The Business of Educating

An interesting NPR story on evaluating teacher training programs. This is one of the most important yet most under studied aspects of the problems in education. The biggest problem is in how to evaluate them… what makes for a good program? what about a program best prepares teachers to teach? Then there is the issue of what evidence proves that one school does it better then another… 

I think this is good for the education world as it begins to bring the problem into the light… but faces many challenges in achieving worthwhile results.

Written by a former Bush aid…

An amazingly ludicrous story of a mom leaving her son in the bathtub so she could go entertain herself on Facebook.

Unbelievable.

I fear that we are going to be faced with a generation of people who know how to proceate but not how to parent. These “parents” care about their own personal entertainment and pleasure then about what is best for their kids.

What can we do to help people see past themselves to the needs of others?

Goes with the last article but with cool graphs and stats.

This is a great story of the salaries of teacher salaries. Teachers and Lawyers used to get paid the same amount in the 1960s (at least in terms of starting wages)… but now starting lawyers make $115,000 MORE then starting teachers. It further expounds on why teachers salaries are too low and need to be raised if we are wanting to have higher quality people heading to education again.

Various reports are concluding that those who are less academically astute flock to education because the courses are easier. This should not come as much of a surprise as it was also the perception 10 years ago when I went into the College of Education, much to the chagrin of my parents. The statistics of the day showed that the average educator was a C student in High School and that most transferred in from other degree programs. Most aspiring teachers in my program were there for the love of the kids or for the summers off. The problem with education is that the few perks make it difficult to attract aspiring young minds who have skills that can make them successful in other fields. In teaching, the reward is the knowledge of having made a difference (hopefully) in the lives of the students. It is that light bulb moment, when the student finally makes that all important connection or grasps a difficult concept. It is when your students sit on the edge of their seats, waiting with baited breath for the missing piece to be revealed of the riviting story or learning experience. These moments are… Well… Fewer then we like, with hardship in between. The pay is pitiful. The hours are long and grueling… not to mention the pathetic working conditions. Teachers get treated like crap by a good number of kids and parents. The opportunity for advancement is next to nil. Teachers get paid the same pittance if they work 38 hours a week or 80 hours a week ( with many teachers trending more toward the 80 then the 38). A person who wants to make a living for themselves, or heaven forbid support a family, cannot make it on teaching alone. This drives those who have the potential to be great teachers, but have other skill sets to go exercise them in more profitable fields like law or business. Heck, even my brighter 6th grade students say that they do not want to go into education because of all the crap a teacher has to put up with for poor pay and have started their plans to do something else with their lives. So while I agree with the author, that the courses in education could be more rigorous… That in and of itself will not attract brighter minds to the field. Instead, it is the prospect of respect and a livable salary that will make those awesome “light bulb moments” in the class more desirable to those with profitable alternatives. This will be for the betterment of the entire profession.

This article analyzes how US policy makers view education, teachers in particular.

It does bring up some good points about the quality of teacher training.

Any thoughts?

(Special thanks to Steve Kibler for letting me know about this article. )