Your best public policy lessons on any issue come from observing at the ground level. And since I’ve got no kids and haven’t seen the inside of a school since the early 1990s, I often steer clear of education debates. It’s complicated, emotional stuff, which I learned when a deeply progressive colleague and parent told me she thought rightwing education wonk Sol Stern [1] made some important points....
Your best public policy lessons on any issue come from observing at the ground level. And since I’ve got no kids and haven’t seen the inside of a school since the early 1990s, I often steer clear of education debates. It’s complicated, emotional stuff, which I learned when a deeply progressive colleague and parent told me she thought rightwing education wonk Sol Stern [1] made some important points. That said, Chris Bowers over at Open Left [2] seems to have a solidly commonsense point about the White House’s show [3] on merit pay for teachers.
My mom’s a retired grade school teacher and I have several friends who teach or have taught. Maybe I’ve got a skewed, unscientific sample, but where are all these awful, lazy, good-for-nothing teachers I’m always hearing about? Most of the folks I meet who work in schools are frustrated, over-worked and doing their best to make something out of nothing—whether it be pennies for teaching supplies, scarcely few free moments to have meaningful interaction with kids, or counterproductive parents. Seems like they need help, not scapegoating. But that’s me. What y’all parents think?
--KAI WRIGHT
Links:
[1] http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/stern__s.htm
[2] http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=71593EE63AFB9FB4CF74E006073BBD77?diaryId=12125
[3] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/10/AR2009031000146.html?hpid=topnews