I read an article from Bill and Melinda Gates about teachers in America today. Basically, they said what common sense has been saying for years. Good teachers dislike the system. They do not get rewarded for putting in extra effort, for getting better results, or for even caring. In fact, they may get punished. In Wisconsin the teacher of the year was laid off when cutbacks occurred because she had no seniority or tenure.
I have never worked in an environment like that. I couldn’t. But, I remember a relative telling me 50 years ago that the union plant where he worked for a year while saving for college was stifling. He said the workers considered the management the enemy. They did as little as possible and found every opportunity to take advantage of a work rule that allowed them to slack. Mind you this was 50 years ago.
I’m not suggesting that all teachers are slackers or all union plant workers are either. But, in both cases the reward for exceptional performance does not exist.
The Gates article said the majority of teachers feel tenure is happening too soon and may not be a good thing in general. Gee, how could a practice that makes it impossible to fire someone regardless of performance be a bad thing? We all know that kids today should get 6 strikes in softball, not 3, and if they still can’t hit the ball, get to go to first base anyway. We cannot damage their precious, sensitive little self esteems. It all starts there. No wonder 15 years later they are protesting in NYC as part of Occupying Wall Street when they didn’t get a job in 3 swings.
So they pour money into the educational system in the United States and test results just keep dropping. Illinois only had six schools in the the whole state that met the new requirements. Meanwhile, the Chicago teacher’s union refuses to extend the school day and a judge upholds that.
I ask you to picture the educational system and extend it across the country. That is the dream of Obama and his union friends. A country with zero accountability where everyone gets the same reward regardless of effort, ability, or performance.
That’s what they want to do to your kids and grand kids. No balls or strikes at all in their game. Just pay your dues and you can play all day and get paid the same as your teammates with talent and motivation.
What will this country be like when we make the entire country like the educational system. It just gets worse every year and no one can fix it. Th pubic gets to pay more every year for less performance. The kids fall further behind in a global marketplace for jobs. All businesses become less and less competitive and care less and less about what is happening to their business. More is run by an even less efficient government and more become dependent on that government every year. Exceptional people become less motivated to be exceptional or go elsewhere to use their talents.
Put America in the crystal ball 20 years out, and with Obama and the progressives, you have the US educational system as your model. Do the same exercise, without Obama and the progressives, and it might be different. But, not with the likes of Bush and Romney. It will take a bigger leader with greater courage and vision to go back to three strikes, you’re out and if you can’t play softball try the piano.
