Morgans wrote:
"Gig 601XL Builder" wrote

I have two problems with this. First, professional educators (read
NEA) are a big part of the problem.

I keep hearing "the union is the problem" mantra. Around here, the
only interaction we have with the NEA is the fact that they have good
liability insurance, and good legal programs if things really turn to
**** for a teacher. That's it. I'm not quite sure how much of an
influence they are, anywhere. They sure are not much, here.


Please note that I wrote NEA as in the NATIONAL organization and as a cover
all for the STATE orgnaizations. Unless NC is different, and it might well
be, they have plenty of lobbiest working full time to protect their rice
bowl.



Second how are you going to have the parental oversite without the
elections? And if you only let parents run for the offices or worse
only let parents vote then you get into the whole taxation without
representation thing.

Yeah, there are things to be worked out, for sure. The thing is, I
don't think parents should have real control over any situation, or
they will end up being a board of education with a different name,
which is not what I would want to see.

The whole point is that professional educators that know education
should be running the show, with parents giving guidance and
sugestions, only. No real power. If everyone says what we have is
not working, why not try something new?


One way or another you are doing to have to have some elected official(s)
with oversight responsibility. There is no way around it.


That is a problem with all elected governments. (talking about new
people
coming on every two years)

Yes, but when the future of our next generation is at stake, we need
something better than what government as usual is giving us, don't you
think? Also, what I see from far too many board of education
members, is that they are there with an ax to grind, and that has no
place in deciding how our children are educated.

We need to see consistancy. The programs come and go so rapidly, no
program ever has a chance to succeed, before it is changed. Things
take time to get going, and see how they work. If they don't work,
then change them, or toss them out. Changing them because a new
group has come on in control needs to be changed.



What if the porofessional educators or at least those willing to serve on
this board, in any given area suck?


Most school administrators come up from the ranks of teachers.

It is remarkeable how quickly they forget what is going on in the
classroom.


And what makes you think that the ones in your new program will be any
different?


It does help when they were a good teacher, I will admit. The very
worst administrators are the ones that went straight through to
administration without ever spending any time in the classroom.

I admit that I do not have all the answers on improving education,
unlike some others that have been spouting their own line of
fertilizer. I do feel I know what some of the problems are, however,
and many other teachers and people that are close to education have
echoed some of the things I have stated. We all can't be wrong, can
we?
If I did have all of the answers, or a majority of them, I would not
be teaching construction in NC, but instead would be upwardly mobile
in the national education scene. I am confident that I know that
some things I have heard will not work, though.


The education problems all boil down to a combination of some bad teachers,
some bad administrators, some bad parents, and state and federal lawmakers
and courts stepping in to make a bad situation worse.

We need to get rid of silly federal and state mandates for student testing
that require teachers teach to a test and little else. We need a system of
getting rid of bad teachers and rewarding good ones. We need a process that
allows us to get kids that cause problems out of the schools but only after
teachers are given the right and responsibility to deal with those on the
bubble in the classroom. And we need to make parents responsible for how
their children act when they are in school.