Academic slums ( Dumb Government Teachers)

http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/williams121907.php3 ^ | Dec. 19, 2007 | Walter Williams

[wintertime]

(snip)

American education will never be improved until we address one of the problems seen as too delicate to discuss. That problem is the overall quality of people teaching our children. Students who have chosen education as their major have the lowest SAT scores of any other major. Students who have graduated with an education degree earn lower scores than any other major on graduate school admissions tests such as the GRE, MCAT or LSAT. Schools of education, either graduate or undergraduate, represent the academic slums of most any university. As such, they are home to the least able students and professors with the lowest academic respect. Were we serious about efforts to improve public education, one of the first things we would do is eliminate schools of education.

The inability to think critically makes educationists fall easy prey to harebrained schemes, and what's worse, they don't have the intelligence to recognize that the harebrained scheme isn't working.

(snip)

[mysterio]

Congratulations on becoming a teacher.

[Unassuaged]

.(Like the girl who started to masturbate because “she was nervous”)

—Well it DOES take the edge off! ;)

[D Rider]

It’s because the parents aren’t involved and demanding of junior to actually excel at the coursework assigned. The teacher can motivate a child to a point at school, but after that, it’s the parent’s job. The common factor between a great home school education and a great public school education? Parental involvement.

You are correct, except for the fact that the government school text books are rubbish.

In the case that your child is being taught the color of math, no amount of parental involvement will help. Other than removing the child from government schools, that is.

[metmom]

I got a look at the 9th grade textbook the kids in this district are allegedly using (I say that because I’ve heard the teacher rarely refers to it).

The text is chock a lock full of politically correct colored pictures of racially balanced groups of kids smiling while doing meaningless hands on activities using manipulatives. There are white males pictured but they are either in the background or wheelchairs.

The first lesson was on how to make numbers using sign language- in ninth grade.....

This was in a book that was supposed to be geared for kids doing algebra. The book was very difficult to read: the lessons were not well explained and the problem sets were difficult to identify.

After having used Saxon Math for so many years, I could easily see why public school kids are so far behind homeschooled kids in math ability.

[Wonder Warthog]

"Having gone through public schools myself, I don’t believe our schools are deficient hellholes. I saw kids (that applied themselves) get great educations, and I saw other kids (who jerked around and never took a book home) fail. Parents were the difference."

So did I, but I did so back in the 1950's and 1960's. Education has declined drastically since those days. My wife taught for a time at a large university, and the kids coming into the U. were much less well equipped scholastically than either my wife or myself (and neither of us went to any sort of "elite" high school).

But at risk of repeating myself, the HARD DATA of international testing shows beyond a shadow of doubt that the US educational system is deficient compared to the rest of the "developed" world. Our students are much less prepared despite the fact that we already spend vastly more money on the process. "Parental involvement" plays no significant part in that comparison.

[KC_for_Freedom]

You are right, I was an EE and had to go back to school to get a credential. But I found that as an engineering student, the MATH classes I had did qualify me to be a math teacher. Also statistics in the MBA program may count, especially if it was called STAT or MATH xyz. The classes in engineering did not count for anything, fortunately for me I had taken Chem and Physics in the college of L and S. Its all in the name. But I was able to get the credential in a summer program with a year of night school. You can too.

I am not saying I approve of this, but the teacher’s college had their requirements. Strange that Thermo, fields and waves, quantum mechanics, solid state, materials science, and a host of other engineering classes did not count. But the crowning insult — I had to go back and take English 1A and 1B because in my engineering college, (UC Berkeley) I had tested out of having to take any English classes.

[Northern Yankee]

I like Walter Williams.

At the lower elementary level my students can find the United States on a world map, understand the concepts of sum and difference, and put together complete sentences in written form.

They are taught to eat their lunch, say please and thank you, and wear appropriate winter clothing outside for recess.

We just finished our "winter concert, and are preparing for the holidays.

Merry Christmas!

[KC_for_Freedom]

This is an interesting observation. I have always said that only the top ten percent in any profession is in the top ten percent. In most places, the top ten percent are the true doers, the ones who create, and get things done. This is true in public school and true in colleges as well. We don’t like to admit it, but only the top ten percent of doctors do most of the difficult cases in hospitals and research. Life is like this.

But I agree that education would be improved if the teachers were allowed by their union to negotiate directly with their boss for their salary. This would attract some outstanding people into the teaching profession (perhaps to the demise of their present job) but at least we would have the opportunity to see some of these exceptional people in public education as well as where ever they work today.

And before I leave, there are some outstanding people in public education, they are there because they feel a calling or want to work where they can make a difference. They are not compensated properly for this dedication and parents in public schools should find these mentors and make sure their kids get into some of their classes.

[N3WBI3]

But the crowning insult — I had to go back and take English 1A and 1B because in my engineering college, (UC Berkeley) I had tested out of having to take any English classes.

This is rather discouraging, I also tested out of English..

[M0sby]

“The government teachers on this board are, in my opinion, intelligent.”

Merry Christmas to you Wintertime...
I’m sure later in the thread we will get the “useful idiot” comments.
But for now, I will just appreciate the moment.

:-)
Honestly~

[DeLaine]

I’m very proud of you, you know. And your little kiddles.

[too much time]

My 3rd grader went to school and announced to the class, “Did you know that our teachers took an entire class on how to decorate a bulletin board while they were in college!?” (I do not know if the 3rd graders realized the class took an entire semester to complete, not just one hour.) I had to explain to him that we should not belittle the teacher in front of the other students.

[DeLaine]

Please PLEASE tell me you are joking.

[Fresh Wind]

Years ago, my mom took a part time job teaching at a private nursery school. She loved kids, and she was damn good at it. The school was thrilled with her performance. All was well until the state cracked down and told her she had to take a bunch of dumb education courses (she already had two degrees at the time). She wasn’t about to put up with that crap, so she quit. Stupid, stupid bureaucrats.

[CottonBall]

I find the "worst schools in the world" to be complete and utter BS vomited on us by a sensationalist media that survives by selling fear.

Actually, the MSM pretty much protects our schools by not printing the low test scores and international comparisons very often. If you're happy that we've consistently come in near last on every International Math and Science Study (try TIMSS.com for the data) since 1985, I guess your standards match those in charge of our education system.

[CottonBall]

But the one thing I never understand is: if the life of a public school teacher were as easy as people say it is, why don’t smarter people become teachers? Is it the money? Yet, I don’t hear more calls for increased pay.

When I got my teaching certificate in TX, that stats for that state were that half of all new teachers would leave teaching by the 5th year. It's a thankless, impossible job. Administrators and many parents don't really care about educating the students. And students of all range of abilities are put into a class and a teacher is expected to deal with them all. Impossible.

Teaching salaries vary widely by state, so I don't know why the lower paying states don't have more complains. But I don't think it's about money, but the working conditions. Also, many teachers have BA degrees that wouldn't get them a good paying job in the real world anyway. The vast majority of the teachers I've encountered make much more teaching than they would doing anything else they were prepared for. Those that are still teaching, that is. Those that leave (myself included) are those that are capable of doing something else.

[too much time]

In Georgia, we are starting a new public HS math curriculum which does not label the courses as Geometry, Trig, etc. Our kids will take Math 1, Math 2, Math3, and Math 4. Math 1 is a combination of Geometry, Alg. 1, and Statistics. (You know the spiraling that educrats are so proud of -it is sufficient to EXPOSE a student to something, but rote memorization is for cavemen.)

Georgia is already near the bottom in education, why not seal the deal with a new math program written by the local university's education department (please note that Georgia Tech does not have a 'school of edukashun.')

[darth]

Not a joke. She was my son’s high school math teacher. BTW, she taught algebra well, but apparently never took science. She would have been perfect on Jaywalking with Leno.

[hinckley buzzard]

The inability to think critically makes educationists fall easy prey to harebrained schemes, and what's worse, they don't have the intelligence to recognize that the harebrained scheme isn't working.

Research in the area of competence has shown rather decisively: one reliable attribute of incompetent people is that they do not know they are incompetent. Williams is absolutely right on this.

[Amelia]

All my female forebears for three generations back taught school. I thought about it, and had actually intended to major in chemistry and minor in education--imagine my surprise when I found out that it was impossible to do so--you had to major in education to be allowed to take education classes (at a major state public college). So, the ed biz lost out, and I became a chemist and instrument designer instead.

I majored in chemistry as an undergrad, and worked in industry for a number of years before going back to school for teacher certification. It can be done, if you're still interested in teaching.

It's a big paycut, though.