Latest News and Comment from Education

Thursday, May 10, 2012

What About All Those “Bad” Teachers? « Diane Ravitch's blog

What About All Those “Bad” Teachers? « Diane Ravitch's blog:


What About All Those “Bad” Teachers?

Marc Tucker has an interesting blog today in Education Week (http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/top_performers/2012/05/teacher_quality_and_teacher_accountability.html) about teachers. He recounts his many encounters with incompetent, drunk-on-the-job teachers. But he uses this beginning to say that we really need to give more thought to helping teachers, encouraging the best teachers, and improving the conditions of teachers so as to attract excellent candidates in the future.
I thought and thought but I couldn’t remember a single teacher in my own experience, or that of my children or grandchildren, who was a drunk-on-the-job teacher. I went to ordinary public schools in Houston, and I had my share of ordinary teachers. I remember someone told me once that if you have even one great teacher in your lifetime, you are blessed. I was doubly blessed, as I had at least two.
But I must say, I never came across any of the horrible men or women who seem to give the reformers sleepless