K-12 Curriculum Change
Ken Robinson mentioned that “…it is education that’s meant to take us to the future we can’t grasp.” Education has become a very important asset in every person’s life. Society evolved to this stage where education is required to achieve success. To best prepare K-12 students for the unpredictable future, a better teaching staff is essential.
From the past readings and documentaries I’ve encountered, it is clearly evident that K-12 students are not getting the proper education needed to achieve success. Some students take education for granted and some look at education as “a way out.” No matter the circumstance, teachers are obligated to help guide their students to a brighter future. Unfortunately, in the movie Waiting for Superman, various students from interviews shared their experiences of an unsuccessful educational system. The No Child Left Behind Act, signed by President Bush in 2002, required states to test students annually in reading and mathematics. From the first wave of results, students scored in between a 20%-40% proficiency level in both math and reading comprehension. All over the nation, there is “a pattern of students failing to succeed and dropping out of high school” (Waiting for Superman). A number of students drop out of school because their level of education was not on par with the state requirements. This is primarily due to the teacher’s ineffectiveness in engaging with the students’ needs.
To better address the students’ needs in their educational career, the teaching staff must be improved. This would include a better teacher training program and a change in salaries. Starting with a better teacher training program, it is crucial to explore different methods that will help raise good teachers. Examples of the different methods include mentoring and student-teaching.
Mentoring is one method of a better teaching training program. There were a number of scenes from the movie Chalk, which used this method. Mentoring could be done in different ways however; it involves some variation of pairing up an experienced teacher with a new teacher. This combination is very important because this allows experienced teachers to share their experiences and provide advice to new teachers. In the movie Chalk, Mr. Lowrey, a first year history teacher, had difficulty in gaining control over his students and classroom. Whenever he was in front of the class, he always seemed nervous and unprepared. However, during lunch breaks, Mr. Lowrey and a number of the staff ate lunch together. This short period of time allowed Mr. Lowrey to learn from the other experienced teachers. He was able to question and learn student behaviors and different teaching methods. Over the course of the school year, Mr. Lowrey slowly improved and became a better teacher compared to the beginning of the year.
Another method of a better teaching training program was student-teaching. Student-teaching is not a new method. It is a well-known, well-practiced method of creating teachers today. To improve the training program, student-teaching should be prolonged. This is entirely because student-teaching is the best way to expose new teachers to real-life scenarios. In a classroom setting, a student-teacher gets the benefit of getting first-hand experience in the teaching industry. Not only does student-teaching offer exposure to real-life applications, it also offers a time of reflection. It is understandable that teaching is not for everyone. Mr. Lowrey quotes, “Being a teacher is a gift.” Early exposure can help determine if one would like to pursue the career as a teacher. Uncovering misgivings and apprehension can avoid the problem of raising bad teachers.
The educational system, as of now, is not working as effectively as it should. The second way of improving the teaching staff is changing the salaries of the instructors by offering a merit-based payroll. Under this main idea, two major changes would occur. The first change would be incentives for good teachers. The second change would be re-evaluating tenure.
Offering a merit-based payroll would improve the teaching staff. The first change under this idea is incentives. It is a fact that good teachers are being underpaid. Good teachers do more work than what they earn. A complete change in salary may be unrealistic in modern society however, offering incentives are a good alternative. Incentives could be in any shape or form. Good teachers deserve to be rewarded for their hard work.
The second change under the change in payroll is re-evaluating tenure. Tenure was first established to protect college professors from getting fired due to unreasonable cause like political reasons. Now, tenure is a guarantee of lifetime employment in an academic career and it is offered to public school instructors automatically. This poses a number of problems because it could encourage laziness and ineffectiveness. Over time, this bred a number of bad teachers. Because of tenure, bad teachers are protected from job termination and continue to grow like a contagious disease. The proposed change would be to re-evaluate tenure. Instead of being a lifetime guarantee, tenure should be something that can be gained or lost. Rewarding tenure should be based on teaching ability and success. It is unfair for bad instructors to be guaranteed security. Tenure should only be given to teachers that deserve it.
Dan Brown poses the question, “What makes a great teacher?”
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