In what other profession...

[proud2BlibKansan]

I’m going to step out of my usual third-person writing voice for a moment. As a parent I received a letter last week from the Kansas State Board of Education, informing me that my children’s school district had been placed on “improvement” status for failing to meet “adequate yearly progress” under the No Child Left Behind law.

I thought it ironic that our schools were judged inadequate by people who haven’t set foot in them, so I wrote a letter to my local newspaper. Predictably, my letter elicited a deluge of comments in the paper’s online forum. Many remarks came from armchair educators and anti-teacher, anti-public school evangelists quick to discredit anything I had to say under the rationale of “he’s a teacher.” What could a teacher possibly know about education?

Countless arguments used to denigrate public school teachers begin with the phrase “in what other profession….” and conclude with practically anything the anti-teacher pundits find offensive about public education. Due process and collective bargaining are favorite targets, as are the erroneous but tightly held beliefs that teachers are under-worked, over-paid (earning million-dollar pensions), and not accountable for anything.

In what other profession, indeed.

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.”



Continue reading on Examiner.com In what other profession... - Topeka K-12 | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/k-12-in-topeka/in-what-other-profession#ixzz1P7qSx1Ds

[bemildred]

1. I hear you, but we kissed off logic and reason some years back now. nt

[RKP5637]

2. K&R!!! n/t

[RufusTFirefly]

3. The meme is that teachers are bad. Didn't you get the memo?

Never mind reality. That's our starting point on this discussion.

[Starry Messenger]

4. k&r

[Electric Monk]

5. K&R

[Odin2005]

6. I think people fall for this shit because we all remeber that one shitty teacher we had.

And people project that on the whole profession. I admit, I was one of those people that bashed teachers because of my own bad experience in school made me an easy target for anti-teacher propaganda, then I wised up.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. Thank you

I believe that's very true for way too many people. Only most haven't wised up. You're in the advanced class. :)

[AdHocSolver]

8. Maybe you missed the post about a school administrator who could rate a teacher's ...

performance by spending no more than ten minutes in a classroom observing that teacher. So, there!

Actually, there is a better measure of education that demonstrates how ineffective education is in the U.S.

Consider the percentage of Americans who listen to right wing talk radio, believe the nonsense that passes for information in the mainstream media, and votes for Republicans and you have a clear measure of the quality of education in America today.

However, teachers are not the main problem with education. Replacing current teachers with other teachers is like rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic.

We need to rethink education in this country. The entire system is based on false premises. Education has to be redesigned from the ground up, and teachers should be involved in the redesign.

The organization of most schools in the U.S. is antithetical to good teaching. Schools in the U.S. are set up like factory assembly lines with teachers being obligated to cram the maximum amount of often meaningless data into each "child unit" in the least amount of time.

This is the education model teachers have to deal with, and it is the root cause of failure. Schemes like NCLB and RTTT are based on defective education models and exacerbate, as well as distract from, the real issues in education. They prevent real reform.

[Electric Monk]

9. ++±++