Paradox of Experience in Education 2: Miseducation

Due in large part to the effects of the "paradox of experience in education" there is actually a rather large problem in this county with the perception of the value of educators - you might even say that there is a respect deficit for teachers in America.  We are all familiar with the insulting adage "those who can't, teach," but the issue actually appears to be much more insidious in nature, today, than this childish anecdote might otherwise imply.

When Mary and John Average-American need specialized work done on their house they call a plumber, an electrician, a roofer, carpenter, etc.... and when the plumber tells Mary and John that they need 3/4" copper pipe for this section and 1/2" PVC for this section Mary and John assent willingly, unsure that their plumber is not taking them for a bit of a ride, yet sure enough of a distinct gap in plumbing expertise, experience and know-how between their plumber and themselves.  Sure, John can replace an odd faucet or two, but for a really big, important job they are comfortable leaving the job to a professional who does this kind of work for a living.  This is all, certainly, very reasonable.  Yet the question must then be asked why Americans seem to have such a problem leaving education to professional educators who, after all, have a distinct gap in expertise, experience and educational know-how over Joe and Mary Average American?

When NYC was confronted with their own "education crisis" recently, for example, Mayor Bloomberg did not turn to a leading scholar, revered administrator, or renowned and radical principal to solve the city's educational ills, but instead hired a publishing CEO whose only credentials were, apprarently, that he had previoulsy attended school.  Not only has this new head of the NYC school system never been in charge of a school (let alone the thousands now under his command), but he had never even been in charge of a classroom!  If the Yankees hired someone like this to be their hitting coach the city would be in uproar!  Yet the hiring of this position to a person with absolutely no experience in education went, it seems, completely unnoticed...

During the latest swine flu epidemic scare the federal government turned to the experts at the CDC to lead the way to find and disperse vaccines and, also, to instruct local governments about how to deal with the effects of an impending pandemic.  The congress did not hold subcommittee hearings on what to do about the killer flu - polls of average Americans were not taken nor did a single vote about the "right course of action" ever take place - the doctors were left to do their job, the job they were hired to do.

During the latest round of "crisis in education" in America the same level of professional respect that was given to the CDC by the public has hardly been given to America's professional educators.  Indeed, during the last few years of public debate seemingly every public figure has been highly vocal about how to "fix" education in America.  Conspicuously absent from this debate, however, are America's teachers!  Not that teachers and educators are out of ideas about how to improve schools, mind you, or that they haven't been out there trying to get the public to listen to these ideas - because they have.  Rather, nobody is listening!  And why?  Because, teachers are not widely considered to be the cure for what ills exist in our system of education, but are, indeed, considered the very cause.  Why this is, exactly, I don't know, though I am sure if we dig deep enough we can find a few idea acorn that have since blossomed into fully fledged trees.

Though I am not sure what the exact cause of America's distrust of teachers is I can point out a few results. 

The very coloring of the debate about how to fix education in America today bears the distinct hue of teacher distrust.  Take for instance the pretty popular idea of "pay for performance" for teachers.  The idea sounds great when you just take it at face value - teachers should be payed based on their effectiveness otherwise they have no motivation to do their jobs well (see how the very point of origin of the idea is instinctively distrustful of teachers?).  Now, let's, for the sake of argument, just assume that there is a fair, equitable and reliable way for a teacher's effectiveness to be calculated year by year and school districts can use this remarkable formula to enact a "pay for performance" system.  Sounds fantastic, yes?  There is still one gigantic problem, however... under such a system SCHOOLS COULD NOT AFFORD TO SUCCEED!!!!  At the current levels of success schools and districts are already having to lay-off staff.  If you took a failing school, then, and within a couple of years "no child was being left behind" (as is current law) then you would have to pay every teacher at a substantially higher rate.  Such a system, if successful, would be like taking the K.C. Royals and transposing the NY Yankees players onto the Royals.  Sounds great at first, until you realize that the Yankees players carry with them Yankees salaries, not Royals salaries. 

In short, this is an idea that is flawed from beginning to end.  However, because it feeds so well into America's distrust of teachers it actually seems like a viable option to "fix" America's schools by solving what many American's probably perceive as huge issue - low teacher motivation.

There is much more I could write here, but for now I am getting a little tired of my own pessimism.  The good news is that what I know about the nature of Ideas tells me that all Ideas have their own rates of metabolizing (they all have their own distinct life cycles) and the optimist in me tells me that bad ideas tend to have short life spans.  In other words, once this current climate of "crisis" has subsided educators can go back to focusing on what they do best - teaching and learning.

Paradox of Experience in Education

What is rather amusing to me is that the one universal experience in America, today, is that of being a student.  Yet the universiality of that experience actually aids in the misunderstandings of the field of teaching!  Think about it - it is easy for an adult to assume that because they spent so many years in a classroom (as a student) that they therefore have a good idea about what it is like to be a teacher.  Here is the problem, though... the experiences these adults use to inform their ideas about education are their experiences as children and adolescents - just because they are now adults does not mean that their youthful experiences have been retroactively made more rational and reasonable - more "adult."  In other words, students (children and adolescents) make value judgments about their experiences, such as school, in a very youthful manner - full of emotion, often devoid of reason and rationale, based on little more than impulse.  Most of these youthful values and judgments will be later modified, as adults, based on further experiences.  Take driving, for instance.  Many teenage drivers are maniacs not because of a lack of skill but because of irrational judgment.  Once they have become adults, however, most of these drivers will "smarten up" and realize how dangerous they actually were at 16!  With the school experience, however, these students will not have a chance to re-value their school experience judgments as adults and are left (as adults) with the experiences and values on education that they formulated as children!  In other words, without an "adult" public education experience adults are left with their childhood experiences and values.  Yet, as adults now, these childhood values are used to make very grown-up decisions about education.   See the problem?  Know why a child's testimony cannot be the only testimony to convict a person accused of a capital crime?  Ask a teacher.

Welcome

Welcome, welcome, one and all!  This being my first post on my first blog I suppose I should take the time and tell you, dear readers, who I am and why, exactly, I have decided to blog.  As to the first question -names hardly matter, I think, nor probably should they be divulged in consideration of future employment possibilities!  What does matter is that I am a teacher, a high school English teacher, or rather (currently) a student teacher.  I currently teach in a small, rural high school in New England - a high school with both great promise and great problems in a region which shares these common traits.

I, myself, am not some 22 year old Melvin off the streets who could not think of anything better to do with myself and decided - "hey, I will teach!  At least I get summer's off!"  I am in my 30's, am married, with a house and a dog and blood pressure medication and have, until this point, lived a life of adventure, wonder, (sometimes) daring explorations and avid intellectual curiosity.  In fact, the only reason I mention this is that often, I think, teachers get into the profession because they simply love school (that being all they have ever really known) and don't want to leave the classroom.  That is all well and good and I am sure there are many fantastic teachers who entered into the profession because of this, but I am not one of them.  Rather, I have re-entered the classroom because I am an idealist and I believe that knowledge and wisdom carry with them enormous responsibilities to steward onwards those ideals.  Also, to be honest, I have never really had a choice: I have been a teacher (of sorts) since the very earliest of ages and this professional manifestation is only the latest in a long series of manifestations.  But enough silliness.

I will be blogging about my experiences as a teacher, as a student of teaching, and about life as a teacher, in general.  This is a fascinating time to be entering into the field and I hope that by sharing some of my thoughts and experiences I can assist, inform,  or inspire others in their own journey as a teacher, or, at the very least, can let others into the strange world behind the classroom.


Thank you for reading and I promise that my future posts will not be so self interested and, hopefully, more insightful and humerous.  Keep reading!