K-12 Curriculum Change
Ken Robinson mentioned that "...it is education that's
meant to take us to the future we can't gasp." 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, done by raising more
good teachers and extracting bad teachers, 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 unsuccessfully educational system. The No Child Left
Behind Act, signed by President Bush in 2002, required states to test students
annually in reading and mathematics. Based on the results, students
scored 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 to raise good teachers and a method of extracting bad
teachers from the system. Starting with a better training program, it is
crucial to explore different methods that will help raise good teachers.
Examples of different methods include mentoring, student-teaching and changing
salaries.
Mentoring is one method of a better 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 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 seemed nervous and unprepared. As a result, his student took
advantage of this and was rebellious in return. However, during lunch
breaks, Mr. Lowrey and a number of the staff ate together. This short period of
time enabled Mr. Lowrey to share his problems and learn from the
experienced staff. He was able to question and learn student behaviors and
different teaching methods. Over the course of the year, Mr. Lowrey slowly
improved and became a better teacher compared to the beginning of the year.
Another method that would improve the training program is
student-teaching. Student-teaching is not a new method in the least bit. It is
well-known, well-practiced method of creating teachers today. To improve
this 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 a 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.
Changing the salary of teachers can improve the teaching
staff dramatically. Offering a merit-based payroll would be the best
example. Although it poses many questions and problems, a merit-based
payroll would reward the good instructors and discourage the bad
instructors. Incentives should be rewarded to hard-working and
dedicated teachers. For bad teachers, there should be a penalty. Bad teachers
should not get the same type of payroll as good teachers because it is unfair
and it further encourages bad traits like laziness and ineffectiveness. Changing
salaries could help shift the system away
from continually creating more bad teachers.
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