Thread: What Teachers Make

I agree that the public school system is, by and large, in an appalling state of disrepair. on a fun little fyi, here in texas, corporal punishment is still allowed in some school districts. (mostly for primary school) I have been thinking about this for some time, especially as my nieces and nephews are attending school, and have come to the following idea. (disclaimer: I went to school in grapevine as a kid, so I was absurdly lucky when it comes to public schooling. at the time, it was one of the top 100 schools in the nation in terms of teachers, facilities, and overall student achievment. my wife went to a private (religious) high school and learned next to nothing. so I don't think public schools are all awful, nor do I think private schools are infallible)

1. vouchers. we need 'em. privative the school system; the nanny-state run monstrosity of an education system we have now is completely untenable.
2. private schools can have whatever rules they want. make the parents sign contracts that allow you to beat their kids, if you have to. if they don't like your school, they don't have to sign up. make clear rules on why their little "angel" can be permanently expelled.
3. the US gov't is about as good at running schools as they are anything else, which is to say, incompetent bordering on criminal neglect. all kids aren't the same, why do we have a one-size-fits all approach to education?
4. the no child left behind act is a crime perpetrated against smart kids to make the parents of stupid kids feel better. because of that !@#$%^ act and the ones that preceeded it, I didn't get to take a MATH class my senior year of high school. they needed the teacher to do a section of special ed. makes me sick to my stomach.
5. special ed in general is an outrageous waste of taxpayer money that should not be allowed to continue. why coddle the bottom 5% at the expense of not pushing the limits of the top 5%? who's gonna grow up and cure cancer, anyway?
6. coddling of children AT ALL is wasteful and sets them up for failure later in life. would you rather your kid failed a grade in high school, got made fun of, got serious and went on to succeed in life? or would you rather their hands get held all the way until adult life so they can fail then? (when the consequences are much worse)
7. end preferential treatment of borderline-retarded athletes. this one is a big deal for me, being a Texan, 'cause football players had a free pass. didn't turn in homework, didn't take tests, etc. teachers, who normally were happy to fail anyone that couldn't keep up, would pass them all so that UIL rules would allow them to play football. even the bravest teacher would be terrified of "benching" the star QB with a failing grade.
8. create a culture where intelligence is valued above all else. one of the biggest reasons I see kids doing badly in schools is the culture of stupidity that permeates the school system. (even back when I was in high school) why is the captain of the football team glorified and the captain of the chess team or math club harassed? who is gonna wind up working for who someday? if kids got teased as much for being dumb as they did for being smart, I think we'd start to see some improvement. it's an uphill battle, with most teen idols, movie stars, athletes, etc, being barely-literate high school dropouts. it's a shame our generation hasn't given these kids better role models. I am equally culpable here, but I do what I can to encourage my nephews that being smart and getting good grades is very cool.
9. spend money on labs, not stadiums. the school district I attended in high school just finished (coupla years ago) blowing several MILLION dollars on a new stadium for the football team. why? why not buy better books and computers? why not hire a few new teachers? maybe, just maybe, we should let kids join whatever sports league they want to join, OUTSIDE of school. I don't doubt that athletics are fun, and that you make friends and build all sorts of camraderie on a school sports team. I know I did. but it was entirely tangential to the learning process. totally unnecessary. let's quit wasting taxpayer money on it, hmm?
10. reward good teachers, punish bad ones. a tricky business, but worthwhile. it's useless and misleading to base a teacher's performance off pass/fail ratios. they can't be held responsible for the kids they get, so it's not equal. I propose that teachers be periodically monitored and ranked by an impartial commitee, then the better ones given better raises. this is done is most other fields, I have no idea why it's not the same for teachers. in my field, the best employee who does the best work gets a bigger raise/bonus than the others, no one has a problem with it.

anyhow, there's just a few ideas I've been kicking around, a none-too-modest proposal I've been thinking about. thoughts?