Recently though our education system has begun to lag behind other countries, namely China, Japan and some of Europe. Apparently we are shocked by this claim - other people are smart too? The education system in the US is outdated and in many cases inefficient. We depend solely upon standardized numbers to rank and judge an individual's intellect and expect an 8-year old student to understand that if they do not "bubble in" correctly, their entire future is at risk. We depend upon extremely large administrative staffs to decide curriculum, many of them removed from the classroom for a decade or more. And perhaps largest of all, we've taken our uncanny ability as Americans to blame the other guy and pointed our cannons at the very people who choose to deal with all of this idiotic red tape all for the benefit of our own children - teachers.
I've had many favorite teachers in my time: there's Mrs. Hogberg, 2nd grade, who just rocked, Mrs. Rhoden, my high school French teacher, who knew that if we felt like the classroom was a safe place, we would soak everything in; and then there was my high school fine arts teacher, Mrs. Sleeman who gave each of us the opportunity to succeed but most importantly she also gave us the chance to fail, safely (It's amazing what happens when you let children speak for themselves, they're not dumb). But those teachers mentioned were during my stint at private schools. And although the pay at those institutions was no where near the public school salaries, I know the structure was different and that private schools are known for all of the things I listed. So I'll talk about public school.
In 8th grade I took the high school level Algebra 1 while attending a public middle school in South Carolina. My teacher was Mr. Thrasher - a guy about 5'9", a father (his son was in my class) and had the sharper version of the southern accent (those from the south know what I'm talking about). I always have hated math. The fact there is no compromise in math scares me and intimidates me. To me there is always another side, but you can't argue that one plus one doesn't equal two. So although I always did well in math, it was always my weak point. Mr. Thrasher though saved my ass, to be blunt. Out of a day that probably started earlier than I ever woke up and ended most likely after my bedtime, he had me and a few others in his classroom three days a week or more at 7:30am to review the previous day's lesson. Then there were the after-school study sessions before a test. There was a group of about 5 of us who found this material to be more difficult than we'd seen before. But through his commitment and understanding that every student is different - that we were not a number or a score on an SAT test - I ended that year with a strong B.
Teaching is not about meeting a standard. Sure a 1st grade teacher needs to instruct basic math, reading and writing - but in no way is that the teacher's only job. Creating a warm and inviting environment that fosters trust and wisdom and not just facts and tests is the key to a good education. Having a student in August not speak a word only to have them leave the classroom in May talking down the halls with their friends or telling their mom how Ms. Jane Doe told the most "bestest story today" is the thing that never makes it on to the SAT. The development of a child as a person and not a statistic should be the focus as we look forward and try to reform our education system.
There's a reason college applications are not just solely SAT scores, a name and ethnicity. They include essays where students describe something personal or are able to express their own ideas without the constraint of time; they include spaces to write down what we all did during our high schools years to better our community and our lives and there is even a place for you to choose what you want to study and where you want to live. Colleges understand that they are not accepting a score, they are accepting living human being. In the "adult" world we are not judged by scores. We've all been through some sort of evaluation at work. When you're up for a promotion, you're not handed a test in room full of 40 other individuals all trying to sneak in a game of "Mario" on their graphing calculator. Instead our progress is measured by the quality of our work and of our character.
Why then are we arguing to not treat teachers the same way?
Merit based teaching and other variations of such lend themselves to standardize an industry where standardization is impossible. The product is not an SAT score, the product is a productive and educated member of society - a soon-to-be job-seeker and employee. To hold all teachers to the same standard is just ridiculous. Class size, geographic and economic location, and student make-up are too large of variables to ignore. Why not take the same philosophies being implemented in America's best schools - typically private - and apply them to the public system. Why not judge education not by the end product, but rather by the thoroughness and success of the process? A test can be a great indicator of understanding, but the timing of the test compared to the student's current capabilities is what makes for great scores.
Politicians both across the nation and across individual states are pushing for the complete opposite of this idea. They are pushing for the standardizing of teachers and education - quite frankly the very thing that set us down the path of "least innovation" to begin with. These "people of the people" - on both sides of the aisle - put down the very people who got them to where they are today. They blame teachers for not 'doing good enough' or for 'slacking off' or call them 'part-time workers'. Are there bad teachers? Yes (don't even get me started on my 9th grade history teacher). Should there be action to make them better at their job? Yes. But the point is that our elected officials have grown so disconnected from what really matters in the classroom that they generalize. They try and create a 'one-size-fits-all' system for education. But education is not one-size fits all. If it was, then who knows how I would have done in my 8th grade Math class. If it was, then how would I be able to differentiate between my favorite teachers and my least favorite teacher. If the experience in the classroom is standardized to the point of no return, then you might as well just throw all students into a prison and call it "elementary school" -- they wouldn't know the difference.
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