EDUCATION TODAY-3

one thing anyone over 60 can say with certainty about the educational system in our country is that they try something new every few years-their is always something new to try- and when they try it we often find out it wasn't new at all- it has been tried before-there is always one NEW CURRICULUM to try-or some new emphasis in raising children from a popular psychologist-one recent trend is OUTCOMES BASED educational theory-the genereral trend that concerns me the most- is using a business model in eduacation-both for the general approach but also for assessmant of students and teachers-teaching is an art-not a science- and the reusults always depend on where the student starts out-what he is shown to be capable of- and teachers can only be assessed for their committment and dedication- after they have demonstrated their ability-aptitude and love for teaching-standards are essentiial in any case-The standards a teacher sets should always be as high as he can make them-the trouble is when you have a class of widely varied ability it is not possible to teach at a level that some or even most of the students cannot follow-the standards should be set for the amount of effort- the amount of committment and the ampount of desire the students has for learning- each assignment can be evaluated on this basis - and each student can reach his own level of success based on how hard he is willing to try-what he is willing to do to improve his work- i would not accept work from any student that did not meet a minimum requirement for neatness accuracy and a correct intrepretation of the directions- i would simply give it back to them to try again- with a penalty for the first attempt= this always showed me a lot with regard to the students motivation and commitment - if the student is willing to try again and does a lot better job on the assignment- you have a beginning- the trick is to be willing to read and grade a lot of extra assignments- this takes time but is ever so worth it in the long run-there are schools that have substantial numbers of Mexican or otherwise Spanish speaking students-they cannot be evaluated on the basis of a standardized test score- the entire echools test reults are skwed downwards when this happens- and it does not reflect the quality of the school or the teachers-another subject related to the business model is the notion thet education is a service- that the students and their families are customers and the teachers and administrators are service-providers-it is astonishing how often i hear teachers say they were forced to change a grade or change the content of a test based on complaints from parents and students- i heard of one student in college who called a parent on her cell-phone and reported what she thought was an unfair grade- the student then handed the cell phone to her professor who was then lambasted by the parent- this does not serve anyone- and the student gets an inflated idea of their importance and of their opinions of their professors grading protocols etc-when will this end?- when the schools have the authority to make their own standards and when the parents and students learn to adjust their attitudes to the school's policies instead of the other way around.