I think we need to instill some new
principles into our educators, and the public education system in general. We
have so many problems that need to be dealt with where education is concerned-
waste, corruption, unions influencing policy, tenure discouraging effort, a
lack of choice in where kids go to school and who they learn from, a lack of
willingness to fire bad teachers and encourage the good ones, and so on. We
need to start changing the way we approach education, and I have a few ideas on
the subject.
We need
more great teachers, and we need fewer bad ones, not more teachers in general.
We need to utilize both positive and negative reinforcements to make sure
teachers that want to educate, and are successful at it, are able to do so,
while weeding out bad teachers that can’t hack it.
We need
absolute accountability in our schools, as well as at the Department of
Education. Taxpayer dollars spent on education should be tracked from the
moment it leaves the treasury until it is spent by the school or district. Detailed
records of how much is allotted, to whom, for what and on what it was actually
spent, need to be kept. General funds meant for general purposes should follow
students, but we need to ensure that schools are looking to teach, and not
simply to put butts in the seats.
We need to
give parents a choice in where their child will receive their education.
Parents should have the right to send their child to the school that they
believe will give them the best education. Government and unions should not get
a say in this matter.
We need to
take union pressure out of the decision making process- no more collective
bargaining without a direct vote from the taxpayers who will be affected. What
the teacher’s union heads do? They push for more money regardless of
performance, and less accountability for all. That’s counterproductive, and it
has to stop.
We need
have clear standards to measure the effectiveness of teachers, which aim to
achieve the best education for our kids, support and reward great teachers, and
weed out the teachers that don’t measure up. This goes for administrative
officials and bureaucrats in the education system as well.
We need to
eliminate tenure, because a guarantee of keeping your job regardless of your
performance is counterproductive to rewarding great teachers and weeding out
bad ones.
We need to encourage competition at
all levels, because competing to be the best is what brings out the best
abilities we all have. Competition among students is paramount. I realize kids
are kids, and competition among kids can get mean spirited and so forth, but
what I’m talking about is friendly competition based on effort and performance.
Grades are one way that we do this, but so are scholarships and grants. We need
to get kids to strive to be the best, not because it means others are not as
good, but because it means opportunity and success. We also need competition
among teachers. Teachers working toward having the most graduates or the most
successful students, is a good thing. When teachers aim to make successful
people, rather than aiming to get the right scores on their students’
standardized tests, it’s good for schools and students. Schools should compete
to be the best as well. When each school in a district strives for the most
honor students or the most students going on to college, students win. It works
all the way up the line. Districts compete with districts, counties compete
with counties, states compete with states, and America competes with the world. If
everyone involved in education, from kindergarten teachers all the way up to
the Secretary of Education, is working every day to produce as many well
educated, successful people as they possibly can, for the sake of making those
people successful rather than for the sake of hitting a required quota
established by the government, students win. Parents win. People win, and our
country will be much, much better off for it.
Let me explain something. There is
not a single unselfish person in the world, and I would not ask anyone to give
up the drive to succeed and benefit from their success. My approach to
education supports that sentiment. What does a great teacher want out of
teaching? My best guess would say successful students, and money in their
pockets. Most people want to be successful and to have money in their pockets,
no matter what they do. Teachers are no different. Here is my point- when
teachers compete to be the best teacher, AND we have a system that REWARDS great
teachers AND cuts out the bad ones, the great teachers will have success, and
money in their pockets. If we have a system where everyone who TRIES to be a
teacher gets a trophy (tenure, etc.), and we can’t find ways to fairly
compensate the good teachers, it is bad for ALL teachers. It’s the same as
giving every kid that tries baseball a trophy. If there is no benefit to
working hard and achieving success, who is going to try? And if there is a
reward (trophy) for doing the least amount of work physically possible, and
it’s the same reward you get if you DO try, who the hell is going to try? NO
ONE.
Obviously,
we have more problems with our education system than I can hope to tackle in my
own brain. There are answers out there. We just have to look for them. Let me
share my own idea for solving education problems that require an educator’s
knowledge and experience. If I think back, as far as I can remember, I’ve had
maybe 10 teachers that I would consider “great.” Along with my parents, that
group of 10 is responsible for the man I am today. Every good thing about me, I
owe to them, AND my parents. All of my faults…are my own- I see my faults as a
failure on my part to learn a lesson someone tried to teach me along the way.
Now, this group of ten includes women, men, liberals, conservatives, young ones
and older ones. If I were a superintendent, or a mayor, or a governor or the
president- I would be asking advice from that group of teachers. I trust them.
I know them, and they know me. It wouldn’t always be an easy fix, but I know
that if anyone could come up with true, lasting solutions to the problems we
have in our education system, they can. I think more politicians should go to
the source for answer to these problems. That includes those at the national
level. If you put together a group of great teachers and ask them what they
think needs to be done to get more great teachers and more successful students,
you’re going to get real answers. You may not like all of them, and they may
not all be politically safe, but you will get real answers that will make a
real difference.
I think the
biggest problem we have as far as education is concerned lies in the fact that
we don’t teach American history and American principles in our classrooms. I'm
not talking about what year the Declaration of Independence was signed or how
many men died in the civil war. I’m talking about specific IDEALS- American
Ideals. We don’t teach self reliance and personal responsibility. We don’t
teach kids to do the right thing because it’s right, rather than because it
will get you something in return at some point. We don’t teach kids that hard
work is a good thing, that success is a good thing, and that individual talents
and skills are good things. We spend more time worrying about self esteem than
we do actually teaching kids about the real world and how to survive in it.
That is our biggest failure in education. And what’s more, it’s a cyclical
problem. We don’t teach people to value freedom and individual responsibility,
then they grow up not practicing individual responsibility. Then they don’t
teach it to their children, and their children don’t learn it in school.
Eventually, no one teaches individually responsibility, no one teaches to
strive for success, no one teaches to be proud of individual talents, and we
end up with a society of people that won’t put forth effort and expect to be
taken care of instead of expecting to take care of themselves. Those same
people start to believe that freedom and free enterprise are bad and that
redistribution of wealth and "sustainable development" are good
things. Learning starts with parents, it gets reinforced by teachers, but
individuals must educate themselves as well- and we have to TEACH people that. The
longer we go teaching to tests, giving everyone trophies and acting like it’s
perfectly acceptable to never even try to achieve anything in life, the worse
off our education system, and our country will be. We have to get back to our
principals. We have to get beck to freedom, individual responsibility, and
pride in our individual talents and successes. Until we do this, we will not
see lasting improvements in our schools, or lasting improvements in our
students.
I’d like to leave you with some word-bytes, as I like to call
them, about education and learning. I think if we instill these types of ideas
into our education system we can make real progress:
-Teachers are not meant to mold minds, but rather to provide
the tools for minds to mold themselves.
-An education earned with effort teaches, while an education
given for nothing teaches just enough to harm.
-You can’t succeed without trying, you can’t try without
learning, and you can’t learn without wanting to.
-Blame often targets teachers and parents, but it is the
pupil who decides whether to think or submit.
-Diplomas and degrees are useless if the market lacks jobs
and opportunity.
-This is the first rule of learning: Knowledge comes to
those who want it, and seek it. If you do neither of these, you certainly will
not acquire knowledge.
-If throwing money at failing schools is a solution, then so
is throwing sand at a failing beach.
-Revenue meant for improving education is only as effective
as the last bureaucrat to touch it.
-Those who honestly value learning, should scrutinize not
the venue, but the curriculum and the educator.
-If a factory is failing, do you simply hire more people, or
do you fire those who can’t hack it, encourage those who do their jobs well,
and cut wasteful expenses? You know the right answer, and the same goes for
education.
-Self reliance is the best tool anyone can learn. If you
know how to survive on your own, you will never NEED to rely on anyone else
-Personal talent, intelligence and ingenuity are something
to be desired. They are neither unfair nor a burden to anyone except those who
refuse to find their own
-Success is not a punishable offense, it is a grand achievement,
and should be treated as such
-Freedom is our first principle, and our most precious. If
we lose it, we lose ourselves, and our future
Stay Conservative, and Keep Looking to the Future
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