What Education?

When I was a student in the public schools, educated women did not have many options.  Consequently, I had some of the best and the brightest teachers, who, together with my mother, awakened me to the challenge of learning.  So many of my teachers were responsible for my intellectual development, for making me feel valuable as an individual, for setting me on a course where learning was truly a gift.  Unfortunately, once more opportunities for women opened up, the best and the brightest moved into more lucrative professions.  I believe that this was the beginning of the dumbing down of the educational system.  The teachers I had would never have put their own interest before that of their students nor would they blame the parents for their failure.   The best and the brightest would not have needed job security because they possess that inner security in themselves and what they were contributing.  They did not need the teachers union.  Recently, I began to wonder how many leaders in the teachers unions were ever amongst the best and the brightest.  My guess would be there were and are very few. 

Some time agao, I learned that Finland holds their teachers in such high regard that they are paid at the rate of doctors and lawyers.  In Finland, only the top of the class are selected to teach.  In the United States teachers come from the bottom of the class and are paid at a rate commensurate with their contribution to society.  From time to time a good teacher is produced, gets hired, and excels at her job, but when the budjets are cut she is the first one fired because the unions insist on protecting the more senior, mostly ineffective teacher.  You might say I am painting the problem with a very broad brush and you might be right.  I am sure there are excellent teachers with tenure who have made a difference in a child's life.  But given the quality of the education provided our children, I don't think the brush is that broad.   The teachers unions balk at merit pay because everyone is equal and therefore worth the same.  We all know that this is not true and any good teacher has to cringe at this notion.  While merit pay is good, the real solution is to do whatever is necessary to get back the best and the brightest.