What's wrong with our schools? Part I

I'm tired of it. The armchair quarterbacks, bellicose pundits, venture capitalists, "curriculum" consultants, and alleged reformers have finally gotten to me. They have gone from an annoyance into influential. Who doesn't have an opinion about our public school system anymore? Whether it be Obama, his advisers, big city superintendents, billionaires, or film directors, the opinion is universal. Schools are bad, m'kay.

Hold on a minute. In this debate, it's currently not a discussion, who is getting listened to, and who is not? What biases, positive and negative, are getting the most exposure time? Are we using science or proven techniques, or are we relying on gut and intuition? I think we all need to step back and take a breath.

Money doesn't make you smart, powerful, or a positive societal influence

It used to be that educators could rely on the consistent support of the public to listen to teachers, and predominantly do the right thing. Today is different.

If we look at the Gallup poll on American's perceptions of public schools:
77% of people said their child's school an A or B
49% of people gave local schools an A or B
18% of people said the nation's schools deserved an A or B

Yes, my school is good, but not those other schools. The huge divide of 77/18 shows clearly that if you have a child in a public school, you are more likely than not to give it a good rating. If you have no children in school, more likely than not you will give public schools a negative rating. The clear difference is EXPERIENCE. Those who know best are involved in the system. What a novel idea.

Who is most involved in the system, and is there more often than not for altruistic reasons? Teachers. We are trusted to teach, but not on how to teach best.

Those that are trying to take control and demolish the public school system are preying on people's misperceptions. Schools are bad, so we must fix them, right? I'm sick and tired of amateurs fucking with my profession.

In this series, I am going to examine those who are attempting to influence our public schools: billionaires and Broad graduates, poverty and affluence, unions and administrators, parents, teachers, and students.