All I want for school teachers is what I have for myself as a professor. Once I am hired, I choose (within broad limits) what I will teach. As long as I can get students to sign up for my classes, I teach exactly what I want to teach. If I teach departmental core courses, I have to cover (appear to cover) certain specified subject, but I may choose and assign the reading that I wish. If I and my colleagues (some of whom may be communists and some capitalists, for all I know) screw up, we can lose our accreditation. Otherwise, no one would dream of telling me what to teach, what books to assign, how to grade, or anything of the sort. No decent university in the world would impose restrictions on a reading list.
Elementary and high school teachers are treated like intellectual slaves. A group of ignorant school boards often try to prescribe what is to be taught and how. There is far more latitude in fact than what there appears. But people with first class minds will not submit to this kind of dictatorship. I have never in 48 years had a college student's parent complain about what I taught. A few students have objected to some things I have taught.
If we want good education for our kids we've got to get better teachers, pay them six figures, give them intellectual authority, and hope for the best. No two of the teachers will agree. Students will learn to sort them out. |
