What a great teacher is worth - Salon.com

What a great teacher is worth - Salon.com:

What a great teacher is worth
Think about a remarkable teacher you had — do you remember what they taught, or how they taught you?

Who was the best teacher you ever had? Which mentor immediately stands out as the one who has been most influential and inspirational in your life? This could have been a teacher from elementary school, or high school, or college. It could be a coach or a neighbor or a relative. Whoever it was, your teacher was someone who was an absolute master at helping you learn far more than you ever imagined possible.

Bring to mind a clear image of this remarkable teacher. Hear your teacher’s voice, concentrating on not only its unique resonance and tone but also some special message that still haunts you. Feel the inspiration that still lives within you as a result of your relationship with this teacher. Think about the personal qualities this person exuded that commanded your respect and reverence. As you recall memories of this individual who was such a powerful model in your life, it is likely that you can identify and list certain personal characteristics that were most powerful. As you review this list of qualities, it may surprise you to realize that very few of these notable attributes have to do with the content of what this teacher taught or even with personal teaching methods. What is ironic about this phenomenon is that much of teacher preparationcontinues to be focused on methods courses and in areas of content specialty. The assumption behind this training for elementary and secondary teachers is that when you study a subject in depth and learn the proper methods of instruction, presumably you then become a more competent and outstanding teacher. Not included in this process are a number of other variables that make up the essence of all great educators and infuse them with power—their distinctly human dimensions, including What a great teacher is worth - Salon.com:

Arne Duncan Has Learned Nothing | ACADEME BLOG

Arne Duncan Has Learned Nothing | ACADEME BLOG:

Arne Duncan Has Learned Nothing

Obama’s Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, writes, “Our efforts to improve schools have worked well where people have led with courage. To say otherwise is wrong.” As one who has spent 25 of the last 40 years in the classroom, as a secondary-school teacher, an adjunct college instructor and as a full-time college professor, I am certain it is he who is wrong. And that the real courage, in education, lies elsewhere.

Like so many making decisions about education in America, Duncan is besotted by numbers—or massages them, at least, to make predetermined points. He starts his recent article for The Washington Post with two paragraphs celebrating that fourth- and eighth-grade test scores are up—before admitting that twelfth-grade scores are flat. His explanation for this, circular and self-serving, is that high schools have resisted reform.

He then celebrates the increase in high-school graduation—but he looks at this only as a number to be proud of, writing that getting “more kids over the finish line of high school means many more have a chance to continue their education.” In light of twelfth-grade flat scores, that can be no more than just pushing recognition of failure, in point of fact, on to the next level: many of these graduates (as a recent look into graduation rates in the District of Columbia shows) should not have graduated at all and will face extensive remediation if they go on to college.

Duncan goes on to take credit for the increase in percentages of Americans with two- and four-year degrees and for the increased number of Latinos in college. I suspect that he knows these numbers cannot be connected to his “reforms” for Arne Duncan Has Learned Nothing | ACADEME BLOG: