Paging Teachers

[ivan]

washington is 47th in the nation in class size - the wa supreme ct mcleary case doesn't seem to be putting the screws to the legislature neither.

 

this year's wierd for me - i have one microscopic class and 3 huge ones...

[E-rock]

Jason,

We're in much more agreement then i think we both initially thought. My wife is a high-school teacher in a suburban district that consistently rates amongst the top districts in the state and the country. We've seen first hand what the most recent round of "education reform", which gained public support largely through a mis-informed wave of populist anger against teaching quality and unions, had done. All of it has been to the detriment of classroom learning. We're pretty sick of it, and it's driving some really good teachers out of the profession while, at the same time, advancing the careers of yes-men in administrative positions.

 

I still contend the fastest way to better student performance is integration. But the structure upon which our school system is funded and built works completely against that solution.

Edited October 20, 2013 by E-rock

[E-rock]

Here's a quick article that picks on John Stossel's POS program "Stupid in America". It's a specific rebuttal to his one-sided piece of schlock tabloid journalism, but it also serves a good starting point in rebutting all of the commonly held myths about "school choice" and "teaching reform" that have led us only deeper into the current situtation.

 

http://mediamatters.org/research/2006/01/19/stossel-presented-skewed-2020-segment-on-stupid/134675

[selkirk]

Had a high school Calc teacher who did this 20 years ago. Learned some calculus, but more importantly learned how to teach myself Calc. Worked great for me, but that accounts for my learning style. My wife on the other hand needs to hear it/read it/see it for it to sink in. Lectures were almost always lost on me, as my attention span significantly wained after 20 minutes.

 

As a side note, my father has spent years in education (elementary school, middle school, high school, football coach etc, up through superintendent), and he's of the impression that parents and upbringing account for ~80% of childs learning and success, and school only affects the last 20%.