Last night in class, the subject of ineffective teachers came up. Given enough time, any discussion about education will revert to a discussion about who to fire.
Not to defend bad teachers, but exactly who is lining up to replace them? First-year teachers who are also, by the way, ineffective?
Malcolm Gladwell had some interesting thoughts on the subject. His basic argument is that we should flood ourselves with new, cheap teachers and just let them sift out. Try out 4 teachers to find one good one? Is that practical given the numbers? He compares this process to finding a quarterback for pro football. Really, are there 7 million quarterbacks?
It's hard to bring in large numbers of newbies. Their energy can be great, but it's often consumed by the act of keeping their head above water. I dunno. Mine certainly is not the only set of experiences to consider.
Hm.
I read about this somewhere else first, but I forget where. Somewhere on my blog roll.
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Very interesting thoughts. I really enjoy when the teachers in our class post or discuss their ideas because it's so enlightening to me, someone who is NOT part of the education system. Your points are absolutely valid and they show that there's always that fundamental deficiency. It's not only in education, but it also permeates the rest of the industries I'd dare say. Everyone wants to use the band-aid and feels it's a waste of time to find the root cause of the problems.
ReplyDeleteI feel like the root problem of the mismatch is that we're still not sure what teachers are supposed to be. Are we supposed to be intuitive, people-centered coaches who create personal connections with our kids and focus on helping individuals? Or are we supposed to be highly skilled decision makers with an array of technical, psychological, and subject matter expertise? I know that in reality you can be both, and that's great, but also in reality you're not going to find 7 million people like that who all want to teach.
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