MooseFET said:
Actually yes it is what we are talking about. You have spent the
whole time dissing the teachers.
You just don't get the magnitude of the problem or you
wouldn't be defending it.
10% of students reading at grade level isn't excusable,
it's not a fluke, it's not from lack of money, it's
not from low pay, and it's not because of a multiple-
choice test.
It's because the whole in-bred system is a disaster.
Having listened to a blank-faced high school principal
drone out an hour's worth of gawdawful thoughtless
platitudes, and knowing she's the school's leader, the
one in charge with the vision, who sets the course,
tells me the leaders are clueless.
And that was a good school.
Having received endless 5-minute auto-dialed pre-recorded
phone updates about sports victories and campus trivia,
bi-lingual, with mentions of school closings and PSAT
test dates as afterthoughts, at the end, says they
don't know their priorities.
Maybe you haven't argued with yet another teacher--
making an engineer's salary for 1/2 the hours--
who insisted that Russia's entire population was >90%
female, who refused to be corrected--even by a handy
textbook, not swayed even by photos of crowds--because
_she'd been there herself_, and still swore it, and
taught this to her class...
They run the schools, are themselves their own
administrators, set the standards for students and
teachers and teaching alike; award credentials, set
pay, promote, drive out newcomers.
They control the state's politics, endorse candidates,
run vicious political attack ads, consume more than
half the state's budget.
Yeah, you just don't see it.
It's not teachers exactly--there are great ones, and
they're treasures--it's what, overall, they've become.
Best regards,
James Arthur