On Being Critical….

My earlier post about the school sign near our home brought some criticism on Facebook. The particular person disagreed and did not think that the type of criticism was helping, and I’m sure she is not alone.

And while she made some generally valid points, and did so without being unpleasant, I respectfully disagree. And I’m positive that my reasons below will generate even more disagreement. But let me be clear: there ARE good teachers, good schools, and good administrators. But they operate as an often-oppressed minority within the system.

First, the teaching profession is virtually the only one in our society in which results are, for the most part, not measured and for which the individual teachers are not held to account for the testing that is done. Yes, there are some exceptions as noted above.

Secondly, the teaching profession is unionized, and in most schools, by force and bonded to a monopoly of power by the WEA (in this state) and/or the NEA (at the national level). And yet, are these unions held to account? Not at all. They continue to strike for more and more while testing scores fall. Politically, the unions lean one way and one way only, and it has nothing to do with schools or students, and everything about power and entitlement. All that talk about teacher pay, and always demanding more…how often do the unions discuss the comparative income of teachers vs the average in that district? Or even better, that of administrators? They do not…and on purpose…

Lastly, and perhaps even more importantly, sometimes pointing out the failures *is* doing something. For too long, teachers and administrators have gotten away with poor performance and poor behavior without any repercussions at all. As parents, and as taxpayers, we should have higher expectations, not lower.

Especially when it comes to our kids.

My earlier post about the school sign near our home brought some criticism on Facebook. The particular person disagreed and did not think that the type of criticism was helping, and I’m sure she is not alone. And while she made some generally valid points, and did so without being unpleasant, I respectfully disagree. And…