The Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, recently gave a speech at the University of Virginia. He discussed teaching as not just a career or profession, but a calling. He thinks that education is this generations civil rights issue. This country has progressed when it comes to equality some since the civil rights era, but education is lacking the equality it rightly deserves. He discusses that our country will within the next 5 years possibly lose 1/3 of it's teachers from the baby boom era, and that need for great new teachers will be immense. Education in this country needs to change and be accommodated to the need for equality; we need a new approach. As a prospective teacher, I found this speech very inspirational. In the teaching program we have at UWM, I think that we are heading in the direction that Secretary Duncan envisioned for the future of education in this country. I have attached a link to this speech below...
Caleb
ReplyDeleteThis is a very important speech for an age where many revolutionary ideas exist. I think that these issues in education do, in some respect, rely heavily on the way the classroom is taught. As Arne Duncan states, "It's no surprise that studies repeatedly document that the single biggest influence on student achievement is the quality of the teacher standing in the front of the classroom—not socioeconomic status, not family background, but the quality of the teacher at the head of the class." While I would agree that this is the biggest influence and that, without many of the teachers we currently have, the percentages of high school drop out rates might be even higher, I believe more can be done. Urban school districts face the problem of a lack of funding, including, deteriorating schools and overpopulation within the school itself. These are distractions which affect the students' schooling environment. Why should two different students, one from an urban and low socio-economic level and an upper class suburban student, be given advantage over the other because of environment? The physical classrooms must be equitable for every student.
What strikes me is that, even though our president said that education is a prerequisite to success, education is among the first things to get cut when legislators need funds. The information age requires advanced degrees, but we are cutting the funding to make that happen. California, in order to avoid bankruptcy, made MAJOR cuts to its education system and college education system. Very sad.
ReplyDeleteI am a little disturbed by his citing the frequency of minority teachers, especially when keeping in mind that these same minorities are at a much greater risk for dropping out of school. How can the number of minority teachers be higher when the number of minority graduates is so low? Who is targeting this group of students to instill a sense of urgency for graduation and continued education. Unfortunately, they themselves will see soon enough that jobs will be scarce for them, and they will basically be forced to either stay in school or be doomed to work menial jobs for the rest of their lives.