In Which I Answer Some Questions
A reader asks a few questions about teachers. I follow his questions with my answer:
No teacher says they are unimportant, but they recognize that teachers have less impact on children than their families. Teachers are the most important school-based factor in students’ achievement, but families matter even more than teachers. Research says the same thing. Wouldn’t you agree?
No teacher, or none that I know of, says there are no bad teachers. What they say is that student test scores
| Why do some teachers argue on one hand that they are not that important (discounting studies that show the value of excellent teachers, claiming that there are no bad teachers, insisting on equal pay for all teachers regardless of performance, avoiding effective evaluation, deriding the notion of excellent teachers in front of every child, claiming that poverty is destiny and there is little a teacher can do to change that, etc.) and at the same time question why they are not respected as professionals? If teachers are treated like interchangeable parts in some 19th century education factory, it’s because they apparently insist on it and work hard to keep it that way. |
No teacher, or none that I know of, says there are no bad teachers. What they say is that student test scores