* Uncle Arne gives a speech. I agree with basically everything he says, or at least everything in this bullet-pointed version as published. I think the "doctors and lawyers don't work nine months a year" line is a little glib, but I am broadly in favor of increased school time.
*Fun with Blogger stats, updated. So in my post marveling over Blogger stats, I was amazed that I had people coming to my blog after searching for auto mechanics. Well, it turns out that I actually wrote a post about auto mechanics. 'Course, it wasn't about auto mechanics. Further, it turns out that the person who got here looking for auto mechanics left a comment on the blog. It got caught in the spam filter. S/he asked for advice on how to find auto mechanics. Poor devil.
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2 comments:
Paying more and working longer and harder isn't always the answer. We all want more money but the ones who have passion will do it for the sure joy of seeing others improve at what ever they are being taught. Paying someone more doesn't increase their talent. I am all for increasing educators pay but we need to ensure we get the quality for the cash and not just quantity in the form of more days and longer hours. Working longer is not effective or efficient if someone isn't doing the correct work. We may want to start the school day later and attend the the same amount of hours but go home at five and not three.
Thanks for sharing the article.
The person looking for the auto mechanic isn't to bad off, they weren't going anywhere any how.
Your last line made me burst out laughing! Funniest thing I read all weekend.
I agree with you about the intrinsic motivation of watching people learn vs. the extrinsic motivation of a paycheck. Honestly, I'd love to do my job another 6-8 weeks a year; I just can't afford to do it for free. I also absolutely agree that BETTER work is far more important than MORE work. But when I think of longer school days, I usually don't think of "butts-in-seats" time. I imagine teachers finally having the time to work collaboratively--not by pinching a few minutes off of each class and shaving a few seconds off of passing time, but because their contract gives them an hour a day to do it. I picture data gathering and analysis, school improvement team subcommittees, cross-curriculum meetings, department meetings, assessment design--all of the things we know we should be doing, but which right now are left up to teachers to do when and if we feel like it. In the meantime, I imagine students engaged in flexible, supervised, student-driven cross-curricular learning projects. Not things meant to keep them busy while the adults to the adult work, but a self-designed, self-executed (with all appropriate supports, safety measures, advice, etc., necessary) research project, designed to make students use all their learning and to learn a whole lot more.
A fella can dream, can't he?
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