Monday, September 6, 2010

Poor Quality Teachers

If teachers wish to be respected as highly paid professionals, maybe there should be some gravity behind being a certified teacher.
As it stands today, many people who teach are those who could not find success in any other profession requiring a degree.
Teaching is seen as a backup not as a goal - not even among many who work this profession themselves.
Maybe we should hold teachers accountable at the same level we do doctors, lawyers or even contractors.
In each of these professions, consistently flawed work is often followed with disbarment or the loss of ones license.
If a doctor working in the most run down hospital in any given town, working with old equipment and uncooperative patients were to fail (kill) the majority of his patients, he would lose his license to practice medicine.
If a bright young doctor was saving lives while an older burned out doctor was failing his patients, the young doctor would be promoted while the older doctor would be retired.
Maybe this is the approach we need to take with teachers - instead of letting the National Educational Association dictate why poorly performing teachers should have job security, maybe we should insist that they produce the best teachers for the most demanding conditions.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/magazine/05FOB-wwln-t.html

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