On Sat, 3 Feb 2007 19:34:31 -0600, "Morris Dovey"
wrote:

J. Clarke wrote:

| The schools had those parents for 12 years and the thing that amazes
| me is that those parents are willing to let that system get its
| hands on _their_ kids.

Well, actually the parents don't have (or don't think they have) a
choice.

Skipping country is always an option.

| First, shoot the "educators" and the education professors and the
| education theorists and burn all the education texts and start over
| with a clean slate--it would be difficult for them to do worse than
| what we have now.

Even in Texas I don't think you can do that. It's important to
remember that no matter where you're going, you can only start from
where you are. I suspect (but don't actually know) that Texas'
educators could do a lot worse than is being done now. I'll also guess
that there are ways to make *huge* improvements without spending very
much.

Of course there are, but does the theory on which educators are
operating allow it?

How many Texas school districts are tapping into local (volunteer)
resources to add substance to their programs? For example, the HISD
sits in what must be an ocean of "rocket scientists" and engineers
posessed of awesome math and computer skills - people who know for a
fact that with the right intellectual tools, not even the sky is a
limit. It's probably worth asking: "How many times in how many years
has the HISD tapped that wealth of knowledge and enthusiasm so that
it's students might catch fire?"

Do any of those engineers and scientists have teaching certificates in
math or "computer literacy"? If not then they aren't "qualified". My
high school chemistry and physics teacher was associated with the
Manhattan Project. One year she was not allowed to teach physics or
chemistry because according to some piece of education-theoretical
bureaucratic nonsense she wasn't "qualified", while Johnny Mac "the
only physics I ever took was Ex-Lax" the football coach was according
to the rules "qualfiied" and so he taught physics and chemistry.

| And this won't happen until the teachers actually _know_ from first
| hand experience what value that knowledge has in their world beyond
| school. And that can't happen as long as most teachers go from
| school to teachers' college to teaching school without ever once
| having to find out how to apply that knowledge themselves.

I don't want to hear someone say that this isn't a solvable problem.

The trouble is getting there from here without going somewhere else
first.

All you're talking about here is getting teachers a little exposure to
the world outside their classrooms!

First you have to convince the educational theorists that the teacher
actually has to have such experience, until then they'll fight you
tooth and claw.

Perhaps it'd be worth developing
an internship program and mandating three months of participation in
field-related work prior to granting a masters degree in education...

How many teachers have a master's degree?

| Oh, the kids know why they're taking the courses. Because each one
| takes them one step closer to escaping from durance vile.

Regrettably each step along _this_ path leads down, rather than up.

Unfortunately. Personally I maintained a good enough average to be
accepted to Annapolis and Georgia Tech, but if someone had burned the
school to the ground I'd have been the first to thank him.

Kids need to know that they're not wasting their time in school.

To convince them of that first you have to be sure that they _aren't_
wasting their time.

Being
kids, they need to experience some excitement in learning, they need
to feel the thrill of discovery - and, above all, they need to
recognize that they are capable of accomplishing worthwhile things.
_This_ is the path /up/!

Oh, they recognize that they are capable of accomplishing worthwhile
things. The trouble is that instead of accomplishing worthwhile
things they're stuck in school.

|| only thing I did differently was to make sure they understood
|| _why_ we studied each topic and how mastering the course material
|| might affect their lives. That tiny bit extra was all they needed!
|
| And that's the difference between you and a typical schoolteacher.
| You actually _know_ how to apply that math to real-world problems.

So? Let's ask The Big Question: "What can be done to help
teachers-to-be gain that experience/perspective?"

And the answer, alas, begins with shooting all the education
theorists.

Of course there's also the "them as can do, them as can't teach"
issue--any teacher who can get a job that gains that experience and
perspective is unlikely to give it up to teach school.