Diane Ravitch posted a link to an article on her blog that compares 1930s Stalinist Russia with 2010s Obama America and the comparison is startling.
After reading the article by Lawrence Baines, I am profoundly disturbed for multiple reasons.
- I am extremely concerned that no one in the top echelons of the DoE has any classroom experience at all!
- What makes these people (the DoE) think they know what being a teacher is or how difficult the job is?
- If I had been judged properly in my first year (I call it hell year for many reasons – see my post here) I would probably not still be in the classroom. However, ten years in, I believe myself to be effective and although I shudder to even point it out, my students test results bear that out.
- How can they empathize with teachers who go home crying because of something that happened to one of their “cherubs”?
- I am sure I am not the only guy who has gone home and cried after seeing a student in crisis.
- How can Arne et al understand how essential collaboration is when his group has never had to consider the most effective way to implement a flawed curriculum to a class of non-English speaking students?
- Why does it make sense to train someone outside of a University and then expect them to be more proficient in the classroom?
My head is reeling after reading the Baines article and I am left with far more questions than answers.
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