Originally Posted by TheSquealer

Sly turned me on to a book called Practice Perfect. It is actually about a consulting company that works with educators to improve their teaching... but the lessons of course apply to everything. Learning is learning. Teaching is teaching... regardless of what is being learned or taught, the core methods and how the brain itself learns is the same.

Reading it and understanding what it actually takes to be outstanding at anything, the personality traits that are required, the passion that is required and the dedication that is required and based on my life experience with teachers, I just can't imagine a a bright future for our public schools. Even those that actually want to teach or that have passion for it, are often mediocre at actually teaching... meaning, just showing up and going through lesson plans and liking kids, does not constitute effective teaching.

My view is that the education system needs to be radically changed in this nation, that unions need to be kept out of it and that children need to be put first. People need to stop acting like money makes for better education, when we are being crushed by a world spending far less... and most importantly, parents need to be involved and start demanding more from their kids as well, which is also missing.

Anyway, to me, education is like discussing the best chair placement on the deck of the Titanic, arguing which chairs are more comfortable... or where to place pencil sharpeners. The system has been failing for many many decades and not improving in spite of MASSIVE increases in spending.