Teachers Are Not The Problem. The Top Officials Are

AN EDUCATION PROFESSOR WROTE YET ANOTHER COLUMN ALLEGING THAT EVERYONE IS PICKING ON TEACHERS, AND PLEASE SAY A FEW KIND WORDS TO YOUR LOCAL TEACHERS.  BAH HUMBUG. (Here's the comment I left:)

Columns like this are somewhat disingenuous and not very helpful. The premise is that the whole world is lining up to criticize teachers. This is not true.

I write about education every day, often negatively, and rarely even mention teachers. I never blame our problems on them. In my view, teachers, along with students and parents, are the victims of an often dysfunctional system.

All of my criticism is directed at the so-called experts at the top, what I call the Education Establishment. These people, mostly professors and ideologues, have devised all the bogus methods used in the schools. These people are responsible for the 50,000,000 functional illiterates this country has, and the continuing low scores in math and basic knowledge. 

If we are going to improve education, we need clarity. Let's stop using teachers as a propaganda ploy that lets the Education Establishment escape scrutiny. 

Let's ask: Who actually makes policy? Who controls the theories and methods used in k-12 education? Who manipulates the system from far-off control centers such as the Harvard Graduate School of Education, not to mention the DOE and NEA?

My own recommendation, often stated, is that we replace the top people. We need education officials (preferably local) who care more about knowledge and the mind than about social engineering. That would be wonderful to see.

Bruce Deitrick Price

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 HERE'S WHY THIS ARTICLE IS SO DANGEROUS. A LOT OF PEOPLE THINK THAT IF WE JUST HAD BETTER TEACHERS, EVERYTHING WOULD BE FINE. NOT SO. THE BEST TEACHERS IN THE WORLD CAN'T DO A GOOD JOB IF WEIGHED DOWN BY BOGUS METHODS. WHOLE WORD WILL ALWAYS PRODUCE LOTS OF ILLITERACY. WE NEED TO GET RID OF THE BOGUS METHODS, AND THE PRETENDERS WHO CREATED THEM.  

(Longwood College, Department of Education, Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk,