Some parents are getting upset over the fact that the Fort Worth school district is not allowing gift exhcanges or Santa visits in their classrooms.
If I was to have a say on this, then I would go with NOT celebrating Christmas in class. Some reasons to back up my opinion are :
1. Giving gifts and having a party during class causes many distractions and takes away valuable instruction time from the teacher
2. Not all kids in a classroom celebrate Christmas. Why make them uncomfortable? Teachers should take that more into consideration.
3. Students that don't celebrate it, can't participate or get involved in activities being done at school. Making students feel left out and again, uncomfortable.
Read the first and second article on the topic on the Star Telegram to know more information about this.
The movie American Teacher gave me a whole different point of view on teaching. It shocked me to see that so many schools districts have a small income. Most can't even pay their teachers the money needed for materials used in class . I had always heard my teachers complain that they didn't get paid enough but I never realized it was this bad.
I think what was causing most of the teachers in the video frustration was having to stay after school everyday for hours just to get things done but still getting paid a crummy amount of money. Some had to get second jobs to be able to support their families economically and that put even more stress on them.
I really don't think conditions could improve with out an increase in money. Something should be done about this as soon as possible. Teachers at least deserve that much.
