Posted by Tim Harris Now, if it were up to me I would insist upon hiring the *best* teachers, those that have shown a continuing level of expertise that have enabled the students in their care to expand and grow as both students and individuals. I would set the salary at probably around $150K per year. Now, we have incentive and we have a commensurate reward! If a teacher starts to have students who do not progress, and I use the word “progress” because every student is not a college candidate, then there should be some sort of process that examines the reason a student is not “progressing”. I feel that failure is not an option, I believe that some are destined for a level of greatness and others must perform the mundane. I believe in accountability, period! I don’t know what function you perform for the school district where you work but your statement is extremely presumptuous, I don’t imagine you would be able to keep up with me for a day’s work nor after a day would you want to return the next. As to whether or not your family is “rich” is none of my business, to anyone in any lower income family most of us who work daily or own businesses, would seem rich. Why when I was a boy, everyone who had a father, mother and possibly a sibling, were rich in my opinion. I guess the crux of the whole thread is that I believe you shouldn’t denigrate a person for what they do for a living. I have a real bee in my bonnet about education in general (or the lack thereof) and educators in particular who strut around talking about how bad the parents are at home (granted that can be a problem but it’s been there for that category of student forever, it’s not a new phenomenon) and don’t demand that parents and students have a level of achievement that they set. We have, if you believe the current media, slipped from first in education of our youth to where I don’t really know. But I do know that schools and districts that permit a “move ‘em up and move ‘em out” policy are not earning their money and are in fact wasting our tax dollars. As for Lemil’s question about how long has it been since I’ve been in a classroom, well let’s see, if you mean as a student in High School, it’s been about 43 years, if you count the times I’ve read to students in class as part of my Rotary Club’s programs, about 4 years. Altruistic stories about “What Teachers Make” are fine, but we are now in a crisis of education and performance counts, if you don’t believe it does, just look at the condition of our system and the education that our children are receiving. You can’t blame the parents for everything. By the way, I forgot to mention that I lived with an Uncle for a year, he was a teacher in a school district outside of Fresno in Clovis, CA. I saw the life of a very dedicated teacher. In the end, he retired and one of the reasons was the academic climate, it was terrible. I attended the school where he taught and when we were discussing the state of education, his statement was shocking. He informed me that in today’s classrooms the students are only being taught half of what I was taught when I was in High School. Now I understand that it is in part his perception of the state of affairs, but even if he’s only half right, that is a terrible state for our system to be in at this time. In closing, I take issue with your second presumptuous statement regarding my children and their attitudes towards the teachers who did their best in some cases *not* to educate and in other cases, superb jobs of dealing with my children when they were in school. I happen to have had the pleasure of again meeting the gentleman who was my youngest daughters principal when in HS. He has now returned to the school district as the Superintendent. Upon seeing me at a function at school, we donate some of our business process to the local High School, he remembered me after 19 years absence due to the impact my daughter made not only on him but the school. I’m only slightly bragging but she is now the Human Resources Manager for a Wal-Mart Distribution center. We discussed the way it used to be and he also agrees that we have a problem. So as far as my children being in your school, all I can say is of my four children, one is as above mentioned, the oldest girl is a Legal Secretary in an office in Indianapolis and my youngest son is a sales manager in the legal services industry. The oldest was a telecommunications technician. They all did well, all only have a HS diploma and although we did have some of the 8th grade travails you mentioned earlier for the boys, it has all evened out. I do have questions about the grandchildren’s education, I’ve been involved to the point of calling people I know at the district level to assist in straightening out problems with the 13 year old granddaughter where the school administrators were being unreasonable. Since this is probably longer than is allowed in the message thread, I will sum it up by saying, I am involved in my children and grandchildren’s education as much as possible, I still say that until we establish goals that a teacher must attain, we are doomed to repeat the problems that persist today.
on 1/19/2007, 2:01:37, in reply to "Re: David Beckham, Pro Sports & The "Teacher"?"
I don’t for a moment believe I know you, I do on the other hand know quite a few teachers. Most, and I do mean most, teachers are sitting in a job that they don’t have to really meet a standard. They have tenure and once they attain that status, their mouths begin to flap about how badly they have it at work. Now most of that attitude here, I live in California, is brought on by the CTA, The California Teachers Association. They have resisted any standards or accountability where their members are concerned. Not only do they push their agenda upon teachers who do not necessarily agree with the “party line” they try to make the general public believe they are doing a superb job of educating our children. They use hundreds of thousands of dollars to push the Union line that “all teachers do equal work and should have equal standards”, no performance bonuses or lay-offs because the teachers class didn’t live up to standards. In virtually every other line of work, including the professional athlete where this soliloquy began, you are paid based upon performance. Whereas the pro athlete makes, bundles of money and I do agree to some extent that the amounts are extremely extravagant, even the carpenter makes a wage based upon his production.
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