Mark. Your complaint about boring and ineffective teachers has merit. I don't disagree with you on that except that you lump us all into one category. To you, and to Janet, we are all awful. Your complaints are misdirected. Teachers don't decide the curriculum nor purchase the materials. Administration does. They are also supposed to evaluate our lessons two times per year. Do they? And when they do is the evaluation honest? If these teachers are receiving satisfactory ratings, teaching from a book, and the people that are rating them are making the big bucks to do these evaluations, where exactly does the problem lie? I think that some of these teachers literally have been teaching for so long that they don't get that they need to be doing things differently. I once heard a teacher say that their way has worked for 20 years, why change it? Who should be telling them? Administration. Have you gone to them and expressed your concerns? In my case, my superintendent makes 4 times my salary. My principal makes 3 times my salary. Even though I take pride in what I do and don't teach from a book, though at times it is tempting because it would be the easy way to do it, though very ineffective, I still would like to be guided and inspired by my administration. There are teachers out there that care. Try not to crucify all of us and for the sake of your children, speak up to those that can make the changes and are paid to do so by you. You have a right to be heard and your children have a right to learn. Teachers that are doing their jobs well won't care if you speak up to those that can make a difference. You constantly are criticizing Ed's remarks. Ed simply understands that there are teachers out there that care and work hard. Being one of them, I appreciate that recognition. Imagine how it would feel, being a teacher, when people constantly evaluate you for what other teachers do wrong. PS. I would love to have your children in my class to let you see what education CAN be. By the way, I adore my principal, and he is very effective in working with making changes and suggestions. However, he has to deal with the upper authorities and pressure to have the top scores in the state. Because we all know, those that receive top scores on a bubble test are the only ones that have the capability of being successful and the only ones that have learned. (That last statement was sarcasm, in case you didn't catch that! There are those students out there that simply don't do well on these types of tests. When we all learn to get over that, we will all be a lot better off.)And one final comment, you should all be thankful that I don't judge all parents on the one or two bad ones that I have each year. I have the ability and respect to recognize that there are some that care and there are some that don't. Unfortunately for me, there is no organization that I can call to report the parent that doesn't give a hoot how their child does in school. Could not supporting a child's education be considered some form of abuse? Nope. As a parent, you don't have to care whether your child does their work, studies for tests, or tries their best. Nor do you have to care about their future and whether they will be successful members of our community. As long as you feed them, clothe them, provide them shelter and aren't "abusive" in the terms that we all understand, the rest is all irrelevant. For those parents out there that care, a big thank you from a teacher that cares. I couldn't do it without you.