6 days ago: I love her passion, I regret her use of one year contracts. Those systems are incredibly abusive to teachers. School politics, one nasty parent, one class with low grades and out you go. Who can teach with passion and daring when their job is always on the line? It makes it hard to move on with your own life and become settled when you don't know whether you will have a job next fall. Banks won't even give you loans for cars or mortgages because you are not "employed full time".
The things that are wrong, very wrong, with our system can be fixed, but not by penalizing the teachers.
6 days ago: Did you ever ask the teacher why they used that language? Did you ever talk to the teacher rather than just complaining to the school board? Did you consider treating that person like a professional and as a human being rather than "getting them in trouble"? Sometimes a teacher who "cusses" at kids is the one who is passionate and caring and actually reaches the kids. Do you think they don't hear those words in the halls? THIS is why teachers leave. This is why teachers give up. This is why the best, brightest teachers walk away.
Jan 14 2013: In a rational world you would be correct. But, what ends up happening in the real world is something very different. Schools cannot be cost effective in the manner restaurants can so that is not at all a valid comparison. Even if we went to a total private system where families choose and pay for themselves there would be bigger problems of lack of access to even the most basic schools as good schools would not exist at all where the families were poor. Poor parents therefore would have no choices at all. Allowing poor families to fall behind and remain poor damages the entire society. I love your comment that they are taking money and giving it to children. The sad thing is that I think you really believe that. Educating our children is what makes our country able to function on a grand scale. The very idea that we have no responsibility to educate all of our young means you do not see that. In the privatized system we end up with actual redistribution of wealth as we take (by government force) money from some and under the guise of free enterprise give it to those who profit from not educating our young.
Jan 11 2013: Separating out and imprisoning those who do "not play well with others" is a sad defeatist non-solution. We, as a whole society, need to regain our belief in education and our reverence for knowledge. Once we do the revenge of the nerds will come about. Our obsession with sports and physical prowess is still paramount and we have just recently gone through a series of major cultural events which highlighted the idea that cheaters win and nice guys finish last. This ethos IS changeable but we need to see it to change it.
Jan 11 2013: Ethicalist religions which teach you to find your spiritual path within tend to be much less prone to abuse. Theistic religions which have en externalized locus of morality tend to be prone to having a person or groups of persons claim that they and they alone can interpret the will of "god". Having an almighty powerful, invisible and otherwise silent deity on my side allows me to command people to do all sorts of things they would not otherwise do.
Religion serves a valuable series of social purposes. But, we need to encourage a more ethicalist take on them for them to avoid doing more harm than good.
Jan 11 2013: Sanity in societal systems occurs when there is a balance of power between labor, capital and government. The problem is societies cannot be stable for longer than one generation. SO, no matter what "system" you think is going to work, will work for a short period of time and then society will take it too far. This does not mean that you don't fix your system, it means you need to build a system that is responsive to public pull. It is only public pull that can adjust the system. Public schools went stagnant and needed overhaul. But, most of their problems actually reflected public health problems and lack of parental stability and support. Endless undermining of the school system and of teachers themselves profoundly contributes to this. (Who would become a teacher these days? The burden is enormous the standards keep getting more arbitrary, the pay is terrible and the stress is horrifying)
Privatization of the entire system would be an unparalleled disaster. It would fall into the same category of things such as the private prison industry. If it were completely private the industry itself would have no compunction to improve itself, it would spend much of its time lobbying for more funds, figuring ways out to skim more fund off for profit and figuring out ways to skirt the standards. If you make the entire system utterly private, no one gets vouchers, no government involvement, you very quickly end up with high end gated schools and tons of illiterate children running the streets. And do not kid yourself that this would not be the direction we'd end up going.
A public system is more readily amenable to public pressure. Fix the funding system so we have less inequality in the systems. Address the public health problems that plague the communities from which the children come. Elevate teaching in society to be something honored and honorable. Elevate the acquisition of knowledge.
Oct 28 2012: Those days are gone and pining for them isn't bringing them back. (much though I wish for them I also know much of it wasn't true then either....)
Some of the best teachers have given my own kids assignments where they are to ask their parents questions that provoke discussion. Those are good for the family and can be done in the car.
Oct 28 2012: A law without normative support will neither be enforced or upheld. Ergo a true response to issues like corruption entails both a legal framework and a moral shift in attitude. That moral shift has to come from non-governmental sanctions such as peer to peer disapproval for bad behavior. It does not need to be based in religion to be moral. Attitudinal shifts can be managed by governments but it takes work.
Oct 28 2012: I think there is a balance issue. I have had children with too little and too much. I view homework as both a teacher and a parent. There are two things that should be happening in homework: reinforcing what occurs in class - this requires that it not be make work, that the task requires the child to have time to think about an apply concepts taught in the class day. The problem here is that there are SO many after school activities and so many distractions to entertain that kids never have to sit and think and they rarely do.
The second thing is that this "home" work can also help keep the parent in the loop about what is and is not an issue for the child, What are they learning i school and then have time to discuss. But, again, this is the ideal, not what really happens in most households. My kids and I have struggled through hours of make work, but we have also had the most amazing and far reaching discussions prompted by a good assignment discussed over dinner.
I never thought I could hate homework as an adult more than I did as a child - but I do. But, I also see the benefits.
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A comment on Talk: Pearl Arredondo: My story, from gangland daughter to star teacher
The things that are wrong, very wrong, with our system can be fixed, but not by penalizing the teachers.
A reply on Talk: Pearl Arredondo: My story, from gangland daughter to star teacher
A reply on Conversation: Education "vouchers" solve the fiscal crisis, and also lead to economic recovery?
A reply on Conversation: Education "vouchers" solve the fiscal crisis, and also lead to economic recovery?
A comment on Conversation: Where do organized religions go wrong?
Religion serves a valuable series of social purposes. But, we need to encourage a more ethicalist take on them for them to avoid doing more harm than good.
A comment on Conversation: Education "vouchers" solve the fiscal crisis, and also lead to economic recovery?
Privatization of the entire system would be an unparalleled disaster. It would fall into the same category of things such as the private prison industry. If it were completely private the industry itself would have no compunction to improve itself, it would spend much of its time lobbying for more funds, figuring ways out to skim more fund off for profit and figuring out ways to skirt the standards. If you make the entire system utterly private, no one gets vouchers, no government involvement, you very quickly end up with high end gated schools and tons of illiterate children running the streets. And do not kid yourself that this would not be the direction we'd end up going.
A public system is more readily amenable to public pressure. Fix the funding system so we have less inequality in the systems. Address the public health problems that plague the communities from which the children come. Elevate teaching in society to be something honored and honorable. Elevate the acquisition of knowledge.
A reply on Conversation: Debate: A case against homework?
Some of the best teachers have given my own kids assignments where they are to ask their parents questions that provoke discussion. Those are good for the family and can be done in the car.
A comment on Conversation: Debate: Is corruption a moral or a legal issue?
A comment on Conversation: Debate: Should we endlessly assist population expansion?
http://www.upworthy.com/wow-just-wow-anti-women-propaganda-at-its-finest
Don't wait for us to address the issue at all. The planet will shrug us off eventually.
A comment on Conversation: Debate: A case against homework?
The second thing is that this "home" work can also help keep the parent in the loop about what is and is not an issue for the child, What are they learning i school and then have time to discuss. But, again, this is the ideal, not what really happens in most households. My kids and I have struggled through hours of make work, but we have also had the most amazing and far reaching discussions prompted by a good assignment discussed over dinner.
I never thought I could hate homework as an adult more than I did as a child - but I do. But, I also see the benefits.