Teacher: How school reformers have redefined my profession — and diminished it
For years now, teachers have been speaking out about changes in their profession that have resulted from school reforms that educators say have, among other things, diminished their authority in the classroom and altered how they interact with students. Here is a thoughtful new piece looking at the consequences of these changes from veteran educator Peter Greene, who teaches English in a small town in Pennsylvania and writes theCurmudgucation blog, where this post first appeared. I am republishing it with permission.
By Peter Greene
My wife is taking a professional development course this weekend, and one of her classmates (a football coach) brought up one the truly genius models of distinguishing between types of coaching. If you’re active in the world of coaching, you may know these terms, but for the rest of us, let’s talk abouttransactional and transformational coaching.
The transactional coach is trying to make a deal. The athlete has a skill, a power, a strength that the coach needs to win games, so the coach works hard to get that game-winning something out of the athlete. The work between athlete and coach is about developing a particular skill out of the athlete with the goal of wining. If the athlete loses the ability to produce, then the coach no longer needs the athlete, discards the athlete, replaces the athlete, moves on. If the athlete has no ability to produce, that athlete can ride the bench or just get off the team. If the athlete can’t help get a W, the athlete is of no use to the Teacher: How school reformers have redefined my profession — and diminished it - The Washington Post:
