——That’s not because of the unions or the politicians. It’s because the parents will demand his head on a platter.
A good argument for privatizing the entire massive fail. If that’s what you are saying then we agree. Since we live in this real world, lets use the political tools we have thus far e.g charter schools. How can you keep working in that environment while thinking that it is an unworkable massive fail?
——Merit pay is predicated on the idea that you can quantify good teaching.
Wow, we have discovered the only area of human endeavors that cannot be measured. Prominent lawyers, doctors, physicists, businesspeople, military leaders, politicians, plumbers, tradesmen, chess players, truck-drivers, artists can all be assessed for excellence but not teachers.
Horsefeathers. This is just the standard educational evasion of accountability, with the unions molding of research in the area for a couple of generations now. I’ll bet you could name 3 substandard teachers in your school right now and one or two that stand out. Just jettisoning one or two poor performers would make a big difference in any organization. Distribution of excellence is the human condition, only lefties try to deny it and level everybody to mediocrity.
I’ll bet after charter schools reach critical mass they will develop a competitive market for those excellent teachers, voila - effective merit pay.
——What do you do to make inner city kids feel loved?
You set standards of behavior that make an environment that shows them that the system is actually geared to educate them and make them a success rather than warehouse them and provide jobs for education graduates. This is why the union industrial-model is so toxic. This is why expulsion and schools for reprobates are needed. This addresses your drug dealer-prostitute laden classroom. Keeping the psychopaths and criminals with the percentage of kids that might want to learn is devastating it tells the 95 percent of the good kids that they are unloved (exploited, warehoused, discounted...).
Of course loving is why parochial schools are so valuable in the innercity. Tell me again why Democrats want to strangle them?
You are right, politicians and ‘system’ administrators have proved they cannot do this, privatize the massive fail.
——I believe in personal responsibility. That means that once a person is 16 or 17 he is responsible for his own actions. The problem with reform is that it eschews personal responsibility.
No, you mischaracterize it. Reform will bring back personal responsibility lost when we adopted the industrial-age socialist learning factory. Charter schools will attract the students and families that want to dedicate themselves to learning. The disappearance of unions will clear the way for dedicated and talented teachers to make their invaluable contributions. It will also clear the path for those that don’t contribute to be moved out of the system. Not everybody is suited for every profession. Instead of focusing on grievances professional teachers will join professional organizations (like all other professions) that will document the best techniques (rather than union protecting fads (whole word anyone?) Expulsion will also align with the personal responsibility of the students.
-—The vast majority of inner city youth will remain right where they are. That is a function of the illegitimacy rate and dependence culture, not education.
There is a chicken and egg paradox here. I wish that our fellow citizens in the inner city had not developed as they have. But as a taxpayer, I can control the chicken (the school). For too long we have given up on inner city kids and that is racist. We have allowed the unions to make education a jobs program rather than a critical civilizing mission. ((the district faced severe budget shortfalls, in part, because previous union contracts were fudged in order to make it appear that the pupil growth in the county was going to rise faster than could reasonably expected. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2903415/posts))
Here’s the counter to your ‘excuse’. One of my Army classmates came from the worst ghetto in Chicago. If you listened to him you would think he was ignorant and hopeless. The Army recognized his potential, sent him to a respected midwestern religious university. After 30 years in Special Forces he would have made general were it not for marital obstacles. He assisted Petraeus in writing the recent Counter-Insurgency doctrine. Also see Dr Ben Carson http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Carson. There’s a greater percentage of salvageable children than you think because you are reflecting your immersion in a failing system. Time to let a charter - privatization approach triage the ones that can be saved. And let the hard-core experience the consequences of their anti-social actions.
And since you are there you can tell us, how much has an embedded socialist cant to education in the innercity contributed the break down of the family? chicken and egg.
——The poor will always be with us. I have that on good authority.
Yes, of course so why are you a teacher in an inner city? Just rent-seeking? (Here’s a hint, Jesus wasn’t talking about giving up on the poor...).
I would hope that the answer is that there is much potential in that population that we as a nation are wasting. That these are our fellow citizens and we must all succeed together. At the same time we are spending immense amounts for practically zero return. Milwaukee’s annual per pupil costs are higher than tuition at the University of Wisconsin.
Privatization or vouchers is the answer. The dead hand of government, especially as it has frozen a socialist education system has devastated our country. And when the educational workplace is made free, there will naturally be financial rewards to teachers who have special talents to move kids in the right direction.