OK – Let’s ruffle some feathers today. When I was a student in Northern Indiana in the 50’s and 60’s, we had our share of problems with teachers. My 4th grade teacher had a nervous breakdown. My 7th grade history teacher would beat us over the head with her lesson book if we were not paying attention. Many of our teachers were deemed too tough on us by giving us reams of homework and forcing us to learn things that seemed over our heads or too unimportant at the time for us to worry about. But, on no occasion with any teacher in my entire K – 12 career, did I ever run into a teacher that was just plain too dumb. Being a stupid teacher seems to have become more commonplace in the 70’s and beyond. I remember a friend’s son bringing home a short paper he wrote in 8th grade English to show his father. His grade was an F. But the teacher explained why with the following sentence. “This don’t make no sense!” Ironically, I read the paper and it was pretty well written for an 8th grader and it made perfect sense. But, of course, that’s not the point here. That teacher teaches English!
Conventional theories tend to lay the blame directly on the teacher’s union for the problems in education today. That may be a little harsh. There are a large number of problems. The most glaring is the fact that we leave it up to government to educate our children. I realize that is a rather general statement, but do the math. How many really successful government businesses are there today? Yet we expect the Federal Government to properly educate our children. It ain’t going to happen.
However, I think we do need to look at the union when it comes to the diminishing quality of educators in America
Is it any wonder that private schools and even home schooling has a much higher success rate of educating young people than government, union backed teachers? I recently read that they are finding inaccuracies in resumes where applicants falsely state that they were home-schooled because they are embarrassed that they actually received a government-based education.
It’s sad, but inevitable. The government does not usually run a business based on profits or growth. They base their models on creating a businesses or bureaucracy that will result in votes. They do not need profits because they have Americans, through taxes, to support the business. It has been that way since Teddy Roosevelt, and maybe even before. It is just one of those things that will probably never go away. But should we be using our children’s education as a vote-buying tool or a means for protecting inept teachers from themselves?
But then again,
“I’m Just Saying”
4 comments:
I was 5th grade and 6th grade teacher for 11 years in the 1980s. I saw a steady decline in the attitudes of educators to make sure each student was properly prepared for the next grade. Pass them and move them forward was the general rule
I certainly don't think unions in any industry are perfect but nowadays any entity that attempts to preserve the jobs of middle class Americans shouldn't be ground out by the government/financial complex. I don't have any children and don't have a dog in the fight. But I still get to pay for the public schools. If you take a look at some of the antics of our local Atlanta school districts you can see the teachers probably need some sort of protection from the bureaucrats. I went to college in my late 40s and it seemed to me the only group that was treated more indifference by the administration than the students were the teachers.
With the conditions that classroom teachers endure today I wouldn't consider the job unless I thought there was some organization at least paying lip service to looking out for me and my colleagues.
And there is one thing that government at all levels does really well; looking out for the interests of the politicians donors and lobbyists. The people that really own the government.
It appears you are correct in this. Just today I founf this in the news.
"As a part of a new deal with the teachers union in New York State, teachers with two consecutive years of bad evaluations could be terminated. That’s the good news. But that means 7,000 New York City teachers are off the hook for at least another two years because their slates have been wiped clean. The evaluations begin now, even for teachers who have been known liabilities for years. How is that fair to current students who will continue to be cheated in classrooms staffed by sub-par instructors?"
If incompetence weren't enough . . . Recently on an evening Fox News Channel show, a professor from a smaller university was interviewed. He had given his students the task of listing, in tabular form, what to them constitutes the "American Dream." The most common things this listed were 1) they wanted the government to pay for their education, and 2) they wanted the government to pay for their health care. When asked where his students were getting this misperception of the archetypal American Dream, the professor commented that it was likely indoctrination from the public school system. 'Nuf said.
Hoosier cousin
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