Every problem...

[kengr]

... has a simple, easy to understand wrong answer.

A classic example is the ballot initiative just cleared for the November ballot here in Oregon.

Basic idea is to base teacher pay on what sort of grades their students get. Naturally it's by Bill Sizemore.

I'm sure there are lots of bad teachers out there. Lord knows I've run into enough of them.

But there are also good teachers struggling with students who won't try. Or that just have problems.

And this is certain to increase standardized testing, Which leads to "teach to the test" which is not a good thing.

There are a *minimum* of three factors in who well a student does:

1. The teacher
2. The student
3. The parents

I wonder how many of the folks that will be proclaiming this measure as a wonderful idea would feel the same about one that penalized parents for kids who don't do their homework? Because that's just as sensible.

This is a "one size fits all" answer applied to a problem that requires judgment and consideration of individual students and teachers.

It's apt to wind up just as bad as the various "zero tolerance" policies schools have implemented for the same sort of reasons. :-(

Comments

[fayanora.livejournal.com]

The entire education system needs to be tossed out and redesigned from scratch, and needs to take into account true facts about how kids learn, how best to teach them, and more importantly to teach kids HOW to think rather than WHAT to think. That shit may have worked in the 50's, when people were taught to follow the herd, but people are getting more and more independent and free-thinking. The education system needs to taker that into account.

[kengr]

alas, I've encountered folks online who were in a program (junior high or high school, as I recall) back in the 50s.

The idea *was* to teach the kids to think, with an emphasis on spotting propaganda.

It got canceled after a year or less.

You see, the kids weren't just spotting the bad, evil *communist* propaganda. They were spotting (and asking pointed questions about) *our* propaganda.

There's no way in hell to get any politician who isn't an idiot to vote for something like that. Voters from such an education system would vote most politicians out of office.

[fayanora.livejournal.com]

There's no way in hell to get any politician who isn't an idiot to vote for something like that.

Then I'm right when I say that Politics is dead. Hail mamaism! I should make a manifesto.

Well the thing is, things have changed since the 50's. Thanks to TV and the Internet, children already ARE learning how to think for themselves and spot political bullshit. A truly smart politician would recognize this fact and rework the education system to match what's already going on, encourage it. Maybe then we can get better politicians in the system.

[kengr]

Thanks to TV and the Internet, children already ARE learning how to think for themselves and spot political bullshit.

Nope, my experience says that most of them are just as "hard of thinking" as their parents.

[fayanora.livejournal.com]

Well, there is definetely an increase in smart kids.