Saturday, January 08, 2011
Poor old teachers
Are teachers really the fundamental problem with the American school educational system? If you believe Bill Gates and Michelle Rhee and the people behind "Waiting for Superman" it seems that the main reason American kids are not all that competent academically is because teachers can't be fired at will.
Presumably Chinese teachers go by in mortal fear of imminent firing thus motivating them to teach ever better. Ditto for Finnish and Singaporean teachers and the other 26 countries who apparently have students performing better than American ones.
My take on this shifts the problem squarely to parenting or lack thereof. When a significant number of children don't have 2 parents at home, when the parents who are present don't have the time or inclination to sit with their kids while they complete their homework, or help them with it, at least in the early stages (times tables, anyone?)- is it any wonder they perform poorly in school?
By virtue of meeting my children's teachers and the time I spend tutoring at a local elementary school I have encountered about 20 odd elementary school teachers. Not one of them would I categorise as lazy or not dedicated. Yeah sure, not all have the same teaching skills but that holds for every profession. But all these teachers were interested in their students doing well, were interested in implementing whatever reforms the system asked them to do, most of them spend additional money from their pockets to buy supplies for the classroom. I don't see any reason to think that these 20 odd random teachers are an exclusive minority, if anything they have to represent the majority of the teachers. They struggle with kids who don't have the basics coming into school, kids who cannot master the basics because their only education happens in the school, kids who join school speaking not a word of English.
Are there bad teachers? Sure. Are there teachers who know they can't be fired and so are willing to coast through doing the bare minimum if that? Sure. Are there teachers whose lack of ability compromises the learning of the students under them? Sure.
But are these teachers the main reason that the education system is sucky? Certainly not!
Presumably Chinese teachers go by in mortal fear of imminent firing thus motivating them to teach ever better. Ditto for Finnish and Singaporean teachers and the other 26 countries who apparently have students performing better than American ones.
My take on this shifts the problem squarely to parenting or lack thereof. When a significant number of children don't have 2 parents at home, when the parents who are present don't have the time or inclination to sit with their kids while they complete their homework, or help them with it, at least in the early stages (times tables, anyone?)- is it any wonder they perform poorly in school?
By virtue of meeting my children's teachers and the time I spend tutoring at a local elementary school I have encountered about 20 odd elementary school teachers. Not one of them would I categorise as lazy or not dedicated. Yeah sure, not all have the same teaching skills but that holds for every profession. But all these teachers were interested in their students doing well, were interested in implementing whatever reforms the system asked them to do, most of them spend additional money from their pockets to buy supplies for the classroom. I don't see any reason to think that these 20 odd random teachers are an exclusive minority, if anything they have to represent the majority of the teachers. They struggle with kids who don't have the basics coming into school, kids who cannot master the basics because their only education happens in the school, kids who join school speaking not a word of English.
Are there bad teachers? Sure. Are there teachers who know they can't be fired and so are willing to coast through doing the bare minimum if that? Sure. Are there teachers whose lack of ability compromises the learning of the students under them? Sure.
But are these teachers the main reason that the education system is sucky? Certainly not!
