It's difficult to change very much in education, especially on any sort of short time table. Not long ago, I was discussing this topic with an acquaintance of mine and he made a rather interesting observation along this line, and he stated that there is quite a bit of "cultural resistance" as well as a strong "desire to preserve the status quo, which has resulted in more failed schools than ever" and with that said, it reminded me of some of the challenges we have in this great nation with real substantive change, that is to say changes needed in our educational system.
It's amazing, in CA our teachers union rules the streets, both main and Wall Street it seems sometimes CALPERS. This is indeed unfortunate that teachers unions have been largely responsible for the stagnation that we've seen in education. At least in the competitive marketplace, companies need to innovate in order to survive. Then I thought of those who've tried to change the way we teach in K-12.
You see, one very upsetting case to me was how the FTC went after "Hooked on Phonics" company and ran them out of business because the teacher's lobby had their Senator go to the FTC and tell them to investigate the company. They destroyed that man's life, his company, and that's just the way this system works. It's quite pathetic and the hypocrisy is so alarming.
This is why I hold short on condemning free-market competition from private sector colleges. Have you read "Phoenix Risen" by John Sperling which is the story of the University of Phoenix? You should, and then I recommend treading Catherine Crier's book; The Case Against Lawyers - and how lawyers have changed our education system sometimes for the worse.
If we over manage the classrooms we take away incentives. When the incentive is taken away, all you have left is a political struggle that generally gets nowhere. And, remember this as Congresses remains deadlocked, and politicians and administrations change long before any reforms have a chance to yield any measurable results. Still, I find the whole "No Child Allowed to Advance" problematic in so many regards, it's been a problem in CA, but I see the teachers in GA, AL and other places say it's done a lot of good, as kids can now read and write when they graduate.
Education is paramount, because if we don't pay attention now, we are dead in the water in 20-years when those kids grow up and they start running things, do you see that point. So, politics aside, education is the key to the future of our Republic. So, please be thinking here.
Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank. Lance Winslow believes it's hard work to write 21,300 articles; http://www.bloggingcontent.net/
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