Re: Obama Presidential Thread XIX: Starting a new chapter
Polls show Americans view congress with the same enthusiasm they have for their proctologist. Yet many of these same Americans view their own congressman favorably. I think when we look back on our experiences in primary and secondary education, a similar phenomenon obtains. Of course, the group posting here is clearly superior, given that they're college hockey fans and the probability that the vast majority of them are college graduates. That speaks well for their high schools, parents, teachers and communities. But what is true for us is very likely not true for huge numbers of kids around the country.
I was graduated from a Chicago suburban school that makes the Newsweek list every year. And it wasn't until I got a job in Louisiana that I met my first high school principal who had been the head football coach. That would NEVER happen at my school and is unlikely to happen at any first rate school anywhere. Excellence is not spread evenly around the country. And certainly excellence by teachers isn't spread evenly, and never has been. However, it seems to me we've lowered the floor of acceptable competence by teachers. And the unions complicate that problem by making it much tougher to get rid of ineffective or incompetent teachers.
I also believe we're seeing the Law of Unintended Consequences in action in that many extraordinarily gifted young women, who a generation or two ago had very limited career options, now don't even consider teaching. In my high school days, I was taught by numerous female teachers with PhDs, who had written the texts we were using. Now, I'm pretty sure those ladies would be doing something else.
As I said earlier, it wouldn't be fair to blame teachers exclusively for the horrible state of education in our inner cities. There's plenty of blame to go around. However, they must bear some of the blame. And I believe unions must bear some of that blame, too. Unions focus on compensation, benefits and working conditions. None of these has been shown to have a direct bearing on the quality of education. There is a theoretical amount of money that could probably attract better teachers, but I doubt that even Scarsdale and Lake Forest could afford it.
We need to reward excellence by teachers when we find it, encourage better performance when we don't and take steps to remove teachers from the classroom who are unwilling or unable to even try to improve their work.
(will be 235 on July 4th)