Businessmen should not be making decisions about education…stick to destroying our economy…

I attempted to respond to this through the SchoolBook site, which I connected to through WNYC.  Unfortunately, I was blocked from responding because the only way to respond was to log in through Facebook.  That is another issue that I don’t want to get bogged down with here (but don’t think I won’t return to it).

So…here is my response to Bloomberg and the following piece:

http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2011/12/02/bloomberg-says-large-classes-are-fine-by-him/#respond

The 'corporatization' of education is the worst thing that could happen to this country…or any country.  When we attempt to make an economic model – like capitalism – apply across the board to all institutions, we have a problem.  There is no universal.  One theory, one model, one anything cannot explain everything.  Here’s what Bloomberg doesn’t understand about education:


(1) Class size is everything.  The larger the class, the less the students learn.  Period.  Smaller classes allow for teachers to give more individualized attention.  Smaller classes allow for more active participation in the learning process by the students.  This is what we want.  We want them to engage.  Being engaged is key to retaining the knowledge and building critical thinking skills.  Our teachers want to be able to actually teach.  Most teachers want to teach because they believe in education.  They are public servants.  They sacrifice more than a billionaire will ever understand.  Why not fix the system so teachers can actually do what they want to do and what they are capable of doing? 


(2) I agree, there are teachers out there who are bad,  but I would like to see the percentage of good to bad teachers.  I’m guessing we have more good teachers than bad teachers.  From an anecdotal perspective, during my entire education I can honestly say that I had maybe a handful of bad teachers.  That's primary, secondary, and now three levels of higher education...and I can maybe name five teachers out of 20 plus years of education.  I realize I'm one person...but I'm guessing that there are others who would have similar stories.  So let's see the numbers of bad teachers...

That said I would like to see the criteria for what ‘bad’ actually means.  Bad...by whose standards?  Bloomberg's?  Corporate America's?  Let's apply my standards, let's apply parents' standards, let's apply educators' standards... Let the standards reflect what we want the students to be getting out of their education: knowledge, critical thinking, opened minds that hunger to learn more.

He complains about bad teachers and wants to get rid of them to pay fewer, better teachers more…

Let’s apply that model to Wall Street and the corporations.  How many bad CEOs are out there running the banks and corporations that have brought us into the current economic mess?  Yet we bail them out and give them more money.  Why do we punish bad teachers when we don't punish bad CEOs?  Perhaps if we had paid teachers better all along...all of those CEOs would have gotten a better education and we wouldn't be in the economic crisis in which we now find ourselves.

You want better teachers…decrease the class size, higher more teachers…AND PAY THEM WHAT YOU PAY CEOS!  The long run benefits of doing this could produce some of the most profound, positive changes our society has ever seen. 

(3) Finally…when are we going to stop demonizing education?  This country is now, and has been throughout much of its history, anti-intellectual.  And this country equates intellectualism with education.  No, they’ll never state it that way...not out loud…but it’s what they are doing.  Excellence in education is what every society should be striving to achieve. Our teachers should be glorified and revered the way we glorify and revere celebrities and professional athletes. Education should be the pinnacle and the foundation of our society.  Without education…our society has no future. 

Until I return...