Bill Gates on Teachers' Bum Rap

Standardized testings has created more problems for public education depsite its original attention of holding school accountable for their learning and teachers' teaching.

Standardized tests were intended to determine "is your children learning?"

Instead, standardized testing has forced more pressure on alraedy hassled and frazzled teachers, pushing them to come up with every arbitrary angle and trick to get students to pass a test,one which has little connection to the real world of demands and values which young people will face once they graduate from high school.

Life is not a series of circumstances presented with four choices. Life is not a series of arbitrary passages and questions which must be answered quickly and efficiently. Notwithstanding the greater aim of education, schools are putting more emphasis on grilling students for the short-term success on a tests, yet still ignoring the main goal of education: inspire students with the skills and the will to determine and pursue their purpose in life.

Why should teachers be slammed for a student's poor evaluation on a test? In fact, teachers now find themselves under so many constraints because of the sclerotic unions unders which they seek ongoing protection. Unions are not helping the cause of their members, individuals who desire the best for their students yet fear that limiting their involvement in a collective force will only leave them vulnerable to more abuse in the workplace.

Of course, the lack of respect for the profession, coupled with the rise of vocal parents and angry interest groups filing arbitrary lawsuits, has only shackled the innovation and inventiveness of educators, many of whom are now forced privation and humiliation ona larger scale.

Indeed, teachers get a bum rap in this country, in part because of inefficient and ineffective unions more interested in protecting the status quo of regular dues than offering the proper due for teachers and students. However, a broken bureaucracy from Sacramento throughout the state has wasted resources, disillusioned parents, and frustrated entrepreneurs and reforms who want the best for young people, yet refuse to accept that the best for each student must be decide at the most local level of power: the parents and the community.

Teachers cannot be the panacea for social ills. The school cannot be the surrogate parent. Only committed individuals held accountable frequently with caring mentors and involved parents can ensure the long-lasting legacy of students achievemnt, culminating in a stable and mature adulthood.