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Re: [Phys-l] How Much Value is Added at Elite Institutions - Response to Haim #2




On Jan 27, 2011, at 7:36 PM, William Robertson wrote:


So, warehousing them when they disrupted others is the alternative?

It's one alternative. I don't pretend to have the solution, but I have
little compassion for people who are depriving others of their
opportunity to advance and get out of their situation. You say you
don't see anything changing in your lifetime, but if you reject
solutions out of hand, then your prophecy is sure to come true.

What solutions? I haven't seen any plausible solutions, only rehash of the old. Get rid of bad teachers? Define "bad". and even if you pointed to a bad teacher he usually knows someone on the board so the whistleblower gets fired instead. Happens all the time around here. Back to "blame the union" for all the ills.
Better administrators and principals? Great concept... the principal is the most important link in the system. But the same thing happens... it's a good old boys club (or women's club now.) One hand washes the other... these people move from district to district taking their cronies along with them.
Sometimes you get a great principal... then he or she stays in a school for a few years, cleans it up, then is offered a better position elsewhere and leaves. His or her methods leave with him/her. Education does not run like a well oiled machine or an assembly line, as some would have us believe. It's messy system that goes in fits and starts.
We had a very good principal once. Most of the teachers loved and respected him. He came in when the school was getting out of control, after cleaning up the *sister* school cross town. He was fair and firm, usually followed fair, consistent, practices, cleaned up the place literally and figuratively, went out of his way to help the kids in need and knew all the teachers's needs and wants well, bent a rule when he had to, followed the rules strictly when necessary, but overall, the place ran smoothly for about 5 years. But, evidently he ruffled some feathers downtown, so they tried to transfer him out. The kids walked out, marched to city hall, and got his job back for another year. When they transferred him it was to a run-down elementary school that was built when Abe Lincoln was President... absolutely true!... The *powers that be* thought he would get disgusted and retire. But, he fooled them! Within a year he had turned that school into a model for such an old place. He helped clean it, literally, top to bottom, brought in guest speakers and experts, got a few good old-time teachers to come there, and got the reading scores up by a lot. Then when they wanted to transfer him downtown to a desk job he had enough and finally did retire. He was so well loved that when he passed away this October the funeral was attended by several dozen retired teachers from the old days, including me, and by some of the old time administrators and local politicians he had taught way back in the 60's. There were few like Herb back then, and there are even fewer like that serving now! I remember him calling me into his office when I ruffled someone's feathers, and saying, "Well, Marty, what the h--- did you do now?" I stammered something and he just smiled and said, "Don't ever do that again. Now get your a-- back to class." ...all the while with a twinkle in his eye. The next year he nominated me for the Princeton University Distinguished Teacher Award, which I won in 1993, on his recommendation among others.
My school after he was transferred?... Oh, yeah. that was the beginning of the end. Consider ancient Rome after Augustus died. A few good emperors after that, but a lot of truly bad emperors leading to decadence, and finally the fall of the empire. (I know,... a bad history, but i hope you see the point.)

MW