Education

[nic]

I am for merit pay too.

I was not confusing posters, I posted that reply to BigRed.

Oops. I will claim my notification steered me  wrong, when in reality, it's senility. 

 

[teachercd]

Oops. I will claim my notification steered me  wrong, when in reality, it's senility. 

No worries!  It happens!

 

[JJ Husker]

I’m a firm believer that school performance is a reflection of the parents/families of the district.

For the most part, I agree with this.  There is only so much a teacher can do with a student that doesn’t have the support at home also.  
 

I think the leadership at each individual school is pretty important too in order to provide a good learning environment.   We’ve had good principals and bad ones and as parents, you could tell the difference and so could the teachers we would talk with 

Yes, absolitely, school performance and teacher performance to some degree are highly attributable to the luck of the draw on students and their parents.

I’m certain many teachers in poor situations are much better teachers than many that are in the perfect district or school. This is one reason why any standard evaluation is almost impossible for teachers. It is reliant on factors outside the teachers control. The other thing that makes merit based raises tough is that most school districts don’t have extra money to throw at their best teachers. If the good ones get more money that would leave less for everyone else. Its different than most businesses because revenues don’t improve with exceptional performance. If they give out merit raises then all of sudden there are positions they can’t afford to staff.

We had a kid in the K-12 system for about the 19 consecutive years. In that time we experienced one bad (horrible really) elementary school teacher and a couple I would say that were marginal/poor. All the others were very good and quite a few who were amazing/exceptional. As far as principals, one was terrible (didn’t realize she was in an extremely good situation of students/parents and instead treated everyone like she was in some inner city s#!thole school), a bunch of average principals and a couple really good ones.

I have to agree with the majority here, bad teachers aren’t a huge problem but yes they need to be drummed out. And I see no way to fairly evaluate teachers other than to keep an eye on them to weed out any bad ones.  Unfortunately there usually isn’t enough money to reward them for performance. Maybe that will change someday.

 

[admo]

I have nothing to add, except this.

@BigRedBuster

@teachercd

@funhusker

and @GSG

I just finished reading page 26 thru 31, and it has been a fascinating discussion.  I get where Buster is coming from, but I really do hope all of our teachers here on HB get massive raises.  I can tell yall are really good at your jobs.  

Also, will try to add some upvotes later, and finish reading page 31-34 with some popcorn tonight.  

Sorry for the interruption, but I felt compelled to compliment yall. 

 

[teachercd]

I have nothing to add, except this.

@BigRedBuster

@teachercd

@funhusker

and @GSG

I just finished reading page 26 thru 31, and it has been a fascinating discussion.  I get where Buster is coming from, but I really do hope all of our teachers here on HB get massive raises.  I can tell yall are really good at your jobs.  

Also, will try to add some upvotes later, and finish reading page 31-34 with some popcorn tonight.  

Sorry for the interruption, but I felt compelled to compliment yall. 

Thanks!  I would love more cash

 

[Lorewarn]

I would prefer the kids learn about the constitution and branches of government... But if they are fair there must be questions like "a professor from Cornell recently wrote a thesis on how sheet music is racist. Which political party would mostly agree with this premise?" 

I'd be 100% in favor of education curriculum that teaches and quizzes kids on identifying tropes and accurate or perceived stereotypes of people in political parties and ideologies.

Which major political party is a person flying a Nazi flag likelier to belong to?

Which major political party is a person who wants universal access to healthcare likelier to belong to? 

Stuff like that would be fun and able to help kids have better street smarts as they grow into real world

 

[JJ Husker]

I have nothing to add, except this.

@BigRedBuster

@teachercd

@funhusker

and @GSG

I just finished reading page 26 thru 31, and it has been a fascinating discussion.  I get where Buster is coming from, but I really do hope all of our teachers here on HB get massive raises.  I can tell yall are really good at your jobs.  

Also, will try to add some upvotes later, and finish reading page 31-34 with some popcorn tonight.  

Sorry for the interruption, but I felt compelled to compliment yall. 

Even @teachercd ? His user name makes it obvious that he is only a C/D level teacher.  :lol:

 

[teachercd]

I'd be 100% in favor of education curriculum that teaches and quizzes kids on identifying tropes and accurate or perceived stereotypes of people in political parties and ideologies.

Which major political party is a person flying a Nazi flag likelier to belong to?

Which major political party is a person who wants universal access to healthcare likelier to belong to? 

Stuff like that would be fun and able to help kids have better street smarts as they grow into real world

Oh man, I could only imagine a class on stereotypes! Haha!

 

[teachercd]

Even @teachercd ? His user name makes it obvious that he is only a C/D level teacher.  :lol:

I am sad that I chuckled at that!

 

[JJ Husker]

I am sad that I chuckled at that!

We’ll know you sold out when you change your name to firemanAB.  :lol:

 

[nic]

Oh man, I could only imagine a class on stereotypes! Haha!

Isn't high school all about stereotypes? 

 

[admo]

We’ll know you sold out when you change your name to firemanAB.  :lol:

Fireman84K   chuckleshuffle

 

[nic]

I'd be 100% in favor of education curriculum that teaches and quizzes kids on identifying tropes and accurate or perceived stereotypes of people in political parties and ideologies.

You got your wish and the cat is out of the bag. Thank goodness that my kids went a to a charter school that sticks to the basics.   I bet this ends with half the country going to liberal or conservative schools.

 

[Ulty]

I would prefer the kids learn about the constitution and branches of government... But if they are fair there must be questions like "a professor from Cornell recently wrote a thesis on how sheet music is racist. Which political party would mostly agree with this premise?" 

You could have just ended the question at "a professor from Cornell" or simply "a professor," since people who are more educated tend to vote Democratic. Hell, that question doesn't even ask you to make an assumption, that's just statistical fact. 

 

[knapplc]

You got your wish and the cat is out of the bag. Thank goodness that my kids went a to a charter school that sticks to the basics.   I bet this ends with half the country going to liberal or conservative schools.

You found a school that is 0% political in any way? No questions in any class, any year like the one you posted above? No references to God, no references to race or gender?

I find that a little difficult to believe.

 

[ActualCornHusker]

I'd be 100% in favor of education curriculum that teaches and quizzes kids on identifying tropes and accurate or perceived stereotypes of people in political parties and ideologies.

Which major political party is a person flying a Nazi flag likelier to belong to?

Which major political party is a person who wants universal access to healthcare likelier to belong to? 

Stuff like that would be fun and able to help kids have better street smarts as they grow into real world

Better and more accurate questions would be:

Which major political party wants dissenting voices silenced entirely and then whines about the other party wanting to do away with democracy?

Which major political party has repeatedly pushed to lower the voting age to 16 because they know that age group is easily manipulated through emotion and will expand their voter base?

Which major political party cried for 4 years about how embarrassing and incompetent their president was and then chose to elect a man with obvious signs of dementia, who for his prior 40 years in politics prior to his mental deterioration was consistently considered one of the dumbest members of congress?

I think the point is that NONE of these questions should be taught in school because ALL of the examples provided show significant bias just with the wording of the questions. Students should be taught HOW to think, not WHAT to think.

 

[funhusker]

Better and more accurate questions would be:

Which major political party wants dissenting voices silenced entirely and then whines about the other party wanting to do away with democracy?

Which major political party has repeatedly pushed to lower the voting age to 16 because they know that age group is easily manipulated through emotion and will expand their voter base?

Which major political party cried for 4 years about how embarrassing and incompetent their president was and then chose to elect a man with obvious signs of dementia, who for his prior 40 years in politics prior to his mental deterioration was consistently considered one of the dumbest members of congress?

I think the point is that NONE of these questions should be taught in school because ALL of the examples provided show significant bias just with the wording of the questions. Students should be taught HOW to think, not WHAT to think.

These questions get a bit more difficult since it can apply to both parties.  Could create some fun discussions in class!