[oclug] teachers (part 2)

[Mike]

On Sunday 03 March 2002 10:33, David F. Skoll wrote:
> On Sun, 3 Mar 2002, Mike Roy wrote:
>
> There are a lot of lousy computer programmers.  And lawyers.  And
> doctors. Yet no-one is up in arms about that.

With a bad doctor, lawyer or programmer we have the option of going 
elsewhere.  With teachers there has not been much of an option, but home 
schooling is growing.  I keep suggesting to the home schoolers I know 
that the kids would learn a lot and have some fun fixing an old machine 
and running linux on it.
>
> > 	An increased population, reduced funding, poor leadership and laxity
> > have all contributed to the mess our education system is in. But
> > until there's an efficient flushing system to week out stupid
> > teachers, and keep them out, then we stuck.
>
> I think teachers have been scapegoated and are getting fed up, which
> is why they resist competency testing.  I think it's absurd that
> computer programmers get paid more than teachers, for example.  And
> teachers are constrained by local and provincial politics.  I'm sure

The teachers who have the greatest influence on children are also the 
lowest paid.  Another problem is that the competency test may not 
actually be measuring the competencies of a good teacher, but rather  
memorization of provincial regulations and cirrculum.  Until we can 
determine what makes a good teacher how can we test for it?