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Actually, NO - it's not at all like that. Teachers are the 'instruments' of government education policy. Sure, there's an inevitable variation in teaching qual

Actually, NO - it's not at all like that. Teachers are the 'instruments' of government education policy. Sure, there's an inevitable variation in teaching quality between individuals, but the way the system works is that a set curriculum is delivered, and assessed, by teachers. 'Creativity' and 'innovation' has to be quashed to fit within these constraints. This is the cause of much frustration amongst teachers who entered the profession to 'make a difference'. (And this last sentence is very understated.) Education is a factory: it processes young people through an assembly-line of set ideas and knowledge, much 'political correctness', and 'dynamic range compression' (an analogy to audio processing) of the highest and lowest intellects - culminating in an individual suitable to place in a working society. Please don't blame teachers.

gaius 15y ago
Teachers are in a bit of a weird position. On the one hand, they want to be considered as professionals, as a lawyer or a doctor might be, empowered and trusted to make decisions in the best interests of their "clients" (e.g. parents and children). But they organize themselves as labour, with rigid unions and collective bargaining. Do you know many teachers a year are dismissed for just not being very good at the job? None, yet as a society we have no problem dismissing doctors, airline pilots, whoever, if they can't do the job, despite passing the qualifications. Given this, all policymakers can do is try to limit the damage that can be done by e.g. the worst 10% of teachers, by imposing strict syllabuses. The other 90% suffer for it - but hey, they are the ones who place protecting their union brothers ahead of the best interests of the students.
- gnosis 15y ago
  Other professions have professional organizations which try to look out for the interests of their members. The AMA (American Medical Association) is a very powerful lobby in Washington, and has a lot of influence on the profession. People in IT often belong to organizations like the IEEE, which (though not a fraction as powerful as the AMA) also try to look out for the interests of their members. In America, most lawyers belong to the American Bar Association, which serves a similar function to the AMA and IEEE. As for airline pilots, you might have heard of the Virgin Atlantic strike that was in the news lately. It was initiated by the Balpa pilot union. Many other professions, from electricians, to engineers, to construction workers, to architects, to nurses, firefighters, police, etc have unions and professional organizations which strive to look out for their members interests. This is a good thing.. as is collective bargaining. They are a valuable check on the ridiculous amount of power employers in the US have over their employees, and a way to attempt to prevent a race to the bottom in terms of employee wages, benefits, job safety, quality, and satisfaction. To say that teachers belonging to unions somehow makes them "unprofessional" is disingenuous. If anything, it's the other way around. Furthermore, it's ridiculous to claim that teachers unions want to keep bad teachers at work. They don't. And there are procedures in place for firing them. Finally, as to "the best interests of the students", what are those exactly? And who gets to decide what they are? The parents? The teachers? School administrators? Congress? The students themselves? Do any of them really know what is in "the best interests of the students"? This is a complicated issue, and the "one size fits all" approach of standardized syllabuses, standardized tests, and bumper sticker rhetoric does very little to address it.

gaius 15y ago

Teachers are in a bit of a weird position. On the one hand, they want to be considered as professionals, as a lawyer or a doctor might be, empowered and trusted to make decisions in the best interests of their "clients" (e.g. parents and children). But they organize themselves as labour, with rigid unions and collective bargaining. Do you know many teachers a year are dismissed for just not being very good at the job? None, yet as a society we have no problem dismissing doctors, airline pilots, whoever, if they can't do the job, despite passing the qualifications. Given this, all policymakers can do is try to limit the damage that can be done by e.g. the worst 10% of teachers, by imposing strict syllabuses. The other 90% suffer for it - but hey, they are the ones who place protecting their union brothers ahead of the best interests of the students.

gnosis 15y ago
Other professions have professional organizations which try to look out for the interests of their members. The AMA (American Medical Association) is a very powerful lobby in Washington, and has a lot of influence on the profession. People in IT often belong to organizations like the IEEE, which (though not a fraction as powerful as the AMA) also try to look out for the interests of their members. In America, most lawyers belong to the American Bar Association, which serves a similar function to the AMA and IEEE. As for airline pilots, you might have heard of the Virgin Atlantic strike that was in the news lately. It was initiated by the Balpa pilot union. Many other professions, from electricians, to engineers, to construction workers, to architects, to nurses, firefighters, police, etc have unions and professional organizations which strive to look out for their members interests. This is a good thing.. as is collective bargaining. They are a valuable check on the ridiculous amount of power employers in the US have over their employees, and a way to attempt to prevent a race to the bottom in terms of employee wages, benefits, job safety, quality, and satisfaction. To say that teachers belonging to unions somehow makes them "unprofessional" is disingenuous. If anything, it's the other way around. Furthermore, it's ridiculous to claim that teachers unions want to keep bad teachers at work. They don't. And there are procedures in place for firing them. Finally, as to "the best interests of the students", what are those exactly? And who gets to decide what they are? The parents? The teachers? School administrators? Congress? The students themselves? Do any of them really know what is in "the best interests of the students"? This is a complicated issue, and the "one size fits all" approach of standardized syllabuses, standardized tests, and bumper sticker rhetoric does very little to address it.