Check your FoxNews lineup and set your DVR to record John Stossel’s recent education special, Stupid in America. If you know when it will next air, let me know and I’ll provide an update.
It originally aired last weekend. I watched it tonight. It’s worth watching. He covers teachers unions, union bosses, firing teachers, the Washington DC school district, charter schools and Khan Academy.
In an interview, one union boss, who represented a district with bad student test scores, assured us that he knows his kids are learning because “he can see it in their eyes.” Now that’s compelling stuff. I certainly think there are numerous issues with test scores as a measure of teacher performance, but I much prefer those over what this man sees in his students eyes.
This same union leader defended bad teachers from being fired (I’m paraphrasing): It would be a tremendous cost and a major adjustment for the teacher. We need to seek professional development opportunities for that teacher.
lol? I did.
I find it strange that we should have to train teachers to be teachers (isn’t that what they were supposed to do before they became a teacher?) to prevent them from not being a teacher. I also find it strange how a trade that’s based so strictly on credentialing (e.g. education certification), would then want to take on the expense of the training the teacher what he or she apparently didn’t learn before. With that logic, why require credentials at all? Just let anyone come in and they will be trained.
Of course, this union boss believes training will be the antidote. What if the teacher doesn’t want to teach? Why not free up the spot for someone who does?
Another union boss proclaimed that he would try to physically prevent people from going to charter schools in “our” (meaning teacher union) buildings. Excuse me, aren’t those the taxpayers’ buildings? I didn’t realize that the teachers union now owns their buildings as well.
As Stossel so aptly put it in the show, much of what is wrong with education is that we have “adult fools” running things.
Stossel also showed lots of signs of progress education.
- Charter schools where the kids love to come and learn.
- Kids digging math because they’re watching Salman Khan videos.
- Teachers in charter schools that say things like (paraphrasing again), why shouldn’t they be able to fire me? If I was a bad doctor, I wouldn’t have any patients.
- A charter school where the principal actively watches and coaches her teachers to improve their teaching (many businesses can learn from this).
- A post-Katrina, charter school-based rebirth of education in New Orleans. One founder of the Sci Academy started with just himself in 2008 and now has a “school” based in trailers and his students are testing well. He said, if you hear someone in education talking about having top notch facilities, that’s a sign they’re not putting education first.
Related articles
- Stossel: Stupid In America (foxnews.com)
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