There's a big difference between you, as a responsible, intelligent adult, taking online classes at a tech school and doing kindergarten by video.
While I'm not going to dispute what you're saying, in my district I find precious few teachers showing up for the paycheck. It's a rather low paycheck given the requirement of a college degree. I do it because I wouldn't be happy doing much else, and you'll find most teachers to be of a similar mind. Of course, it's the bad teachers that stay in memory sometimes.
Test scores, eh? What that will do is pull highly qualified teachers out of urban areas (test scores, by and large, can be lined up side-by-side with socioeconomic indicators). It will also limit curriculum to only that which is on the test, as teachers will have strong economic incentives to reinforce that material. Is this the educational system you want?
Socialization doesn't mean hanging out and chatting, necessarily. Working on projects together, helping/learning from your peers, learning how to listen to others (especially when other kids are talking), being responsible enough to work within classroom rule structures, learning how to work with adults who aren't your parents or family members - these things are harder to get on the playground.
I'm rather confident in my abilities as a teacher. My experiences as a teacher tell me that kids learn from each other, for one. I modify how I teach constantly based upon the reactions of the students I see before me. These things aren't possible in this format.
Yes, Chicago Public Schools can be dangerous and frightening. This isn't the right way, however. What many of the comments seem to be presupposing is that the parents of the students will be able to help out the kids with their video lessons, as the system seems to want. The parents of these students are not there as they're working, and often it's a single family home, which in Chicago means that if you make minimum you're not paying your rent on only one job. The kids this is targeted for are going to be doing this largely on their own. Yes, fix the schools. Don't do it by funneling charter money into the hands of people like this, who care more about lowering overhead costs (video lessons require fewer teachers per student, obviously) than actually teaching kids.
Am I the only one who has a problem with video screens becoming the font of all received knowledge?
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There's a big difference between you, as a responsible, intelligent adult, taking online classes at a tech school and doing kindergarten by video. While I'm not going to dispute what you're saying, in my district I find precious few teachers showing up for the paycheck. It's a rather low paycheck given the requirement of a college degree. I do it because I wouldn't be happy doing much else, and you'll find most teachers to be of a similar mind. Of course, it's the bad teachers that stay in memory sometimes. Test scores, eh? What that will do is pull highly qualified teachers out of urban areas (test scores, by and large, can be lined up side-by-side with socioeconomic indicators). It will also limit curriculum to only that which is on the test, as teachers will have strong economic incentives to reinforce that material. Is this the educational system you want?
Socialization doesn't mean hanging out and chatting, necessarily. Working on projects together, helping/learning from your peers, learning how to listen to others (especially when other kids are talking), being responsible enough to work within classroom rule structures, learning how to work with adults who aren't your parents or family members - these things are harder to get on the playground.
I'm rather confident in my abilities as a teacher. My experiences as a teacher tell me that kids learn from each other, for one. I modify how I teach constantly based upon the reactions of the students I see before me. These things aren't possible in this format.
Yes, Chicago Public Schools can be dangerous and frightening. This isn't the right way, however. What many of the comments seem to be presupposing is that the parents of the students will be able to help out the kids with their video lessons, as the system seems to want. The parents of these students are not there as they're working, and often it's a single family home, which in Chicago means that if you make minimum you're not paying your rent on only one job. The kids this is targeted for are going to be doing this largely on their own. Yes, fix the schools. Don't do it by funneling charter money into the hands of people like this, who care more about lowering overhead costs (video lessons require fewer teachers per student, obviously) than actually teaching kids. Am I the only one who has a problem with video screens becoming the font of all received knowledge?