Who's Minding the Schools?

New York Times Sunday Review: Opinion Pages ^ | June 8, 2013 | Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreyfus

[AZLiberty]

Money quote:

For Diane Ravitch, a historian of education and former assistant education secretary, the program is predicated on “the idea that you can’t trust teachers.” If we want our children taught from standardized scripts, she told us, let’s say so and accept the consequences.

For our part, we’re tired of seeing teachers cast as scapegoats, of all the carping over unions and tenure. It is time teachers are as revered in society as doctors or scientists, and allowed to work professionally without being bound by reams of rules.

[AZLiberty]

Has the Pravda New York Times editorial board started drinking Tea?

I'm wondering if liberty-loving Americans at the "ends" of the spectrum are beginning to join hands.

[Uncle Miltie]

Professionals aren’t Unionized.

Pick.

[kenavi]

Brilliant!

[Westbrook]

> Professionals aren’t Unionized.

Exactly!

Professionals represent themselves.

That’s professional means.

[Westbrook]

> It is time teachers are as revered in society as doctors or
> scientists, and allowed to work professionally without
> being bound by reams of rules.

From what alternate universe is this nonsense emitted?

Does the author have any idea of the “reams of rules” to which doctors and scientists and engineers and pharmacologists and architects must adhere?

Does the author realize that pay for professionals based on their performance and experience?

Whether professionals even keep their jobs is based on their performance as well as their adherence to the rules and regulations pertinent to their practices.

In fact, professionals are exposed to law suits and criminal penalties for violations of government imposed regulations, as well as ethical lapses.

If the author wants teachers held to THOSE standards, I’m okay with that.

[AZLiberty]

I guess I interpreted the two halves of that sentence independently.

My view, as one deeply embedded in education, is that the government has made effective learning almost impossible through a morass of rules controlling how teaching is done and schools are run. I also agree that the medical system has done the same thing to healthcare providers.

I’m in favor of big-time devolution. At the time of our Founding, 13-year-olds knew more about life, the universe, and everything important than college graduates do now. Public schools prevent more learning than they facilitate. More rules — e.g., the Common Core — will only make that worse.

What’s broken is the education system. The broken system attracts the kind of teachers with which it is now populated, perpetuating the problem — and actually making it worse with each succeeding generation. There are plenty of good teachers around. Most of the good ones have either avoided or abandoned the public schools, however.

[vpintheak]

I know there are good teachers in unions. The problem lies in that it’s so hard to get rid of the bad ones, and the constant whining about how hard teachers work. Like the rest of us don’t?

[RightOnTheBorder]

Doctors and scientists get fired for poor performance. When that standard was applied to teachers, way back when, they were trusted to educate and discipline as they saw fit. Now that they are protected unionists there is no other option than to tightly contol their actions in the classroom. If teachers want more autonomy in the classroom they will first have to accept accountability and that means getting rid of union negotiated contracts.

[VietVet]

Doctors (physicians and dentists) and scientists have to pass much more stringent standards just to get their degrees. Most education graduates couldn’t even get into medical school or graduate school in the research sciences.

(FWIW, I have degrees in Psychology - BS - and Mathematics with a minor in Education)

[EinNYC]

AZ, you absolutely speak for me. I don’t need liberals’ rules and regulations to deliver excellent lessons to students. I just need them to get the heck out of the way so that I might do so unfettered by their threats and harassment to adhere to their impossible-to-fulfill regulations. Right now, teachers in NYC will be expected to (1) keep in mind 22 tenets of Charlotte Danielson’s idea of what teaching should be like, (2) follow the Common Core curriculum (the better to create new little Socialists), and (3) differentiate the lesson to be able to reach students of low, high, middle, middle-high, etc. abilities in the class. Oh yeah, and put some information out there too for the kiddies, while you’re at it. Absolutely ridiculous and certainly does not service the kids it’s supposed to help.