mdenis46 of Parksville, KY (Ran out of words in the previous post) After spending 39 years in the classroom, I would NEVER want my child or anyone else's child to go into teaching nowadays.report abuse

mdenis46 of Parksville, KY "We're now being judged across the country: Where does Maine fare?" I thought it was the Commissioner's job to ensure a good education for all Maine students, not to be the cheerleader for the racing team. The quality of a Maine education has been superior to most other states for years, and I'd bet Maine still is.

"Require that schools develop individual plans for each student's education" -- ask ANY teacher in the country if this one is possible with more than 10-15 students? Especially ask any special education teacher just how much time and effort this takes. You won't get this until class loads are down to 15-20 per TEACHER not per class, and time during the school day is provided to do it. I had 85 students my last year teaching. If I spent 3 minutes per student designing and implementing a plan, that's 4 hours per evening. That does NOT my "normal" work. Does anyone seriously believe that any teacher is going to get home from school at 3:30, and work until midnight five nights a week, and then catch up on the regular work on weekends? THAT is what this ridiculous proposal would involve. Heck, most PARENTS don't individualize as much as this proposal would have teachers do. About the only people who would be in favor of this are those who have no idea what teaching involves.

Don't we already have standards for graduation? We certainly did when I graduated and when my daughter graduated. Did we drop those somewhere along the line, or were they lost in the rush to consolidate?

Scott Phair -- "the set of requirements could quickly become "an unreachable fantasy," -- yes, like one proposal which would require ALL students to be proficient in a foreign language. Great idea, but most of us who have taught average or below average kids simply laugh at that one, especially when many schools are cutting back their foreign language departments.report abuse