[Ansteorra] Re: teachers

[Adrienne R. Ferrell]

Dear Caladin and all those intrested,

    I'm not a teacher.  I respect and admire those who are.  You asked why
the teacher's union is against performance pay.  Although I don't have
first hand knowledge of their views; I can extrapolate form my experience
in the corporate world.  As an account executive, I wouldn't want my pay
based on things that I couldn't effect.  If my base of accounts were
assigned to me, rather than ones I brought in, it would be a real crap
shoot.  Teachers can't chose their students,   the staff, the school board,
the pta, they have to work with what they get.  There are many factors that
prevent a child from achieving.  This method may reward a teacher who put
in little effort, but had a class of students with parents who were really
involved with thief children's education (as they should be).  At the same
time may not reward a teacher that has done everything humanly possible and
still have students not reach the set goals.  Remember all the  factors
that can make a deference: peers, family, community, world affairs, the
child's mental state, and I am sure there are many more.
    Society puts a lot of responsibility on teachers.  We should pay them
for it.   Remember this at election times.  Finally, parents have the
ultimate responsibility for their children's education.  Maybe some of them
need to be in detention hall and/or study hall with their kids.

Respectfully,
Seraphina



At 04:54 PM 11/14/2002 -0600, you wrote:
>From: "Eric Brown" <caladin at io.com>
>To: <ansteorra at ansteorra.org>
>Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 13:58:11 -0700
>Subject: [Ansteorra] Teachers, totally off subject... [MUNDANE SPAM]
>Reply-To: ansteorra at ansteorra.org
>
>
> >You want to show teachers that you appreciate them? Pay them better!
>
>That reminds me,
>
>I learned something recently that kind of blew me away...
>
>In China, a teachers pay is based on how well her students perform,
>but everytime such a thing has been suggested here, even just as a bonus
>(ie get free money for doing an extra good job) the american "teachers
>union" has come out strongly against it.
>
>It seems wierd to me that a Good Teacher and a Crappy Teacher get payed the
>same amount.
>Unless the good teacher can transfer to another district...
>
>Now I know there woudl be lots of arguments about the mechanics of the deal,
>bonus vs raises,
>performance vs improvement on specific tests, teaching to the tests instead
>of teaching to teach...
>and all that
>
>But why is is that the "teachers union" is so opposed to the idea, no matter
>how it's set up.
>Especially when it's set up as a bonus, ie we set aside extra money, and
>it's split up at the
>end of the year based on "how well you did", however you determine that...
>
>I figured we had lots of teachers around on this list, and i wondered why
>they were so against pay
>being linked to performance, other than it's harded than just having pay
>linked to seiniority...
>
>Can anyone tell me? You can answer privatley if you don't want to spam the
>list...
>'Cause it seems like a natural to me...I Mean , more money is more money
>right?
>
>
>Caladin