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Maybe if we paid those who teach better, we'd attract the best of the best to teach. Instead we drive good people out by making the job unbearable.

by acbart 5y ago

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
panxyh 5y ago
We should pay better those who teach better, not everyone. Otherwise we just make the market bigger with even more room for incompetence. Look at the software industry.
- southerntofu 5y ago
  And what kind of metrics can you use to determine whether someone teaches well? Whatever metrics you use, there's probably ways to game the system without providing better services.
  - panxyh 5y ago
    Exactly, and this would be just as true, only on bigger scale, if we just raised wages and tried to filter out 'the best of the best' from a now larger pool of candidates. I should write "if anything" at the start of my previous comment as I don't really believe a good solution based solely on financial incentives exists. Your other comment efficiently expresses my intuition on the topic.
southerntofu 5y ago
> Maybe if we paid those who teach better, we'd attract the best of the best to teach. I agree struggling for basic survival as a public servant is not ideal, but be careful not to turn education into a lucrative opportunity where people come for money not passion. Money is certainly not the only way to attract talent (though teachers still need to pay their bills) and in most schools i've attended the talented teachers were just ridiculously hindered by the bureaucrats defining their program and agenda. David Graeber's talk "Manageurial feudalism and the revolt of the caring classes" comes to mind.
- tovej 5y ago
  Making teaching a "lucrative opportunity" by paying a decent wage has absolutely no downsides. What exactly are the downsides of an increase in intelligent people competing for teaching positions?
- nisegami 5y ago
  I believe that we should be making whatever changes we need to ensure that some of the most capable minds in our field are doing something more useful than ad tech. Speaking from experience, seeing where my classmates went to after we graduated a few years ago.

Maybe if we paid those who teach better, we'd attract the best of the best to teach. Instead we drive good people out by making the job unbearable.

by acbart 5y ago

Maybe if we paid those who teach better, we'd attract the best of the best to teach. Instead we drive good people out by making the job unbearable.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

panxyh 5y ago

We should pay better those who teach better, not everyone. Otherwise we just make the market bigger with even more room for incompetence. Look at the software industry.

southerntofu 5y ago
And what kind of metrics can you use to determine whether someone teaches well? Whatever metrics you use, there's probably ways to game the system without providing better services.
- panxyh 5y ago
  Exactly, and this would be just as true, only on bigger scale, if we just raised wages and tried to filter out 'the best of the best' from a now larger pool of candidates. I should write "if anything" at the start of my previous comment as I don't really believe a good solution based solely on financial incentives exists. Your other comment efficiently expresses my intuition on the topic.

southerntofu 5y ago

> Maybe if we paid those who teach better, we'd attract the best of the best to teach. I agree struggling for basic survival as a public servant is not ideal, but be careful not to turn education into a lucrative opportunity where people come for money not passion. Money is certainly not the only way to attract talent (though teachers still need to pay their bills) and in most schools i've attended the talented teachers were just ridiculously hindered by the bureaucrats defining their program and agenda. David Graeber's talk "Manageurial feudalism and the revolt of the caring classes" comes to mind.

tovej 5y ago
Making teaching a "lucrative opportunity" by paying a decent wage has absolutely no downsides. What exactly are the downsides of an increase in intelligent people competing for teaching positions?
nisegami 5y ago
I believe that we should be making whatever changes we need to ensure that some of the most capable minds in our field are doing something more useful than ad tech. Speaking from experience, seeing where my classmates went to after we graduated a few years ago.