Why Are Teachers the Scapegoats of the Right and Left (The Real Educational Changes Needed)
As a teacher who has taught in both a public school in the U.S. and a private school abroad, there is no question that education in the United States has many problems; however, many seem to want to put that blame almost solely on the teachers’ backs. This is nothing new from the right; turn on Bill O’Reilly or other right wing sources and before you long you will probably be hearing horror stories about teachers. What is disturbing to me is that the left has seemed to jump on to this bandwagon as well. A new documentary has recently come out from the director of an Inconvenient Truth called Waiting for Superman, where supposedly much of the blame is put on the teacher’s (especially the unions).
Are there are bad teachers Sure. However, the bad teachers usually get out of teaching quickly, because they soon find it is not an easy job for those who do not have a passion for it. Could there be some improvements in accountability and in the union regulations Definitely. But let’s not forget that teachers unions are usually present in the states with the best educational records (just compare the unionized state of Massachusetts or Illinois with non-union states like South Carolina or Mississippi). However, to put so much of the blame on teacher’s backs is not only unfair it is dangerous, because it is simply letting other real issues left un-discussed. There are four issues that could greatly improve education which many seem to overlook in favor of finding a scapegoat in teachers. They are
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