Why I Quit Teaching
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- Опубликовано: 9 июл 2024
- Original Upload: • Shooting The Breeze #13
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yes, this channel is created and managed by Hickok45 and John, mainly John. The video clips on this channel are segments of videos taken from videos originally posted on the Hickok45 RUclips channel. John always includes a link to the original video from which the clip is taken.
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HICKOCK, you are still teaching. You simply moved out of the classroom to the range! God bless you & keep up the good work!
That's a fact. Hickok you are an icon, and when my buddies and I have issues with a particular firearm, we go right to your channel, and then it's settled.
Yep, a natural born teacher, we're glad to have him.
Have to
AMEN !!
👍👉♥️
The dumbing down of America.
You mean it can get worse? 😃
@@cedhome7945 "Since man's mind is his basic tool of survival , his means of gaining knowledge to guide his actions---the basic condition he requires is the freedom to think and to act according to his rational judgment."
-Ayn Rand-
Europe too...
Thats why Asia will be the place where progress will happen in the future.
@@cedhome7945 Much worse. Just wait till Gen Z takes over.
Just watch the movie Idiocracy and all will be answered.
Imagine having the privilege of being taught by this man...I'm jealous of all the kids that took this for granted
The sad part is; the industry doesn't value the Hickok types of teachers anymore.
@@chrisanthony579 Education (at least where I am in TX) doesn't value ANY teachers anymore. Just look at the pay, utter lack of support, etc. You think your kids are getting an education when their teachers have to work multiple jobs just to scrape by? 😮💨
"Justify their positions"...bingo!
That’s why education budgets have gotten out of control…”middle men”…that do nothing.
Alot of that " justifying positions" going on everywhere.
ATF constantly making up rules to enforce to justify their existence. Hopefully SCOTUS getting rid of CHEVRON will change all that
I spent 35 years in law enforcement….the last ten years were the same. Headquarters grew by
leaps and bounds, expected the field to do more with less and all we were doing was justifying everyone’s position up the ladder.
yep
I used to lament that our standards have gotten so low - but now I believe we have no standards.
As of when? Considering what’s being spoon fed on the world wide gossip and opinion source since the mid-90’s…or news outlets reporting their opinions and not fact based reporting… At what point in time do MAGA consider America greatest to make great, again? Our standards have always been low because it’s always been about the Benjamin’s regardless of politics and policies. I feel dinosaurs were cheated.
millennials don't care what you have to say so I quit teaching
@@somethingclever1234 I’m fairly certain the same was stated and thought by each preceding generation. Rare gems shine no matter the generation. A person is smart, people are stupid…no different than it’s always been, certainly see no change to that notion within sight.
When high schools in the state where I teach let failing students graduate by artificially raising grades, it made me realize how broken the education system has gotten.
Got to where academics was not performance driven. Use to be, a teacher was judged on rigor, classroom control, how much the kids learned, etc. That has shifted to feelings and DEI. You can now be fired for hurting someone's feelings. Standards have dropped dramatically because all races were not passing at the same rates. Solution was to drop standards to near zero. Hardly anyone gives homework anymore... even at the high school level. As a teacher, if you start have high standards and are academically rigorous, you paint a target on your back, as kids will find ways to be 'offended'. The system is eating itself, and that cancer has also been eating its way to the college level. It's gone from Kindergarten all the way through grad school. No more standing up to do your multiplication tables or being called on to read. Everyone watches the dot dance across the words on a TV. Zero accountability. The product schools are putting out now is only a shadow of what was being put out in the 90's.
Oh, you're *still* teaching, Hickok45!! Please keep it up! 🤓 👍
Two years ago Maitland Jones, a New York University professor, was fired after 82 of his 350 students signed a petition against him. The complaining students said the subject was too difficult. Dr. Jones is an honored professor of organic chemistry. The inmates are running the asylum.
Organic Chemistry is too difficult. UT-Austin, BS Chemistry, Core area Organic Synthesis......thanks Dr. Gilbert, best teacher ever.
whatever pays the most...
The weak never like being weeded out.
@@fleatactical7390 Organic chem is not that bad. Discouraged students often weed themselves out.
I don't know the details of that specific case, but just because a professor is honored doesn't make him or her a good teacher. I had a professor in college who had received all the awards up and down the university, and was an absolutely horrific teacher who had no business being in the classroom. The irony is, if you looked at all of those awards that he had, not a single one was for teaching. Colleges seem to think that just because you know a subject well means you'll be to impart it upon those who don't. Very often that's not true because you don't remember how difficult those basic concepts were before they became second nature to you. Like I said I don't know the situation here, but especially at a college level, where the students are literally the ones paying the bills, I think they have a right to decide who they want teaching them.
Taught high school Geology for 44 years, retired in 2014, the last 7-10 years is was no longer “fun”. So many changes inside and outside of the classroom . Society has changed so dramatically , since when I started in 1970. Really like you posts, I have learned a lot.
Taught high school for 40 years. You are absoluely correct!
In 1970 in the middle of a junior college protest/riot (where I was one of the targets, being Student Finance Chair) my Professor mentor said to me: "entitlement and special exemptions might work for catch up, as long as PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY is included if you stumble and fail. I.E. Projecting your failure to succeed by blaming anyone, everything, but yourself is a really bad idea. Fast forward 2024: Blaming anyone but yourself is now an Olympic Event of some kind.
That must have been one heck of a high school. Even the top rated high schools in my state of Wisconsin do not offer Geology as a elective much less dedicate one whole staff position to teaching it. Were you in a big mining state? You did not have to teach other physical sciences too?
@@graywind4326I was thinking the same thing, must be a very large school
Did you have to fly a rainbow flag in your classroom?
Amen, brother. I made it from '71 till 2004. I left for the same reasons, exactly. Good luck, you're still teaching.
If you thought 2004 was bad you can't imagine what teaching is like now lol.
Taking Ag and Shop in the 60's was a great life-teaching experience! Its a shame those days are gone.
My father was a HS ag and shop teacher from the mid '60s, until the early 2000s(?) in California, then Oregon. It was definitely going downhill, even earlier... for those who had power tripping and controlling, administrators. (i.e. Principals, superintendents, school boards, etc.) Glad I finished HS, in 1984.
Ag programs still exist in Ag communities. The first high school that I taught at still offers AG and Construction electives. The Construction program builds a new house every year.
I'm still teaching after all these years, and you are right. State tests, new educational theories ('project-based learning' seems to be the current rage) that don't match the tests but we have to do them because This One Will Work (just all the others, now forgotten), Social-Emotional Learning, DEI even in math (calculating 'fairness' intrudes regularly), records of English Language Learners and Individualized Education Plans that have to be filled out and kept up-to-date, unsupportive parents you only hear from when their child was given detention even though you left a voicemail because they didn't answer the phone, lawyers, expected unpaid time at school, sleep deprivation, there are a changing number of continual changes in education these days. Pacing guides have to be turned in at the start of the year and vetted, lesson plans for the week approved by administration, benchmark tests, progress assessments, observations and evaluations, and always, always concern for that end--of-year-exam. Sometimes I grit my teeth when filling out forms, keeping yet more records, or grading papers late at night (or late papers late at night).
And yet, and yet. The kids have an energy that is contagious, many of them really do want to learn, watching them light up when they realize that they just did what they were convinced they could not, A's on tests, intensity in debates, depth in research, learning to find more truth then they had been told existed, rejoicing at university acceptance, graduation, a future. I understand the reasons that teachers leave education. A few of my friends have done so, and I have wondered if I shouldn't. But the kids' greetings in the morning, the questions after school, the trust when a sobbing student reveals all the hurt that's going on at home, thankful that an adult thinks enough of her to actually listen, the gratitude for extra help, the drawings that go on the wall, the unexpected gift of a rubber duck for my collection in the classroom, the smiles, the jokes (and some are good), the hearts, the minds, keep me going. I suppose I will retire soon, I have to some time. But until then I remind the kids that they are our future as well as their own, that they will cast their votes and shape this country, they will have their own families and pass on to them what they learned in class and on the field. They are our hope.
TY! For this, as Retired Educator I can feel your passion/love for teaching spun into your comments. Like with anythang else a good Educator, will always be a good Educator.
No matter the yr., time or place 90% of My Children/Students all responded, to knowing someone cares about their feelings/progression & success. Continued BLESSINGS on Educating Our Future. One question I do have is, What is your feelings on tenure? P.S. this is My Husbands YT. I asked him to look out for your reply🙃
So, the bureaucracy destroyed education. Gee...who would have thought? 🤔
Now imagine what the bureaucracy has done to the federal government.
"He who lives by a legalized sword will perish by a legalized sword."
-Ayn Rand-
Just wait til you see where all the money in our grotesquely overpriced healthcare system went these past couple of decades. Hint: it’s not the people doing patient care.
Actually the entire point of public state education invented by the Germans was to eradicate Christianity from t he culture and this was the desire for those who wanted it in the USA. Now the opposite values are being taught. As far as higher education its wild to think that Harvard was started by protestant Christians. Now its a commie factory.
Schools for the masses were never meant to convey correct information, otherwise the power structure would be exposed. Schools are to train behavior for the peasants, so they are easy to rule.
“No student left behind” was the beginning of the end imho.
Absolutely was, because instead of helping the students who were behind... they slowed the roll on the other kids to keep everyone on the same bus.
Good point! And coming from a teacher of over twenty years-"and no teacher left standing!"
As a former teacher and Coach I agree with you 100%. Many of the “new” educational theories are bogus. Just as you stated administrators trying to justify their jobs / salaries.
ENTIRELY bogus!!!
I did one year of "teaching" High School after six years in the military and a combat tour in Vietnam. The administrators were clearly staff oriented and the "experienced" teachers were operating in a defense mode. The system was focused on the kids who were easiest to teach and there were far too many kids surviving by being invisible to their classmates as well as the majority of the staff. This education structure deficiency has contributed to our social deterioration. But we do have multi-million dollar sports facilities and glory days.
Bingo.
It was that way. Schools focused on the kids who were actually motivated and there to get an education. It then shifted to where they spent ALL their efforts on the kids least likely to use their schooling. Standards dropped to near ZERO as the only thing that mattered was graduation rate, and nobody getting their feelings hurt. Schools now have 98% graduation rates, but all the kids need to do in order to finish is breathe the oxygen in the room. Teachers who had high standards have had their knees cut out from under them, and have become targets. This also pertains to higher level high school subjects. The product we put out in the 90's was FAR greater than what's going out the door today.
My situation as a retired Navy Chief always put me at odds with administrators and a lot of fellow teachers. I was "too strict". I also practiced "intrusive leadership". In other words, if I saw a problem, I addressed it. These qualities that were valued in the military were considered "problematic" by administrators.
Real Education does not happen in school, other than for a few really poor or illiterate household kids, and even they are being neglected. School is for schooling, not education. Don’t ever confuse those words and their meaning and school will all make sense.
"I believe, finally, that the teacher is engaged, not simply in the training of individuals, but in the formation of the proper social life.
I believe that every teacher should realize the dignity of his calling; that he is a social servant set apart for the maintenance of proper social order and the securing of the right social growth.
I believe that in this way the teacher always is the prophet of the true God and the usherer in of the true kingdom of God.” - Atheist/Darwinist/Marxist, John Dewey, father of the modern progressive schooling system.
Dude. How many years ago was that? Just sayin'.
You’re right. There was too much administrative oversight. Also government interference in the curriculum.
"The most vindictive resentment may be expected from the pedagogic profession for any suggestion that they should be dislodged from their dictatorial position ; it will be expressed mainly in epithets, such as ' reactionary ', at the mildest...."
- Isabel Paterson
Yep!
now do the parents
Could you imagine having this man for your substitute teacher!?
Yes. I had a Substitute teacher in the 3rd grade that was far better than our assigned teacher who was so bad that we could hardly understand a word she said. This was in the mid 1970's. Our Substitute looked and acted exactly like Mr. Kotter from the show Welcome back Kotter and he actually TAUGHT. We loved him and when we found out that our regular teacher was returning, every one of us in that classroom broke down and cried. It was obvious that it touched his heart because he cried too.
As an elementary student through the ‘70s and a graduate of the mid 80’s, I’m still stunned that the school district I grew up in did away with all the best parts of our school day (band, shop, woodworking, building trades, various clubs, etc) saying they didn’t have the budget for any of it anymore, and yet they immediately built a whole new and unneeded high school with a massive swimming complex after we graduated. All I could think was “What happened to common sense???”. My kids grew up without the option of band class, music class, art class, shop class, and several sports we had. The change in values that did away with social interaction in favor of screen time carried the highest cost of all - the total loss of a culture of cooperation.
The enshitification of society. Spending less to “save money” by neglecting what makes the human experience so valuable. You see this everywhere, now. It’s sad and unfortunate.
Class of 1969: the students that have made an imprint?? They DID things in school, and did NOT get the top grades, with a few exceptions. Band? We had/have a renowned music program. Woodworking? My buddy made a career of it. Shop? Lathe, safety, foundry, safety, drafting and all the clubs. Doing things. Fund raising. those students most active are the ones contributing to society, not being a net minus.
@@user-ov4mk9ox8y I wish people still thought like you do today. I graduated high school in 2016, there were already plenty of things that were getting cut.
@@seann2769I graduated in 2016 too. We were some of the last of the decent years
It's the same here in New Zealand. A lot of schools have done away with the shop subjects, but can afford multi million dollar sports turfs and stands. Plus to teach shop now, a degree is now retired. Back in the day, a person with a trade certificate could get into university and do a one year post graduate diploma in teaching. Not any more.
You're still a great teacher Hickok! You're an example of moderation, patience, and calmness, all of which are essential for working with firearms and becoming a fine marksman. I'm sure the kids miss you as much as you miss them.
Next year will be my 30th teaching physics and math. It was getting bad before the lockdown.Then it went completely off the rails. Nobody in their right mind would go into teaching now. Unfortunately, no one in their right mind is going into teaching right now.
SAME!!! I got out as soon as I could retire and am doing something else now. Even Physics and Chemistry were not immune from today's nonsense. Pushing rigor only puts a target on your back. Was WAY more fun when I started 30 years ago!!!
I cautioned my son that Physics, Math, and Chemistry build on each other and there is no "catch up" semeser: i.e. oh, I didn't read Moby Dick so I'll do it this month. The other side of this family were ALL in the Sciences: Supply Chain Economics, Ph. D.'s, but we've done it...to ourselves.
@@user-ov4mk9ox8ythat is only partially true, you can go back and fill in the gaps. A person has to if they want to be successful in that field.
Thomas Sowell has said the same thing
Homeschooled our youngest, (10 yrs old), until 3rd grade. He wanted and needed the socialization. Miss him being home though and knowing what he's learning and don't like some of what he has learned.
We homeschooled initially, for the same reason we put our daughter into one of the best schools in the area starting in 2nd grade. After two years, I’m happy with some things but the other kids have warped her personality. She used to be very conversant with adults, people were always impressed with how well she spoke, and how she would look you in the eye. Now that she’s with all the other kids, she’s started to act like a weird little robot…kind of like the cartoon characters everyone else watches. Also, noticeably defeminized. Thankfully, two weeks into summer break she’s coming back to humanity again. Will enjoy that for the next two months I guess. Hopefully it doesn’t stick.
Flee public indoctrination centers! The Left destroys everything it touches: education, sports, medicine.
@@Alifarliam Ill never understand people like you who know, and openly state, that your child is being warped and deranged by their "schooling." then you finish with, "yeah we're sending her back there again soon though." I guess your free time is worth more than your childs sanity overall.
@@milesstover3724 it’s the best private classical catholic school around our area. they study the trivium and quadrivium and all that. They are learning Latin, and there’s absolutely no PC shenanigans. Also, we all signed a pledge to not give our kids smart phones. Theoretically, it should be close to perfect. But not all of the parents are following the program as closely as I would have hoped.
I was a welding instructor at a community College for 32 years my friend..I feel so blessed to have had that job I absolutely loved goin to work everyday. And to watch the young people prosper with training I helped with is a joy that's difficult to describe.
As a teacher's aid at the University of North Texas in 2019, I had to go through workplace harassment training. I had to sign a form that I understood my responsibilities, one of which was--it's inappropriate to ask a student or teacher where they are from because it can be interpreted as a microaggression of xenophobia. Every professor job I apply for since getting my masters literally states on the application that I have a better chance of getting hired if I identify as disabled because they have to meet a quota. If they are prioritizing disabled people I can't imagine how much they're prioritizing people who aren't white and male. The entire system needs to be shut down and reconstructed from the ground up and that means completely disabling part of our economy for a while and tens of thousands of jobs being lost, but the alternative is a race to the bottom.
This is the very reason that after earning my Masters, I never tried to teach. The world changed, but I didn't.
And that's why it will never happen. Stop worrying and learn to love chaos because it's coming.
The Theatre of the Absurd is that this is in North Texas, a "freedom fry" jurisdiction and the LAST place you'd expect this entitlement to be entrenched. It's like Canada: we've absorbed through academics, and politicians that spend most of their time in the USA, the same guilt trip. Yes, Canada has ONE really major issue: the treatment of it's First Nations, which is NOW being addressed with all kinds of "kash", housing programs, entitlements. but the REST OF THE LIST?? Nothing to do with us. Feel your pain. Shout out to Odessa and Waco. !!
Yes. I taught in El Paso where the "demographics of the faculty must replicate the demographics of the underlying tax-paying community." So hiring decisions were based upon "race, color, religion, sex or national origin," that is, the exact properties the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 demands you cannot base hiring decisions on.
@John-dw5pn the cra was race communism
Completely understand. 18 yrs in a Catholic school, 10 years in public, last 10 years in a public Ib school. Your observations reflect the experiences of many. taught from 1973 to 2012, and enjoyed the classroom and students. Far too many administrators were never teachers. Ron
Amen!
I just retired from doing bodywork. I also worked in the 70's, 80's, 90's and 2000's. The emphasis today is ALL about production. I was always concerned most with quality of the repair. No one I was working with took pride in their work. I got tired of seeing the hackers getting rewarded over the conscientious workers. It took all the fun out of the job.
I hear you brother I put up with the same BS.
As a technical writer, it's the same for us. Hurry up and put it out.
It’s all about volume because that’s what makes the most money. It doesn’t matter if that same person will ever come back because of shotty work or not. It just matters that the job was done and was paid for. Everything follows that same tune these days.
@@Addison0526I spent my entire working career (50 years) striving to make my repair look better than the factory undamaged side.I found it so frustrating that I was no longer allowed to spend the time it took. I'm retired now, earlier than I had planned, but I don't miss one bit of it.👍
And that exactly sums up what happens with under-regulated Capitalism. The permanent growth model always fails, but it fails the hardest for the workers who make the system possible.
I taught high school for 39 years. 1 year retired. The last few years were no fun. No matter what, kids will sneak their cell phones. Then they hear nothing the teachers says. California wants to ban cell phones in the classroom. All states need to do it.
Did a "straw pole" in the 2010 Olympics with cell phone usage (compulsive/obsessive). Cell phones should NEVER have been allowed in the classroom. EVER. Interestingly, in the 18 to 30 demographic, the constant cell phone use was (wait for it) 96% female. What does THAT tell you??!!And like any compulsive behaviour (alcohol, drug use, bad habits) the earlier you're imprinted the worse it gets, and the harder it is to stop.
@@user-ov4mk9ox8y I am 63 years old. I have a land line phone with an answering machine. And a computer on my desk. I have a cell phone, but I only carry it for emergencies. I don't even know the phone number. I have never texted, and people are mad at me because I don't text. Things have changed. But I still would rather talk to a person instead of typing a message to them.
They can ban them all they want to, but if they don’t enforce the ban, and they won’t enforce the ban, the kids will still use them. Schools don’t want an increase in suspensions and superintendent hearings, and they surely don’t want to deal with irate parents backing up their rule breaking kids.
@@kbm-zw5jd You are right. I taught 39 years and retired 1 year ago. I thought I may miss it. NOT!
Amazing that California would lead of in something this sensible! God still loves the Golden State! Keep on praying and believing for miracles! Blessings, Happy 4th to All! gg🙏🙏🙏❤️❤️❤️🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🤓☝️☝️☝️
Teaching is a hard, thankless, incessant slog. It’s also the most important work in the world.
"The disgracefully low level of education in America today is the predictable result of a State-controlled school system. "
-Nathaniel Branden-
I feel grateful to have taught for over 20 years in my own school without libs interfering.
It's that last bit that keeps me going.
No, there are plenty of more important jobs than teaching.
My third grade teacher assigned us to watch Star Trek and discuss the episode the next day, he owned a pet shop and would bring animals in AND he was the drummer in a jazz band and would bring his kit in and play for us.
Cool!
"Reading her [ Ayn Rand's ] novels is practically a rite of passage for high school and college students..."
-Robert Tracinski-
I'm a Polish guy, teaching English to other Poles in an online language school and having the best time of my life if it comes to my profession. Feeling really lucky and grateful to have gotten a literal dream job
My son, who speaks fluent Polish thanks to his Polish mother, was home-schooled for 3½ years, grade 5 to 8, with much help from Polish Internet 1:1 teachers.
We couldn't have afforded to pay Danish teachers, and he's very knowledgeable.
The Polish school books are also much nicer and inviting than their Danish counterparts.
He looked forward to each session
my great grandma was born in Poland in 1878
Good morning! I had some good teachers growing up (I’m in my 50’s now). I wish today’s teachers were more like you…having common sense and the freedom to actually teech (spelling error on purpose!!!). Have a great day.
I had (have) a learning disability that made me decide to drop out of High School and join the Military. Got a GED and a couple of easy College Credits and off I went.
20 years later I had a BS in Business, a completed career in the Military and had a Family.
Not everyone fits the mold they try and pour us into, sometimes a Talented Educator can spot that.
WELL SAID!!! I wish I had that educator! But I’m blessed to kno That my niece and nephew are being homeschooled, and they will benefit greatly from that more so than the BS taught in teaching public schools!
You are absolutely correct. Some people fill the position of teacher while others become Educators. There is a huge difference but no way to compensate the Educators for their dedication and talent. My mother was an Educator for 38 years in a small rural high school. She was teaching the grandchildren of some of her first students. She loved teaching and always said that the teachers that couldn’t teach eventually ended up in the “office”. They couldn’t get rid of them so they moved them into management.
@@PapaA7145The ability to teach is a talent. No amount of education or advanced degrees can make Someone good at it if they don’t have that gift. And unfortunately, the educational system ignores that fact and demands that people who are naturally gifted at teaching, but haven’t jumped through all the formal hoops of an education degree, go back and start over, regardless of their talent and knowledge or experience in the subject matter. I have known far too many teachers who literally couldn’t teach their way out of a paper bag. The system needs to figure out a better way of identifying and recruiting teachers who are truly talented and haven’t simply checked all the boxes. Two cliches seem to be on point, unfortunately: those who can, do; those who can’t, teach; those who can’t teach, teach teachers and one from my college days - when you couldn’t succeed in your major, everyone said, “well, there’s always El Ed” (elementary education). On top of that we need higher standards for the students in terms of comprehension, respect, discipline, behavior and participation in the classroom.
I too left teaching. 25 years in ended 3 weeks ago. When I started in 2000 it was before cell phones. A class of 25 kids may have 2 knuckleheads who hadn’t passed a test since their 5th grade. When I left a class of 25 high school kids 23 were knuckleheads wh hadn’t looked up from their cell phone since 5th grade and no one was legitimately interested in learning. I taught forensic science, astronomy, and environmental. I’ve taught physics, chemistry, and biology earlier in my career so that was basically all of the science classes that exist and when almost no high school kid cared anymore a profound sadness overtook me and I rolled out never to return. Bittersweet retirement for me.
Bingo.
You did your best.
That's all that's required.
Enjoy your freedom.
I had a cell phone in 1990 and when it rang, I made money. In Japan in 1990 you couldn't get a cell phone unless you needed it for your service: doctor, in the field profession, etc. Cell phones should NEVER have been allowed in the class anymore than stereo headphones would have been during a lecture. Essentially, we'd joke 600 men ruled the world in 1970. Now it's ?? SIX men!?? Kids access to unlimited phone use (and unlimited ammo) was never an idea that would fly with me. Greetings from Canada.
@@redtobertshateshandles thank you 🙏🏾
Forensic Science in high school? 🤔
Words of wisdom, we’ve definitely gone down in many areas of our lives in the USA, hard to find a good/great teacher and impossible to deal with behavior issues.
Every time you do a youtube event you are still teaching. That's why I follow you. Thanks for still sharing your years of experience with us.
Been there, done that for 37 years, it has changed for the worse!
In CA new legislation this month: students cannot be suspended for willful defiance. Huge impact on classroom management.
I agree 100%. I was a teacher (public school) in the late 1960s and could see it coming. I became a principal in early 1970s and couldn't really help the downfall of education - I left education in 1980 and went to work in the private sector. Like you, I loved teaching, and thought about going back to teaching in weaker moments. I would say to you, thanks for your service and don't look back.
I just retired from teaching and coaching for 38 years in the public school system. Spent 20 years teaching in California, finished up in a rural community in southern Illinois. Big difference between those two settings. Much more freedom in the farming community I finished up in. You’re right though, the bureaucrats and so called “education experts “ have changed things for the worse, one of the reasons there’s a teacher shortage.
You sir are an American treasure !!! Thank you for everything you have done in your community. And on u tube . ❤
I love your shooting videos, but I am particularly grateful for these sharing your perspectives on life and your past experiences. Thank you for taking the time to reflect and for your contributions to future generations (in addition to all the fun on this channel!).
I wish I was taught by this man. Love you Hickok you are the best!
I graduated high school in 76. I had some great teachers! We were taught *how* to think, not *what* to think.
Your still teaching Sir
“Life is Good”
Thank you Hickok for continuing your education through RUclips and other platforms. 👏 😊 much appreciated
as other have said, you are still in the class room and you are teaching us all. i wish i had teachers like you back more years than i care to admit too.
Amen, Brother! I also taught in the 1970s--MACHINE TRADES, since I was not only a college grad, but worked my way through school being an aerospace tool and die maker. Pitiful how 11th and 12 grade young men did not know what a tape measure or yardstick was. I had to teach them how to use a micrometer--measuring to 0.0001 of an inch! IMPOSSIBLE! The layers of federal overseers was horrific. You were not allowed to flunk anyone, since the "federal river of money" would dry up with zero kids attending. Discipline? I had to disarm young boys with laded 9mms, .38 revolvers and dozens of knives, shanks, machetes..and this as the 1970s!
Absolutely right. This was my experience too. It got harder and harder to teach as people a long way from the classroom demanded more and more control. The voices of the kids and the people who know them best, the teachers and parents, were lost. I would not have made it through the last ten years of my teaching career, except that I became active in my union, first at the local level, then at the state level (remaining in the classroom the whole time). This allowed me to feel like I could still make a difference, standing up for the kids and for teachers who experienced what you are talking about. I still miss the kids, although, many are still in touch with me 14 years after retirement.
Hickok, I left my principal position in 2013. Like you, I became so very dissatisfied. I was not able to continue, for a number of reasons. I appreciate your honesty. ATB
Thank you for your service to our children. I wish I could’ve been one of your students!
Amazing.... My retired teacher wife has said the same things I've just heard in your video. The kicker for her... she didn't receive any support from the school administration staff on a needed discipline for a student. Two months later... she retired at the end of the academic year.
FACTS!!!! Was WAY more fun to teach 30 years ago!!!
"Education should be liberated from the control or intervention of government, and turned over to profit-making private enterprise , not because education is unimportant but because education is so crucially important. "
-Nathaniel Branden-
@@BeefT-Sq the Great experiment, the "Universality" of education meant it should be inexpensive. It was a great experiment for fifty years. And it's over.
Great video. I’m a teacher of 10 years. What you said is 100% true. You always have to keep the students as the focus and make the big wigs justify why a change needs to occur. I have found the better you are, the more the leave you alone to do the good work.
You have been my fire arms teacher for the last 12 years!! Thank You!!
You are such a good man, on so many levels. God Bless, and fair winds.
Sir, thank you for sharing this! I’m sure you were an inspiration to many a young person as a professional educator. I’m in my early seventies and my son is in his early forties. We both love to watch your videos ! You’re still a great teacher just a different subject maybe!
My wife and I decided to home school my son starting in his first years all the way through high school. We were pioneers in the early eighties here in piedmont North Carolina. We started this at the behest of close friends, encouraging us as they were homeschooling their own son. Both of these friends were professionally trained and previously employed as educators in the public school system and felt very strongly that more and more public education (K through twelve ) was sadly missing the mark. Our child has some learning issues ( as boys often do ) which even the Christian school he was attending could not functionally address, suggesting a tutor. We could not afford that on top of private school tuition. Homeschooling became by the grace of God the best answer. Thanks to God and my wife’s diligent efforts, my son is a very well adjusted Christian man with post secondary education and an excellent career. Hey he likes things that go pow! too.
What a thoughtful, balanced and generous summary of your teaching career. Burned into my mind!
Absolutely true! Your explanation mirrors my experience as a career teacher. The curricula are watered down, there are too many “educators” who have to justify their jobs, and there is far too much micromanagement of the good and competent teachers. Thank you for shooting straight! 👍
I drank alcohol and smoked pot on several weekend outings with 2 teachers in H.S back in the mid 70's..learned more from them outside the classroom than inside..cant imagine hat happening today.
I feel the teachers today don’t have the kids best interest at heart. It’s about the off days, retirement. There are exceptions for sure, but kids aren’t learning the basics anymore. Too many high school seniors don’t even know who the US fought in WW2
Absolute nonsense.
The wrong enemy
As a young 24yo male you still teach me, my daughter, my son and my wife, thank you. Your RUclips channel is all about learning and reviewing firearms. Much appreciated, love you.
Awesome content 👏. Great addition to the main channel. Thank you!
This video transcends EVERYTHING, we are dealing with in education today. It really is hard not to think that this was done by design, rather than laziness. Hick, you sir are a hero. A knight of days past, and an example of what we all need more of.
Coming from a family of teachers, They have all reflected the same feelings about teaching as you. Their loss is our gain. Love the videos
Thank you for your years of service teaching those kiddos!
I can relate and thank you so much for your candor. I have been a college educator for the last thirty five years and it's not what it uses to be. All the external interferences that you had mentioned, I have been experiencing the last fifteen years. It's not what it uses to be at all levels. I can't wait to hang it up and call it quits. Maybe in another five years or less.
Thank you for still teaching us
A feel you. A lot of it is getting older and a lot of it is throwing out the good with the bad.
The best Educators never stop teaching. All of your Viewers are testimony to that. Thank you👍
I tauhgt in the state prison and the students I had were easy too teach and most were willing too learn. I taught mechanics and that was interesting too my students. I had men that were from early 20s too late 60s and it was a realy diverse bunch of men. I rarely had any problems with them and I was proud too see how well they worked together on projects.
Really interesting insight seeing those changes over the years.
You, Sir, are an inspiration! All the Best.
Thank you. A teacher who inspires is pure gold for developing young minds and a genuine asset to the community. Otoh, You have inspired us to pave our driveways with brass.
I got “downsized” last September and it seems like 60-70% of the folks in the network and development classes for finding a new position were all teachers. A LOT of Teachers have had it.
In the explanation that one of them told me “I wanted to teach High School from 20 years ago.”
Bet you were an amazing teacher and coach!!!
I left teaching for similar reasons. It’s definitely not what it used to be. I miss the kids a lot but don’t miss the profession at all. It’s great that you were able to continue teaching in a different way on RUclips.
It’s important that you made this video. Thanks.
Having taught for 20 years in a Voc Tech program at a Community College, your comments could have been my own nearly word for word. I completely understand your knowing when it's time. Left two years ago and have never looked back.
It's a brave new world. Thanks for your. Service. I'm sure you had a positive impact.
"What must be challenged is the prevalent belief that education is some sort of 'natural right ' ---in effect a free gift of nature. "
-Nathaniel Branden-
I teach several topics in the police academy and the quality of the cadets we have and how entitled they feel they are and how the administration bends for them make me want to quit. I can definitely relate .
School was always difficult for me..and then I got a tutor. Made all the difference in the world!
SPOT ON HICKOCK! You hit the nail squarely on the head. I too, was a teacher (public school) with one other exception to your story. I loved my students but saw the erosion of ‘the system’ a bit sooner. I began teaching in 1962. I left the classroom in 1980 and never looked back. I went on to my second career. To this day, I miss the interaction with students. The system is broken and the students are paying the price.
When my property tax bill shows a tax hike for the school system, I know most of the increase is going to administrators, and classroom teachers are getting the least. I graduated HS in 1980, and I never heard one word from any of my teachers from grade 1 to 12 about their personal lives. Now we have teachers who use their captive audience to advance left wing politics and we’ve all seen the videos where they proudly recount “coming out” to their students. During Covid there were three face diapered “teachers” who bragged they taught protest and ignored the curriculum. Interview was a B L M protest. I was lucky I had real teachers and not activists who could grade me more harshly for not going along with their activism.
And you are still teaching us with your channel. I learn a lot listening to you on Sunday Shoot a rounds.
I am such a fan of what you do on your channel. I am a Vietnam-Era vet who taught in public schools in Wisconsin for many years. I can totally relate to what you said about the changes in education. Kids are great; micromanagement not so much. In Wisconsin, things turned horrible when POLITICIANS got involved in the curriculum. They can’t balance a budget, but they created Common Core State Standards that we had to teach. Worst of all was the mandatory assessments, a cookie-cutter approach to assessing kids all the same way. Today, I watch your marvelous videos, shoot my own guns, and pray for our country. Thank you for being YOU! You are appreciated!
Nearly 20 years in public school teaching here. My thoughts on teaching align very closely to yours.
I've been too busy the last few years to put much thought into it, but I planned to write a book about secondary school education in America eventually.
You have given an excellent synopsis in two minutes, maybe I'll spend my time in more productive ways.
I knew I liked this channel!! I did 32 years as a teacher, coach & athletic director. The time was right. No regrets whatsoever. I’ve never looked back.
I knew it. I always said he reminded me of my middle school shop teacher. My shop teacher spoke like him and challenged us to think. Wow Amazing.😮😊👍🇺🇸
Brother! You are still a teacher… thanks for NOT quitting and finding another way!
Still Kicking, thank you Sir.
I taught Junior High one year in 1971. Teaching was not for me so I started driving a truck for $2.00 per hour. I progressed rapidly from that first job to becoming a manager. Teaching was too much BS for too little money.
Thanks for the video!
900 school districts in California!
And by 1973 had everyone within commuting distance to a junior college, including way out in the desert. An admirable goal achieved, actually, unlike Arizona or West Virginia.
Professional educator from 1984-2014. Reserve officer for several years while in the classroom FT, been a great run; but it was time to leave the profession and have younger blood come in and work. Thanks for all the lessons here on RUclips! It’s been a slice! 😅
My Wife just retired after 40 years of teaching. She concurs with your assessment of the educational system. But you are still teaching…….just in a different format. Keep it up Sir. Thank you.
Do what you love, love what you do. Go out and have fun.
Wow! Never knew you were a teacher. I am a special education teacher; it is definitely difficult. Thanks for your years of hard work in education!
You still are teaching and we thank you
Now you teach us about firearms, God bless you!
To be a teacher is an honour.. The knowledge you pass on to the kids will outlive you.. My mum was a teacher for 44 years. It was her funeral was last tuesday. I was and am so proud of her.. Here in the Uk the government used to have great ideas like "back to basics" and "doing stuff how it was done years ago" Trouble was, they never asked any teachers from "years ago" My mum always used to say that the trainers on teacher training days were all "failed classroom teachers" that could not take the heat of being stood in front of a class. She had to go on one of these courses when she was about 60. The trainer was speaking to her like she was an idiot when my mum comes out with; "hey, i know you!!! You were in my class!!!" Instant huge ego deflation for the trainer....
It would've been awesome to have you as a teacher. I grew up & still live in Southeast TN. Someone else commented that you're still teaching, I'd definitely agree with that.👍🏽
I’m glad you pointed this stuff out and used your platform to spread this info.
It’s funny, as a former teacher I’ll tell you that the kids are great! It’s definitely administration and upper management that ruins schools.
I hear so many people blaming kids and I’m like, that’s the BEST part. The worst part is always having to have admin walk in and give their 2 cents when they haven’t been in the classroom in years, and my scores are great. It’s like they have to fix stuff to prove they’re valuable like you said “justify their positions”
I quit too after 15 years. I love teaching too. Still coaching and still on the school board. I couldn’t agree with you more.