Teachers are hampered by education establishment

Thomas Zachek:

Sometimes I wish I could take the education establishment by the throat and throttle it.

I know, I know - teachers are the problem. But teachers are like foot soldiers on the front lines, carrying out orders but rarely having a say in them. The real education establishment is the administrators, board members, legislators, think tanks, textbook publishers, testing services, educational researchers and "experts" who truly create the education agenda in our society. And these forces place teachers and students in a tug of war with political agendas and shifting priorities.

Anyone in education for more than a decade has seen trends come and go. I remember when everything had to be geared to the college-bound. Then came the Tech-Prep Initiative, wherein we were reminded that not everybody needed to go to college and schools needed to prepare students for workforce skills. I remember the eras of behavioral objectives, of Madeline Hunter, of WIDS. If you don't know what those mean, think buggy whips or Betamax.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at July 29, 2012 1:44 AM
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