Comments on: Hold On, Mr. President http://blog.coreknowledge.org/2009/10/22/hold-on-mr-president/ Closing the Achievement Gap: Teaching Content Mon, 22 Mar 2010 02:03:38 -0500 hourly 1 By: Homeschooling Granny http://blog.coreknowledge.org/2009/10/22/hold-on-mr-president/comment-page-1/#comment-8073 Homeschooling Granny Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:58:29 +0000 http://blog.coreknowledge.org/?p=3630#comment-8073 As important as teachers are, they are not the single most important factor. I doubt that there is one single most important factor. Teachers should not be singled out, scapegoated, for education's ills. They don't have the power. They cannot select their textbooks. I recall reading a math teacher who was in despair because his school was replacing Saxon math with texts he did not believe in. Take away a workman's tools, give him ones he doesn't like, and blame him if the work is not good enough! Compare teachers to homeschoolers. That is comparing people responsible to a huge, sclerotic bureaucracy and people responsible only to their children; people who are stuck with flavor of the year policies they don't choose vs. people who are free to respond to the behaviors of their students; people who get stuck in professional development days vs. people who . . . You get the idea. As important as teachers are, they are not the single most important factor. I doubt that there is one single most important factor.

Teachers should not be singled out, scapegoated, for education’s ills. They don’t have the power. They cannot select their textbooks. I recall reading a math teacher who was in despair because his school was replacing Saxon math with texts he did not believe in. Take away a workman’s tools, give him ones he doesn’t like, and blame him if the work is not good enough!

Compare teachers to homeschoolers. That is comparing people responsible to a huge, sclerotic bureaucracy and people responsible only to their children; people who are stuck with flavor of the year policies they don’t choose vs. people who are free to respond to the behaviors of their students; people who get stuck in professional development days vs. people who . . . You get the idea.

]]> By: claus http://blog.coreknowledge.org/2009/10/22/hold-on-mr-president/comment-page-1/#comment-8071 claus Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:35:45 +0000 http://blog.coreknowledge.org/?p=3630#comment-8071 Perlstein's blog is a welcome addition. We need someone within the ed journalism community who can keep reporters honest. Among her next topics: "the good-teacher-several-years-in-a-row findings and the complications of translating all this into policy." If she can inspire conversations about these topics that shed more light than heat, she'll do us all a great service. Perlstein’s blog is a welcome addition. We need someone within the ed journalism community who can keep reporters honest. Among her next topics: “the good-teacher-several-years-in-a-row findings and the complications of translating all this into policy.” If she can inspire conversations about these topics that shed more light than heat, she’ll do us all a great service.

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