If it’s any consolation, I have read stories written by Isaac Asimov in the 1940s and he made it clear all professors at all colleges were convinced the high schools were passing woefully inadequate people onto them.

David thinking the end of civilization is still in sight but doesn’t seem all that much closer than it must have in the forties

Now that state legislators and the Department of Education (what a joke on America) are getting involved…well – when Big Government gets involved, the Citizen (and Society) loses – and in this case, the family will lose, and the child that doesn’t pick up on some personal responsibility? He or she will suffer a lifetime of ignorance.

I have been a Florida teacher for 14 years and I have absolutely no problem with accountability. Give me a class full of Level 1 math students who attend school on a regular basis, come to class both willing and prepared to learn, complete the work they are assigned and display appropriate behavior. I GUARANTEE that they will make major academic gains. But I WILL NOT be responsible for students who never come to school, get 3 hours of sleep each night because they are on MySpace/Facebook until 3am, refuse to complete any of their assignments and make it their mission each day to disrupt my class. I do not have the luxury of choosing the students who attend my class. I am the parent of 2 children who do very well in school. My son is in 5th grade and has never made less than an A. Do I give credit to his teachers for this? ABSOLUTELY!!! Do I give credit to my son for this? ABSOLUTELY!!! Do I give credit to myself for this? ABSOLUTELY!!! Education is a partnership between teachers, parents and students. Teachers are only 1/3 of the formula for success but this bill is singling us out as the ONLY factor in a students success or failure. Teachers cannot and should not be financially punished for something totally beyond their control.

They are afraid politicians will make it impossible for them to do their job of educating the children.

They are afraid of living in a world of uneducated people from the one to prepares their food to the one who prepares their medicine to the one who builds or fixes their car.

They are afraid they will be fired for not producing silk purses from pig’s ears.

They are already being called failures for not stopping children from dropping out of school because their parents were too drunk to notice.

They are already being called failures for not producing literate adults from children who don’t bother to go to class half the time and don’t listen the other half.

While all jobs are important, I can’t think of any more noble than that of a teacher. They build the future. Without them most children would never get a decent job or be able to do a decent job. Without them, many would never learn to brush their teeth or wash. In fact without some sort of teacher, children seldom learn anything.

I imagine the reason you single out public school teachers is because the worst people were taught by them. I imagine you imagine the millions of decent people would have naturally happened and the sorry ones are the result of subversive teachers.

Personally, I like the idea of individual tests. Not How did the class as a whole do? but How did this one do compared to expectations? What did he bring to the class and what did he take out of it. It is as foolish to blame a teacher when a child with an IQ of 79 doesn’t learn rocket science as it is to think that all rocket scientists must have had only the best teachers. Right now a school is considered a failure if the bottom quartile didn’t reach certain goals even though the school and certainly the individual teacher had no control over most of the factors involved.

You are afraid they want to make left wing Democrats out of previously pure pupils. I’m sure some of their attitudes off subject come through every now and then but most of them just want to produce decent citizens despite the opposition of those who consider them the enemy.

If you treat teachers like your enemy, eventually there won’t be enough willing to try, THEN you WILL see some failures.

David for silk purses

Teaching holds some similar situations.

You don’t pick and choose your students but you are expected to be successful with whoever is laid at your doorstep. Some are simply more capable than others but that is seldom taken into account.

Despite sending children off to school at age 4 for some reason which seems reasonable to the powers that be, you aren’t really involved in the raising/rearing of the children. Somebody else has already set them down whatever path they will tend to take.

You don’t pick your textbooks, those are picked for you. I’m not sure there is anything wrong with this, just saying it is one less thing over which you have control.

You don’t pick your hours. You WILL teach at a certain time unless there is some more important matter like a pep rally the children need to attend. Some subjects need more time for different students, some need less. If you take too long, they get bored and get distracted. If you take too little, they get frustrated and get distracted. And since they are individuals, you are bound to be too fast or too slow for most of them some of the time.

Impressive they are ever considered successful teachers at all.

Not surprising they are blamed when the blessed thing jumps the track.

David for perfect parents