Diane Ravitch: "Stop Trashing Teachers"

10/1/10.

As a child psychologist, I always depend on good teachers --- their observations of students, their commitment to teaching difficult kids, their insight into ways parents may guide their child ---- A good teacher is a gift to a student ---- and I try to enhance this gift to help the student make the most of what good teachers, chums and the educational climate have to offer.

"Diane Silvers Ravitch (b. July 1, 1938) is a historian of education, an educational policy analyst, and former United States Assistant Secretary of Education who is now a research professor at New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.
Obama’s misguided policies and the over- hyped doc Waiting For "Superman" have turned America against its teachers. Education expert Diane Ravitch on why the vitriol is so dangerous.

For the past week, the national media has launched an attack on American public education that is unprecedented in our history. NBC devoted countless hours to panels stacked with "experts" who believe that public education is horrible because it has so many "bad" teachers and "bad" principals. The same "experts" appeared again and again to call for privatization, breaking teachers' unions, and mass firings of "bad" educators. Oprah devoted two shows to the same voices. The movie Waiting for "Superman", possibly the most ballyhooed documentary of all time, explains patiently that poor test scores are caused by bad teachers, that bad teachers are protected for life by their unions, and that the answer to our terrible test scores is privatization..."

My experience teaches the following. Good teachers are everywhere, private and public schools. Bad teachers are everywhere, private and public schools. The Principal is a key leader that sets the tone for the staff and students. Teachers' unions sometimes help education and sometimes hurt education. Without sound rules and effective compromises, no school works well for students.

Educational vouchers work well in some communities, allowing minority youngsters to attend schools of their choice. Do vouchers always work? Of course not. But when they do work we should not stop youngsters from finally getting the education they deserve. Are unions always a bad thing for students. Of course not. Unions protect  teachers, but it is a process sometimes easily distorted into a protection racket for some incompetent teachers, leaving many children behind.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-09-29/education-crisis-why-testing-and-firing-teachers-doesnt-work/full/































.