Gov. Jindal shows disdain for teachers, public education
Every occupation has the best of the best and the worst of the worst. Education is no exception. I suspect every hospital has about the same percentage of bad and great employees as a school does. But we would never go in and fire all of the doctors and nurses at hospitals where a disproportionate number of patients die - something being done in schools where disproportionate numbers of students fail. Urban schools, just like urban hospitals, deal with high risk humans who reflect the society around it. We can do better at finding the correct solution for the specific situation - not these blanket over-corrections Jindal is endorsing.
Our current schools are a reflection of our current culture - not the teachers in the school. Teachers and administrators in a school building make up only a fourth of the equation. Parents, students and the community are the other three contributors and yet it is the TEACHERS who are receiving 100% of the blame for low graduation rates and higher illiteracy rates. That makes no sense. If I am a doctor and a sick patient comes to me in poor health, and I give him an appropriate prescription for health, but it is not followed, who do we blame? Exactly...
Teachers like me are STUNNED that our public servants have turned their backs on their own constituents to appease their big business backers. But where there once was a community of seasoned educators at the policy table helping to make schools more effective, we have lobbyists who see experienced, educated teachers as barriers to for-profit education. Jindal and White have found the perfect recipe to fail schools faster. And it's not reform - it's rejecting an entire system that took 200 years to build and selling it off to the highest bidder.
Every occupation has the best of the best and the worst of the worst. Education is no exception. I suspect every hospital has about the same percentage of bad and great employees as a school does. But we would never go in and fire all of the doctors and nurses at hospitals where a disproportionate number of patients die - something being done in schools where disproportionate numbers of students fail. Urban schools, just like urban hospitals, deal with high risk humans who reflect the society around it. We can do better at finding the correct solution for the specific situation - not these blanket over-corrections Jindal is endorsing.
Our current schools are a reflection of our current culture - not the teachers in the school. Teachers and administrators in a school building make up only a fourth of the equation. Parents, students and the community are the other three contributors and yet it is the TEACHERS who are receiving 100% of the blame for low graduation rates and higher illiteracy rates. That makes no sense. If I am a doctor and a sick patient comes to me in poor health, and I give him an appropriate prescription for health, but it is not followed, who do we blame? Exactly...
Teachers like me are STUNNED that our public servants have turned their backs on their own constituents to appease their big business backers. But where there once was a community of seasoned educators at the policy table helping to make schools more effective, we have lobbyists who see experienced, educated teachers as barriers to for-profit education. Jindal and White have found the perfect recipe to fail schools faster. And it's not reform - it's rejecting an entire system that took 200 years to build and selling it off to the highest bidder.
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