-Mark Twain
The fifth.
The best education money can buy is in Catholic or Christian schools where the emphasis is on ensuring that students learn and where there is zero tolerance for class disruptions.
Education must be a serious business and be taken seriously and that is why making sure students learn the absolute basics is so important.
Catholic and Christian schools are known for this and for graduating first rate students who go on to accomplish business or personal success.
Teaching
There is something fundamentally at odds between what our notion of what education is for and who it is we choose to be our educators. The fundamental purpose of education in a highly technical society is to prepare students to survive in their economic environment. Yet large numbers of our teachers graduated from high school, immediately went to college to get a four year degree with another year of “pedagogy” thrown in and then began teaching. Does it really make sense that those who are supposed to be preparing students to survive in the “real world” have never actually survived in the real world? They may know how to survive in “academia”, but academia makes up but a tiny fraction of the real world.
An education effectiveness study conducted by the LA Times showed that, contrary to received wisdom, a teacher's experience, education and training had very little impact on whether that teacher was actually effective:
"Many of the factors commonly assumed to be important to teachers' effectiveness were not. Although teachers are paid more for experience, education and training, none of this had much bearing on whether they improved their students' performance."
The article describing the study goes on to note: "Nationally, the vast majority [of teachers] who seek tenure get it after a few years on the job, practically ensuring a position for life. After that, pay and job protections depend mostly on seniority, not performance." So we pay teachers more based on seniority and any further education they may attain despite the fact that neither of these substantially correlates with better results for students.
Lastly, when all you see are nails you end up believing that the only tool you need is a hammer. One evening as I was rushing to the auditorium of my daughter's middle school so as not to miss the beginning of her band concert, her principal yelled at me "No running in the halls!" Seriously. If you spend most of your time around 7th and 8th graders, you tend to see everyone as a 7th or 8th grader. Teachers who spend their entire adult working lives with other people's 12 year-olds will have an oddly warped view of the adult world and what's required to succeed in it.
Modest Proposal #2
Teachers should not be allowed to teach K-12 unless they have at least five years of experience outside of academia. Further, teachers should not be able to teach for more than five consecutive years without doing another five year stint, again, outside of academia.
Will there be those who don't wish to become teachers under a regimen in which they are not guaranteed tenure and the perks that go with it? Undoubtedly. But maybe those people who enter the teaching profession primarily for those reasons shouldn't be there in the first place.
But where will our school administrators come from? Where will our Principals and District Superintendents come from if they can't rise through the teaching ranks? But shouldn't the business of running a school district be handled by someone who has actually studied business and even run one? Is it really inconceivable that a CEO who has run a successful business couldn't do a better job of managing a school district than someone who has never been in business?
I call this the "educational-industrial complex". The educrats, for reasons which should be obvious, wish to expand the number and power of educrats. Industry uses diplomas as sorting criteria for new applicants saving themselves the trouble of actually determining whether an applicant is qualified. Read more here.
Great insight.
Best single step toward improving education in the U.S.?
CLOSE the U.S. Department of Education........Close it completely and NOW.
It is TIME to DownSize DC! Beginning here.....
The most literate nation on earth voted overwhelmingly for Adolph Hitler and his Third Reich.
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all they that do His commandments. His praise endures forever.” Psalm 111:10
Education?
.........or...”Indoctrination”!
Carbine Williams didn't make it past the eighth grade. Andrew Carnegie was barely schooled at home, and then at age 13 went to work 12 hours a day. After that he was self-educated.