(no subject)

[eirias]

Straight from the assmilliner: how we can solve all the education world's problems, including student learning difficulties and low teacher salaries, with nine hour school days.

*pause while I wait for the teachers in my audience to regain their composure*

Just once in this essay I would have liked to see him acknowledge that

A) students (and teachers!) have attention spans, and
B) when teachers ask for "a raise," they are not asking for "three extra hours of work each day, for which you will pay me the same lousy wages I already make."

It's a pretty old editorial that I stumbled upon while taking a break and reading WP archives; otherwise I would totally write to this guy and ask him, as politely as possible, if these things have crossed his mind.

Comments

[eirias.livejournal.com]

He didn't say "raise" in so many words, but it's strongly implied here:

One topic that comes up repeatedly in education articles and debates is the need for higher salaries and more job satisfaction to lure and keep the best teachers. Creating a longer school day can solve both of those problems. More hours can mean more money for the teacher, and more achievement for that teacher's students, which is just about all a good teacher needs to be happy.

Earlier in the article he notes that teachers at one school district with long hours got paid 7% more than teachers at a neighboring school district with a six hour day. He doesn't say exactly how long those long hours are, but just for comparison, the time increase he's asking for is a 50% increase. Yeah. That's actually a hefty per-hour decrease.

Oh, and not to mention -- "more achievement" from students is all teachers need to be happy? How about, you know, getting home before 9 pm? Hell, I'm not even a teacher and I could punch this guy for his saccharine moronitude.

I mean, it's not like it matters, because hopefully the people actually making policy decisions have at least a passing familiarity with the realities of education, something which seems to have escaped this professional education pundit. But the fact that there were probably some readers in the D.C. area who read this when it came out, stroking their chins, and thought "What a good idea!" -- it's just annoying. It feels like he's trying to exploit average people's ignorance of teacher's lives to win converts to his idea.

On general principle that annoys me, actually. I can't stand when people in positions of opinion-setting power make arguments that are so clearly misleading if you know the background, because it strongly suggests that it's not accidental, that the purpose is just to win over all the naive folk. And it's depressing because I have to imagine it works some of the time. Sigh.

[ksledgemoore.livejournal.com]

More hours can mean more money for the teacher, and more achievement for that teacher's students, which is just about all a good teacher needs to be happy.

I do remember this sentence and being equally annoyed by it for the reasons you stated! Does he realize how many hours teachers ALREADY work?! I hate when people assume that teachers work just the hours that they're in school. Hello, grading? Hello, preparing lectures, activities and lessons?! Hello, calling up parents? Supervising extra-curricular activities? argh


Earlier in the article he notes that teachers at one school district with long hours got paid 7% more than teachers at a neighboring school district with a six hour day.

Ok yeah I remember noticing this and being like, "well that's all they'd raise the pay?"

How about, you know, getting home before 9 pm?
You're absolutely right. On the days when Brad decided he didn't want to take work home with him so he did it that night for the next day, he got home around 8 or 9pm, and that's with just a 5 minute commute. So, that was a 10-11 hour work day right there. For a school with normal hours. (Actually, his school was a charter school and already did have slightly longer than normal hours, but not by that much.) I can't imagine how bad it would be under what this guy is suggesting. Yeah, you could just leave when classes are done, but that would mean you'd have to stay up extremely late grading and preparing every single day.

because hopefully the people actually making policy decisions have at least a passing familiarity with the realities of education

You'd hope, but unfortunately I feel like this is really not the case a lot of the time. :(

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

"saccharine moronitude" is an immmortal phrase.

"hopefully the people actually making policy decisions have at least a passing familiarity with the realities of education" Hahahahahaahahaha! *goes off to cry now*