CardinalBacker

11-4AD2 is gonna be the best local district IMO... Longest road game will be out to Liberty. Lots of good matchups and rivalries. Re-phrase that.... Most fun local district. We get to match back up with those skirts from Orangefield at long last and HJ is back on deck for us.

Silsbee Fan: "The other 32 Tigers got screwed."

Three times, if you count us stealing Tarver. Lol.

We beat the Mustangs last week in OT.

Voted for Memphis, Texas....

I honestly don't have a clue about how to start fixing it. I don't blame the teachers for the current state of education. My mama used to have a saying... She'd say that "nobody is raising those kids, they're just getting bigger." That seems pretty true about a lot of our youth today.

I expect first or second in District for the Tigers. Coach Smith is playing system football where the Tigers should be fairly consistent year in and year out... it’s not just putting the team’s fortunes on a single good player every few years. Success like the Tigers have enjoyed the last two years tends to bring in bigger numbers of players, but it can also breed a little complacency. Hopefully that’s not the case. Realignment could also have a big impact playoff success.

[Hidden Content] How did y’all get beat in basketball by a bunch of out-of-shape white kids last night? That’s an embarrassment to the sport of basketball and the African American community as a whole.

[Hidden Content] How did y’all get beat in basketball by a bunch of out-of-shape white kids last night? That’s an embarrassment to the sport of basketball and the African American community as a whole.

They’ll be moving all of that hardware to BC when the TEA takes over and puts us in charge.

All jokes aside, y'all would be 2 rings short of where you are now if you'd been in the same classification as Carthage. Nobody's gonna argue that.

What?!!!!! Barbray is scared of Silsbee, but not Carthage? Get outta here! Carthage dropping to 4A D2 is the equivalent of Newton dropping to 2A and all of the 2A schools saying “we aren’t scared.” Well, you’d better be. If the UIL sees fit to squeeze Carthage into a district that is the bi-district of mate of ours (like the “District of Doom” was before you might see Silsbee or WOS getting sent home in the first round like that loaded Tiger team from ‘16. The road to Jerry World runs through Carthage now, my friends.

We're both wrong. Dontre led you guys to the regional finals in 2015, but won the award in the Spring of 2016. Y'all got knocked by Carthage in 2016 and Tyler racked up the award that Spring (2017). I got confused over the years (season vs. WRS) when I was running back through the stats. JD didn't win in 2017 because the voters decided (after Jamaal Charles) that you can't win two years in a row. The rules were again revised after voters selected Montana Quirante as offense AND defensive winner after the 2012 season. I'm kinda surprised that you didn't know all of this. You could make an argument either way in 2016 (Dontre vs Dallas) or 2017 (Dallas vs. Tyler). I have it on good authority that all of the voters in 5A were so glad to see Tyler transfer to Silsbee for athletic purposes before the 2016 season that they rewarded him with the WRS. At the end of the day it's all subjective, but nobody got screwed either year.

We were just on top when time ran out. I still think that the 2016 Tigers were a better squad than the last two squads that played in the state semis.

This is what I'm talking about. Taylor should be considered for his playoff performances..... but Dontre deserved it in 2016 when y'all got bounced in the first round. If you think Taylor deserves it because of his playoff performances, then you certainly must agree that The Legend of Jack Dallas rightfully won in 2016 after leading the Disgustangs to a state championship. You can't have it both ways, Smoketown.

So much right with this.... My kids could always turn in assignments late for 70% credit. In the old days it was due today or you got a zero. If you failed, you failed. There were no "do-overs" for tests for which you didn't prepare. It's kinda like I used to say about my second successful marriage... if you take away all of the good, pretty much all that's left is the bad. Good teachers teach because they care about the kids and want to make a difference in young lives. Most are willing to accept that they'll never get rich, but feel rewarded nonetheless. When you take away those positive aspects of the teaching career, it's a whole lot easier for teachers to move on. More money isn't going to fix that, because most of them weren't there for the money in the first place. I would have made a horrible teacher, BTW... I wanted to have/do a lot of things that require substantial cash and I don't even like kids.

I'm curious how much "the millennial effect" has to do with the exodus we're talking about. I've always assumed that entry-level teaching was just a place to spend some time on the way up or a place to stop if you didn't have a lot of ambition. A young guy would hire on as an assistant coach (possibly junior high) and teach a few classes and hope to one day (after moving up the ladder at a couple of different schools) become a HC and maybe even an AD. Or teachers would go back after their Masters, move into admin and possibly grab up a superintendent slot and bump that retirement up where it needed to be. One of my cousins married a girl that's a career teacher. She's safely middle-aged and still teaching elementary kids over in PNGISD. She's one of those VERY vocal complainers about salary. In my mind I'm always like "hmmmmm.... you could make about $12k a year more if you wanted.... go sign up at PAISD." On the other hand I've got a young niece that's barely thirty, went back and got her masters, changed ISDs and is now a high school counselor- and she isn't moaning about her salary. It kinda is what you make of it in a lot of cases. The behavioral stuff is what I can't get my head wrapped around. Kids fighting teachers, etc.... I have a friend that heads up an alternative educational program at a local elementary school. There aren't many days when she or one of her paras don't get hit by a kid. She ends up having to physically restrain kids every single day. She goes to multiple classrooms every day to handle situations with kids who are flipping out, wrecking the classroom, cursing, even hitting other kids, etc... There are a couple dozen kids that don't even go to regular classes because they're such discipline problems. Forgive me, but I don't recall ANY kids (other than severely retarded-don't judge, I know that's not polite) that couldn't exist in a classroom back in the 80's/90s.... but now this small 4A elementary has dozens? I don't understand. I also don't want to turn this into a political post, but the entire educational system is handled by liberal/progressive mindsets. College professors and admins are by and large liberal. When I was in college they were the pinkos that had dodged the draft for Vietnam and ended up with advanced degrees that were pretty much only good for teaching college courses. They spend four years indoctrinating every single teacher that gets a liberal arts degree. It's not a big shocker that educators ultimately end up kinda with a whole "something for nothing" "you need to pay your fair share" "you deserve EVERYTHING just because you're here" mindset.

I have friend that coached in a Houston area high school. Married a girl, had a kid... ended up going to work in the industrial field down in South Texas. He bounced from just under $60k to over $100k instantly. Fast forward two years and he quit the industrial job and moved the family back to the Houston area and actually snagged his old job back. Still hitting about $60k and non-stop whining about the salary. I get it... It's way more fun to coach up kids and not have to worry about the weather, even longer hours than coaching, job insecurity, safety in the workplace, etc... But stop whining already. He's doing what he wants to do... there are lots of other options out there. An analogy I'd use is this. There are guys that operate heavy equipment on pipelines. They usually have to move around and follow the work which means time away from home. When they actually have jobs they work tons of hours, but the pay rates are phenomenal. Those guys are subject to layoffs at any minute and production in their workplace is of the highest importance. Same thing with crane operators in the plants. Long hours, night shifts, job insecurity, sketchy benefits.... but the pay makes up for that. Then you have the guy that maintains streets for the City of Groves. He works five minutes from the house, works 4 tens and has every weekend off. He reads the paper in the crapper every morning after he clocks in and is back at the shop by 3 o'clock every day waiting to clock out at 4:30. He's just checking days off of the calendar until he can retire with benefits. Everybody knows how completely useless those guys for the 4 hours per day that they're kinda-sorta filling potholes. Now imagine the City of Groves guys moaning that he doesn't make as much money as those boys on the pipelines or refineries do.... they're all equipment operators, right? That pretty much sums up my opinion on the "teachers should make as much as everybody else" hoax.

Here we go again...... The voters got it right. JD is the 🐐.

Agreed! FWIW, I went back to get certified to teach and gave up 9 hours short. I did the math and realized that I’d have to coach, drive a bus, and still work a shutdown/turnaround in the summer to live the way I wanted to. While I’m not very sympathetic regarding pay issues, I’m very sympathetic to the struggle that teachers face every day. You couldn’t pay me enough to deal with that garbage.

It is, and it always has been. Teachers have always struggled... since Biblical times. If you need the services of a doctor, you’ll pay them whatever they’re worth. Need a house built? You’ll go into debt to have that person build you a home. Other than the most wealthy among us, very few people would willingly PAY for educations for our kids. That’s a fact. If there weren’t school districts existing on money forcibly taken from property owners, teachers would starve. That’s also a fact. Who should make more $$$ at a car lot- the guy selling 35 units a month or the guy that washes the cars off? Every few years Congress will give themselves a big fat raise. We all sit around and say “that’s a bunch of crap... they knew what the job paid before they ever signed up to run for office. Same difference. Like I said earlier... they gave teachers a $5k bump this year and nothing changed. Salaries aren’t the problem. Teaching is still the best part-time job that there is.

I'm not arguing.... The whole argument strikes me the same as the "$15 for McDonald's workers" argument. Some people get a finance degree and chase big money. Some people stick it out through medical school and do very well for themselves. Some guys just get a 2 year cert and hire in at one of the plants and make some pretty decent money. And some people pursue a liberal arts degree because it IS the easiest path (well, except maybe kinesiology) to a bachelors degree. They say things like "money isn't everything..." when choosing their path, but then become disenchanted when they see their counterparts who chose more challenging educational and career paths reaping the rewards of their hard work. That's the trade-off. Young women want to teach and expect to use their salary to complement their husband's salary and comfortably raise a family. That same woman as a divorcee struggling to raise two kids suddenly realizes that she's sold herself short by becoming an educator. Teachers as a whole greatly overestimate the value of their profession. I've said that over and over, and my opinion hasn't changed. There are many, many ways to make a lot of money. Teaching isn't one of them. It's great way to work inside, earn a pension, have weekends off, be home with your family every night, have little to no personal danger to face on a daily basis, etc..... but you're not going to make a lot of money. The other part is this. Johnny Punchclock goes to work every day and if he's unsatisfied he can hit his employer up for a raise or take his talents elsewhere. Either way, it's not my problem. When teachers start crying about needing more money, they're actually crying to the people who will ultimately be paying those salaries through increased taxes. Administration is bloated and those salaries are too high. Teachers should NEVER compare their salaries to those of people who work 12 months out of a year with a few paid Holidays and two weeks of vacation. It's apples and oranges. A teacher with a $40,000 dollar salary who works a 187 day schedule comes to... ($40,000/187 days=$214/day.... $214/8 hour days=$27/hour)... which isn't too shabby.

It's fair to differentiate between teachers and coaches. There IS a lot more time put into coaching and I think that the stipends that are offered are kinda ridiculous based on the hour they put in. Nobody should expect to sign on a teacher and get rich, though. It's always been a lower-middle class profession and it always should be. If you want a nice house, two new cars, a place at the lake and a boat, you should find a different career or move to where the work is. Don't train to become a truck driver and then gripe about being away from home.... don't go to school to be an educator and then complain about the salary.

No offense, but the legislature just gave all of the teachers a hefty raise last year. That's not too bad for a semi-full time gig. In fact I can't think of anybody I know in the real world that got a raise of that size that wasn't tied to a promotion. The salary isn't the problem.... the compensation plan is more than fair. The job just isn't what it used to be. The problem with the profession is this, in my opinion: It's become so untenable in the classroom that no amount of money will convince people to choose that career path. When I was growing up there were no "Adaptive Behavior Centers" or "PASS" classrooms where they put kids who were violent or unruly. There was a joint effort between teachers and parents that stood firm against bad behavior. Today you have schools that have abandoned corporal punishment, parents who don't parent and want to get on the local news whenever their kid gets hit back by a teacher, etc, etc.... The inmates are literally running the asylum in many of our schools. And everybody is paying too much for health insurance... that's just life.

It’s not like we have anybody in consideration. Carry on.