My wife has been a teacher for over 30 years. For her, the biggest problem (aside from the lack of interest many parents have in their child's education), is the Department of Education and the School board attempting to re-invent the wheel on a five year cycle by spending a half-million on a new math or language arts program. I marvel at the ability of our generation to count without using our fingers (or other appendages) and to communicate with a degree of competence. How did we manage without having our programs updated with the 'latest and best'? The kids don't need an overpaid consultant to recommend a new program. They need more classroom help. Having 25 children around 7 years of age, with varying degrees of ability and a range of behavioral problems jammed into one classroom, with one teacher to try to meet all their needs is a cruel farce.
The current fashion is to put the schools on a 'business model'. I'm sorry, children are not widgets which can be mass-produced. They are individuals whose needs are usually recognized by the classroom teacher. Under the current system, the classroom teacher has little input into the decision to provide support for any children whose needs are not being met. She has to wait months for a supervisor or adviser to observe the child in her classroom. By the time that happens, the child has fallen further behind.
There are indeed people who have little to offer children and should not be given teaching licenses. There is also a lot of lip service paid by education administrators who have centralized the decision making on just about everything to the board level. The people who make decisions on which child gets help should be those who work with the children.
I suspect most education would be enhanced if school boards dropped 50% of the administrative positions and used the budget to reduce class sizes.
Rant over.
Les