With that...you have totally convinced me you are part of the problem...not part of the solution.
I'm flattered, Mike. I assumed you always thought I was at least part of the problem, if not THE problem. Good to know you had misgivings.
If class size was the ultimate measurement as you are trying to feed us...you would not be a college professor. The pay scale would be too low.
I don't think class size is the ultimate measure. I do, however, think that, in these one variable debates we are having, the one variable that makes the most difference is class size. As for improving k-12 education in any serious manner, that's complicated--class size is one thing to do something about but there are many others. No simple solutions.
And talking about solutions.
Testing is going to be the solution. Teachers are going to have to teach what the neighborhood wants the kids to learn...freedom in the classroom is going to exist...but you are going to have to perform and that performance is going to be tested regularly and often.
Several problems with this paragraph, Mike. Testing works for some subjects, ones in which the point of teaching is rote memory such as much of math or learning the content of science (definitely not how to do it or how to be curious about it). But for subjects in which the point is to get students sufficiently interested to care about the topic, to continue to learn, to stretch their imagination, to learn how to have thoughts of their own on the topic, to learn how to articulate those thoughts into verbal or written arguments, teaching to tests does exactly the opposite. It kills learning.
As for teachers teaching what the neighborhood wants them to learn, the testing industry is not about that. It's about national tests in which the notion of neighborhood simply cannot fit. North Carolina neighborhoods themselves are quite different. I can imagine a neighborhood in western North Carolina in which one test might be appropriate but completely inappropriate, using your criteria, in Durham or Chapel Hill.
Sorry to inform you John, but America thinks the free ride for teachers needs to come to an end. If you cannot perform to a standard (as the rest of us must), find another job..if you can.
That's an early morning hoot, Mike. An unfriendly last paragraph. I gather you haven't had your cup of coffee this morning, yet. |
