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[quote=Anonymous][quote]Jesus fucking Christ. YES, it's a threat, and obviously you've never worked a day in the private sector because out in the real world you DO get fired for failure. Failure should be dealt with. But it hasn't. Millions of kids all around the country are graduating from high school unable to make change, unable to use proper grammar or put together a coherent sentence, unable to point out the Pacific Ocean on a world map, unable to discern whether Abraham Lincoln was one of the Founding Fathers or not. This has been going on for the last couple of decades, and it was NOT dealt with. What IS your proposal? What IS your fix? You've already had decades to deal with it, but you've come up empty. People like you need to take off your rosy colored glasses and get a serious reality check. [/quote]

Okay.  First let's calm down.  You don't have to get my attention by saying "Jesus fucking Christ" (because I don't think he was).

Second, I have worked in both the private sector and the public sector.  I am currently a teacher and I happen to teach kids who have been deemed "failures".  I deal with "failure" every day.  It IS being dealt with despite your contention that it is not being dealt with.

Third, I need a source for your claim that "millions of kids are graduating from high school unable to make change, unable to use proper grammar, etc."  I honestly think that lots of people are not graduating from high school (the rate I saw nationwide is a 40% drop out rate).  The 40% drop out rate signals to me that there are some standards.  Lots of students are not getting through high school.  In fact, there are barrier tests to graduation in every state that I know about.

I don't think I need a reality check since I see these kids every day (ages 15-21).

My proposal is to attract good teachers by making this a true profession again.  By that I mean that teachers should be able to diagnose student needs, use their professional knowledge to meet those needs, and not be threatened when students don't perform and it is not their fault (and, believe it or not, this happens).  Teachers should be free to ask for help and get it without fear of retaliation.  Teachers should not work in untenable conditions (high class size and too many students, many of whom have learning disabilities or do not speak English).  The students deserve attention and there should be money to pay for that.

Maybe you don't like my ideas to make education better.  Maybe your high stakes testing idea (which is an old idea now) will work the next time around.  But I doubt it.

And just one more thing . . . yes, this is not the private sector and we should not make it into the private sector.  The private sector is not inherently superior to the public sector and something to be lauded as such.  They are two separate and distinct sectors because (gasp) they are DIFFERENT from each other (in many, many ways).  If you threaten teachers with removal if they don't do X or Y, they will do X or Y and they will become the robots that you want them to be.  But you will raise a generation that does X or Y really well and not much else.

Finally, we need to value the unique assets of each of our teachers and let them pass those on in their classrooms.  This kind of diversity in teaching and learning makes America strong. [/quote]

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