Saturday, November 16, 2013

Yes, Progressive Friends, Millions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTLcM4iZSTo - Again, the biggest challenge currently facing the country and the American workforce is a lack of skills; a) skills specific to particular fields (the skilled trades, healthcare, IT, etc.) and b) general skills; reading, writing, basic computation, etc. (high schools are presently churning out hundreds of thousands of kids every year that cannot accomplish these basic things) and until this skills deficit is corrected, there will continue to be major problems ahead for us in an increasingly changing and competitive global economy. Period, as the President likes to say.

15 comments:

dmarks said...

"high schools are presently churning out hundreds of thousands of kids every year that cannot accomplish these basic things"

Thank the NEA, which encourages grossly overpaid and grossly underworked "teachers" who scream bloody murder at the idea that they have to teach kids anything.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

I guess that it can cost into the hundreds of thousands even to get rid of an abusive teacher. That's insane.

Les Carpenter said...

My sister is a dedicated high school math teacher who teaches algebra and calculus. She teaches because she loves imparting knowlge to students.

Les Carpenter said...

She has a masters degree (honors), works 10 hour days when you consider lesson prep, departmemt meetings, grading papers, extra after sckool help , and other non teaching responsibilities.

Les Carpenter said...

She is conscientious, she is UNDERPAID, and she is anything BUT underworled.

Les Carpenter said...

Generalizations are not represented of most teachers and serve no productive purpose.

Sure there are some unproductive teachers, just as there are unproductive employees in business and industry. That drives my sister nuts as well. But that is a small minority.

Les Carpenter said...

Perhaps it would be useful to look at the best performing schools and determine what is their recipe for success. Then emulate if.

Les Carpenter said...

Oh, and maybe, just maybe it is time for teachers to regain some teeth to administer discipline rather than disciplining teachers for demanding respect from students and the school adminostratio kissing the ass of students when they screw up. Mom and Dad, as well as school administration are often a teacher's biggest problem.

Les Carpenter said...

I could go on and on dmarks but generalizations are so much easier to digest right? Even when they are largely bullshit.

Les Carpenter said...

Guess my last two didn't pass muster. Oh well, time for popcorn and beer.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

There are a lot of good teachers out there, Les (I'd like to think that I was a half-way decent one myself), and I didn't mean to imply that there weren't. But I gotta agree with dmarks on the NEA, though. These people are against any type of meaningful reform and refuse to make any sort of distinction between the good teachers like your sister and not just the bad ones but the dangerous ones. This is one cartel that we really need to take down.

Les Carpenter said...

Acknowledged. My sister is not a big fan of the NEA either.

FDR and many others were right about public sector unionization I think.

dmarks said...

merit pay... she deserves the money being wasted on the deadwood.

dmarks said...

exactly will.

dmarks said...

she loves teaching and does not appear to have getting rich to the detriment of the education system as her main goal. Not the type of person the NEA mentality appeals to. No RN I was not referring to her, but I can understand your alarm. The lazy greedy NEA thugs drag down the real teachers.