[etni] You are all nutters

From: "David R. Herz" <drh16@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 30 Nov 2009 05:06:45 -0500
I have said it before and I say it again.  You are fiddling while Rome
burns.  It's like trying to fix a flat on a car whose engine has blown.
When you are done, you might be able to push the car, but it won't be a very
efficient way to get anywhere.

Most of the discussion around the HOTS program and professionalism just
misses the point.  Professional standards are not stated as a list of things
to do or complete.  A professional has broad discretion to get things right,
and wrong.  As long as we tolerate a system where the teacher's job is to
fill in a checklist, the teacher will be and will be treated as a menial
laborer.

HOTS are great.  They are the reason I teach.  My whole purpose with my
student (I only formally have one at the moment) is to get him to think,
question, explore and engage with his world as an outrageous, passionate,
ethical and happy human being.  As a professional, I can work with my charge
and choose what is right for him now.  Every requirement that has come from
the ministry since I have been in Israel seems to circumscribe that
judgment.  

Instead of giving teachers useful new tools to teach with, the Ministry
stuffs them into a program and shoves them down teachers' throats, and when
that doesn't work, they try it again.

And the people of this list complain that they don't get enough money and
are not treated as professionals while they allow themselves to be treated
as automatons and already hew to the checklist structure of our high stakes
exam based curriculum.

Go Figure?

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[etni] You are all nutters

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