My Rooney thoughts for November 16, 2014

Just got done reading Ester Cepeda’s (Washington Post columnist) article proclaiming teachers need to be better educated.  Better educated?  What teachers might she talking about?  Teaching is a profession and just like all professions, you have those individuals who take their training serious and those that don’t have a clue.  When I was in college there were students who were serious minded students to the point of making one nauseated.  Others; not so serious.

She complained in her article about tedious sessions of “mini-lessons” and “group work “, which dealt with expressing one’s feelings.  So here’s a question: How do you get an elementary or high school student to express their feeling if you don’t know how to do it yourself?   Maybe the basic coloring, paper cutting and pasting had a purpose.  Maybe the videos about how to become culturally adept was goal directed.  Gees, Ester, hope you were paying attention, trust you didn’t miss anything.  Or, did you?

Later in her article she mentions how research has revealed that entrance standards to get into an education program leading to a teaching credential  is quite low, lower than getting into an economics program or a finance curriculum.  (Personally, I wish more economist and finance managers could have watched more syrupy videos.  Also, more classes in paper mache would have helped, never could get the hang of their graphs.)

Here’s a startling fact in the article: grade inflation!  Yep, grade inflation.  This is where a college student training for a teaching credential keeps receiving high grades for subjects that lack rigor and have lower knowledge or skilled based requirements.  In other words, receiving high marks for cutting up paper.  Apparently, 58% of higher educational institutions, which turn out over half our teachers, were found guilty of this practice. (I wonder if NCU was among this group.)

Well, Ester, I’m just an old curmudgeon who thinks getting back to basics is less costly and more effective.  You don’t need to up the standards; you need to weed out the bad teachers who hide behind tenure and unions.  If you want our schools to be successful make the parents more responsible for their kids.  Schools are not child care.  Almost every successful elementary and high school student I encounter have involved parents.  And, you’re right; we do need to take off our blinders.  We need to see that the ole three R’s and good, solid discipline still produces a good education.

Me, I just would like to walk into retail store where the clerk knows enough to make change correctly, just like in the good old days.  Don’t know about you Esther, but I still count my change.