Slashdot Mirror
Khan Academy: the Teachers Strike Back
theodp writes "With his Khan Academy: The Hype and the Reality screed in the Washington Post, Mathalicious founder Karim Kai Ani — a former middle school teacher and math coach — throws some cold water on the Summer of Khan Love hippies, starting with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. From the article: 'When asked why so many teachers have such adverse reactions to Khan Academy, Khan suggests it's because they're jealous. "It'd piss me off, too, if I had been teaching for 30 years and suddenly this ex-hedge-fund guy is hailed as the world's teacher." Of course, teachers aren't "pissed off" because Sal Khan is the world's teacher. They're concerned that he's a bad teacher who people think is great; that the guy who's delivered over 170 million lessons to students around the world openly brags about being unprepared and considers the precise explanation of mathematical concepts to be mere "nitpicking." Experienced educators are concerned that when bad teaching happens in the classroom, it's a crisis; but that when it happens on YouTube, it's a "revolution."'"
Like all the other seasonal jobs like wildland firefighters are paid for not working?
Elementary Education, which is basically a bachelors degree in making cute cutouts and self esteem, is a joke. Most teachers I've known while doing IT in a school district lacked any real knowledge of any topic and could only teach by script.
A teacher might not start out making great money, but with a few endorsements like ESL (which you don't actually have to speak another language to get), and a masters degree (which is just a few more easy classes) you will make more tax payer dollars than you can shake a stick at. And you can get intellectually lazy and morbidly obese, and the union and the district will protect YOU over the young up-and-coming sharp teachers that graduate every year because of "seniority" or tenure.
THL phish sticks