The time has come.
It is time for us to take control of our government. Rather than wait to see how the government is going to fix our problems, we need to TELL them how to fix our problems.
Lesson 1. Education
What would you do to turn around our obviously malfunctioning education system?
All options are on the table --- what's your recommendations?
(Yes, I have some ideas ... but I'm going to read yours first. If they're good, I'm going to claim them as my own!!)
If you want to improve public education fire the under performing teachers. The remaining ones will get the hint. Then... flunk out the under performing students. The remaining ones will get the hint too. Teaching and schooling are not for everyone.
So, I would assume that means you need to have some specific criteria to determine under-performing teachers. A Common Core fan?
Actually I don't know much about common core except my wife hates it so I must hate it too, lol. Criteria is hard to define. I know good when I see it. I don't know if I can put it down in black and white. I believe that we need to raise the expectations of the kids performance as well and hold them to a higher standard too. This doesn't rest solely on the shoulders of the teachers. I always thought that education did a poor job of breaking down what they taught in simple to learn ways. Most kids won't speak up if they don't get it. They are too embarrassed to say so. My approach would be to teach a concept in a systematic way and then show the students all the way that teachers try to trick them with their tests. It isn't teaching test taking so much as it is teaching them different ways of looking at the same thing. It will be up to the teacher to make sure they grasp if they understand it or are just going through the motions. Get rid of the kids that don't want to be there. I know it sounds harsh, but it really will work. It is human nature to seek the path of least resistance. They will rise to the level we set but only if we are clear about the expectation and are serious in making sure they learn the lesson. We won't get what we expect. We will only get what we inspect.
Under the guise of establishing common standards across the states (NY children should be educated about the same things as Iowa children), the federal government created Common Core.
Unfortunately, like the best laid plans of men and mice, the program quickly went astray. The federal government quickly realized that this was a great tool to usurp the local control of education. (If you don't meet our federal standards, you don't get our federal money).
In addition, the teacher's unions opposed it because it gave a ready yardstick to measure teacher performance (if your kids don't learn, you get fired). Naturally, the union opposed anything that threatened some part of their membership. As a result, we have too many teachers that are incompetent, but are not removed from the classroom because there is no measurable justification that will stand up in court.
I think the original concept of Common Core was a good idea ---- measure the quality of education by measuring the education of the children. Seemed logical to me. Unfortunately, politics destroyed it.
