of the schools in the parish. So when I asked the honors English teacher about Skylar's "lack of style" she had informed me that it was not with her writing, but with the lack of illustration and color. Really??? I looked over Skylar's assignment again and it was illustrated and colored, although the color was black and white. So when I proceeded in telling the teacher she was mistaken (yes I know) she proceeded to tell me that she had 31 years of experience in teaching. Really??? And still maintained that the assignment was not illustrated and colored. Then proceeded to tell me that her grade stands. I never did ask the woman in any way to change Skylar's grade. It's not something I believe in. However, don't ever tell me or any parent that their child didn't do something when they clearly did. That to me is lying, something I do not and will not tolerate, especially from an educator. This brings to mind the old phrase," those who can, do. those who can't ,teach."  No offense to anyone but in this case it seems to be true, that is why this particular teacher has mentioned her tenure to me twice in emails. Skylar has also complained about the gros mispronunciation of Greek figures in  literature. Certain things just irritate me to no end, and this is one of them. I too had an English teacher in highschool that did this very same thing. Of course I'm a little bolder than my daughter, and would openly correct my English teacher everytime. It would've been one thing if the teacher was just ill informed, but when the pronunciation key is right there next to the name it just makes me crazy! At some point when these educators are going to college they must have a professor who mispronounces the names when teaching. I sti can't get over how you can teach children and not pronounce things correctly! It's like teaching math and you can't even add or substract correctly.  This is one of the many reasons the education system here is crap!! Not to mention that you have some teachers who are not certified to teach certain classes that are teaching those classes. All I can say is that this particular woman has been poorly teaching for the last 31 years. She may not be the worst but she's certainly somewhere near the bottom. Keep in mind it has nothing to do with the grade my child received, even though it may seem that way, it's not. It has to do with the fact that she lied and her teaching practices. This teacher seems to be one of those that doesn't make learning interesting. Another English teacher whose class is also reading Romeo and Juliet is having her class act out the play. This teacher is just having the kids read it as she does with all of the assignments. She has also told Skylar that she wasn't reading one of the novels that they were reading in class because Skykar had not gotten to one of the chapters in the book that the class had already read. Apparently this teachers fails to realize that Skykar has been in the 504 program, a program for kids who are ADHD or have learning disabilities, for the last 8 years due to her ADHD. Skylar has to listen to the audio version of the books otherwise she will read the same sentance 50 times before moving on. Not to mention Skykar tends to be a slow reader. I guess my point is for all the teachers out there, get the kids interested in learning and never lie about a student. Make sure you take the time out to know the kids you teach and be very specific with directions when it comes to something that may be interpreted in any number of different ways. Also don't always assume that a parent is asking for a grade change most of us are amart enough to know that will never happen, and, unless asked, do not throw out the " I've been teaching for x amount of years. Or I have x amount of professional teaching experience" because my response to that is "and you've just been poorly doing your job as an educator for that amount of time." If you've been teaching that long you should know better. And whether you've been teaching that long or not always look at a problem and see where maybe it could've been taught better or in another way. Never be afraid to admit when you may have been wrong and correct it, maybe even learn something new. You can always teach an old dog new tricks.