Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Follow up on my School Thoughts
I just wanted to re-emphasize something: Underreported.com is cool. I think we need more watchdogs, because we consumers are easily distracted, so while we know about the beginning of a scandal, (something went public, memo leaked) we often aren't there for the shady backroom resolution (slap on the wrist, club fed, testify on why gas prices are so high and then do nothing).
But when it comes to schools, I think about cattle farms a lot. Mostly, because in our modern education system, to get a "Grade A", all you really need to do is show up and chew cud -- you're halfway there.
Discussing our education system and teachers is an easy way to stray into controversial terrority. Most of the incredibly smart and incredibly educated people I know, a teacher has touched their life the most. Conversely, out of all the smart people I know, the people who've influenced them the littest have been educators. So when you discuss teachers, you're in this wide gray area. You might have a 60 year old health teacher who's functionally illiterate, sexist, overpayed, doesn't try, but is revered by the administration because he's one crackerjack fuck of a baseball coach. Or you may have the freshmen year english teacher that's obsessed with the holocaust, ensuring that if you end every term paper with "In conclusion, Nazis were bad, and stuff." you'll get the A.
Or maybe, just maybe, you'll have the mid-30s engineer who resigned from his field for a more family friend position who looks at students records and talk to other science and math teachers to track down the students who have the ability to handle Calc AB and Honors Physics (which was Physics with Calc) and refuse to let them puss out on their education because they know they won't feel like doing homework their senior year after track practice. That mandates that everyone reads and response to articles talking about the controversies of our time, especially the ones questioning or attacking scientific doctrine and dogma.
But I will say this, even though I could rattle off a list of incompetant people I've met with my run-ins in the school system all the way up through college, one thing is for sure: Educators aren't paid enough. A higher salary would allow us to dictate higher standards for educators. A higher salary would make teachers feel more confident in failing students (and more likely to for parents to accept that its theirs, and the child's fault for failing in a public school. After all, the teacher is making low six-figures, and your family isn't.) And no matter how great or bad a public school is, at the high school level its just a jail for young people: and they have to put up with them all day. That alone should be enough to justify a pay raise. And it would end the 'teacher shortage' our country is facing. Then again, the education major at the college level would definitely have to change. No more sorority girls who want to go out drinking every night of the week until 3 or 4am.
Alright, one way or another I'm sure someone from soapbox is going to let me hear about this. So I'm out.
But when it comes to schools, I think about cattle farms a lot. Mostly, because in our modern education system, to get a "Grade A", all you really need to do is show up and chew cud -- you're halfway there.
Discussing our education system and teachers is an easy way to stray into controversial terrority. Most of the incredibly smart and incredibly educated people I know, a teacher has touched their life the most. Conversely, out of all the smart people I know, the people who've influenced them the littest have been educators. So when you discuss teachers, you're in this wide gray area. You might have a 60 year old health teacher who's functionally illiterate, sexist, overpayed, doesn't try, but is revered by the administration because he's one crackerjack fuck of a baseball coach. Or you may have the freshmen year english teacher that's obsessed with the holocaust, ensuring that if you end every term paper with "In conclusion, Nazis were bad, and stuff." you'll get the A.
Or maybe, just maybe, you'll have the mid-30s engineer who resigned from his field for a more family friend position who looks at students records and talk to other science and math teachers to track down the students who have the ability to handle Calc AB and Honors Physics (which was Physics with Calc) and refuse to let them puss out on their education because they know they won't feel like doing homework their senior year after track practice. That mandates that everyone reads and response to articles talking about the controversies of our time, especially the ones questioning or attacking scientific doctrine and dogma.
But I will say this, even though I could rattle off a list of incompetant people I've met with my run-ins in the school system all the way up through college, one thing is for sure: Educators aren't paid enough. A higher salary would allow us to dictate higher standards for educators. A higher salary would make teachers feel more confident in failing students (and more likely to for parents to accept that its theirs, and the child's fault for failing in a public school. After all, the teacher is making low six-figures, and your family isn't.) And no matter how great or bad a public school is, at the high school level its just a jail for young people: and they have to put up with them all day. That alone should be enough to justify a pay raise. And it would end the 'teacher shortage' our country is facing. Then again, the education major at the college level would definitely have to change. No more sorority girls who want to go out drinking every night of the week until 3 or 4am.
Alright, one way or another I'm sure someone from soapbox is going to let me hear about this. So I'm out.
