Mark Wonsil asks:
"Why do good educators, leave the profession and the poor ones remain?"

I heard a professor of education tell the old joke, "Those that can do.
Those that can't teach. Those that can't teach teach teachers." Just then,
the department head walked by and he hastily added in a loud voice, "And
those that can't teach teachers become department heads." There maybe some
truth to the old chestnut.

I don't know that all good teachers left education. The school systems have
banked for years on the fact that teachers love teaching. I call it having
chalk dust in your blood. They refused to pay a commensurate wage until and
for the most part still do. I know it broke my heart to send my kids to
school in worn out shoes so that I could teach other peoples well-shod
children. This made me think about finding another profession many times.

I personally left teaching because I could not in good faith believe that I
was doing no harm. I could not please my superiors and at the same time be
true to my educational philosophy. Since I was paying the school for this
privilege in that I could make more in another field, the decision to leave
was not hard.

Many teachers are too comfortable to leave. Certain subjects can lend
themselves to lack of effort. For example, an algebra class can use the same
handouts for twenty years. Ancient history, literature and grammar fall into
the same boat. Will these be dynamic, exciting and inspiring classes?
Obviously not but it may be enough to get both the student and teacher by.

Unfortunately, there are many of these teachers in our schools. Weeding out
"bad" tenured teachers is difficult. Getting rid of tenure opens its own can
of worms.

Setting standards for educational excellence usually means standardized
tests. As a nation, we are producing a generation that will be better
prepared to take multiple-choice tests than any previous generation.
Unfortunately, except for my driver's license renewal test I haven't had to
take a multiple-choice test in years.

Going back to the original National Geographic study, I think there is an
interesting point. Two thirds of American kids knew all about El Nino. This
was more than any other country. Why did they know about El Nino? Because El
Nino weather patterns effected their outdoors plans. El Nino interested
them.

I once had a student ask me if there really ever were Sumerians and if there
were so what? He had no interest in Sumeria. It became my job to answer
those questions and get him interested in Sumeria; make Sumeria as real as
El Nino.

One last point. I am not against home schooling. While it is no panacea, it
is also not the worst thing that can happen. The trouble with it is throwing
it up as an answer to our educational problems smacks of Marie Antoinette.
It is beyond the reach of the masses.

Go out this weekend and teach somebody something. If you are not comfortable
with that go out and learn something from somebody. Like we used to say out
on the street, "What goes around comes around."

Work For Peace,
The opinions expressed herein are my own and not necessarily those of my
employer.
Yosef Rosenblatt

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