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CAT Tracks for July 13, 2010
TEACHING RESPONSIBILITY...NOT |
As a retired high school teacher of 39 years, I have an immediate one-word response to the article below...
AMEN!
Of course, I can never stop at one word...
Making excuses for teenagers, coddling them like babies. Just when are they suppose to learn to act like adults, understand that there are consequences for their actions...or inactions?
Is it supposed to magically occur when they walk across the stage and accept their diplomas?
These "graduates" probably refused to do the work assigned by their teachers, flunked several classes, took several credit-recovery classes online, and blew off the standardized state tests in an effort to get their mean ol' teachers fired for trying to teach them more than they wanted to learn.
And...
It's completely and socially acceptable!
Don't think so? Just ask President Barack Obama, U.S. Stooge of Education Arne the Duncan, or Gazillionaire Bill Gates.
They would say that the teachers failed these sweet, innocent children...failed to quench their natural thirst for knowledge, their natural hunger for learning.
Teacher-haters ignore the FACT that they, themselves, can't make their own children "perform"...to do their homework, to do their chores, to speak respectfully, to be home by midnight, not to drink, do drugs, or have sex.
Yet these same teacher-haters want teachers evaluated and paid on the basis of the "performance" of children who don't belong to them, who don't live with them, and over whom they have no control.
Yesterday's article about Bill Gates...
Did you catch Bill's "confession" to the AFT Representative Assembly? HIS personal "teaching experience"...
That’s nonsense. I’ve had one brief, informal experience in teaching that was rather humbling. I tried to teach science to two kids at the same time. I couldn't do it. So I taught them one at a time. I guess that's the ultimate in class size reduction. I could make that change because they were my own children, and I was trying to supplement their regular courses.
I enjoyed it. My students did their homework. They didn't disrupt class. Parent-teacher contact was high. In other words, conditions were pretty optimal -- and still it was hard. If you told me I had to teach 30 students, I don’t know how I’d do it.
Bears repeating...
"If you told me I had to teach 30 students, I don’t know how I’d do it."
No...but Bill can "spread the wealth around" and tell professional teachers how THEY should do it!
Okay, as usual, I digressed.
Back to the article!
Daniel Willingham knows whereof he speaks...
From The Washington Post
The Answer Sheet
Teacher accountability schemes let teens off the hook -- Willingham
My guest today is cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia and author of “Why Don’t Students Like School?”
By Daniel Willingham
Not long ago a student told me a story about taking the SAT. Students were to bring a photo I.D., and the girl in front of her in line had not brought one. When she was told that she couldn’t take the test without the i.d., she was incredulous. She literally did not believe that there would be a consequence for her forgetfulness. She assumed that there would be a Plan B for people like her. When it became clear that plan B was “go home and next time, bring your I.D.,” she was angry and scornful.
I see this attitude not infrequently in freshmen I teach. They are unaccustomed to the idea that they are fully responsible for their actions, at least in the academic arena.
In contrast, professors at most colleges very much think of students as 100% responsible for their own learning. Professors may not notice or care whether students come to class, study, or learn. Most professors figure that their job is to teach well. Whether the student learns or not is up to him or her.
This attitude may seem uncaring, but I believe it’s no different than the attitude 18-year olds would find in the military or in the workplace.
Setting aside the issue of whether college freshmen should carry 100% responsibility for their learning, consider this question. Given that that is the state of the world, what happens during K-12 education to prepare students for this responsibility?
It seems to me that almost nothing is done. But shouldn’t students become increasingly aware of this responsibility as they get older?
I can see telling a first grade teacher: “You can’t expect the kids to come to you. You’ve got to reach them.” But if we say the same thing to a high school teacher, we’re failing to teach students something important.
Yet all of the formulations of teacher accountability that use student performance data fail to take this factor into account. Student learning is used to evaluate high school teachers and lower elementary teachers in the same way. But if you believe that students should become more responsible for their learning as they age, shouldn’t teachers become less responsible?
I’m not discussing parental responsibilities here, but that doesn’t mean I think that they should be off the hook.
A quality we prize in adults is the ability to learn something from everyone. Being able to learn from different teachers is an important life skill, one that we should build into our students’ education. To my knowledge, it’s not done.
Naturally, the danger is that teachers will be only too glad for students to assume responsibility for their learning. My suggestion is predicated on a different model of teacher accountability, one in which teachers are accountable for teaching well. Students are responsible to do their part.
A lot of people – and I’m sure this must drive you crazy – but a lot of people who’ve never been in front of a classroom think they could just walk in one day and teach a course.
By Valerie Strauss
