Reply #60: I, for one, agree with you -- to a point

[Nevernose]

We have some excellent people in our curriculum and professional development department. I'd say that 95% of our English department has gained from their instruction over the past few years. Your kids are better off for the training I received from those two people. The problem, from what I can tell, is threefold:

1. There are an awful lot of people in the CPD who apparently do nothing.
2. Many teachers, usually seasoned, approach professional development with a mind so closed it's virtually hermetically sealed (and every teacher reading this knows EXACTLY what I'm talking about).
3. Most administrators wouldn't know how to use these perople effectively if they came with an instruction manual.

When I say "trim the fat," I'm not talking about the two people responsible for professional development in for every ELA teacher in one of the nation's largest district. I'm talking about the highly paid administrator in charge of just those two; the other teacher on special assignment in charge of researching best practices for them; their secretary; their administrator's secretary; the full time committee in charge of discussing the various subject areas; the administrator in charge of that committee; the dozen or so people in charge of the district's various activities (chess club, etc.), security guards, the special multicultural library (just in case a teacher's school doesn't have the particular multicultural children's book that they want) along with a librarian and two aides to staff it (since every school in the district already has a library).

What laypeople don't realize is that, in an effort to respond to politicians and parents over the years, the schools have become inundated with regulations, rules, guidelines, laws, and who knows what else -- some of which are very noble in purpose. And a disproportionate amount of time and money is then taken up following these rules, and that's what's really going on in classrooms, Ed Sheds, and offices; it's not teaching, it's paperwork.