What do you do about a teacher that obviously stinks as a teacher yet they keep?

I see it from both sides. I also heard the questions they asked. I am speaking from my perspective. So what I am supposed to do is come in here and say "Oh I am so sorry that the teacher is so terrible. What a shame." Maybe if parents influenced and started teaching their children to learn at an earlier age they might not have problems. I started reading around 3. It is because someone taught me to read. It wasn't by osmosis. I think too many parents rely on the TV and VCR to babysit as well as teach their children. As I stated in my prior comment. The kids in college today are not as bright as my fellow classmates. Some don't even know where China is on a map. How do you get out of high school if you don't know where China is on a map?

Because you were the "bright" student, your perception of the others is that they were dumb. That's a very condescending attitude to have. It's also an unfair assumption. I wasn't that good in math and I studied my butt off for that class. That doesn't make me dumb or stupid. It just means I don't grasp math as easily as you do. ps. Try to see things from someone else's point of view before you spout off next time.

So you started reading around 3. Yippee for you. My daughter was reading at 2 and really taught herself by watching the close captioning on her DVDs. She could see the words being said as they were talking. But she still isn't that great in math. She's 7 and is just finishing 1st grade. Does that mean that even though I've worked with her every chance I could from before she started school, that I'm a failure as a parent because she hasn't achieved genius level yet? You just don't get it. Not everybody is like you, we can't all be math whizkids even with non-stop constant studying. That doesn't make us stupid or dumb or even "slow". Are you a parent or a teacher? Do you have any kids in school? If not, then you have no idea how kids are taught in school now. I've met with my daughter's teachers and have seen the curriculum they teach including the methods. They do not teach kids like they did 30 and 40 years ago, classes aren't structured in the same way they were when I was a child. That doesn't make them wrong, just different. If the kids in college don't know where China is, that should tell you that it isn't just the student's fault, it's also their prior teacher's fault for passing them on to the next level when they weren't ready for it. The school is also to blame for graduating students that don't deserve it. The college should also be held accountable for accepting them as students if they didn't get good enough SAT scores. The teacher is there to teach, not babysit. Children go to school to be taught, not be self-taught. If that was the case, schools wouldn't have teachers at all, they'd just be one big playground. Teachers that aren't doing their job by actually TEACHING kids, should be removed from that job so someone else that can and will do the job right can replace them.

Unfortunately I already looked into that and because it's a special honors academy they don't have many options for other courses, etc. and this particular course is something that must be taken and only he teaches it. I'm really debating here as to what to do.

I think this is a great suggestion.

That is exactly what I was thinking! A group definitly gets more attention!

Excellent idea. There definitely are quite a few of us that have this thought. I will admit though that most parents tend to take a "just leave it" attitude. I'm sure at this point in time this is the only way he's survived. Sadly, he's also the softball coach and he does win games and often. He was my softball coach too during the day. LOL What's so awkward for me is that I always loved the "coach" side of him but his teaching skills sucked big time. So it kind of bothers me to say something bad about him but then again it bothers me more to let him ruin a vast amount of kids and make them repeat. To be honest... he has a failing rate of something like 50% on average through the years! It's unreal.

True. I have such mixed emotions about it all... as I said above I really like him as a person and loved him as my coach but he just simply doesn't get it.

I agree that often what one student finds as a great method of teaching another may find horrible but in this case because so many fail him regularly I just can't accept that this is the problem. I understand the idea and actually agree a lot. We all have different ways of learning, some are geared a bit more towards "book smart" while others are more "hands on". In this case none of the various styles are finding their needs met, or at least 75% or more are not. That just says there's more then a slight problem with how some kids learn. I think some of the kids that are getting by are actually getting by with low B's as the highest grades and these are normally kids that whiz through with straight A+ normally. So a low B, while may be very acceptable to most, for these kids it's a low grade. AND.. the low B's aren't exactly overflowing. Most that make it passing are passing with C's. So to me, again, that means that there is more of an issue then just "incompatibility". Thanks for the comments and the thoughts. Calculus doesn't come for them until I think it's 11th grade and then... oh dear Lord I hope they don't come to me for help! LOL