Matt Damon's mother is a college professor, so watch and laugh as he defends teachers against a shitty cameraman. Aside from saying the guy might be a shitty camera man he makes a very eloquent point. Discuss. Are ten percent of all teachers doing a sub par job or is it the self-entitlement mentality pervasive in our society that produces shitty students?
The bell-shaped curve that applies to almost any profession also applies to teachers. A small percentage are either outstanding or horrible while the vast majority range from marginally-adequate to very good. It also applies to the students they teach. In fact, it pretty much applies to life in general.
I would agree with Damon that teachers teach because they want to teach. Their level of proficiency at same is not necessarily tied to their desire to do so but rather to their ability to do so.
In California, if we shut down the useless CARB (California Air Resource Board) we could instantly employ over 20,000 teachers across the state. That's how much money they waste every year.
The bell-shaped curve that applies to almost any profession also applies to teachers. A small percentage are either outstanding or horrible while the vast majority range from marginally-adequate to very good. It also applies to the students they teach. In fact, it pretty much applies to life in general.
I would agree with Damon that teachers teach because they want to teach. Their level of proficiency at same is not necessarily tied to their desire to do so but rather to their ability to do so.
The problem with the profession is no one agrees on how to accurately quantify what a "good" teacher is.
Is it the teacher kids love and are friends with? The teacher that is strict and forces workloads on the students? Is it the teacher that offers help after class and gives you credit just for showing your work or attempting the assignment?
When I was in HS I had a history teacher that literally would read the newspaper all hour. He would assign us pages to read at home and during class in our history books and that was it.
Then we would test on it. We were teaching ourselves and he was a teacher that my mom, my brother, my aunt and uncles also had....
There just isn't a way to get rid of horrible teachers and encourage creativity from the good ones.
Like Matt Damon said "maybe you're a shitty cameraman" but both jobs iirc are protected by unions. Most people dont' belong to a union and if you suck you're fired fairly quickly.
how does a teacher do a good job in a system designed to break people down into easily coerced worker zombies so the ruling class can have an endless supply of wage slaves?
If your comment about 'self-entitlement mentality' is a veiled dig at the welfare state then you're on the wrong track.
c'mon, the biggest part of the problem with the education system is not the teachers, its the students who are a product of their parent/s and society.
especially in the big cities and "minority" areas.
how the fuck can they teach these kids when they cant even get them to pay attention or shut their stupid mouths for 2 seconds.
and sooner or later most teachers will just say fuck it and just do the minimum they can and pass students no matter what.
Welcome to USA 2011.
The welfare system is just there to clean up the mess.
If the state is going to force people through a compulsory schooling program which effectually robs them of their intellect then it's only fair they should pay damages.
c'mon, the biggest part of the problem with the education system is not the teachers, its the students who are a product of their parent/s and society.
especially in the big cities and "minority" areas.
how the fuck can they teach these kids when they cant even get them to pay attention or shut their stupid mouths for 2 seconds.
and sooner or later most teachers will just say fuck it and just do the minimum they can and pass students no matter what.
Welcome to USA 2011.
You're going to blame the children? That's not going to work.
To often teachers treat their work like .....work. It's no longer motivated by changing lives or inspiring better behavior. After all they are offering the one thing many parents cannot. Book smarts aka academics.
Teachers are humans and get stuck in the same patterns and let kids slip through the cracks. Because there's to much resistance from parents, from principals, from peers and the system itself doesn't honestly expect them to do much beyond throw tests at them.
I myself had to have summer school for History. The man that taught that class not only taught me more than what I got in my regular history class but he was engaging and fun to talk to; while maintaining classroom authority and respect for the students.
Probably because he wanted to do it. The History teacher I had in my regular school year sat around and got by on his tenure.
If the state is going to force people through a compulsory schooling program which effectually robs them of their intellect then it's only fair they should pay damages.
Um. Are you saying society would be better without education? That one's intellect will simply "flourish" on its own?
Even if you privatize education all that does is make things much more expensive, reaffirm a "good school" "bad school" mentality and puts poor and middle earning people at an even more disadvantage. A total privatized system aka "The Ichabod Crane" approach of traveling home schooler/educator or private "Little House on the Prairie" school barns gives lots of power to few teachers (the good ones) and pretty much forces parents to form a "mob mentality" to make sure Ichabod teaches "the right" things?
Basically, moving toward privatized education and direct pocket education pretty much takes America back to 1830....not toward 2030 :dunno:
What other country in the world that is fairly comparable to America has privatized education?
