Why This Blog?

As a student and practicioner of education, there are several things that drive me absolutely crazy. And while I may be late in jumping on the "blog bandwagon" I've decied to start this blog simply because I feel that in the United States we can do so much more with our education system. The complete decentralization of our system has led to chaotic and unmanageable education system and sadly, any efforts to correct our system have been led by politicians and not educators.

As an example, Florida recently passed legislation to award teachers a bonus between five and ten percent, according to the AP:

"The new program would continue to rely heavily on student testing -- at least 60 percent -- in determining which teachers and in-school administrators would qualify for bonuses. Assessments by principals, or superintendents in the case of administrators, would account for the remaining 40 percent."

Sixty freakin' percent based on standardized student testing! Can someone tell me why a social studies, music, art, physical education, or dance teacher would even care about this program? Thanks for the concession of forty percent, the leftovers for the non-math, english, and science teachers. In addition, does anyone account for the stress that it places on the administrators to say to their Social Studies teacher, "yes Sally, you're good enough, I have no real objective rubric to measure you by, but I think you deserve this money" and no to someone else? How do you distinguish a good educator from a bad one with one or two observations?

Teachers have given in to politicians and handed them over our profession and they have no idea what they are doing! That's why I've decided to start this blog. Not because I want to gripe about the faults of education, but because our educators need to take back their profession.