I just had an idea that could tie teachers into the immigration issue.

[Occulus]

And in a positive way.

Many of the complaints I'm hearing from the right involve the language spoken, or the flag flown, or the immigrants 'not being American enough'. At the same time, some of the complaints I've heard about teachers is that they "get three months off work" or 'the NEA is too strong' or some such unsupported idiocy.

We all know the latter isn't true- teachers K-12 often need to find 'summer jobs' (at least, many of the ones I've talked to through the years), or at least, that's been my understanding- and please, correct me if I'm wrong on this particular point; some of those jobs are within the subject they teach otherwise. That aside, we also all know we hear complaints from the right regarding 'speaking our language', 'knowing our culture', etc., and etc.

One question I've always been asking myself is why teaching can't be a year-round paid career at the K-12 level. I know, in many cases, teachers devote a great deal of time to teaching in the 'off months', the summer 'vacation' (I'm thinking my band director here), but I'm really wondering at this point two things:

1) How much time, exactly, do teachers who teach K-12 spend teaching during their students' summer vacations, and

2) Could those teachers taking other jobs during this period be utilized, funded, and certified to teach their subjects as an extended high school curriculum to persons seeking legal immigration?

We all know the immigration process is a long one; why can't we put that time to better use- for both teachers and people seeking to legally join our society?

(I'm going to bed as soon as I post this; I'll bump it in the morning if it needs it. I just think this is a situation that could benefit more than one group if it's handled correctly.)

[RagingInMiami]

1. Excellent idea

Makes too much sense.

[wickerwoman]

2. I'm not sure how it would work out...

All the teachers I know really, really need those three months off. During the school year, including correcting homework and lesson planning they regularly work 12 or 14 hour days and get extremely burned out by the end of the year. They may take a summer job, but often it's teaching only one or two classes a few days a week.

I'm not clear exactly what you're proposing. That the government should hire teachers to offer naturalization classes? I'm pretty sure they already do this. And that the teachers who have the free time take advantage of it.

As for the argument that "immigrants don't speak English", I would suggest that 1.) working 60-80 hour weeks picking grapes isn't that conductive to studying a foreign language, 2.) English is one of the most difficult languages in the world to learn and many immigrants are at an age where language learning is extremely difficult 3.) it takes 4-6 years of full-time, *regular* study to become reasonably fluent in a language- a few summers here and there with 9 months in between isn't going to do it 4.) the people the Freepers are complaining about are the illegal or seasonal workers who come for a few years to make some money but plan to go home later. What's their motivation to learn a foreign language?

I don't see how K-12 teachers offering summer course (for free? that's a shitload of cash that someone's got to cough up) would overcome these obstacles- especially #1.

[fasttense]

3. Several issues you did not address

1. If you want to work teachers for three more months, you need to up their pay. Fair is fair, they should have a corresponding pay increase if you wish to make them work longer through the year.

2. It was my understanding that the reason they had those months off was so they could take courses to improve their education. Especially with the "No Millionaire's Child Left Behind Act", there are some strict education requirements teachers are required to meet in order to be considered fully qualified. So when are teachers suppose to get those education credits when you have them working full time, year round?

3. My first language was Spanish. I was eight when we came here to the US (my parents were US citizens). It took me some time, but I learned English. By the time I was nine I could speak English. Now I don't understand the difficulty people have in learning the language. I'm an average person. So why do folks put off learning something that is so useful in day to day life? I have a good friend I knew in Chile. She is now living in the US (she is a legal immigrant) and has been here for over twenty years. She doesn't speak English very well either. I don't understand this. I would be just so annoyed if I couldn't communicate to people appropriately. She is a smart woman but just doesn't think learning English is very important. I just don't understand why some immigrants don't bother learning the language of their new country.