In the case of many teachers, economic conditions are only making things worse. School funding is getting cut across the country, making a teaching career into what is basically a nightmare; thing is that the conditions are way beyond being just a nightmare. Sir Ken Robinson’s ideas are pretty much dead on what the problem with reforming education in society today is. In the RSA video, Changing Education Paradigms, he is basically saying that the main problem with education today is that we are trying to meet a future with ways used in the past. In other words, the education systems we use today were designed to be used by schools about 20-30 years ago. They are trying to use what they successfully used on our parents on us, but they are failing miserably.
In the article, Teachers Wonder, Why the Scorn?, written by New York Times journalist Trip Gabriel, sheds light on the fact that teachers usually do not last but 3 years. Gabriel writes, “Some experts question whether teaching, with its already high attrition rate — more than 25 percent leave in the first three years — will attract high-quality recruits in the future.” I don’t think it will. Soon enough it will be very hard to find a lot of good teachers, especially if conditions don’t change. When you get to college and start meeting new people, one of the first questions that comes out is “What are you majoring in?” Something I’ve noticed, while reflecting on people I’ve met and talked to about this, is that I hear very few of them say they are majoring in education. Something people don’t know about me (unless they went to high school with me) is that I was once attracted to the supposed ‘glory’ that came with being a teacher. I was only 12 or 13 when I thought about this and, as we all know, plans you develop at a younger age are least likely to be stuck to. As I went through high school I still wanted to be a teacher off and on, but it wasn’t until my junior year that I started to become aware of how bad the job actually is. I stuck to my plans to be a music education major, but changed my plans in the middle of my senior year. I had come to realize that the time and effort I was about to put into it was not going to be worth it in the long run because I wasn’t going to be making any money. I wasn’t going to be able to live the stable lifestyle I was hoping for. I’m sure that the things I thought about are exactly what is going to deter students from becoming teachers altogether.
Anyway, back to the matter at hand. My view on today’s current conditions for teachers is that the way these people are treated is unfair. They are verbally bashed in newspapers and on television, they are getting pay cuts or laid off, etc.; As a general rule, teachers in today’s society are highly underappreciated. This is because going to school has become so routine, or as Ken Robinson calls it: ‘industrialized,’ that kids and teachers alike would really rather be somewhere else. Having just escaped from the hell that is grade school only a year ago, I have to agree with Mr. Robinson on the fact that standardization isn’t the way to go. A big aspect of this ‘standardization’ is none other the dreaded yearly standardized tests that the schools force you to take. Those such as the ACT, SAT, in Kentucky the CAT tests, etc. Teachers teach the same stuff to you off and on until you graduate in order for you to pass these tests. Here is where teachers begin to worry. “Those who oppose the gathering momentum to evaluate teachers based in significant part on student test scores argue that it will drive good teachers from the neediest schools” (Gabriel). In other words, students’ test scores determine who is and isn’t a good teacher. I, for one, have always believed that there is no such thing as a ‘bad’ teacher. I find it more than unfair to judge by test scores because it is up to the students to make the grade; the student is only as good of a student at they want to be, so why scorn teachers for the students’ lack of attentiveness and will to succeed?
“Our children are living in the most intensive stimulating period in the history of the Earth” (Robinson). I agree that this is the cause of students’ lack of attentiveness. School is boring to them, so instead of focusing they think about the fun things they’re going to do when they get out of school at 4 pm. I am a strong supporter of the arts and think it a shame to cut funding for these programs. I am a musician and was in my high school’s band all four years, and as a student I always found a sort of relief when going to band class. I liked it because I knew I was going to have fun; it was going to provide an ‘asthetic experience’ that Mr. Robinson mentions. The reason for lack of focus in schools is because most routine classes severely lack this aspect. I am a huge fan of the movie Mr. Holland’s Opus. Mr. Holland is a high school music teacher who is frowned upon by the board of education because of his teaching methods and the fact that his methods make learning “fun.” My question is this: why shouldn’t teachers teach like Mr. Holland? Why should they have to stick to routine and make their jobs less enjoyable for both them and their students? Routine obviously is not making things any better, so why continue to do things that way?
Unfortunately, the teachers are talked down by media, government, and parents, so it’s particularly hard for them to enjoy their job when they are rewarded with nothing but grief over it. In Gabriel’s article, he gives a quote from a real teacher on what they think should be done: “’What we need in these schools is stability,’ said Mr. Cody, 52, who writes a blog about teaching. ‘We need to convince people that if they invest their career in working with these challenging students, then we will reward them and appreciate them. We will not subject them to arbitrary humiliation in the newspaper. We will not require they be evaluated and paid based on test scores that often fluctuate greatly beyond the teacher’s control.’” I agree, the less humiliation there is, the more likely teachers will be to want to teach, the more they will enjoy their job. A little bit of a budget increase may help to resolve some issues there are with keeping teachers as well, but with taxpayers as stingy as the ones that exist today, I don’t see it happening. With the economic crisis it is understandable that people want to save their money, but it shouldn’t mean that teachers should have to suffer because of it.
Sources
Gabriel, Trip. “Teachers Wonder, Why the Scorn?” New York Times. New York Times, 2 Mar. 2011. Web. 30 Aug. 2011.
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