Education is NOT Business, or: Why Vouchers and Merit Pay Won’t Work
“School systems traditionally have been paying the best teacher the same amount as we pay the worst teacher, based on the number of years they have been teaching,” Saavedra said. “It doesn’t make sense that we would pay the best what we’re paying the worst. That’s why it’s going to change.”Huston Schools Superintendent Abe Saavedra
Okay, let’s explain why EDUCATION is different than MAKING A PROFIT.
Unlike good business owners, good teachers — and especially the best teachers — are not motivated primarily by profit. So paying more money to the best ones WON’T WORK. They will not teach any better, nor will they work any harder. Also, paying the worst ones less WON’T MAKE THEM GO AWAY. They will simply continue to minimize their workloads and whine about how hard they work.
So let’s explain this to the Adam Smith crowd: Teachers are not normal economic actors. […]
Original post by urbansocrates
Advice for Veterans
I guess after almost nine years of teaching I’m considered a veteran at this job, but because I’m constantly learning new ways of teaching I still feel like a neophyte. I’m always looking for new ideas from fellow teachers (my department head knows that teachers learn more about how to teach from each other than from any other source).
One thing I’m still learning about is classroom routines. There are certain routines in any job, and sometimes teaching high school can be extremely repetitious. I learned as a musician, though, that if the bandleader never changes the arrangements or the repertoire the musicians will burn out. The same goes for students. No one should have to do the same things day after day; life is quotidian enough. Teachers that like to stick to a strict routine day after day generally start boring their students pretty quickly
Yet […]
Original post by urbansocrates
Asking the Right Questions at the Right Time
As part of a unit of fascism and totalitarianism, I’ve been teaching my students about propaganda this week and last. I started off with a PowerPoint presentation that I’d made shortly after the Iraq invasion was undertaken, in favor of the war in Iraq. I had the kids identify some of the techniques of propaganda I’d used: Assertions, name-calling, card-stacking, glittering generalities, and so on. Then, by way of review, I later presented another PowerPoint, this time ranting that the US get its troops out of Iraq.
And one of my students, a bright kid, and a conservative, who loves history and politics and is always asking questions (the best kind of students always ask the best questions) said after I was finished, “The people who want the US out never ask what happens after we leave.”
I wish that someone with that kind of foresight had been […]
Original post by urbansocrates
Game Night Boston
Original post by Robert Newton