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The case for changing the educational hierarchy 8b School Board Members
As a career educator I lack expertise regarding the duties of School Board Members so my thoughts are based on conjecture. I presume people run for the school board out of a sense of civic responsibility and concern about the children, although in recent years I have come to recognize some have ulterior motives.
It is important to recognize that school board members are elected without a prerequisite qualification requirement. This being the case it is extremely important that these elected officials recognize that there are educational decisions to be made that they are qualified to make and others that require they defer to qualified experts and not attempt to exert authority. The ability to differentiate between the two is paramount and when the decision making paths are blurred, manipulated or misconstrued, there can be serious educational consequences.
To this end, I believe it is highly unlikely that any school board entity is sufficiently qualified to determine teaching excellence, qualifications, curriculum, who should be hired and who should be fired for educational justifiable reasons. Those decisions should be left to the experts in the field and simply attending school or attainment of unrelated degrees does not constitute expertise.
Just as deference to expertise occurs regarding plumbing, carpentry, auto mechanics and medical doctors, it should be mandatory regarding something as important as our future. Allowing egocentricity, personal agenda, or deference to inexpert authority when making educational decisions should be grounds for removal from the position at the earliest opportunity.
http://www.danoettel.com author of THIS CAN’T BE RIGHT ‘The Education of an American Teacher’
The case for changing the educational hierarchy. Ex. 6 Teacher Aides
Teacher aides are well supposed to aide teachers. Certainly the merit of such an idea stems from the rational educational approach that leaving a kindergarten teacher alone with 20 children is an educationally inappropriate situation. It is unfair to the children, it is unfair to the teacher.
When a school principal removes teacher aides from lower elementary and requires they tutor upper grades, decorate the school, build floats, etc. they are no longer teacher aides, they are principal aides.
With 20 children in a kindergarten classroom, a minimum of two are likely to be poorly behaved and demand a disproportionate amount of the teachers time. The problem is further exacerbated in an area where families on average are larger and parents less educated.
Anyone who has ever taught 20 unruly five and six year olds, many of which lack social skills, recognizes it is educationally inappropriate situation. If they do not, I would argue they should not be in a supervisory position.
If the supervisor of those administrators knows the situation exists and allows it, I would argue they should not be in a supervisory position either.
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The Curriculum is Suspect
What if conventional wisdom concerning elementary school curriculum selection and prioritization of subject matter is incorrect? What if those in a position to influence curriculum selection, lack frame of reference in subject areas requiring delayed gratification adequate to form an opinion? What if rethinking the educational system meant putting authorities of subject matter in charge of the most chronological point in students lives most advantageous to learning their area? What if studying violin one hour a day, five days a week from grades two through four, at the expense of other topical areas proved to develop the cerebral cortex to such a degree, that those students who initially seemed to be falling behind comparatively, actually, measurably, and statistically, blew by their peers academically by the end of fifth or sixth grade.
It has been my experience that public education spends way too much time learning about perceived subject areas of importance and not nearly enough time focusing on how to learn most efficiently. I’m a lifelong pianist and prejudiced ok, I admit it. However!
I believe that the dendrite density of students having studied piano for three to four years from ages seven to ten years old or thereabouts, has shown to be eleven to fifteen percent greater than those not having this experience. I believe the implication to be profound.
As I understand it, dendrites are paths in the brain that impulses travel. The impact of greater lasting dendrite density would seem to imply greater global problem solving skills and in essence the ability to call on a type of greater pool of resources when reasoning.
Unfortunately, musicianship does not lend itself to immediate gratification, hence in my opinion, it’s lack of standing in public education. Now if I may digress for a reason that will become apparent shortly.
Groups of children were experimented on in the following way:
They were given one chocolate chip cookie and told they could eat it immediately. However, if they could wait for fifteen minutes they would receive a second cookie. The results were tallied for a rather large sampling group. Thirty to forty years later, the sample groups were polled as to life style. Overwhelmingly, those that displayed greater delayed gratification were more successful in ways most of us would suggest as being meaningful.
Public school back to math and science math and science. I get it, they are important. That does not mean there might not be academic areas more beneficial when studied at the right time, such that they actually accelerate comprehension in ways that vastly outpace the status quo.
The problem would seem to be, how do those of us who have spent a career in an artistic endeavor convince those who have not, the importance, implications and benefits of what we have learned?
Incidentally, I believe the dendrite density thing has something to do with thinking on your feet. When a musician gets in trouble, they must learn to respond to the situation and cover it, IN REAL TIME. In most occupations, when a mistake occurs most of us pause to think about it and what that means to us. The discipline required to persevere in real time and attempt to fool the listener both aurally and visually is something most people only get a glimpse of.
See ya later.
The Validity of Conventional Educational Wisdom
Math and science, math and science. When the media comments on the current state of education, they consistently address comparative world rankings among countries as if the results of test scores in these two subject areas are the items of greatest concern. Unfortunately, repeating the same theme over and over seems to drive the general public to buy into general premises with little regard for their validity. Although I do not deny that these topical areas are of great importance, I am not one to buy into the premise put forth quite so easily.
Education to my mind should be about problem solving, the ability to recognize patterns (a definition of intelligence by more than one source), age appropriateness, and prioritization of curriculum. Conservatism although valid as a political agenda, is oftentimes subject to an anal philosophy that undermines educational progress. After all, it is much safer to not rock the boat. Unfortunately, the prevailing philosophy seems to be driven by everyone except those who are authorities, the teachers.
It does not seem the least bit surprising to have profound difficulties in a subject area when of the four decision making bodies; parents, administrators, school board members, and teachers, those having by far the most expertise have the least amount of input when it comes to educational priorities.
FUTURE TOPICS
Mandatory musical instrument training at appropriate ages to promote dendrite density as it relates to whole brain problem solving.
Reduction of dead weight or too many administrators.
Core curriculum prioritization, memory enhancement in elementary education and pattern recognition development.
Addition, start with the left column not the right, duh!
Teacher appraisals should be done by experts.
Proper allocation of monies, coaches salaries, really?
Should how old you are influence what grade you are in?
danoettel 