Blog Post 14

In the article Teaching our Children can become a Prefession Joel Klein stated his opnion on how he wish schools would be run. He said that he would change more school choices, using technology to improve teaching and learning, adopting a knowledge based curriculum and starting school before five years old.

His solutions to the problems:

1. Pick from the best
He says that future teachers getting their degrees are not being properly trained. He said that he would choose the top third of the graduates to actually become teachers. He would also change how teachers are rewarded.

2. Seniority Distraction
He says that it is not right that bad teachers and good teachers are paid the same. He does not like that teachers are paid the same no matter their performance. To fix this he says that we need national teacher examination and supervised internship.

3. Radical Change
He says that there are teachers that need to be removed from the schools but its hard to fire teachers. The solution he gave us is to establish standards to have incompetent teachers removed.

My opinion:

1. Pick form the best

I agree to a point with Mr. Klein. I totally agree that schools need to hire the best teachers for our schools. The top third graduating class does not always mean that they are the best teachers. Personality does not show threw grades. Someone can be a complete handful but have amazing grades. Where as a kind loving warm hearted person just does not have the best grades but would actually be a greater teacher. You need to go by the person not the grade.

2. Seniority Distraction

This is an issue for me as well. I do not think it is fair that just because you have been there for a long time does not mean you should be exepent from being fired. If a good teacher is kept from being highered just because they could not get rid of a bad teacher is crazy. This needs to be fixed.

3. Radical Change

There are standards for students to pass each year there should also be standards for teachers to pass the year too. This way it is eaiser to weed out the bad seeds.