President Obama has added his voice to those of a long list of politicians calling for increased performance in schools. They want to pay teachers for performance, but do they really know what it is?
Is it teaching students to be able to recite all the prepositions in the English language in alphabetical order? To get 100 percent of the spelling words? To correctly prove geometric theorems? To know the names of all the presidents in historical order?
I was required to do all these in school but I couldn't do any of them to school standards today at age 70. Gosh, just when was Millard Fillmore president? And I'm not even sure if it was Fillmore or Filmore.
What I did get from many teachers was a love of learning and expectations for my continued learning. I remember little of the trigonometry and solid geometry that Mr. Rush taught, but I do remember his saying often, "When you go to Case..." meaning Case Institute of Technology. At least six of us did. I remember little of the chemistry that Mr. Raymond taught, but his demonstrations and assistance made the subject interesting. I hated memorizing speeches from Shakespeare, but Miss Palmer did instill a lifelong interest in reading Shakespeare.
Would these teachers have succeeded with me if my family hadn't also had expectations of me as well as providing examples? I was expected to do well in school. I was shown by example that reading was important. We didn't have many books but we subscribed to two daily newspapers and some weekly or monthly magazines.
What about kids who don't have those expectations? Can schools successfully make up for it in large classes? Maybe, maybe not.
A popular icon of successful teaching is Jaime Escalante of "Stand and Deliver" fame. Even he admits that the movie was a stretch, but the truth is that he did inspire many to go on beyond what many expected.
See "Jaime Escalante", The Futures Channel and "Stand and Deliver Revisited: The untold story behind the rise -- and shameful fall -- of Jaime Escalante, America's master math teacher", Reason, July 2002
His achievement took far longer than the movie depicted, and he had more obstacles than just the testing bureaucracy. One obstacle was the favorite whipping boy of the so-called conservatives: teachers unions. Escalante's union did not like him having classes of more than 50. But he also had obstacles from administrators. His first principal was very supportive but later administrators were not, including those who valued sports more than academics. In fact, whenever the school administration became hostile, the program declined.
Another example of bucking a hostile administration is Frank McCourt, author of "Angela's Ashes" and "Teacher Man". As I remember the latter book, he was more interested in telling stories and getting students to tell stories than following the syllabus. He was constantly called on the carpet for not teaching according the rules. However, how many of his students remember the administrators and how many remember him? He mentions how often he meets former students in his book tours in
http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2009/01/frank-mccourt-teacher-man-2/
A good summary of his teaching was written in Publishers Weekly
McCourt throws down the gauntlet on education, asserting that teaching is more than achieving high test scores. It's about educating, about forming intellects, about getting people to think....should be mandatory reading for every teacher in America. And it wouldn't hurt some politicians to read it, too.
See http://www.bookbrowse.com/reviews/index.cfm?book_number=1680
We all have gimmicks for "improving" education: charter schools, pay for performance, longer school hours, bigger schools, smaller schools, and on and on. My own gimmick is to pay teachers like insurance agents. The teachers should get a cut of the income taxes that former students pay.
In the end, the best things we can do is to honor our teachers rather than blame them and to provide the resources they need rather than than cutting budgets.
Finally, if you can read this, thank a teacher.
P.S. I also posted this to whitehouse.gov
