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Just found this letter written by a parent in Kansas in response to a form letter from the Kansas State Board of Education. The letter was sent as a notice thert his child's school was not making adequate yearly progress (AYP)..
It reads in part---
In what other profession are the licensed professionals considered the LEAST knowledgeable about the job? You seldom if ever hear “that guy couldn’t possibly know a thing about law enforcement – he’s a police officer”, or “she can’t be trusted talking about fire safety – she’s a firefighter.”
In what other profession is experience viewed as a liability rather than an asset? You won’t find a contractor advertising “choose me – I’ve never done this before”, and your doctor won’t recommend a surgeon on the basis of her “having very little experience with the procedure”.
In what other profession is the desire for competitive salary viewed as proof of callous indifference towards the job? You won’t hear many say “that lawyer charges a lot of money, she obviously doesn’t care about her clients”, or “that coach earns millions – clearly he doesn’t care about the team.”
Because it can't be their fault, they're obviously being held down by 'the man'. It's not that the individual is inadequate, it's probably the smarter students have an unfair advantage of some sort that they don't share, never mind the fact they work harder and have better habits. We should start sharing some of those kids points on tests with the 'less fortunate' students.
toobusytoday - Did you read my comment? I was talking about the students.
I'm sorry, your post wasn't clear. I tend to think that we should give all parties credit for being intelligent and having good intentions. Bashing any group - parents, teachers, students, administrators serves no purpose.
In what other profession are the licensed professionals considered the LEAST knowledgeable about the job? You seldom if ever hear “that guy couldn’t possibly know a thing about law enforcement – he’s a police officer”, or “she can’t be trusted talking about fire safety – she’s a firefighter.”
I work for a police department... we are actually told all the time by citizens that we know nothing about the law -because- we are police officers.
I am a certified geospatial professional doing disaster modeling including siren sound modeling. Even though my sound model has been recognized by the siren vendors as one of the most advanced and detailed they have seen, I have seen letters to the editors calling for my termination or resignation because I am an idiot who knows nothing about how tornado sirens should work :P
So what other profession? Any public profession. (And yes, I have endured the callous indifference because I am paid too much accusations, even though I am in the bottom quartile for my profession, as well as the accusations that I have too much experience and hence am overpriced and inflexible to change.)
The article's writer makes a good initial point, that being, how does someone in DC know about conditions in Kansas schools? I would have to say, not much. Nothing about the level of poverty in Midwest cities, or the conflicting political sentiments regarding public education.
Moreover, when the writer then delves into the public teacher bashing that many engage in, imo, she does hit the mark. Teachers are in fact employees, and more specifically, are employed by school districts to deliver a curriculum. Just as other public employees are trained to deliver a service, so are teachers. And they are tested every year to see how well they did their job. By that I mean the FED mandated testing of students to see how much of the predetermined curriculum they've understood. So it isn't really about a teacher's inherent ability to teach a subject, it's about their ability to deliver a product. Very different mandates.
The question that I rarely ever see mentioned is what is the curriculum, what is the subject matter, and is any good? For all the money spent, we're not any more math/science literate, nor any better at articulating our thoughts, than prior generations. Why is it rarely a question of what is being taught, the quality of the books, the actual educational model, as being the problem, rather than the quality of teacher? As a former teacher, I was limited in what I could do in a classroom in terms of curriculum, I had to hit the metrics of covering material for tests, rather than, was I able to engage my students in a conversation regarding the subject? I didn't have the time to do any of that thinking, I had a subject priority I had to meet, determined by someone who had never stepped foot in my classroom nor school. But those functionaries who set the agenda are rarely ever called to account, never even known as to who they are or how they came to determine that this one way was the method needed to get students to understand the material. At some point, the conversation must begin to focus on what we teach, more than, who does the teaching....
"If that entire attitude weren’t bad enough, what other profession is legally held to PERFECTION by 2014?"
Does anybody know what this specifically refers to? Although yes this is too often true that teachers are held under ridiculously high scrutiny with respect to, well, respect. You may argue that that's because they have children's futures in their hands, but so do doctors and surgeons...and yet we're more understanding when patients die of cancer or on the operating table.
"If a poverty-stricken, drug-addled meth-cooker burns down his house, suffers third degree burns, and then goes to jail; we don’t blame the police, fire department, doctors, and defense attorneys for his predicament. But if that kid doesn’t graduate high school, it’s clearly the teacher’s fault."
That's because teachers are the easy scapegoats. Like any profession, the lower tier employees always take the blame, not the managers. Teachers are just unfortunate enough to be the peons in the bureaucracy of the education world.
"If that entire attitude weren’t bad enough, what other profession is legally held to PERFECTION by 2014?"
Does anybody know what this specifically refers to? Although yes this is too often true that teachers are held under ridiculously high scrutiny with respect to, well, respect. You may argue that that's because they have children's futures in their hands, but so do doctors and surgeons...and yet we're more understanding when patients die of cancer or on the operating table.
Actually health care professionals can be reported to their licensing board by a member of the public for investigation. There really isn't a similar mechanism, short of breaking the law, for a state board of education to investigate a teacher. People aren't always understanding when someone dies on an operating table...lawsuit anyone?
As far as the contractor remark, a contractor isn't going to go very far if his work is of shoddy quality. One doesn't bounce along as a contractor for 30 years and get paid lots of money if his work is of constistently poor quality.
As for the poster that remarked about law enforcement...i'd say the area I live in has a strong undercurrent of hostility to law enforcement.
As far as the coach that earns millions...one doesn't get that far in the coaching world without developing some high level of expertise. There are actually probably thousands of people who coach at lower levels who are paid little to no money. My younger child was in a football program that was all volunteers.
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