A simple way to improve education

[MGX]

While we're printing money, why not pay all teachers 100K? Would that improve education?

 

[benbo]

While we're printing money, why not pay all teachers 100K? Would that improve education?

Nobody should pay "all" of any profession any set salary. Some teachers aren't worth minimum wage.

But to tell you the truth, at least for me, my high school chemistry teacher would be well worth 100K in today's dollars for how he motivated me, aqnd a lot of students in my class who went on to careers in the sciences.

And there are certainly a lot of people in many professions who make a lot of money that don't deserve it.

 

[picusld]

Nobody should pay "all" of any profession any set salary. Some teachers aren't worth minimum wage.
But to tell you the truth, at least for me, my high school chemistry teacher would be well worth 100K in today's dollars for how he motivated me, aqnd a lot of students in my class who went on to careers in the sciences.

And there are certainly a lot of people in many professions who make a lot of money that don't deserve it.

agreed.

 

[Road Guy]

I really think part of all public school systems problem is that most of their superintendants (or whomever they call the "chief / manager" of schools) are generally not business people but folks who either used to be teachers, or principals, etc.

If you watch some board of eduacation meetings you can see that the people are generally awarded the job becasue they have more experience teaching/adminstrating than they do managing / leading, this may sound odd, but they have to make decisions that are not strictly education related, but budget related, building new schools, managing bus systems, food ordering, etc, probably most of their day is not spent on how to teach johnny to do subtraction, but all the other crap that comes with being a government provider. They spend a lot of their day making uninformed decisions and then more time trying to correct them.

watch your local board meetings on the cable public access channel and you will see what I mean..

My parents are retired teachers, mom was special education and dad was a history teacher for 20 years and then a principal at an elementary school for 10. We lived in a rural county just outside what was considered metro atlanta at the time. most of the gripes that i overheard every single night at the dinner table were not about bad parents, lazy kids, but that the AC didnt work that day, suzie called in sick so I had to cover her bus duty, the "ditto" machine was broke, etc, same problems we all have, I dont really my parents ever coming home later than 4:00 / 4:30 until my dad became a principal.

My parents realized that they were not getting rich with their profession (are any of us?) but they have both told me that although their job wasnt perfect or great they are very happy to have had jobs with 80% retirement, I am not sure what the current teaching retirement is, but when you factor that in its a pretty good situation.

 

[Guest]

I really think part of all public school systems problem is that most of their superintendants (or whomever they call the "chief / manager" of schools) are generally not business people but folks who either used to be teachers, or principals, etc.

Interesting point ... and can be applied in a number of situations that extend beyond education. While I often make managers/MBA types the butt of jokes, they really do have their place in the bigger picture of how things work.

My parents realized that they were not getting rich with their profession (are any of us?) but they have both told me that although their job wasnt perfect or great they are very happy to have had jobs with 80% retirement, I am not sure what the current teaching retirement is, but when you factor that in its a pretty good situation.

Good point as well - it is really up to each person to determine work-life balance.

JR

 

[Capt Worley PE]

There's a trend to go into education administration around here. People go straight into assistant principal and pricipal positions with no teaching experience. As a result, the local HS had a 26 yo principal.

And, no lie, the bagger at the local supermarket decided this is what he wants to do because "principals make all the money."

 

[Dleg]

^Interesting. We have recently had a number of 20-something year old principals hired around here, and I just chalked it up to nepotism. I didn't know that this had become a trend, and these people might actually have been trained to be principals.

No, wait: it's just nepotism. Here, anyway.

 

[Kephart P.E.]

Parental responsibility seems to be a thing of the past, unfortunately. Parents are no longer expected to participate in a child's education in reading, writing, 'rithmatic, manners, basic economics, financial responsibility, ethics, commitment, etc.

I don't have kids,..... but the problem is that this problem of not being able to cope with disappointment is 2 generations deep.

I am 34, and got a taste of this "we don't keep score and everyone makes the team" as a grade schooler even then I didn't understand it. By Junior High most of this nonsense had not penetrated, and things made a lot more sense to me. I mean, it sort of takes away all the enjoyment of accomplishing anything if EVERYONE gets the same thing.

The problem and I started seeing this in college, was that by and large people were expecting to be "helped" to pass. If they failed a test it wasn't on them to study harder, they need the college to provide more support. Maybe this was obviouse to me because I went back to college after the Army, (and in there they try to make things MORE difficult not less) but I was shocked at the lack of indepentance they shown.

I have to say though, I read probably 4-8 hours a week for enjoyment, but I rarely read the chapters before each class. Mostly because it wasn't an effective use of time. Most Profs, would only ask at the most 10% of their questions from the reading, many less than that. I worked problems for each class. Now if I had been a History major this might have been different.