Posted on 01/30/2007 5:45:59 AM PST by wintertime
(snip)
1. The practitioners know and can do things the public in general cannot do. They have a specialized body of knowledge.
2. The specialized body of knowledge practitioners have takes an extended period of time to learn.
3. The educators who prepare the practitioners are experts who agree upon the specialized body of knowledge practitioners must have.
4. Admission to a professional training program is highly selective.( snip).
6. Only members of the profession set the standards for licensure and certification.
7. The primary responsibility and loyalty of a professional is to serve the client and not simply the institution or governmental agency in which the practitioner may be employed.
8. Neither the public at large nor an employing institution may control the way in which professionals relate to their clients, or the treatments, methods or procedures they use.
9. Neither the public at large nor an employing institution may set the purpose, goals or objectives for the practitioner’s practice with clients.
10. The public at large does not decide how to evaluate professionals.
11. Only members of the profession can determine malpractice and dismiss or disbar practitioners.
12. Professionals determine the cost of their services.
19. Professionals are trained to serve clients with problems. By definition “professionals” do not seek to perform services to clients without problems.
21. Professionals share a code of ethics to which they commit and adhere. They cannot be directed to perform or not perform services for clients which conflict with their professional code.
The case that teaching does not meet any of these twenty one criteria can be readily made.
(Excerpt) Read more at ednews.org ...
Seems to me this article is about killing the messenger (ie teachers) when the REAL problem is education as a whole in the public sector and the lack of parenting and discipline in the home. My husband teaches in a Christian High School and most of the comments about teachers I found very offensive and written without regard to many fine, intelligent people such as my husband who are making a difference. Free Republic has become an open trash bin lately for all kinds of comments deserving a kick to the bin!
2) They are greedy for a paycheck and generous benefits.
3) They like working in a system that harms children, and this makes them evil.
I would hate to be your kids teacher!
Did you do well in school? What do you have a degree in?
Teachers make less than baby-sitters. Maybe we get what we pay for. They don't make enough for me to put up what they have to put up with so they can keep their paychecks and I'll keep my sanity!
A person teaching one or two students to whom she is related (usually in a loving way) is not comparable to a person teaching 25 to 30 students in one room, usually teaching five different such groups every day.
Perhaps more qualified people would go into teaching if they were not so often denigrated by those who have usually not spent even a day teaching in a regular classroom.
Pardon my chuckling, but that was the best laugh I've had this morning. Good one!!!!
A woman who today would be a first rate engineer, college professor, or medical doctor, in my day was teaching 4th graders math and science.
Bad teachers are an unintended consequence of social fairness toward women.
her work is limited by the demands of the "whiny" parents
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Would a heart surgeon allow whiny parents to dictate the techniques of his surgery?
I don't think so!
Don't confuse the teacher bashers with logic or facts.
The system is broken, the unions are out of control, and the bureaucracy making all the decisions have never stepped foot in a classroom.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Then why is she enabling this dysfunction? Why is she propping it up?
The system is broken, the unions are out of control, and the bureaucracy making all the decisions have never stepped foot in a classroom.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I attended school, BUT, it was a complete waste of time.
It was my parents who taught me to read and taught me the basics of mathematics. After that I was entirely self-educated.
When I was in college, the education majors, especially the elementary, were often teased for the lightweight content of the course they were required to take. I was a music major, but my room mate was a el-education major. I had to take algebra to fulfill my math requirement, but I kid you not she was taking classes that were comprised of the math she was expected to teach. I used to look hers over for her sometimes.
I can remember a couple who said they had chosen education for the easiness of the classes.
"If your students don't reach minimum numbers on the state tests, you will not have a job. If the school does not reach that benchmark the principle is also history."
Its about time!!!!!!!!
A bit ridiculous, no?
What you and the other ranters fail to understand is that teachers teach what the school district dictates they teach. Don't like it? Then go to a school board meeting and demand change.
I have absolutely no ear for whining about teachers because school boards are the most local of politics. You want to make a change...then get involved in the process and demand a change. It is very easy to go to a school board meeting and speak up. It is also very easy to get on the ballot to be elected to a school board.
The dark truth, though, is that many parents just don't care. They don't help Johnny with his homework, let alone go to a school board meeting and see what is going on.
I am pretty sure the US 'public' school system is worse than most similar systems in the developed world. Other systems are heading downard but for varieties of reasons, ours is rotten at the core. It's like a rotten tree - sure, some of the branches still have leaves but the core is bad and one of these days it will fall.
I am glad Canada's not as bad. I know that the high school I would have gone to had I not been homeschooled drew its kids from a nice, middle to upper middle class suburb, full of nuclear engineers and accountants. They had a horrible ecstasy problem and a teen pregnancy rate not far from inner city levels. They graduated students with 3.7 GPAs who could not read - I knew these students, they were my neighbors and Sunday School classmates.
This argument is so common and I can never hear it without laughing. Equal education? Ok, so let's pretend that a bachelor's degree in education takes as much work as one in engineering or mathematics. That's nonsense, but sure. So what? Supply and demand set prices for things. Apparently there's more demand for engineers than kindergarten teachers.
Any profession in this day and age that requires aunion to hold taxpayers hostage, does not deserve one cent more than they get. I pay more than enough in taxes to support a system that I do not believe in, have never, and will never use.
A very sad truth that needs to be repeated.
I absolutely HATE attending school board meetings, I really and truly do. However, as a parent my child's education is my responsibility and part of that responsibility is paying attention to what is going on and speaking up if I have a problem or a question. The principal at my daughter's elementary school loves me, the school district staff hate me :)
Scary. You end up being a 'survivor'.
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