Empty Schools

Last week, I was listening to a radio show. It´s called TED.com. On the radio, people talk about different topics. After an hour-talk of of talking with an architect, a master teacher of a public school began giving her talk about the conditions of school buildings, the position of teachers who faced challenges day after day and the feelings of students who attended classes in that school.
She started her talk by telling the audience how it was her first class day and the impression she got. As she was telling this, her voice shook with anger when she said that the conditions of buildings were poor. There weren´t enough desks for students so they had to share a desk or to sit on the floor. What is more, Even worse, there wasn't enough a lack of light in every classroom.
She said that teachers who were in charge of each classroom seemed indifferent to what was happening or they might be accustomed to that situation. In addition to this, most teachers did not even know their student names. Those adults, who were in charge of teaching, go into classroom, did their job and get out of classrooms without taking their students’ feeling into account.
Apart from the lack of their parent's support at home and their teacher's indifference, in most cases, and in the face of the positions of their teachers at school, students felt that no one understood them and as a consequence they did not feel any motivation to go to school.
The master teacher concluded that the worst situation in public school weren´t wasn't the empty classrooms but the lack of empathy from teachers for their students’ feelings.  She also added that, if you, as a teacher, do not show your student how important it is the to make an effort they make doing to do their homework, the value that it will have in their future and praise them for doing classwork after each class, your students will not feel any interest or motivation in doing it.  They will not value doing homework in the future, especially if teachers are not even praising their students for doing classwork each day.

This is a big problem in the US.  Our schools have been dumbed down by two grade levels at least and the student's learning is so stalled because the teachers cannot go faster than the slowest student can learn.  Teachers are not allowed to be creative or have freedom in how they teach.  Their methods are dictated to them and I have found this has caused most teachers to lose their love of teaching early in their careers.  I have three daughters who are very smart and outgoing.  We have chosen to homeschool them because we will be able to train them to have good study habits and their desire to learn will set the pace of their studies.  Are you a teacher?  What country do you live in?  Do you find the school systems where you live to have these problems?