Our Royal Exchequer, SW writes in:

I’ve enjoyed your musings over the state of education both because I often agree and because my daughters are teachers. One of them, currently a professor teaching teachers has a perspective you may want to consider. Rather than paraphrase her I’ll direct you to the source: 

Robotic 

“So how do you respond to critics and naysayers who believe that people who choose to be teachers know less or are less competent than those who choose to be scientists or historians or mathematicians? You’ve heard sentiments such as this, right?” 

They all nodded, but stared at me blankly. I tried again. “So what do you say to them?” 

Finally, a student offered, “We’re experts because we passed a test. It shows that we’re highly-qualified.” 

“You’re an expert because you passed a test?” I asked, a bit incredulously. 

“Well, yeah, it shows that we know the content.” 

Several students nodded their heads in agreement. 

But a fellow student disagreed. “That test really just acts as a waiver. You don’t even need a degree in the subject you want to teach. You can just pass the test.” 

This conversation then led to a larger conversation about testing, particularly of K-12 students. And most of what I heard from my students were canned sound bites that I hear repeated in the news and from Arne Duncan. They were also trying to tell me that it was rather impossible to get into secondary classrooms to do their observation hours because of all the testing. 

“So you’re telling me that they are testing kids from now until the end of May?” 

They just shrugged their shoulders. 

“What the heck are they testing them on then?” 

Again, they just shrugged their shoulders. 

“Well, Naomi, how do you know if teachers are doing their jobs if you don’t test kids?” 

And I countered, “So what is exactly is your job? And don’t tell me that it’s just to get kids to pass tests.” 

The blank stares returned. 

Exasperated, and realizing that I didn’t want to reach the pinnacle of my soap box on the first night of class, I said, “Well, I guess my job this semester is to help you come up with a better retort to your naysayers and critics, because right now, telling them that you’ve passed a test so you can help kids pass a test isn’t going to cut it in my world.” 

Later, I realized that the students who sit in my classes, students who want to be teachers, have grown up in an educational world completely hinged on testing and results. They’ve never known a different way. They don’t even think to question whether this is the way that things should be, and this reality freaks me out a bit. 

I now need to figure out what to do about it.

Dear SW,

Dr. J. was fascinated with the dialogue between Naomi and her students. While many of the teachers at the New Atlantis Jedi Academy are young, they are very knowledgable in their craft.

Indeed, when the Lil Resident’s 3rd quarter interim grade in the Sith Arts was surprisingly low (an A-, for those who care). So we sat down with Darth Jenicus to make sure there wasn’t anything we could be working on with her, and while Darth Jenicus had no real concerns (except to make sure we weren’t giving the Lil Resident an ulcer by having a Sith Lord/Sith Teacher meeting over an A-). Dr. J. suspected it was simply that during the first half of the marking period, there wasn’t a lot of material in the Sith Arts covered, and her initial struggles with letting the hate flow weren’t realized until she was graded on it, and it caused a little bit of grade drag. There will be plenty of opportunity for her to get those grades up.

Also, her prophecy homework was getting harder, though she was doing well with it. So she discussed, in a very academic manner, what we could do from an enrichment standpoint, and to approach divination different ways.

So the Lil resident is spending some time on the weekends force choking squirrels in the back yard and rooting through their entrails in addition to entering trances while doing handstands and lifting rocks.

Dr. J. says this because his interaction with his childrens’ teachers is very different from the expectations that Naomi’s students have with regard to what their jobs are, presumably in the public school setting. Dr. J. and Darth Jenicus see their relationship as a partnership to teach the Lil Resident in the ways of the force with a goal of mastery of the subject at hand and how to apply and use it.

Given that Mrs. Puter and Mrs. The Czar are teachers in public schools, they may have some commentary on what is different between what experienced teachers are doing compared to the new teachers rolling in and on the effect that testing has on the teaching environment.

That being said, with each passing year, the interns and residents at NAITMC have become a little more passive than in the past. Dr. J. has pontificated in the past that the work hour restrictions and perhaps generational issues have castrated many young doctors in training to be passive worker bees for the attending physicians. Doing what they are told well, but rarely taking initiative and telling us the goals of care. There are always gold star interns and residents, but many of them do what they’re told, and what needs to be done, rather than wanting to ‘run the show’ as they say.

Back in the day, when Dr. J. was an intern, his goal was to be seen by his patients and the attendings as running the show. By doing a great job and taking charge, an intern or resident was given more latitude and his reputation among his peers (which mattered to him) was higher. One’s colleagues slept better knowing they were handing off to you. Now, with the most stringent of work hour reductions, there seems to be a bit of apathy, and indeed, even physical diagnosis skills are atrophying just in time for Obamacare to kick in and reduce reimbursement for the imaging tests we have been using as a crutch in the management of patients in many cases where the physical exam would suffice.

Oh yeah, apparently today, 10 states have been granted waivers with regard to No Child Left Behind. Dr. J. doesn’t have much opinion on the law, or the waivers beyond saying, Bush gets points for trying to hold teachers and schools to standards, but if it hasn’t been working, the law should be repealed and replaced, or perhaps the Feds should get out of what should largely be a local and state issues and create less busy work for the teachers. Dr. J. hates busy work.

Dr. J.