"You make some valid points Dylanfan,"
Some? EVERY point is valid. : )
"but government workers (like teachers) should all be held accountable for their performance and it's the American way to use money as the incentive."
That's fine. I'm a teacher, and I'm willing to be held accountable, but not based on tests. DylanFan only scraped the surface of why that doesn't make sense and would actually work against much of what we need in education (teacher collaboration, to name one thing). But of course, I've offered analysis after analysis over the months I've been here (and it's nice to know I'm not the only teacher), and few have engaged seriously, instead depending on rhetoric like, well, like this:
"It's because of the unions and the tenure system that teachers just don't care about students that fall through the cracks and leave school functionally illiterate. "
Now we're in "fuck you" land. That's a bullshit statement, pal. Teachers? Teachers just don't care about students? Do you know any teachers? Frustrated? Yes. Paralyzed by mandates and paperwork? Yes. Fed up with excuses from students (and parents)? Yes. Apathetic or lacking compassion? Hell NO.
"They put the blame on the students and apathetic parents, but I tend to think it's the teachers. I went to a private Catholic high school and although I don't care for their religious philosophy, it's obvious after attending state college, that the Catholics had far more dedicated teachers and as a result I was way ahead of the public school kids in every subject from the start. In fact, in my first two weeks of college I was advanced in math, English and writing classes by examination alone."
The vast majority of teachers I know are passionate and dedicated, smart and competent (or well beyond competent). You tend to think it's the teachers? Good for you. You know what, my anecdote is as good as yours--when I went to college, I found that I was way beyond my private/parochial school peers in nearly every way.
And are you really dismissing the importance of parents' roles in their children's education?
As I've said over and over again, there are certainly flaws in the public school system, and they need addressing. But to assert that these problems are all the fault of teachers and unions, and that teachers are lazy or incompetent or lacking compassion, is... Well, it's either ignorance, willful ignorance, or pure provocation. (And no, I'm not as pissed as some of this sounds, but yes, this sort of crap gets my dander up.) There are three pillars to a student's success: student, parent, teacher. If any one of them is weak, the student suffers. It really is that simple.
Perry may have a point; he may be engaging in empty rhetoric. I don't know him or his philosophy/ideology, and I don't know the requirements of the education stimulus (a stupid phrase, btw). I think tying money to very specific programs is problematic. I think the merit pay aspect of Race to the Top is a terrible, terrible idea, for more reasons than can be listed here, but I think teacher accountability is a valid concept, though an offensive buzzword. At the same time, I'd like students and parents to face some sort of accountability, too. Is a doctor responsible for a patient's health, all alone? Of course not. He or she is responsible for diagnosis and treatment; the patient has to act on those things. Why do teachers so often get bashed in ways other professionals do not?
