[ClearCase_guy]

I don't actually think the tide is turning quite yet, but I have seen more and more of these types of stories. The WSJ just had one on judging teachers by their student's achievement. They used the analogy that if a swimming instructor lost half the class to drownings, you'd fire the teacher. But in government schools, any effort to look at student achievement or graduation rates brings out the teachers union who says, "It's not our fault. Blame the kids!"

At some point people will start to ask why we spend so much on public education and get so little in return. There are other (better) ways to teach children.

[lexusppd]

While I agree that teachers today care far, far more about protecting their jibs and avoiding responsibility for their failures, there is also a great problem with the parents of children. In many cases they have totally abrogated their responsibilities of teaching their own children even the most basic things in life such the difference between right and wrong, that there are consequences for ones actions and that adults are to be treated with respect and finally when you are in school, sit down, shut up and learn.

[Zeppelin]

I don't actually think the tide is turning quite yet, but I have seen more and more of these types of stories. The WSJ just had one on judging teachers by their student's achievement. They used the analogy that if a swimming instructor lost half the class to drownings, you'd fire the teacher. But in government schools, any effort to look at student achievement or graduation rates brings out the teachers union who says, "It's not our fault. Blame the kids!"

Coincidentally, I was watching an old Simpsons episode last night and they touched on the very subject.

The teacher was passing out some standardized tests and she said something to the effect of "take the tests as fast as you like; the worse you do the more money the school gets."

While funny in that context, it's really pretty sad.

[chimera]

At some point people will start to ask why we spend so much on public education and get so little in return.

It's kind of like "welfare" in this country. Trillions of dollars spent and what do we have to show for it? In the case of welfare, the destruction of an entire minority group. In the case of education, we've heard the same drumbeat of "more money: for decades, and after trillions spent on that, test scores keep dropping, students are less prepared, and they can't answer questions that were standard fare in 19th century 8th grade schoolrooms.