Discussion for article #224749
We do not want the editor in charge of this headline to quit. We just want him or her to fix the damn thing.
`Nation’s Largest Teacher’s Union Calling On Arne Duncan To Quit’
A hint: teachers’
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Good. Give that corrupt neoliberal the heave ho.
Obama needs to stop listening to corporate-educrats like Duncan who think they know better than teachers how to “reform” education. More and more testing and linking everything to a test is not “reform.” All we are doing now is collecting data on what happens when you give a lot of tests.
Actual learning for the real world is not happening as teachers are forced to teach to the test to survive. Obama needs to cast Duncan aside.
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Obama’s selection of Duncan was one of the first signs that he’s no progressive.
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I would be interested in hearing or reading what idea’s teachers have on how to reform education. Can you post a link?
Arne Duncan is a hack. His plan didn’t work in Chicago, and it didn’t work in Oakland, CA. He has very little experience as an educator, doesn’t understand classroom or campus dynamics, but he does seem to like the idea of union busting. Why Obama appointed him is beyond me. 50% of charter schools fail and if you base teacher and administrator reviews on student performance, you will wind up with a corrupt system. The object of all current reform efforts is to privatize public education. I think Duncan is too stupid to recognize this, so I can forgive him for that.
Go to the NEA website.
If he wants to help, he could find a way to make it easier to fire bad parents. The best teacher in the world can’t make up for shitty parenting.
The notion that someone’s ability to reproduce makes them know how to raise a child is one of the most absurd things I’ve ever heard. An even more absurd idea is giving bad parents someone else to blame for their kids bad behavior.
I spent about 10 minutes perusing their website (www.nea.org) I don’t see much of anything specific to reform. Smaller class sizes, higher pay, less testing, and making sure kids are properly nourished. Is that the scope of their reform program?
That begs the questions of what do you mean by reform, and what problem are you trying to solve. The people who are screaming for reform are the same people who slashed education budgets and forced standardized testing. Letting teachers teach would go a long way in helping kids learn. The ideas you found on the NEA site will allow that to happen.
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Making some headway in how we rank with other countries in regards to math, reading and science would be a good place to start. The latest article I read shows U.S. students are below the international average in Math, and average in reading and science.
Quite frankly, without immigration bringing the best and brightest to our shores, I think we would be in a world of hurt.
If we had to rely solely on what is being produced by our school systems, it would be too scary to contemplate.
I happen to agree with most of those idea’s listed on their website.
It goes without saying kids that aren’t eating probably aren’t learning.
I think we should raise the pay, and the requirements for teachers. Pay them more, but also raise the requirement to teach to a Masters Degree.
On the question of class sizes though, how small do they need to be?
Also, less testing. Not sure what the right amount of testing is, but I don’t see any other way to objectively determine how much learning is taking place without some testing.
I think that properly implemented they will have some effect. However, will they get us to the level of South Korea, Japan, Germany or Finland? I’m doubtful