Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Improving Education

Teacher unions are great if you want to teach without the threat from an unreasonable principal but that is the only good thing I can really say about unions. For the most part I am against Teacher Unions because they support a liberal agenda and use the teacher dues to lobby for their liberal agenda. It is for this reason I will not join the NEA or the United Federation of Teachers. I believe the unions protect incompetent teachers. Read the article in The New Yorker entitled: “The Rubber Room”. This article is about incompetent teachers and it is such a travesty to our school system. The article relates the reason it is so hard to improve failing schools. It is well known that it is very difficult to hire good teachers in failing schools because there is so much extra paper work and headaches with discipline and unreasonable parents who blame the teachers for not being able to control their children. Principals in these schools are under so much pressure. This pressure filters down to the teachers and to the students. This creates an unhealthy atmosphere for learning. I believe teacher unions make it difficult to change our schools. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/08/31/090831fa_fact_brill

Most big cities have their poor under privileged schools. Most are found in the intercity and most are failing. However there are some real success stories out there. The unions have very little if anything to do with successful schools. I believe that parents and teachers coming together to make a difference in creating a successful school make the difference. One example of an successful school is found in Tampa, Florida. The Muller Elementary School has created an environment where the students have exceeded the state test scores. The principal, Bonnye Taylor, overcame the odds of 74 % of the student population at poverty level by creating an enjoyable learning environment that inspired student to learn. She commented, “Our school-wide, theme-based curriculum is designed to motivate attendance,” Taylor said. “We get all the students involved and we make the units fun to learn, which translates into kids wanting to be here.” http://advancement.sdsu.edu/marcomm/features/2006/urbanschools.html

There has to be an answer to these school dilemmas. I believe it is the responsibility of parents, teachers, and administration of each individual school to communicate and come together for the children. I believe that each school needs to create its own learning community that make learning fun. This endeavor is difficult especially when there is a lack of money. However, there are many grants out there for teachers and schools. Schools need to explore all avenues and opportunities to improve student achievement.

(Let me put in my views: I would not support any government intervention even though that seems to be President Obama’s new agenda. This disturbs me for many reasons but the most pressing one for me is that I believe he is trying to take the focus off the health issue which is failing.) Enough said, this is another issue I want to deal with in this blog.

I would welcome anyone to comment on their successful schools or a difference of opinion about unions.

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