Waiting For Superman

Waiting for Superman, getting Ross Douthat.  I can't tell the difference!

Comments

[Let it flow.]

Free the money!
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[mockmook]

Since I refuse to go to the NYT, how's 'bout a very brief summary?

[Gravity.]

What's next?
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[Liberate the lubricant. Slip the juice to me, Bruce.]

See above, mm.
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[MayBee]

There are some really great schools in this country.
Has anybody thought of looking at them to figure out what they are doing right?
Or is that too complicated?

[maryrose]

Finally an expose which shows how the teacher's unions are holding public education hostage.

[Buford Gooch]

There is a simple fix that would cure most of our problems with our education system with very little change in structure: outlaw teachers' unions, in whatever form.

[Rob Crawford]

outlaw teachers' unions, in whatever form.

I have a less radical, but likely to be fought just as hard idea:

Unions can only represent the employees of a single employer within a single metropolitan area.

So there could not be a national UAW, or even a Michigan UAW, or even Detroit UAW. There would be a union for Detroit-area Ford workers, one for Detroit-area GM workers, and one for each of the other companies currently organized under the UAW. The union that Ford deals with in Detroit would be a different union than the one they deal with in Gary, IN, and there'd be yet another union for Indianapolis, IN.

Public sector unions could only cover a single unit of government. So the teachers at school district X could unionize, but their union could not be associated with the union for school district Y, right next door.

And any attempt by unions to coordinate would be covered by anti-trust laws. If business owners are not permitted to peaceably assemble in a manner that creates an anti-competitive environment, neither is labor.

(Also, or simply in place of, all unions must publish their financial statements, to the same level as a publicly traded corporation. Perhaps if union members saw how much of their money was stolen, er, "redirected" from their pensions to Democrat campaigns...)

[Ignatz]

--I have a less radical, but likely to be fought just as hard idea--

I have a more radical one: abolish public education altogether. Why do we trust our children to the idiots who give us the DMV and the IRS?

[Thomas Collins]

See LUN (via Pajamas Media via Instapundit) for a MEMRI translated sermon by the Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide on how followers of Islam are not sufficiently working on their internal being in a peaceful struggle within each individual's soul involving the reading of Rumi poems and the admiration of esoteric medieval tapestries and having nothing to do with terrorism.

[Pagar]

Rob, have you looked at the Assets some of the unions? What the national leaders are being paid? It's unbelievable. Then they want the taxpayer to pay for their pension fund shortfalls.

[Rick Ballard]

"Or is that too complicated?"

MayBee,

Trying to train a plough horse for a Derby run with the expectation that he'll make it to the starting line isn't complicated. It's futile.

I'm curious as to why there is any expectation that the lower tercile or quartile should be able to consistently perform at the 'average' level.

[Rob Crawford]

I have a more radical one: abolish public education altogether. Why do we trust our children to the idiots who give us the DMV and the IRS?

I have no problem with the IDEA of providing access to a minimal level of education. The problem I have is that we're not even providing a minimal level of education.

Everything should be devolved to local control. No federal department of education, and we should look askance at the state ones, too.

[Ignatz]

--I have no problem with the IDEA of providing access to a minimal level of education.--

But why should it be access to a minimal level of public education?
I'm for government doing only those things private means can't.
Provide a local or state stipend for those who can't afford to send their kids to school and cut everyone elses property taxes to near zero who would be paying for their own. Our kids went to a private school for several years which provided a better education for a small fraction of what the local public schools did and these are relatively good public schools.

[Captain Hate]

Public schools are the Holy Grail to the godless excuses for libs in this country, despite the fact that they do such a demonstrably poor job of producing an educated citizenry (granted it's for a variety of reasons but almost all of them have lamebrained garbage from Ayers' ilk at their root).

[Danube of Thought]

outlaw teachers' unions, in whatever form

I'd go further. I would outlaw public employee unions altogether. All of their members' income, and thus the union dues, come from the taxpayer. They use that taxpayer money to support and lobby the politicians who decide on--and provide-- their salaries, benefits and pensions. They have collectively destroyed the state of California and a number of others.

I have read a number of times that public employee unions did not exist until JFK authorized them through an executive order. I wonder it President Christie could undo the whole thing in the same way.

[Danube of Thought]

What JFK authorized was unionization of the federal work force. I believe each state would have to act on its own to ban them--unless the congress did so in the exercise of its commerce clause power. (Wouldn't that be fun?)

[jorgxmckie]

Local control of public education doesn't work when you have a 'public' like exists in Detroit. The DPS School Board is a source of a lot of amusement [as long as you ignore the fact that they're supposed to be enabling education, at worst].

The President of the School Board is/was [he was dismissed after massaging his groin in front of the interim school superintendent, woman] a functional illiterate. Most of the rest are not much better.

It's the public, stupid, that screws up the education [or allows others, like the unions, to screw up].

[bgates]

Local control of public education doesn't work when you have a 'public' like exists in Detroit.

If the choice is between spending millions of federal dollars to produce more illiterates in Detroit or spending millions of Detroit dollars for the same end, I choose the latter.

[sbw]

For me, it's less about who teaches than what is taught and why. Frankly, stove-piping education into English, Social Studies, and the like is an attempt at credentialist restrictionism. One can't teach "A" unless one is "certified."

The real courses are "What can you know?", "How should you behave?", and "How should you interact with others?"

Organize the curriculum like that and it is hard for even a weak teacher to lead education astray.

[glasater]

SBW--do you really want teachers to be involved with manners and morals?
Perhaps I'm misunderstanding your intent...

[querinmelsen]

pls tell me where to watch waiting for superman online. i will be very thanful to you.
mojoblast

[sbw]

glasater: "SBW--do you really want teachers to be involved with manners and morals?"

For 2500 years people have examined the simple daily problems of living. They called it philosopy - philosophia in Greek is the love of wisdom. Why shouldn't that be part of educating students?

"Manners and morals" seems to be confusing it with something more closely tied to one's upbringing or beliefs.

A student ought to be able to be brought to understand why one ought to behave civilly based on personal experience well-examined. Families should feel more comfortable that that approach leaves the teachers own prejudices on the sidelines.

[Nitro Muscle Mass]

I am desperately waiting for this, please tell me where to i watch this.
Nitro Muscle Mass

[glasater]

Thank you SBW for your thoughtful response.