Could it be that some of the harping on 21st century skills and the need for 21st century schools is partly a political pretext for the ignorant and arrogant to bash and trash teachers and schools?
Just a thought in response to Teacher of the Year Anthony Mullen’s Road Diaries in Teacher Magazine.
“Teachers should be seen and not heard”.
“What do you think?” the senator asked.
Where do I begin?
I spent the last thirty minutes listening to a group of arrogant and condescending non educators disrespect my colleagues and profession. I listened to a group of disingenuous people whose own self-interests guide their policies rather than the interests of children. I listened to a cabal of people who sit on national education committees that will have a profound impact on classroom teaching practices. And I heard nothing of value.
“I’m thinking about the current health care debate, “I said. “And I am wondering if I will be asked to sit on a national committee charged with the task of creating a core curriculum of medical procedures to be used in hospital emergency rooms.”
Everyone went to school so so everyone is an expert on education. And teachers and educators are routinely dismissed and their expertise and experience cast aside.
Your plumbing analogy is spot on. Thanks for the comment. Don’t you love it when teachers and schools are the first ones blamed? When the truth is quite otherwise- so many teachers and schools working so hard against impossible odds.
But – ’twas ever thus. At least in my experience.
Everyone uses the bathroom but I would imagine those who purport to know better about education than those with education skills and expertise would not be so keen to apply themselves to plumbing and sorting out their own bathroom problems! Perhaps they phone the TV engineer/insurance broker/investment banker/politician to fix it…In my experience, those who think they can do better the jobs of others are those who “do not know what they do not know”.And there’s a lot of it around……..Ignorance and arrogance – that is.