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There are two extremes. 1) Teachers drastically effect student outcomes. In this case teachers deserve blame for poor student outcomes, and we should focus our
by yummyfajitas 12y ago
There are two extremes.
1) Teachers drastically effect student outcomes. In this case teachers deserve blame for poor student outcomes, and we should focus our efforts on finding and rewarding the best teachers.
2) Teachers don't matter and don't deserve the blame. In this case we should focus on spending as little money on teachers as possible - just find the cheapest warm body for the front of the classroom and focus our efforts on stuff that does matter.
Which is it?
[edit: Upon rereading it sounds like I'm arguing that we must live at one extreme. I actually just mean we need to live on some linear combination of these extremes. The key point is that we can't live at the distant endpoint (teachers don't deserve blame, teachers should be rewarded).]
- rmxt 12y agoWhy don't we find and reward the best teachers while promoting socioeconomic integration in school systems? (As suggested by the article.) It's a little disingenuous to think that we have to go to one of those two extremes in order to have positive outcomes.
- yummyfajitas 12y agoI didn't say we had to go to any extreme, I'm simply pointing out that the universe lives somewhere on a line between them. If you argue that teachers don't deserve the blame you are also arguing that teachers don't matter.