[Vision2020] Why should everyone pay for MSD?

[Art Deco]

I agree about class sizes.  In fact, I tried to make suggestions and supply 
information about this could be how done, but I failed to elicit sufficient 
interest on the part of the local school board and superintendent.  The 
suggestion was to implement a well designed program of peer teaching.  This 
has been very successful, particularly in northern Europe.  It worked very 
well when I taught in Africa.

Anyone willing to spend some time Googling, can learn about the educational, 
social, and economic advantages of a well designed peer teaching program.

There is a great deal of research showing that challenging students to the 
upper limits of their ability also results in greater interest and 
performance on their part.  Some of my former students who now are on V 2020 
can attest that if nothing else, they were challenged, and almost all of 
them responded with stellar performances.

There is another problem which many do not like to speak about.  I will, but 
not meaning to give offense to any particular individual.  That problem is 
the quality of students who choose to be teachers and the quality of teacher 
education.  Although it is unkind and only partially true, there is some 
truth in the old joke:

If you can perform it, teach it.
If you can't teach it, join the faculty of the College of Education.

There are many fine teachers and teacher educators.  But alas, there are 
plenty of mediocre/lackluster/grind-it-out ones and some absolutely terrible 
ones.  In the context of the present global economic milieu, it is important 
to prepare all of our students to be able to perform at their best (in 
addition to being able to enjoy fruitful, ethical, happy lives.)  Hence, 
money (read taxes) needs to be invested in higher teacher salaries so that 
over the long run, high quality people choose to teach and high quality 
people choose to enter teacher education.  This is a long term investment 
and may take many years to have an effect.  It will not have any effect if 
done without a well designed plan.

We cannot blame most of the cost of administration on the school district. 
Much administrative work is generated by rules from the state and federal 
level over which the local school district has little control.  It is a very 
complex problem:  Too little administration, then accountability is lost and 
many will take advantage; too much administration, as you point out, takes 
money from resources best applied to direct educational efforts.

I am not real optimistic that our country is going to solve this problem. 
Institutions change very slowly and not always for the best except in 
crises.  The small class mantra is very difficult to dislodge despite 
overwhelming evidence from other countries that quality education can take 
place with much larger classes.  Our country has lost some of the steam 
behind a strong work ethic -- time that should be spent learning and helping 
others to learn is spent more now toward entertainment pursuits, etc, not to 
mention that the average pace of work has slowed very noticeably over the 
last 50 - 75 years.  The conflict between secular values and the multitudes 
of various different, conflicting religious based values makes a large 
cooperative effort for the sake of our country and its children extremely 
difficult and highly improbable.  Exacerbating this is the size of the human 
ego and the unwillingness of pundits, religious crackpots, and political 
leaders to rely on empirical evidence from well-crafted studies and 
experiments dealing with effective learning.

I am sorry this situation exists, but I am glad that I am old and will not 
have to suffer much longer the consequences of this and other problems.  I 
can truly say that this problem and other social/political/ecological 
problems are part of the reason that I have never fathered a child.  Look 
what we are leaving to our youth.


Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
deco at moscow.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <heirdoug at netscape.net>
To: <deco at moscow.com>; <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2007 5:38 PM
Subject: [Vision2020] Why should everyone pay for MSD?


> Wayne,
>
> Thank you for your response. Based upon your answer, I may suprise you, I 
> agree.
> I would be happy, albiet a bit retisent, to pony up to the bar. With one 
> qualifier. That we get the best bang for our buck.
>
> My whole argument all along, has been that there is a lot of bloat at MSD. 
> I have suggested larger class size per teacher. - with the current staff 
> and student ratio of 13.5 I think we can do better. We need to let a few 
> teacher go and increase the work load for the rest. We need to let a few 
> Administration folks double up as teachers for those classes that they 
> used to teach. Maybe they would have less problems with the teaching staff 
> if they pitched in and worked along side of their teachers. I don't buy 
> the argument that this will sacrifice the "quality of education".
>
> Doing this would reduce the amount of money needed for expenses each year.
>
> I'm sure there are others out there with other suggestions but I would 
> start there. Your earlier suggestion of stronger parential involvement 
> also has merit and needs to be done. I know not all parents are as eager 
> to have their children learn as I am but the students really want to 
> learn. You see it in their eyes when they are challenged. But that is the 
> key, they need to be challenged. As Tony found out this is not always the 
> case.
>
> lemeno, Doug!
>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -------
> Art Deco deco at moscow.com
>
>
> The alleged 52% property tax investment is an investment by all families
> (with or without children) in the health and welfare of the entire
> community, not in just their own children's education in the case for
> families with children -- just as is their tax investment in roads, parks,
> law enforcement, etc.
>
> Arguments can be made, some of them valid, that we are not getting the 
> best
> bang for our buck out of the present public school system.  When dealing
> with such issues, I try to help find solutions to problems, not toss the
> baby out with the bath water.  Some of us old codgers believe that we have 
> a
> citizen's and a constitutional duty to try to improve public institutions.
> Sometimes it is very frustrating, but so are many aspects of life.
>
> W.
>
>
> ________________________________________________________________________
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