Mediocrity of Teacher Recruitment Essay - 4137 Words

Mediocrity of Teacher Recruitment Some teachers are better than others. This is a simple and, I hope, obvious fact. But the culture of American schools is not friendly to it. Particularly in our hiring of public school teachers, we tend to avoid notions of serious discernment, of picking the very best in our society to become our teachers, and we accept that the most talented of our young people will gravitate to other fields. Overcoming this acceptance of mediocrity in teacher recruitment and retention represents the greatest opportunity to bring a quantum improvement to our schools. To focus on the elite among new teaching recruits as a matter of method is, in fact, the radically democratic way to give our societys most valuable†¦show more content†¦The money in school budgets is the key to launching or limiting their careers. In a budget cutback, the probationary teachers are the ones whose ranks are trimmed, because they are generally not fully covered by unions, and are therefore easier to let go. So long as we do not screen new teachers based on excellence—not based on mere competence, not based on basic skill levels, but based on demonstration that each individual is better at teaching than most who try—we will never be able to create and reinforce the kind of elite professional culture among our teachers that they deserve, and, more importantly, that our students deserve. Consider the college student planning to become a teacher. And consider not just any student, but the kind of student we most want to be teaching our children—someone who is bright, warm, disciplined, and interested in the ideas of other people, someone curious about the world, and capable of doing difficult things well. At the age of 21 or so, he is finishing college, heading toward a degree in English, biology, history, or another subject. Most likely, he is not taking a degree in education (the students with the strongest academic backgrounds generally dont). In his senior year, he is probably working as a student-teacher for at least part of the year, going off in the mornings to a school where theShow MoreRelatedHow to Improve Education Sector in India2117 Words   |  9 Pagesand low-pressure jobs. Once a teacher told me in high school â€Å"Well, if you guys don’t study it is entirely your loss – I will get my salary at the end of the month anyway.† He could not put across the lack of incentive for being good at teaching any better. Thousands of terrible teachers all over India are wasting valuable time of young children every day all over India. Education for all Education for all It is high time to encourage a breed of superstar teachers. The internet has created thisRead MoreTraditional Instructional Methods Have Continued For Generations Essay3185 Words   |  13 Pagesleaves them as less engaged. Author of â€Å"How Teacher Education Matters† Linda Darling Hammond wrote about the positive effects training and development on teaching has on the teachers who under go them in contrast to those teachers who had a small amount or even no training. Furthermore, teaching training and development reforms that intensively wove expansive experimental training with assignments regarding how to learn and how to teach produces teachers that have a higher probability of remainingRead MoreProblems of Education in Nigeria and Prospect3739 Words   |  15 Pages(projectors, Computers, Laboratories and libraries), paucity of quality teachers and poor / polluted learning environment. In addition to these inadequacies, our school system is plagued with numerous social vices such as examination malpractices, cultism, hooliganism and corruption. For meaningful development to take place in the educational sector; the government need to re-address the issue of funding. Private educational in vestors, teachers! Parents/guidance and students/pupils need a reorientation towardsRead MoreCoffee Breaks and Power Naps Will Improve Student Performance3217 Words   |  13 PagesAcademy, as a premiere military institution in the Southeast Asia, bears the task of producing quality military officers and efficient leaders for the Philippine government. As such, the recruitment of cadets for the academy is no simple endeavour. Cadet applicants are screened and subjected to several recruitment requirements to determine their suitability for the academy. More often they are referred to as the â€Å"cream of the crop.† 2. Once accepted inside the academy, the cadets undergoRead MoreCoaching Salespeople Into Sales Champions110684 Words   |  443 Pageson the activities that desperately need my attention? Do these obstacles sound familiar? The fact is, regardless of experience, most leadership efforts are doomed from the start. Managers lose talented salespeople and maintain an atmosphere of mediocrity not because of a lack of effort but because they lack a coaching system they are comfortable with and can trust to leverage the talents of their salespeople in order to generate consistent, worthwhile results. ANNIHILATING THE ALBATROSS OF LEADERSHIPRead MoreStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 Pagesat doing your core job tasks is a reflection of your level of task performance. If we think about the job of a factory worker, task performance could be measured by the number and quality of products produced in an hour. The task performance of a teacher would be the level of education that students obtain. The task performance of a consultant might be measured by the timeliness and quality of the presentations they offer to the client firm. All these types of performance relate to the core dutiesRead MoreOrganisational Theory230255 Words   |  922 Pagestheory challenges understandings of the relationships 125 This writer goes on to suggest that most great advances are made by individuals and that trying to keep everybody happy results in conformity, in failure to build individuals. This leads to mediocrity. So, the anonymous author concludes, ‘Let’s treat people like people, but let’s not make a big production of it’ (p. 160). The case study presented below focuses on some of the advantages and disadvantages of the development of a feeling of ‘belonging’