Liberal Free Chat Zone

[trkyhntr]

While it is true that administrators rise from the ranks of teachers, most do so because they didn't like teaching in the first place. The higher pay is secondary to the desire to "advance." Most that I have known were on a power trip an loved to intimidate their teachers, that is unless they ran into one who refused to be intimidated. I knew a few like that (LOL).

Don't be too hasty in blaming teachers because today's graduates can't make change or know little of their history, because today's teachers have very little to say about what is taught. Today, we teach to the "No Child Left Behind" testing program, in which reading and math are what is tested for. We do not test for basic knowledge, such as making change, the responsibilities of being an adult and a citizen, or the ability to write a coherent paragraph. Science and history have virtually been eliminated in some schools as unnecessary. Social studies is given little more than lip service. The teaching of English is more of a joke than ever before, and it has always been a bit of that. We have dumbed down the curriculum so stupid people can feel good about themselves, and reinforced that by inflating the grading system so that the standard, average grade is a B. If a teacher give a few F's he is the subject of an in service program, so what can we expect but undereducated and poorly motivated graduates?
To do something that has never worked but expect a different result this time is stupidity.

I am not arguing that the education system is not failing, Ksquared. I just do not agree that it is all the fault of teachers or the tenure law. This is not to absolve unions from blame, but one must keep firmly in mind why unions came into existence, why they have been allowed to become so powerful, and which political party is primarily to blame for all of the above.