My response to "A Hard Look At Education"
What remains largely overlooked in education reform dialogue is the pathetic national tolerance for disrespect within the educational community by students and parents who view education as their personal power play institution.
To watch the level of disinterest and hear the attitude and indignity from students and parents one would not realize that this is supposed to be a golden education from the world's best nation.
Education is supposed to be about learning. Instead it has become about politics and political soap box agendas for politicians taking advantage of parental fears about their child's education. Schools are supposed to fire up the imagination of students while controlling their behavior. Instead we have fired up their misbehavior while stunting their imagination. And then we ask why the world is passing us by. There are NO experts - teaching is an art form - it is about firing up the mind of a child to want to learn. If a child does not want to learn it does not matter how much money you throw at the problem; the child still will not learn.
Frankly I do not care about the hardship that a parent has to face. If you produce a child you owe society the expectation that child will behave.
If you want to reform education, start with the premise - the purpose of schooling is to educate and create a productive member of society who will contribute to the betterment of society as a whole. It really is that
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
2 comments:
I was in a meeting recently. An administrator that I didn't know, and who didn't know me, looked at me and said that Mt. Diablo was about LEARNING, not teaching. It was said in a way to criticize my rhetoric about a way of teaching I use and believe improves my students' buy-in and learning. But I didn't get that far. I am still angry and hurt. I have heard that this administrator really has supported teachers in a particular program well, so perhaps it was a bad day. I will share, though, that she very successfully reopened the wounds we've had here for too long about the terrible relationship between teachers and administrators.
When does this change, Mr. Writer? When do we get to have the partnership between school, home, district that surrounds and supports all students in the quest for success? You'll notice I didn't use the word teachers. Maybe, at the rate we're going, some study somewhere will decide that the presence or preparations of teachers really don't effect the success of students. And then all this will have been for nothing. Oh, but the budget will be fine!
I believe that the system has to fall apart before any changes will be made. There are too many people with their fingers in the process to allow collaborative progress. As for administrators, they, for the most part, hardly qualify as independent thinkers after the reign of Mr. McHenry. I believe that most schools can do without their administrators.
After the election we will know which direction education will be going.
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