Quote:
Originally posted by Joe Sixpack@Feb 5 2004, 09:05 AM
Teachers need to be better trained
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Completely agree. I taught high school for a year and can say this was the number one problem in classrooms. Poor training of the teachers. Most of them were "readers" but not teachers. They could read from the book but were ill equipped to handle questions. They also didn't feel it was their job to have to motivate their students. I guess that's really a philosophical point. I had a conversation with a college professor who also held that view. But me, I feel a teacher should be an instructor on the subject, an instructor on general learning methods and a motivator. A GREAT teacher doesn't even need a textbook to teach. How to attract great teachers? I think, like you said higher salaries but also there has to be a process to use those higher salaries to identify and attract the right people.
Overall teachers were not even that interested in the subjects they were teaching. I can cite examples ;-)
From what I could tell, many were teaching just to bring a second income into their home and were just going through the motions. I didn't see much love for teaching. This was in a brand new school in a middle to upper middle-class district with above average standardized scores.
Of course, what Peaches is saying is dead-on. Parents can have an influence on their children that transcends anything that happens at school. Lots of poor kids with good parents end up with great educations.
Often the difference between kids in the same schools is what happens in the home. I think it likely that kids with higher expectations on them tend to have higher grades.
One problem is that most poor kids have parents who either don't have an inclination, the ability, or the time to instruct their children.
I'm a huge fan of higher standards. Raise the bar.