I think one of their worries in this matter is that sooner or later some individual's preference or opinion or personal choice will come into the evaluation of the teachers, and that arbitrariness will enter the equation, and then chaos will ensue.
I'll concede that someone's opinion will enter into it. I'll concede that sooner or later someone will not receive as much as they think they deserve and will bring up charges of favoritism.
I won't concede that chaos will ensue. A hundred years ago someone preferred the older geezer teacher to the callow young pretty teacher and kept him on even though the younger teacher was much beloved by her students. People shrugged and life went on, and the young teacher found herself a job a year later in another town. See how that works?
I strongly recommend reading Marva Collins' Way. The TV movie was striking but as you'd expect, it says a lot less. There is so much to learn from her experiences as a Chicago school teacher. Reading this book taught me a lot about teaching, and I repeat her stories to other people all the time.
Return to Excellence in Education&Quality in our Classrooms Marva Collins Way
Here is a link to the book I believe I'm thinking of:
Sowell is a fascinating writer; I've enjoyed all the books by him that I've read. Applied Economics is probably the next one.
I think you're correct about the worries about the evaluations. I rarely hear such realistic thinking from your side of the discussion, it usually stays at the ideological level, where people are motivated by strange reasons that only exist in the minds of radio talk show hosts.
ReplyDeleteIt's not chaos that the teachers are concerned about, it's a concern about a workplace where the teachers are subject to the same forces that service-sector employees are subject to in the private sector. It has nothing to do with excellence.
Prager often has economists guesting in some very interesting hours. It was one of these economists--and I'm sorry I can't be sure which one, though I'm inclined to hazard the guess that it was Thomas Sowell and that the book being discussed was Sowell's "Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One"--who said he liked asking his students, "And then what happens?" because it forced them to think beyond their ideologies to reach the practical aspects they hadn't considered. What's more, he continues asking the same student the same question several times, "And then what happens?"
ReplyDeleteThat was years ago but I learned the trick of asking that question of people whose policies I disagree with. When I was a leftie we didn't ever ask ourselves into this kind of thinking. "We need to take money from the rich and give it to the poor" never once resulted in asking ourselves, "and then who will provide work for people" nor "what will the poor do when they have it?"
In fact, we were far from it--instead, we patted ourselves on the back for caring so much for the poor and for hating evil rich people.