Education, politics, and anything else that catches my attention.
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Lack of Critical Thinking
When people disparage those of us in the teaching profession, it's often (not always but often) because of something stupid some of us have done. Which of these is the worst? I truly cannot decide.
9 comments:
allen (in Michigan)
said...
Lack of critical thinking? Hardly. A lack of rational, task-aligned incentives, definitely.
Just as teachers don't get any professional benefit from exceptional performance in their area of specialization administrators gain no benefit from exceptional performance in their area of specialization. Teachers get nothing, other then personal satisfaction, for being good teachers and administrators get nothing for running schools that turn in exceptional educational performance.
The incentive that does generate professional benefits is protecting the organization and their superiors. Where that incentive goes wrong is when its results, like these ridiculous stories, become public.
I'll agree with you as far as that goes, but I guess I hold people who are supposed to be educated, rational adults to higher standards than you do. I completely understand incentives, rewards, and punishments, but I'm not going to let thinking people, who don't necessarily always rise to the top, off the hook when they sink to these depths.
It's one think to say, "I'm sorry, this is the system and I'm just a cog." It's another to believe the excuses that are offered, and to punish rational behaviors (like the frozen girl in the car) that *no one* would ever complain about.
There are all pretty horrific, but you can't blame the schools for the sharing a lunch one. one: you can blame overly sensitive parent who don't want a peanut anywhere with in miles of their kid, and yet apparently don't want to tech their kids which foods are bad for them, the lawyers who will happily sue the district if any student ever got some food they weren't supposed to eat, and the food allergy business which has so greatly increased the number of things can be allergic to. In this case, the school has a rule that shouldn't need to exist, but does. Once it's there … they kind of have to enforce it.
I vote for the last one--the pencil twirling merely made one stoodunce FEEL threatened, and thus triggered a whole bunch of stuff. Some of the others have real world consequences which kind of excuse them, but this one doesn't. Mere "feelings" got some other kid a psych eval?!! all that needed to be done was to MOVE the special snowflake kid...
I've come to a decision: the fire drill was the worst, because the school deliberately ran it 5 degree weather, and didn't have the common sense not to tell there PE teachers not to have their student swim that day, and then fired someone for doing something which may have saved a student's life, and a substantial wrongful seat lawsuit. There is absolutely NO plausible explanation for that one.
In my district there were two types of fire drills. The most common were scheduled by the administration. It would have certainly been possible to give people a "heads-up."
But there were also times the fire department showed up and demanded a fire drill NOW. If that were the case here, then the drill itself was not evidence of school stupidity. Of course everything that happened after the alarm sounded is another matter.
My favorite fire drill story was when the shelving collapsed in the chemistry storeroom and a major fire was quickly started. The chem teachers got their kids out of the adjacent classrooms and pulled the fire alarm.
The alarm sounded, then quickly stopped. The teachers pulled it again with the same result. Seems that a vice principal kept turning the alarm off because "we don't have fire drills during the lunch periods."
One thing to consider about the swimming pool fire drill. The school obviously has swimming as part of the school curriculum. The school is located in Minnesota. A substantial part of the school year takes place in cold to extremely cold weather.
The real stupidity is NOT in the fact that the teacher had to get permission to take the young lady into a car. The stupidity is that the school had no contingency to handle kids in the pool during a fire drill on cold days. For instance, our building has a contingency for the health office to bring out pre-packed carts of blankets if a fire drill happens on a cold day for folks who were not able to grab a coat on the way out. Where was this school's plan?
9 comments:
Lack of critical thinking? Hardly. A lack of rational, task-aligned incentives, definitely.
Just as teachers don't get any professional benefit from exceptional performance in their area of specialization administrators gain no benefit from exceptional performance in their area of specialization. Teachers get nothing, other then personal satisfaction, for being good teachers and administrators get nothing for running schools that turn in exceptional educational performance.
The incentive that does generate professional benefits is protecting the organization and their superiors. Where that incentive goes wrong is when its results, like these ridiculous stories, become public.
I'll agree with you as far as that goes, but I guess I hold people who are supposed to be educated, rational adults to higher standards than you do. I completely understand incentives, rewards, and punishments, but I'm not going to let thinking people, who don't necessarily always rise to the top, off the hook when they sink to these depths.
It's one think to say, "I'm sorry, this is the system and I'm just a cog." It's another to believe the excuses that are offered, and to punish rational behaviors (like the frozen girl in the car) that *no one* would ever complain about.
There are all pretty horrific, but you can't blame the schools for the sharing a lunch one. one: you can blame overly sensitive parent who don't want a peanut anywhere with in miles of their kid, and yet apparently don't want to tech their kids which foods are bad for them, the lawyers who will happily sue the district if any student ever got some food they weren't supposed to eat, and the food allergy business which has so greatly increased the number of things can be allergic to. In this case, the school has a rule that shouldn't need to exist, but does. Once it's there … they kind of have to enforce it.
I vote for the last one--the pencil twirling merely made one stoodunce FEEL threatened, and thus triggered a whole bunch of stuff. Some of the others have real world consequences which kind of excuse them, but this one doesn't.
Mere "feelings" got some other kid a psych eval?!! all that needed to be done was to MOVE the special snowflake kid...
I've come to a decision: the fire drill was the worst, because the school deliberately ran it 5 degree weather, and didn't have the common sense not to tell there PE teachers not to have their student swim that day, and then fired someone for doing something which may have saved a student's life, and a substantial wrongful seat lawsuit. There is absolutely NO plausible explanation for that one.
I lean towards that one as well.
Max,
In my district there were two types of fire drills. The most common were scheduled by the administration. It would have certainly been possible to give people a "heads-up."
But there were also times the fire department showed up and demanded a fire drill NOW. If that were the case here, then the drill itself was not evidence of school stupidity. Of course everything that happened after the alarm sounded is another matter.
My favorite fire drill story was when the shelving collapsed in the chemistry storeroom and a major fire was quickly started. The chem teachers got their kids out of the adjacent classrooms and pulled the fire alarm.
The alarm sounded, then quickly stopped. The teachers pulled it again with the same result. Seems that a vice principal kept turning the alarm off because "we don't have fire drills during the lunch periods."
Jerry -- that's awesome. Certainly, if the fire department required it, that would change things, but there was no evidence that that was the case …
One thing to consider about the swimming pool fire drill. The school obviously has swimming as part of the school curriculum. The school is located in Minnesota. A substantial part of the school year takes place in cold to extremely cold weather.
The real stupidity is NOT in the fact that the teacher had to get permission to take the young lady into a car. The stupidity is that the school had no contingency to handle kids in the pool during a fire drill on cold days. For instance, our building has a contingency for the health office to bring out pre-packed carts of blankets if a fire drill happens on a cold day for folks who were not able to grab a coat on the way out. Where was this school's plan?
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