Emrys has left a new comment on your post ""It's a tale told by an idiot." (Macbeth)":
.....As enjoyable as the idealism being expressed is, my experience is that parents don't really want good education. They want high marks so that their children can get into "good schools." In our modern school systems, a good teacher who is demanding and who holds students accountable for their work and who understand that there has to be consequences for poor work will only be appreciated only by a small few.
..... Teachers in Washington are giving up tenure in exchange for large raises. Here's a prediction -- in five to ten years the private money for Charters will be gone. The raises based on that money will be rescinded. Tenure -- and its protections that are so important -- will never return. A truism that one learns as a young, idealistic negotiator is that a benefit, once given up, NEVER comes back.
.....This morning, MSNBC's Morning Joe program devoted it's entire time to what is an attack on teachers and unions. The new movie, "Waiting for Superman," is little else. So we have a great lie that has come to be "revealed wisdom" in our world now. Tenure and teacher unions are the enemies of good education. But all of the failed education policies were brought in by administrators and boards of education and, may the Goddess help us, CONSULTANTS. Those of us who broke our backs and our hearts, day to day, working to make eduction work were never deemed competent to make decisions.
.....Teachers are being held responsible for the failure of American education. We didn't make the decisions that have caused the collapse, though. They were made by the same people who are now scapegoating the real educators. If you want to see REAL educational thinking, check New Jersey where community college teachers, many with PhDs and all with at least one masters degree, are evaluated in part by how the teacher is written up in "Rate My Professor." I'm proud to say that my teacher son- in- law got a Chile Pepper.
.....As enjoyable as the idealism being expressed is, my experience is that parents don't really want good education. They want high marks so that their children can get into "good schools." In our modern school systems, a good teacher who is demanding and who holds students accountable for their work and who understand that there has to be consequences for poor work will only be appreciated only by a small few.
..... Teachers in Washington are giving up tenure in exchange for large raises. Here's a prediction -- in five to ten years the private money for Charters will be gone. The raises based on that money will be rescinded. Tenure -- and its protections that are so important -- will never return. A truism that one learns as a young, idealistic negotiator is that a benefit, once given up, NEVER comes back.
.....This morning, MSNBC's Morning Joe program devoted it's entire time to what is an attack on teachers and unions. The new movie, "Waiting for Superman," is little else. So we have a great lie that has come to be "revealed wisdom" in our world now. Tenure and teacher unions are the enemies of good education. But all of the failed education policies were brought in by administrators and boards of education and, may the Goddess help us, CONSULTANTS. Those of us who broke our backs and our hearts, day to day, working to make eduction work were never deemed competent to make decisions.
.....Teachers are being held responsible for the failure of American education. We didn't make the decisions that have caused the collapse, though. They were made by the same people who are now scapegoating the real educators. If you want to see REAL educational thinking, check New Jersey where community college teachers, many with PhDs and all with at least one masters degree, are evaluated in part by how the teacher is written up in "Rate My Professor." I'm proud to say that my teacher son- in- law got a Chile Pepper.
Emrys' son-in-law got a Chili Pepper? I wonder what Dr. Pepper would have gotten, seeing as he has a PhD.
ReplyDeleteWhatever bad decisions are made by administrators, a good teacher is still a major positive influence upon his/her students. The Shadow knows, and the Baron knows even better.
ReplyDeleteThe real problems in American education are exemplified by these scenes from NSHS.
There was an annual teacher's conference day in which pedagogues were treated to a speech of dubious value and some hours to meet with parents or grade papers.
At the end of the day, a leading teacher, a legend in his own mind, announced, "We should have more days like this. School is great without the students. I'm serious."
Another time, a veteran schoolmaster said to me, "You're pretty good guy but you are on the side of the kids."
When I answered, "We are all supposed to be on the side of the kids. Our only reason for being teachers is to give young people the tools to survive in adult life."
The teacher backed away from me, convinced that I was from another planet.
These are not isolated instances. There are literally hundreds more even in a great school such as North Shore was in the '50s and '60s.
Bottom line--while administrators tend to resemble the posterior of a donkey, good teachers still create educated students. If they don't appreciate you now, they will as the years go by.
"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves that we are underlings." Fortunately, some of us, at times, have been overlings, as the Baron well knows.
Fortunately, there are "good teacher" stories as well as the "bad teacher" examples such as those provided by the very wise Ph. My favorite "bad" story (they always seem more interesting) is when my son's English teacher assigned the class to memorize the first 10 lines of the Proglogue of the Canterbury Tales. That's not horrible in itself (some might argue), but she wanted the students to memorize the words backwards! I was very proud of my son when he refused to do it and received an F for his non-efforts.
ReplyDeleteAdam is a winner! He might have been an outstanding basketball player except that he did not want to play. Therefore, when passed the ball, he held on to it. The coach got the point.
ReplyDeleteThere are lots of "good teacher" stories, but they will have to wait for a more propitious day. Nevertheless, a good teacher is worth his weight in love, the world's more precious commodity.