When I first started teaching almost a quarter century ago, my sponsor-teacher and first mentor warned me that because everyone has some experience with schooling, many people consider themselves experts in education.
And so it's not unusual for teachers to be offered unsolicited advice and/or opinions on the failings of the school system everywhere from the grocery store to the hot tub.
Most teachers listen politely and nod, but in the back their minds they're probably thinking, "Nice idea, but you really don't know what you're talking about."
It's not that teachers don't welcome the input, though; in fact, most of us are thrilled that people give a damn at all. Too often we work alone and feel quite separate from the "real" world. Too often we think that people see us as glorified babysitters, so if people are talking to us, maybe it means that they really do care about what we're doing in our classrooms.
It seems that these past few weeks, education has been all over the news. Not only has B.C. Liberal leadership candidate Kevin Falcon floated the idea of merit pay for teachers, but also the FSA (Foundation Skills Assessment) test debate has resurfaced with the BCPVPA (B.C. Principals and Vice-Principal Association) suggesting that the tests in their current manifestation should be cancelled. On top of that, The Chief's letters pages have been used as a place of debate for the relative merits and demerits of teachers, all spawned by coverage of a school-board policy.
Maybe people care about what we're doing, after all.
So that's all well and good, but I'm here to tell you that not only is there no "crisis" in education, but if there was one, there'd be no magic "fix" for it - not merit pay, not FSAs and not any back-to-basics agenda.
Harvard education professor Richard Elmore has said that "Education is a profession without a practice." Elmore is suggesting that educators don't really have defined standards by which they evaluate their practice. I'll go one step further, I don't think that they can.
Teaching is in some ways a black art and no one really understands why sometimes things go swimmingly, and other times we seem to be drowning. Any teacher with any experience at all has taught a class in the morning and had great success and then offered the same lesson in the afternoon to a different class and it't been an abject failure.
Why? Who knows? And who cares? Almost all the variables - at least the important ones - in education are just that, variable. Kids are "on" one day, and the next there's something that's triggered the "I don't care, this is just stupid" gene. When that happens, Socrates himself couldn't engage the kid in a dialogue.
But most teachers care deeply and work hard at it. Most really do try to find a way for their students to be successful.
Don't hesitate to offer you thoughts about education. I may be thinking that you don't know what you're talking about, but I know that I don't either.
