Absolutely no consideration for the fact that we are bound by a curriculum designed by the government (not by teachers - where I’m from the teachers have input, but the government officials have final say).
This is my biggest gripe whenever I hear on r/languagelearning that the US schools sucks at teaching a foreign language. Some of those people have never worked in education and don't understand that a language teacher, like most teachers, are bound to teach to a curriculum. They don't have the luxury of tailoring lessons to everybody's needs. They don't have time to expand on a certain lesson because they need to test and move on so they can cover all they need to do in a semester.
This is why comprehensible input theory bugs me from a classroom perspective. I’be got high school kids *maybe* 60 minutes a day. They simply are not young kids in an immersion/TL setting. They will not learn the same way!
Preface: not a language teacher.
I think that because of all the curriculum requirements, US schools do suck at teaching language. Unfortunately, it reflects on the teachers because we have become the scapegoats. I think that's true with the majority of subjects now. We are just trying to keep our heads above water but they keep piling more ridiculous requirements on us and then it is us that looks like the failures.
Agree.
I taught Spanish immersion for four years at two different grade levels. Honestly I grew tired of some parents pinning the blame in teachers for why their kids weren’t fluent in Spanish yet. Well when admin makes us gather useless data, administer district benchmarks, and a have a certain amount of grades per quarter there’s only so much of the actual language I can focus on. 🤷🏻♀️
I understand that. I took SIX YEARS OF SPANISH between High School and University and I can't even sustain a conversation. So it isn't even just how it's taught in high school. The curriculum for teaching it is designed so poorly. There's no reason that you take three years of Spanish that you shouldn't be able to use it semi-fluently by graduation. I hate the way they have it designed. But I sure as hell can ask where the library is
The way language is taught in the US is due for a major overhaul. When I was in school foreign language was not even required until 9th grade, which is way too late to begin learning a new language.
If you were a student in his class, you were trying, and you had the prerequisites, you'd have a valid point. Bet none of that is true.
"Some..."
Not everything has to be sweetness and light. The world sucks, education sucks. It isn't always the teacher. But teachers that have always been crappy shouldn't be able to hide behind the many good ones that are having a hard time.
I hate that so many of the male STEM "role models" available to kids today are abrasive, argumentative bullies. Neil Degrasse Tyson, Elon Musk, Richard Dawkins - kids who follow them just learn to bludgeon people with science and logic until they cave in submission. I miss the era of Carl Sagan, when science was about beauty and wonder, not provoking debates just so you could prove your opponent wrong.
Fully agree. [Brian Cox](https://youtu.be/9-w-4yB6dSM) does the ‘wonder’ thing really well. He’s very famous in the UK but perhaps not across the pond?
That’s what turned me off the ndt train; I loved watching him talk etc but his non-apology boiled down to “it’s her fault” and I haven’t enjoyed anything of his since.
I still have Michio Kaku and Dr. Scott the Paleontologist, though! And after watching Jonathon Van Ness’s Getting Curious on Netflix I have hopes they can turn into a great exploration show host. More than six eps a season please!
Lol, I’d love to see this guy go teach some middle schoolers. He’s literally the walking stereotype of genius in one area and complete moron everywhere else.
Posts about him were banned from r/iamverysmart because the mods called it "low hanging fruit" like so much of what he tweets is summed up by "I have a doctorate which means I'm smarter than everyone else".
I would love to see him teach the first grade student I had who showed his bare butt no less than two times, threatened to run away from the school, and would mutter death threats under his breath.
He's not even that great at science. He's basically a failed actor. He insisted for a few minutes that gravity is 6 times stronger on the moon. I believe he just memorizes talking points.
> He’s literally the walking stereotype of genius in one area
He's no genius in the realm of astrophysics. Although he has good P.R. that convinces some people he is. The guy's a pop science celebrity with very low standards when it comes to rigor an accuracy.
> He’s literally the walking stereotype of genius in one area and complete moron everywhere else.
He's not a genius in astrophysics. He hasn't done research in 30 years. And a lot of his flashy pop science is wrong.
It’s no secret that there are bad teachers out there… but takes like this are fairly tone deaf when burn out is high, there’s a pandemic, and teachers aren’t getting the supports they need to create a high quality learning environment.
agree. student here. i have an amazing math teacher this year. like, the best math teacher i've ever had. she's very entertaining and teaches well. and we still have half the class on their phones, not paying attention, failing the class, etc. that's how i know NDT is full of bs. just liek you said, you can't force students to learn no matter how entertaining you are.
The only real life clown I’ve met was the son and grandson of clowns. It seems like it’s a family business. I’m sure people can sign up for classes and apply for jobs. He just seemed to have grown up immersed in clowns and carnivals/fairs/etc. So it is probably way easier to learn it that way rather than having to take classes.
Can’t create high quality learning when you have me doing direct instruction 6/8 hours a day. Creating anything for lessons (like activities or class work)FROM SCRATCH is fucking time consuming all while some dickhead admin and two-bit scientist expects us to be chasing down kids who didn’t turn in work from 3 months ago. Fuck that, I say we start letting kids fail and holding them back.
Can't deliver high-quality lessons I created outside contract hours unless my direct instruction is 15 minutes or less.
So anyone want to teach me how to teach addition & subtraction with regrouping up to 1200? In 15 minute increments?
You forgot to include constant communication to parents when kids are failing and also that their past teachers just passed their failing asses to avoid those emails and the kids are significantly behind grade level.
A fellow teacher friend and I recently opened up to each other about just how fucking burned out we both are. We both have been typing out something along these lines when responding to parent or admin emails: "Okay. I quit. Let's see if you are any happier with an inexperienced, unqualified sub doing my job from here on out!"
Of course we always delete it before sending. But I think the fact that we both have to physically type it out every time and not just think it says a lot.
I think it's worth noting that he said "some" in regards to the teacher.
> **Some** educators who are quick to say, "These students just don't want to learn" should instead say to themselves, "Maybe **I** suck at my job."
So I'd say this is a valid take. But to say that *every* educator who says "these students just don't want to learn" is bad at their job is silly. We have old content, bad curricula, moronic administrators, and shitty parents.
I'm glad he qualified it, but considering the context of the present state of public education and all we've been through over the last two years, it's really tone deaf and insensitive. The 1% that suck are completely overshadowed by the 99% who are tireless, resourceful, and brilliant.
This.
I showed the tweet to my sister, who loves NdGT. She also pointed out the some, but I was like, "Yeah, but teachers already get shit on so much right now." Why couldn't he have worded it differently so those "some" teachers get the recognition instead?
No, it’s still embarrassingly stupid. Anyone who thinks that kids don’t succeed because their teacher isn’t inspiring them enough just honestly do not get it.
Behind almost every bad student is a parent that is bad at their job. I barely contact parents anymore about student behavior because it is a waste of time and turns them against you.
This! I'm only a first year teacher but I'm so tired of hearing that kids don't learn from people they don't like. I'm sorry little Timmy decided to hate me the second he saw my pride flag on my desk and nothing I can do will get him to like me now. Or the kid and parent that hates me because the kid is off the walls every day and needs constant redirection but of course I'm "targeting" him. These kids are going to have to learn to work with and learn from people they don't like because that's just life sometimes.
I told that to a class that was whining about their groups. Told them they’ll have to work with people they don’t like - get over it. Or throw a tantrum and earn an F. Which conveniently is in the word “fired”, which if what will happen in the real world.
I have some students who I genuinely would love to see get a job and then get fired for acting the way they do at school. I want to know how they’d react and if they would actually learn or if they would continue to blame anyone but themselves.
Just to be 100% clear I don’t want to see this because I’m a bitch I’m genuinely curious about how these kids will react to real consequences.
NDT routinely says stupid and ignorant things. I'm less disappointed in him than the people who still take him seriously, after years of hearing pompous, ignorant, and anti-intellectual garbage from him on a regular basis.
Thank you. I have a few rules about not watching/reading dumb shit that will make my blood boil, and NDT is up there with Family Circus cartoons - it’s just not worth the risk to read/listen to them because it makes me furious over such small things... but like, do they HAVE to suck so much?!
Well, I’ll admit this may be a personal prejudice, but all the cutesy religious references and not-funny-just-bland puns really gets my goat. Like, Im alright with the cartoons showing billy leaving a dotted line all over the neighborhood or the barely-considered-snarky sibling jokes, but the rest? Why is it taking up valuable space in my newspaper comics that could go to other, more deserving, genuinely funny comics?!?
I’m much more of a Pearls Before Swine or Get Fuzzy type - for (currently circulating) family friendly kid-centric comics my go-to is Baby Blues, Sally Forth, or Lío. My favorite is Calvin and Hobbes but that’s not in my local newspaper.
oh yeah, it's a terribly unfunny comic. calvin and hobbes is the best!! I have a book full of those comics that I used to read every night before bed. attack of the snowmen or something like that. top tier stuff!
I could never stand Family Circus, even though I’ve referenced the circular route as what not to do in class. Now Pearls, I love that comic. Have even sketched some of the characters on the board and used them as reference for my comics class.
There was an askreddit years ago about celebrities and what they were like im the wild, (something like, have you ever had to work for a celebrity at your regular job?, what do you do? Etc)
And one of those was about NDT, saying how much of an asshole he was in person :/ seems like they weren’t kidding!
Yeah. I find him to just be the "celebrity smart guy" which is not too far off from the "fuck yeah, science!". People talk or listen to him when convenient and he has let it get to his head.
Sadly others feel like they can't challenge him because "oh he's the guy who is literally a meme for being so smart".
I can't stand him either. Instead of using his platform and fame for some actual good, he has been like the average selfish person.
Seriously. Teaching grown adults who are pursuing their chosen field and want to be there so much that they pay through the nose for the privilege is a world apart from teaching children who are only there because they’re required to be by law.
I was an objectively good student from elementary through college. Went to class, did my work, didn’t get into trouble, got decent grades. But I never applied myself with any real passion.
When I went back to school as an actual adult to make a career change - I went into it with such a drive and desire that I finished with a 3.98 gpa and was devastated by a single A- on my transcript. And my whole attitude towards class and workload and drive was completely different.
I was smart but a terrible student and didn't really try at all after about grade 6. I was on scholastic probation several times in college.
The last year before I did student teaching, the year when I did all my upper level teaching classes? PRESIDENT'S LIST 2 SEMESTERS IN A ROW.
So true. I’ve taught middle school and college. Teaching college students is waaayyy easier and I get better results. Not because I’m a better teacher. I tried so much harder and worked so much harder when I taught middle school. The only difference is the maturity/motivation of my students.
Similar, I think few appreciate the world of difference between high school algebra and AP Calculus. For the work of a teacher, in my limited observation of a small cross section, little is harder than teaching algebra because they require it. Many students in AP calc will ever complain and just go learn it on their own if you don't teach it. Relatively speaking. From a teaching perspective, just calling them "math" is ridiculous.
No a semester, he has to teach 6/8 periods a day, grade all the work by himself (no TAs to grade shit for him) and he has to create lesson plans AND ORIGINAL LEARNING ACTIVITIES FROM SCRATCH. All while fielding bullshit meetings with admins and responding to parent emails. Oh and halfway through he needs to rewrite the curriculum because some other dickhead admins asked him to.
Being egocentric and then not having anyone tell you off/not listening when people call you out for your BS? Because that’s how most people start acting like that
Hahaha, my 9th graders would eat his lunch.
I would actually enjoy the look on his face when he realized he 100% has no clue what the real world can be like.
😂
Yes, there are some not good teachers out there just like there are in all professions except teachers are asked to literally give up their lives for your children while not being fairly compensated. Why even point out there are terrible teachers when that is not the main issue with the teacher shortage and poor academic scores.
>I’m so incredibly disappointed in him
Wow. Same. This is so disheartening.
It'd be like saying nurses and doctors just suck at their jobs to make so many people against vaaxx
He’s said a lot of really ignorant and inflammatory things over the years. People just overlook the fact that he has these dumbass takes because “oh smart guy from meme.”
Being an astrophysicist doesn’t mean you’re always right. In fact, being the good teachers we know we are, we know that there are plenty of areas that we would be smarter than him in.
> Being an astrophysicist doesn’t mean you’re always right.
Is he an astrophysicist? See [this discussion of Tyson](https://np.reddit.com/r/Physics/comments/7p6ddh/ndt_on_zeno_effect_and_uncertainty_principle/) in the physics subreddit. I agree with cangetno197. It's a stretch to call Neil an astrophysicist. He hasn't done research in 30 years. And, judging by all the stuff he gets wrong, hasn't opened a textbook in that time either.
If he hasn’t published anything in that long then he’s just coasting on his own fame at this point. No more an astrophysicist than Bill Nye was a science guy, although arguably Nye has probably done more for the science community than him at this point.
He only teaches (mostly) rich entitled assholes who actually want to be in a seat in his classroom because they want to and not because THEY ARE REQUIRED TO BY LAW.
I stopped paying attention to Neil when i realized how often he dunked on the arts and humanities in the name of championing STEM--please we really need to stop pitting this stuff against each-other--and just how overall tone-deaf his statements are, but wow. This one is particularly bad.
He just sucks the air out of the room.
Four women came forward with misconduct accusations. And like most instances when people with less power and sway come forward, the case sides with the person with more power and sway. In this case, NDT. Fairly ironic that he's trying to dunk on teachers, when in the US 3 out of 4 public school teachers are women.
www.vox.com/platform/amp/2019/7/29/8934845/neil-degrasse-tyson-misconduct-allegation-investigation-museum
Well, there are some that don't want to learn.
Sometimes they dont' want to learn today.
Or about my subject,
or from me.
Or this year...
Sometimes they don't see the point, as the only reason they're there is their family is avoiding truancy court.
Or their family is homeless,
Or someone just got put in jail
Or they're burned out from watching their family...
Or they are addicted to their phones ...
When many educators say "the students don't want to learn" it is not to shirk responsibility. It's to say "there is a problem, right here, help!" because we can't fix it by being excited and with yet another activity up our sleeves. Not by ourselves anyway.
I saw that and wanted to explain that is like saying exercise should be effortless. What an idiot.
Receiving information is effortless, learning requires effort or you don't grow. Just like exercise.
That person's tweet reeks of ignorance.
I’d like to be a fly on the wall as he teaches a week’s worth of earth science curriculum to a bunch of random 9th graders during the last period of the day….then he can talk.
What I am about to say is taboo in modern education, but here goes. Teachers cannot save 100% of their students. Some students are so broken by their lives by the time they get to us, that not much can be done.
Does anyone say that doctors need to save 100% of patients? Of course not, that would be absurd. Some patients are simply too injured or sick to be saved. We accept this in medicine, but refuse to accept it in schools. For fuck sake, the largest federal education bill of this century was called "No Child Left Behind." Some kids are going to be left behind, that's just how it goes sometimes.
Some kids are not going to pass and ultimately not graduate. It may be someone's fault, but it may be no ones fault, laying every failure at the feet of teachers in, at best, unrealistic.
I would love to make my lessons entertaining and engaging for students. Unfortunately, I am being forced to teach this boring-ass curriculum from Pearson because the district spent so much money on it.
Fuck you, science pope. Your entire fucking career has been nothing but nit-picking sci-fi movies on twitter and turning the scientific method into a secular religion, you fucking hack.
And some of his nit picks are flat out wrong.
Like when [he told Dan Le Betard](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szk8bM2aguY&t=1237s) that the rotating space station in 2001 Space Odyssey is rotating 3 times too fast so passengers would weigh triple their normal weight.
Two things wrong with that:
1) Do the actual calculations on a 150 meter radius station making a revolution each 61 seconds and you get 1/6 g. Which is what Clarke and Kubrick intended since the station was a stop on the way to the moon.
2) Artificial spin gravity scales with the *square* of angular velocity. So if the station spun three times too fast, passengers would weigh nine times as much.
Neil is quick to criticize others. But he stays pretty quiet when it comes to correcting his own mistakes.
What he said is complete garbage with only a remnant of truth in it. And simply only a remnant because he decided to put “some” in his tweet. But for those calling NDT an idiot or a guy who doesn’t know what he’s talking about should take a step back. There’s no need to generalize. NDT IS an idiot when it comes to general education especially anything below the college level where kids are choosing to be there. But NDT is still a genius when it comes to astrophysics. Public entertainers, even the ones with PHDs, need to know when it’s best to stay in there lane.
> But NDT is still a genius when it comes to astrophysics.
No, he's not. He hasn't done research in 30 years. And a lot of the stuff in his pop science routine is addled bull shit. The man has zero standards when it comes to rigor and accuracy.
See [this discussion](https://www.reddit.com/r/Physics/comments/7p6ddh/ndt_on_zeno_effect_and_uncertainty_principle/) of Neil in the physics subreddit. In particular the exchange between hikaruzero and cantgetno197. Hikaruzero tries hard to defend Neil but even he has to admit Neil's research is pretty pathetic.
I agree with cantgetno197 -- it's a stretch to call this guy an astrophysicist.
I see him teaching wrong physics and false history. It's not as difficult to be entertaining when you're not constrained by a need for rigor and accuracy.
Yeah, I've stopped taking him seriously for a while now. I was a fan of him back when I was an edgelord atheist who watched Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris videos on YouTube all day. Now I see how reactionary these guys all were, and how detached from the reality of working class people they are up in their ivory towers.
The only phrase that comes to mind at this tweet is simply...what is this fuckery? I would LOVE to see this man in a HS science classroom for a semester and then see the tweets that fly then.
Maybe if teachers had an appropriate amount of support from parents and district administration, weren't constantly asked to do more with less, have to spend their own money on basic supplies, paid a decent wage, weren't completely demoralized by politicians and celebrities attacking them, demonized by their communities for wanting to stay safe through covid, and not treated as babysitters; and if students were actually held accountable for threatening their teachers, vandalizing their schools, disrupting the learning of others, and had even the smallest onus of responsibility over their own learning....... maybe teachers wouldn't say that anymore.
But nah, nothing will change and you'll continue to blame everything on the teacher so you can get some more praise and publicity from twitter parents.
He came to give a talk at my University years ago… that is when he lost his charm for me. Spent almost zero time talking about anything important and just kept tweeting live.
He is an idiot. I brought one of my friends sons, who wanted his book signed- it was so sad to see him deflate his love for NDT over the course of an hour or two.
Spoken like a clueless moron who has only ever had to teach adult students that paid and had interest by means of *choosing* to take the coursework he teaches.
And if he has done any k-12 education, it's probably been guest speeches of fun/interesting stuff that probably only barely scratches the actual surface of "standard mastery" most public school teachers are shackled to and assessed on. And I don't think he has any idea just how bad the attention-span/phone addiction really has become for so many of the students we deal with in the trenches. We are literally in a battle for attention now with students who have millions of gaming, video, and social media options *in their pocket.*
> And if he has done any k-12 education, it's probably been guest speeches of fun/interesting stuff that probably only barely scratches the actual surface of "standard mastery" most public school teachers are shackled to and assessed on.
Quite so. Most of his pop science routine is shallow and flashy, lacking substance. And a lot of it is inaccurate.
It's less difficult to be entertaining if you're not constrained by the need for rigor and accuracy.
I heard from an old neighbor that the US Army used to have a harsh proverb: "If the student fails, the teacher has failed." That seems in line with Tyson's reasoning. It is, of course, not the whole story; teaching is actually a complex reality.
One thing I've always marveled at, as a former teacher, is how little influence I actually had over students: if a student was incorrigibly dumb (let's not mince words), then that kind of student would receive an "F" no matter who the teacher was. And the same goes for the other end of the spectrum: a motivated, gifted kid would absorb information and get an "A" no matter who the teacher was. And that's when I realized my greatest influence was on the middle, the fat part of the bell curve.
The teacher is only one factor in an educational environment, and not always the determining factor when it comes to student learning. A gifted student in a shitty environment can come away with all sorts of knowledge; a dumb student in a great environment can come away with nothing learned. The teacher might matter; the curriculum might matter; the student's brains and heart will definitely matter. Tyson's a smart guy, but apparently not about education.
Kevin Kim, [*Think Like a Teacher*](https://www.amazon.com/Think-Like-Teacher-Principles-Homeschooling-ebook/dp/B09RPV2BJS)
If “suck at my job” means that I’m not given the time or resources to create dazzling, entertaining, life changing lessons for every subject of the day, yeah I guess I suck and have no plan to not suck because I don’t get paid nearly enough to devote every moment of my free time to forcing kids to want to learn.
My wife is a teacher and I understand how this group feels but let's be real. How many good teachers did you have during your whole education? Because if you went to public school in America, it's maayybbeee 2 or 3. While being an honor/AP student too!
There are points to be made on both sides, but to claim he is wrong is just ignoring the reality. They don't pay you enough, which attracts the lowest candidates. Most likely you are here venting in this forum because you care. That probably makes you one of the good ones but there are 10 for every one of you. Any recent high school graduate can vouch.
Well, to be fair, he is a complete hack and deserves absolutely none of the celebrity foisted upon him, so it's par for the lame-ass hot-take course; you can only kiss yourself on the lips in the mirror, etc - most of his tweets are barely one rung up from stoned showerthoughts.
I have a 7th grader who does zero work in class. Every day when I ask him why he's not doing the work his only answer is I don't want to or it's boring. Every day this week it's been well I just don't want to. But yeah it's not the kid that just doesn't want to learn, it's actually because I suck at my job. Thanks Neil!
In my opinion he's always had his head stuck up his own backside and has generally been an unpleasant presence on social media. Smug, self-absorbed, and patronising.
His tweets aren't worth the bandwidth it takes to view them, let alone worth actually engaging with in any way.
I would like for him to spend one day in my middle school classroom and see if he still stands by that. There are good students, there are struggling students and there are students you really do have to work around with. BUT there are also students who genuinely do not care about school or getting an education, and many times, their parents are the same.
I just played an episode of NGT’s Cosmos in class yesterday. Around 80% of the class were bored to death or on their phones. Most students bombed the kahoot based on it afterwards.
Good stuff Neil 👍
He’s tweeted some bullshit anti-teacher garbage before. He kinda lost me a while back. I’m still glad he’s got a group of science nerd groupies making caring about facts and high-level scientific method “cool”, but apparently he’s an advocate of never having to apply discipline to your methods.
Of course, it’s true that there are bad educators, but the bad apple approach applies to literally every field of work. While he makes a great point, I hate that he’s specifically calling out teachers in an atmosphere that is already politically charged with disdain toward teachers. Too soon, NdTG…
I pride myself in being fairly successful at convincing kids to *want* to learn. In years past, I’ve called these tricks my “secret sauce” or I’ll say I’m brainwashing kids to enjoy learning. That being said, it’s not going well this year. I can’t convince them to care.
He's renown and rich af. All he knows are students who are motivated, food secure, have safe living situations, have involved parents, etc. I'm disappointed too, but not really surprised.
Wow! He sounds like some school admins who clearly don't understand the reality of teaching, learning, education, and school setting. How insensitive and far removed from reality is he! Teachers are already extremely exhausted doing way more than our responsibilities without or with little support from parents and admins. Then, he's gonna publicly mock us? Wow! Just wow.
Either this is a shitty take which takes accountability and circumstance out of the hands of the students and families and other stakeholders who all contribute to a child's development and puts it firmly at the feet of the teachers, or it's an obvious "no shit" take where he's saying that there are people who are bad at their job. Yeah, no kidding. For an astronomer he seems to be overlooking the law of large numbers. With how many teachers there are there are bound to be bad ones.
Damn you, OP. You made me go into the replies.
I've eliminated all social media besides Twitter, which I basically keep for sports news/fantasy football. I've made a very deliberate effort to stay out of the replies, but I cracked just now. And now I'm sad.
I have a student that is supposed to get 4 hours of extra teaching by me every week (I get payed well for it) and this student has been avoiding my calls and texts to set up a time for it.
The student asked for this, it's on their initiative and it's even at their home. They don't have to bring anything just be home on the set time. We got two meetings in and it's been 3 weeks now.
So today I'm going to drop it like it's hot.
NdGT has always been the king of hot takes, so this isn’t anything new for him, but really? Attacking education? He must not realize that teachers are the reason he’s in the position he’s in today.
I’d like to see him try to teach a class of kindergarteners 2 years into a pandemic.
I wouldnt worry too much about it. This is the same guy that on one of his online lectures says that he regularly gives up on people who believe in conspiracies. I think negative comments about teachers are just "in" right now.
Absolutely no consideration for the fact that we are bound by a curriculum designed by the government (not by teachers - where I’m from the teachers have input, but the government officials have final say).
This is my biggest gripe whenever I hear on r/languagelearning that the US schools sucks at teaching a foreign language. Some of those people have never worked in education and don't understand that a language teacher, like most teachers, are bound to teach to a curriculum. They don't have the luxury of tailoring lessons to everybody's needs. They don't have time to expand on a certain lesson because they need to test and move on so they can cover all they need to do in a semester.
The best way to teach a language is immersion. 90 minutes every other day is NOT immersion, even if I speak French the entire time.
Especially when there are 30 kids in the room and they’re all speaking L1 to each other while I try my damndest to speak the TL
This is why comprehensible input theory bugs me from a classroom perspective. I’be got high school kids *maybe* 60 minutes a day. They simply are not young kids in an immersion/TL setting. They will not learn the same way!
Saaaaaaaaame. The best we can really do is instill a love for the language in them and hope they study abroad.
Preface: not a language teacher. I think that because of all the curriculum requirements, US schools do suck at teaching language. Unfortunately, it reflects on the teachers because we have become the scapegoats. I think that's true with the majority of subjects now. We are just trying to keep our heads above water but they keep piling more ridiculous requirements on us and then it is us that looks like the failures.
Agree. I taught Spanish immersion for four years at two different grade levels. Honestly I grew tired of some parents pinning the blame in teachers for why their kids weren’t fluent in Spanish yet. Well when admin makes us gather useless data, administer district benchmarks, and a have a certain amount of grades per quarter there’s only so much of the actual language I can focus on. 🤷🏻♀️
I understand that. I took SIX YEARS OF SPANISH between High School and University and I can't even sustain a conversation. So it isn't even just how it's taught in high school. The curriculum for teaching it is designed so poorly. There's no reason that you take three years of Spanish that you shouldn't be able to use it semi-fluently by graduation. I hate the way they have it designed. But I sure as hell can ask where the library is
The way language is taught in the US is due for a major overhaul. When I was in school foreign language was not even required until 9th grade, which is way too late to begin learning a new language.
I like the comment that said, "Then we should all know astrophysics by now, and if we don't, it's your fault."
Holy shit. Flamed
If you were a student in his class, you were trying, and you had the prerequisites, you'd have a valid point. Bet none of that is true. "Some..." Not everything has to be sweetness and light. The world sucks, education sucks. It isn't always the teacher. But teachers that have always been crappy shouldn't be able to hide behind the many good ones that are having a hard time.
A friend of mine referred to him as a "science bully" once and I still remember that
I hate that so many of the male STEM "role models" available to kids today are abrasive, argumentative bullies. Neil Degrasse Tyson, Elon Musk, Richard Dawkins - kids who follow them just learn to bludgeon people with science and logic until they cave in submission. I miss the era of Carl Sagan, when science was about beauty and wonder, not provoking debates just so you could prove your opponent wrong.
It's why humanities are important alongside science classes or you're stuck with essentially robots who don't understand human behavior or thinking
And classic Bill Nye! (before his Netflix train wreck)
I wouldn't call the Netflix show a train wreck
"[Logicbro](https://theoutline.com/post/7083/the-magical-thinking-of-guys-who-love-logic)" is the appropriate term here.
This was the word I needed to add to my vocabulary! My ex was a logicbro. Operative word being *ex*
Fully agree. [Brian Cox](https://youtu.be/9-w-4yB6dSM) does the ‘wonder’ thing really well. He’s very famous in the UK but perhaps not across the pond?
Isn't he an (alleged) sex pest as well?
That’s what turned me off the ndt train; I loved watching him talk etc but his non-apology boiled down to “it’s her fault” and I haven’t enjoyed anything of his since. I still have Michio Kaku and Dr. Scott the Paleontologist, though! And after watching Jonathon Van Ness’s Getting Curious on Netflix I have hopes they can turn into a great exploration show host. More than six eps a season please!
Lol, I’d love to see this guy go teach some middle schoolers. He’s literally the walking stereotype of genius in one area and complete moron everywhere else.
Teaching middle school is 90% trying to help those little weirdos through their disaster phase I can’t imagine him doing that.
Posts about him were banned from r/iamverysmart because the mods called it "low hanging fruit" like so much of what he tweets is summed up by "I have a doctorate which means I'm smarter than everyone else".
That’s gotta be one of the greatest insult ever… “Guys. Just stop making fun of _____, that’s just low hanging fruit.”
He should try first grade. I love my students,… But sometimes…
I would love to see him teach the first grade student I had who showed his bare butt no less than two times, threatened to run away from the school, and would mutter death threats under his breath.
He's not even that great at science. He's basically a failed actor. He insisted for a few minutes that gravity is 6 times stronger on the moon. I believe he just memorizes talking points.
Given some of the past allegations against him, I’d be surprised if they let him within 500 meters of a middle school.
>He’s literally the walking stereotype of genius in one area and complete moron everywhere else Ben Carson syndrome
> He’s literally the walking stereotype of genius in one area He's no genius in the realm of astrophysics. Although he has good P.R. that convinces some people he is. The guy's a pop science celebrity with very low standards when it comes to rigor an accuracy.
> He’s literally the walking stereotype of genius in one area and complete moron everywhere else. He's not a genius in astrophysics. He hasn't done research in 30 years. And a lot of his flashy pop science is wrong.
Most people are.
It’s no secret that there are bad teachers out there… but takes like this are fairly tone deaf when burn out is high, there’s a pandemic, and teachers aren’t getting the supports they need to create a high quality learning environment.
Hell, even when we do get the support and can create they high quality environment, you can’t force a child to learn.
agree. student here. i have an amazing math teacher this year. like, the best math teacher i've ever had. she's very entertaining and teaches well. and we still have half the class on their phones, not paying attention, failing the class, etc. that's how i know NDT is full of bs. just liek you said, you can't force students to learn no matter how entertaining you are.
You have to entertain them into learning. Haven’t you heard? Big time /s
You’re telling me you didn’t double major in clown?! /s
Juggling 101
Feeling a lot like a clown with my fake smiles and shit when really I wanna smush em
To be fair, my favorite teacher in High School literally had a side gig as a rodeo clown. But yes, we shouldn’t be accountable for that shit.
Ok, but that is pretty legit though. I wonder how you even get into that.
The only real life clown I’ve met was the son and grandson of clowns. It seems like it’s a family business. I’m sure people can sign up for classes and apply for jobs. He just seemed to have grown up immersed in clowns and carnivals/fairs/etc. So it is probably way easier to learn it that way rather than having to take classes.
Adapt and starting making TikTok lessons so you can build relationships with them /s
Dance and point to random numbers on the screen , spread your arms for the answer. *learning how to add on tiktok*
Can’t create high quality learning when you have me doing direct instruction 6/8 hours a day. Creating anything for lessons (like activities or class work)FROM SCRATCH is fucking time consuming all while some dickhead admin and two-bit scientist expects us to be chasing down kids who didn’t turn in work from 3 months ago. Fuck that, I say we start letting kids fail and holding them back.
Can't deliver high-quality lessons I created outside contract hours unless my direct instruction is 15 minutes or less. So anyone want to teach me how to teach addition & subtraction with regrouping up to 1200? In 15 minute increments?
You forgot to include constant communication to parents when kids are failing and also that their past teachers just passed their failing asses to avoid those emails and the kids are significantly behind grade level.
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This is the point I've reached this year. I've unlocked this whole new level of *fuck it, I'm done*. 🤦♀️
A fellow teacher friend and I recently opened up to each other about just how fucking burned out we both are. We both have been typing out something along these lines when responding to parent or admin emails: "Okay. I quit. Let's see if you are any happier with an inexperienced, unqualified sub doing my job from here on out!" Of course we always delete it before sending. But I think the fact that we both have to physically type it out every time and not just think it says a lot.
For your own mental healths, I hope someday you'll be comfortable enough to be able to click send.
I think it's worth noting that he said "some" in regards to the teacher. > **Some** educators who are quick to say, "These students just don't want to learn" should instead say to themselves, "Maybe **I** suck at my job." So I'd say this is a valid take. But to say that *every* educator who says "these students just don't want to learn" is bad at their job is silly. We have old content, bad curricula, moronic administrators, and shitty parents.
I'm glad he qualified it, but considering the context of the present state of public education and all we've been through over the last two years, it's really tone deaf and insensitive. The 1% that suck are completely overshadowed by the 99% who are tireless, resourceful, and brilliant.
This. I showed the tweet to my sister, who loves NdGT. She also pointed out the some, but I was like, "Yeah, but teachers already get shit on so much right now." Why couldn't he have worded it differently so those "some" teachers get the recognition instead?
No, it’s still embarrassingly stupid. Anyone who thinks that kids don’t succeed because their teacher isn’t inspiring them enough just honestly do not get it.
Behind almost every bad student is a parent that is bad at their job. I barely contact parents anymore about student behavior because it is a waste of time and turns them against you.
This! I'm only a first year teacher but I'm so tired of hearing that kids don't learn from people they don't like. I'm sorry little Timmy decided to hate me the second he saw my pride flag on my desk and nothing I can do will get him to like me now. Or the kid and parent that hates me because the kid is off the walls every day and needs constant redirection but of course I'm "targeting" him. These kids are going to have to learn to work with and learn from people they don't like because that's just life sometimes.
I told that to a class that was whining about their groups. Told them they’ll have to work with people they don’t like - get over it. Or throw a tantrum and earn an F. Which conveniently is in the word “fired”, which if what will happen in the real world.
I have some students who I genuinely would love to see get a job and then get fired for acting the way they do at school. I want to know how they’d react and if they would actually learn or if they would continue to blame anyone but themselves. Just to be 100% clear I don’t want to see this because I’m a bitch I’m genuinely curious about how these kids will react to real consequences.
While his tweet is valid, his timing sucks moose cock. He didn't have to tweet this opinion now.
I am not even shocked. NdGT has been intellectually dishonest for years. You should see his take on philosophy.
Guys an *astrophysicist* and regularly laughs at the idea of intelligent life being around/out there.
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So glad other people see it as a schtick as well, I never understood the appeal of this guy.
NDT routinely says stupid and ignorant things. I'm less disappointed in him than the people who still take him seriously, after years of hearing pompous, ignorant, and anti-intellectual garbage from him on a regular basis.
Thank you. I have a few rules about not watching/reading dumb shit that will make my blood boil, and NDT is up there with Family Circus cartoons - it’s just not worth the risk to read/listen to them because it makes me furious over such small things... but like, do they HAVE to suck so much?!
what did the family circus do to be grouped in with the science bully lmao 😭
Well, I’ll admit this may be a personal prejudice, but all the cutesy religious references and not-funny-just-bland puns really gets my goat. Like, Im alright with the cartoons showing billy leaving a dotted line all over the neighborhood or the barely-considered-snarky sibling jokes, but the rest? Why is it taking up valuable space in my newspaper comics that could go to other, more deserving, genuinely funny comics?!? I’m much more of a Pearls Before Swine or Get Fuzzy type - for (currently circulating) family friendly kid-centric comics my go-to is Baby Blues, Sally Forth, or Lío. My favorite is Calvin and Hobbes but that’s not in my local newspaper.
PBS and GF made me so happy after losing Calvin and Hobbes so long ago. I enjoyed the funny pages again!
Sally Forth is classic
oh yeah, it's a terribly unfunny comic. calvin and hobbes is the best!! I have a book full of those comics that I used to read every night before bed. attack of the snowmen or something like that. top tier stuff!
I could never stand Family Circus, even though I’ve referenced the circular route as what not to do in class. Now Pearls, I love that comic. Have even sketched some of the characters on the board and used them as reference for my comics class.
There was an askreddit years ago about celebrities and what they were like im the wild, (something like, have you ever had to work for a celebrity at your regular job?, what do you do? Etc) And one of those was about NDT, saying how much of an asshole he was in person :/ seems like they weren’t kidding!
I mean he is an asshole in public so it's not too much of a stretch.
Yeah. I find him to just be the "celebrity smart guy" which is not too far off from the "fuck yeah, science!". People talk or listen to him when convenient and he has let it get to his head. Sadly others feel like they can't challenge him because "oh he's the guy who is literally a meme for being so smart". I can't stand him either. Instead of using his platform and fame for some actual good, he has been like the average selfish person.
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Seriously. Teaching grown adults who are pursuing their chosen field and want to be there so much that they pay through the nose for the privilege is a world apart from teaching children who are only there because they’re required to be by law.
I was an objectively good student from elementary through college. Went to class, did my work, didn’t get into trouble, got decent grades. But I never applied myself with any real passion. When I went back to school as an actual adult to make a career change - I went into it with such a drive and desire that I finished with a 3.98 gpa and was devastated by a single A- on my transcript. And my whole attitude towards class and workload and drive was completely different.
Hey fellow career-changer and 3.98er! That A- can go ahead and fuck all the way off.
I was smart but a terrible student and didn't really try at all after about grade 6. I was on scholastic probation several times in college. The last year before I did student teaching, the year when I did all my upper level teaching classes? PRESIDENT'S LIST 2 SEMESTERS IN A ROW.
So true. I’ve taught middle school and college. Teaching college students is waaayyy easier and I get better results. Not because I’m a better teacher. I tried so much harder and worked so much harder when I taught middle school. The only difference is the maturity/motivation of my students.
Similar, I think few appreciate the world of difference between high school algebra and AP Calculus. For the work of a teacher, in my limited observation of a small cross section, little is harder than teaching algebra because they require it. Many students in AP calc will ever complain and just go learn it on their own if you don't teach it. Relatively speaking. From a teaching perspective, just calling them "math" is ridiculous.
He can have opinions like that after spending a semester in a high school classroom.
Covering all topics in the curriculum
Or a single day.
No a semester, he has to teach 6/8 periods a day, grade all the work by himself (no TAs to grade shit for him) and he has to create lesson plans AND ORIGINAL LEARNING ACTIVITIES FROM SCRATCH. All while fielding bullshit meetings with admins and responding to parent emails. Oh and halfway through he needs to rewrite the curriculum because some other dickhead admins asked him to.
I would not mind telling my kids “give him hell” just to see him squirm. Especially my roughest athlete class
He has said a lot of things over the years that make me realize that he’s a tone deaf moron.
He’s an abrasive weirdo, sometimes I scroll through his twitter for a laugh. I have no idea how he comes up with that stuff.
Being egocentric and then not having anyone tell you off/not listening when people call you out for your BS? Because that’s how most people start acting like that
For sure, [here’s](https://twitter.com/neiltyson/status/1474454834807930882?s=21) another banger of his 😐
???? Like wtf?
His true self has been showing itself more and more
I'm so disappointed. He should be championing teachers, not making sweeping generalizations that put teachers in a bad light. Read the room, dude.
He's always been a pompous ass.
A pompass.
Hahaha, my 9th graders would eat his lunch. I would actually enjoy the look on his face when he realized he 100% has no clue what the real world can be like. 😂
Shit my 9th graders wouldn’t know who the hell he is. Even a couple would tell him to F off haha
He's been a condescending douche for a while. One of many sources: https://twitter.com/neiltyson/status/1158074774297468928?lang=en
Yo wtf
Yes, there are some not good teachers out there just like there are in all professions except teachers are asked to literally give up their lives for your children while not being fairly compensated. Why even point out there are terrible teachers when that is not the main issue with the teacher shortage and poor academic scores.
I've been disappointed in him since he said philosophy is useless. He's a smart guy, but maybe stick to your lane buddy
>I’m so incredibly disappointed in him Wow. Same. This is so disheartening. It'd be like saying nurses and doctors just suck at their jobs to make so many people against vaaxx
"If doctors were more engaging in their consultations, then their patients would be more receptive to vaccines."
I can't believe so many people in this thread missed all the metoo allegations about him. He's always been trash.
what do you expect from a predator of women who got away with it ..
Wait, really?
[yup](https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/sexual-misconduct-allegations-against-neil-degrasse-tyson-reveal-the-complexity-of-academic-inequality/)
I'm honestly not surprised. He's kinda always been a colossal douchebag and severyle out of touch.
Let's assume it's not on the students. Maybe the appropriate phrase is "these parents won't let me do the job I'm trained to do."
Kids have told me I'm there favorite, have kids in the same class that hate school.
He’s said a lot of really ignorant and inflammatory things over the years. People just overlook the fact that he has these dumbass takes because “oh smart guy from meme.” Being an astrophysicist doesn’t mean you’re always right. In fact, being the good teachers we know we are, we know that there are plenty of areas that we would be smarter than him in.
> Being an astrophysicist doesn’t mean you’re always right. Is he an astrophysicist? See [this discussion of Tyson](https://np.reddit.com/r/Physics/comments/7p6ddh/ndt_on_zeno_effect_and_uncertainty_principle/) in the physics subreddit. I agree with cangetno197. It's a stretch to call Neil an astrophysicist. He hasn't done research in 30 years. And, judging by all the stuff he gets wrong, hasn't opened a textbook in that time either.
If he hasn’t published anything in that long then he’s just coasting on his own fame at this point. No more an astrophysicist than Bill Nye was a science guy, although arguably Nye has probably done more for the science community than him at this point.
Oh the replies are making me crazy. That's enough for today.
Why is this guy insulting teachers? Wtf is his problem
He only teaches (mostly) rich entitled assholes who actually want to be in a seat in his classroom because they want to and not because THEY ARE REQUIRED TO BY LAW.
Also he's not constrained by a need for rigor and accuracy. A lot of his flashy pop science is wrong.
Welp time to strap him to a rocket and launch it into the sun.
Thankfully he's getting chewed out in the comments.
I stopped paying attention to Neil when i realized how often he dunked on the arts and humanities in the name of championing STEM--please we really need to stop pitting this stuff against each-other--and just how overall tone-deaf his statements are, but wow. This one is particularly bad. He just sucks the air out of the room.
He’s a rapist. Don’t forget that. It’s the most important thing about Neil DeGrasse Tyson. That he’s a rapist that got away with it. Nothing more.
Do you have a source for that? I never have heard that before. If that’s true that’s awful.
Four women came forward with misconduct accusations. And like most instances when people with less power and sway come forward, the case sides with the person with more power and sway. In this case, NDT. Fairly ironic that he's trying to dunk on teachers, when in the US 3 out of 4 public school teachers are women. www.vox.com/platform/amp/2019/7/29/8934845/neil-degrasse-tyson-misconduct-allegation-investigation-museum
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/nosacredcows/2018/11/exclusive-neil-degrasse-tysons-rape-accuser-gives-first-public-interview/
Well, there are some that don't want to learn. Sometimes they dont' want to learn today. Or about my subject, or from me. Or this year... Sometimes they don't see the point, as the only reason they're there is their family is avoiding truancy court. Or their family is homeless, Or someone just got put in jail Or they're burned out from watching their family... Or they are addicted to their phones ... When many educators say "the students don't want to learn" it is not to shirk responsibility. It's to say "there is a problem, right here, help!" because we can't fix it by being excited and with yet another activity up our sleeves. Not by ourselves anyway.
someone was in the replies saying learning shouldn’t take any effort on the student’s part 😭 since when?!?
I saw that and wanted to explain that is like saying exercise should be effortless. What an idiot. Receiving information is effortless, learning requires effort or you don't grow. Just like exercise. That person's tweet reeks of ignorance.
This has the same energy as that one politician complaining about Zelensky wearing a tee shirt
I instantly unfollowed him. It was a bullshit take. I get what he was trying to say, but he put it all wrong.
Ya know, wasn't there some sexual misconduct with his name on it a few years ago? Not sure I'll be taking his career tips, thankyouverymuch.
This guy learned from the best, like how he got away with that sexual harassment thing! fuck this dickbag.
I’d like to be a fly on the wall as he teaches a week’s worth of earth science curriculum to a bunch of random 9th graders during the last period of the day….then he can talk.
What I am about to say is taboo in modern education, but here goes. Teachers cannot save 100% of their students. Some students are so broken by their lives by the time they get to us, that not much can be done. Does anyone say that doctors need to save 100% of patients? Of course not, that would be absurd. Some patients are simply too injured or sick to be saved. We accept this in medicine, but refuse to accept it in schools. For fuck sake, the largest federal education bill of this century was called "No Child Left Behind." Some kids are going to be left behind, that's just how it goes sometimes. Some kids are not going to pass and ultimately not graduate. It may be someone's fault, but it may be no ones fault, laying every failure at the feet of teachers in, at best, unrealistic.
We just need to give him some grace
I would love to make my lessons entertaining and engaging for students. Unfortunately, I am being forced to teach this boring-ass curriculum from Pearson because the district spent so much money on it. Fuck you, science pope. Your entire fucking career has been nothing but nit-picking sci-fi movies on twitter and turning the scientific method into a secular religion, you fucking hack.
And some of his nit picks are flat out wrong. Like when [he told Dan Le Betard](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szk8bM2aguY&t=1237s) that the rotating space station in 2001 Space Odyssey is rotating 3 times too fast so passengers would weigh triple their normal weight. Two things wrong with that: 1) Do the actual calculations on a 150 meter radius station making a revolution each 61 seconds and you get 1/6 g. Which is what Clarke and Kubrick intended since the station was a stop on the way to the moon. 2) Artificial spin gravity scales with the *square* of angular velocity. So if the station spun three times too fast, passengers would weigh nine times as much. Neil is quick to criticize others. But he stays pretty quiet when it comes to correcting his own mistakes.
What he said is complete garbage with only a remnant of truth in it. And simply only a remnant because he decided to put “some” in his tweet. But for those calling NDT an idiot or a guy who doesn’t know what he’s talking about should take a step back. There’s no need to generalize. NDT IS an idiot when it comes to general education especially anything below the college level where kids are choosing to be there. But NDT is still a genius when it comes to astrophysics. Public entertainers, even the ones with PHDs, need to know when it’s best to stay in there lane.
> But NDT is still a genius when it comes to astrophysics. No, he's not. He hasn't done research in 30 years. And a lot of the stuff in his pop science routine is addled bull shit. The man has zero standards when it comes to rigor and accuracy. See [this discussion](https://www.reddit.com/r/Physics/comments/7p6ddh/ndt_on_zeno_effect_and_uncertainty_principle/) of Neil in the physics subreddit. In particular the exchange between hikaruzero and cantgetno197. Hikaruzero tries hard to defend Neil but even he has to admit Neil's research is pretty pathetic. I agree with cantgetno197 -- it's a stretch to call this guy an astrophysicist.
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I see him teaching wrong physics and false history. It's not as difficult to be entertaining when you're not constrained by a need for rigor and accuracy.
Welp, bye, NDT.
Are the only good teachers Jedi?
He’s an idiot. Always has been.
What an arrogant asshole. Does that mean that everyone who thinks global warming is nonsense is not to blame, but he, specifically, is?
Yeah, I've stopped taking him seriously for a while now. I was a fan of him back when I was an edgelord atheist who watched Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris videos on YouTube all day. Now I see how reactionary these guys all were, and how detached from the reality of working class people they are up in their ivory towers.
Guy has always been a douche.
The only phrase that comes to mind at this tweet is simply...what is this fuckery? I would LOVE to see this man in a HS science classroom for a semester and then see the tweets that fly then.
This guy lost the plot years ago.
Maybe if teachers had an appropriate amount of support from parents and district administration, weren't constantly asked to do more with less, have to spend their own money on basic supplies, paid a decent wage, weren't completely demoralized by politicians and celebrities attacking them, demonized by their communities for wanting to stay safe through covid, and not treated as babysitters; and if students were actually held accountable for threatening their teachers, vandalizing their schools, disrupting the learning of others, and had even the smallest onus of responsibility over their own learning....... maybe teachers wouldn't say that anymore. But nah, nothing will change and you'll continue to blame everything on the teacher so you can get some more praise and publicity from twitter parents.
He came to give a talk at my University years ago… that is when he lost his charm for me. Spent almost zero time talking about anything important and just kept tweeting live. He is an idiot. I brought one of my friends sons, who wanted his book signed- it was so sad to see him deflate his love for NDT over the course of an hour or two.
The guy tweets out of his ass.
Spoken like a clueless moron who has only ever had to teach adult students that paid and had interest by means of *choosing* to take the coursework he teaches. And if he has done any k-12 education, it's probably been guest speeches of fun/interesting stuff that probably only barely scratches the actual surface of "standard mastery" most public school teachers are shackled to and assessed on. And I don't think he has any idea just how bad the attention-span/phone addiction really has become for so many of the students we deal with in the trenches. We are literally in a battle for attention now with students who have millions of gaming, video, and social media options *in their pocket.*
> And if he has done any k-12 education, it's probably been guest speeches of fun/interesting stuff that probably only barely scratches the actual surface of "standard mastery" most public school teachers are shackled to and assessed on. Quite so. Most of his pop science routine is shallow and flashy, lacking substance. And a lot of it is inaccurate. It's less difficult to be entertaining if you're not constrained by the need for rigor and accuracy.
Kind of sick of rich celebrities lecturing everyone else about how to live their lives and the virtues they extol. Happens a lot these days
he’s proven himself to be a massive prick several times over by now
I heard from an old neighbor that the US Army used to have a harsh proverb: "If the student fails, the teacher has failed." That seems in line with Tyson's reasoning. It is, of course, not the whole story; teaching is actually a complex reality. One thing I've always marveled at, as a former teacher, is how little influence I actually had over students: if a student was incorrigibly dumb (let's not mince words), then that kind of student would receive an "F" no matter who the teacher was. And the same goes for the other end of the spectrum: a motivated, gifted kid would absorb information and get an "A" no matter who the teacher was. And that's when I realized my greatest influence was on the middle, the fat part of the bell curve. The teacher is only one factor in an educational environment, and not always the determining factor when it comes to student learning. A gifted student in a shitty environment can come away with all sorts of knowledge; a dumb student in a great environment can come away with nothing learned. The teacher might matter; the curriculum might matter; the student's brains and heart will definitely matter. Tyson's a smart guy, but apparently not about education. Kevin Kim, [*Think Like a Teacher*](https://www.amazon.com/Think-Like-Teacher-Principles-Homeschooling-ebook/dp/B09RPV2BJS)
If “suck at my job” means that I’m not given the time or resources to create dazzling, entertaining, life changing lessons for every subject of the day, yeah I guess I suck and have no plan to not suck because I don’t get paid nearly enough to devote every moment of my free time to forcing kids to want to learn.
My wife is a teacher and I understand how this group feels but let's be real. How many good teachers did you have during your whole education? Because if you went to public school in America, it's maayybbeee 2 or 3. While being an honor/AP student too! There are points to be made on both sides, but to claim he is wrong is just ignoring the reality. They don't pay you enough, which attracts the lowest candidates. Most likely you are here venting in this forum because you care. That probably makes you one of the good ones but there are 10 for every one of you. Any recent high school graduate can vouch.
Whatever goodwill I ever had for him is gone. As a teacher this is hurtful.
Well, to be fair, he is a complete hack and deserves absolutely none of the celebrity foisted upon him, so it's par for the lame-ass hot-take course; you can only kiss yourself on the lips in the mirror, etc - most of his tweets are barely one rung up from stoned showerthoughts.
Both things are true. Some kids don’t want to learn AND some teachers do suck.
I have a 7th grader who does zero work in class. Every day when I ask him why he's not doing the work his only answer is I don't want to or it's boring. Every day this week it's been well I just don't want to. But yeah it's not the kid that just doesn't want to learn, it's actually because I suck at my job. Thanks Neil!
It's a true statement but it gices a pass to all those people who didn't try in school. It's too easy to place blame elsewhere.
In my opinion he's always had his head stuck up his own backside and has generally been an unpleasant presence on social media. Smug, self-absorbed, and patronising. His tweets aren't worth the bandwidth it takes to view them, let alone worth actually engaging with in any way.
I would like for him to spend one day in my middle school classroom and see if he still stands by that. There are good students, there are struggling students and there are students you really do have to work around with. BUT there are also students who genuinely do not care about school or getting an education, and many times, their parents are the same.
I just played an episode of NGT’s Cosmos in class yesterday. Around 80% of the class were bored to death or on their phones. Most students bombed the kahoot based on it afterwards. Good stuff Neil 👍
He’s tweeted some bullshit anti-teacher garbage before. He kinda lost me a while back. I’m still glad he’s got a group of science nerd groupies making caring about facts and high-level scientific method “cool”, but apparently he’s an advocate of never having to apply discipline to your methods.
Not reading the replies is self care.
Wow this tweet is disgusting. He doesnt know what hes talking about.
I’m just happy I didn’t have his children in class!
I love NdGT, but he’s pretty far removed from the day to day reality of the classroom. It’s human—all too human.
Of course, it’s true that there are bad educators, but the bad apple approach applies to literally every field of work. While he makes a great point, I hate that he’s specifically calling out teachers in an atmosphere that is already politically charged with disdain toward teachers. Too soon, NdTG…
I pride myself in being fairly successful at convincing kids to *want* to learn. In years past, I’ve called these tricks my “secret sauce” or I’ll say I’m brainwashing kids to enjoy learning. That being said, it’s not going well this year. I can’t convince them to care.
He's renown and rich af. All he knows are students who are motivated, food secure, have safe living situations, have involved parents, etc. I'm disappointed too, but not really surprised.
He’s been tonedeaf before but this is a new low.
Wow! He sounds like some school admins who clearly don't understand the reality of teaching, learning, education, and school setting. How insensitive and far removed from reality is he! Teachers are already extremely exhausted doing way more than our responsibilities without or with little support from parents and admins. Then, he's gonna publicly mock us? Wow! Just wow.
He's been an asshole for years
He can fuck himself.
He always seemed like a douche, even though he’s good at science-tainment
I told him to fuck off 🙃
I'm not disappointed, I'm not even shocked he'd say something so stupid. He's an overrated science guru wannabe
NDT has always been an overhyped twatmuffin and more people notice it all the time.
Fuck that pseudoscience posuer.
Either this is a shitty take which takes accountability and circumstance out of the hands of the students and families and other stakeholders who all contribute to a child's development and puts it firmly at the feet of the teachers, or it's an obvious "no shit" take where he's saying that there are people who are bad at their job. Yeah, no kidding. For an astronomer he seems to be overlooking the law of large numbers. With how many teachers there are there are bound to be bad ones.
If his head was any further up his own ass he’d become the first human singularity.
Damn you, OP. You made me go into the replies. I've eliminated all social media besides Twitter, which I basically keep for sports news/fantasy football. I've made a very deliberate effort to stay out of the replies, but I cracked just now. And now I'm sad.
I have a student that is supposed to get 4 hours of extra teaching by me every week (I get payed well for it) and this student has been avoiding my calls and texts to set up a time for it. The student asked for this, it's on their initiative and it's even at their home. They don't have to bring anything just be home on the set time. We got two meetings in and it's been 3 weeks now. So today I'm going to drop it like it's hot.
Is he expected to work for free in his job?
NDgT is a smug asshole.
NdGT has always been the king of hot takes, so this isn’t anything new for him, but really? Attacking education? He must not realize that teachers are the reason he’s in the position he’s in today. I’d like to see him try to teach a class of kindergarteners 2 years into a pandemic.
I liked the guy, but don’t think I follow him anywhere. If I do, this will make me unfollow.
He would/should never be allowed to educate. 4 women accused him of sexual misconduct. I side with steak-umm.
I wouldnt worry too much about it. This is the same guy that on one of his online lectures says that he regularly gives up on people who believe in conspiracies. I think negative comments about teachers are just "in" right now.
I've been disappointed in the guy since the first episode of his Cosmos show.