Rhee Vs. Ravitch

Sorry, it's late! Don't judge me.

Interesting read, especially with having the preconception that Michelle Rhee is a bit of a b-... meanie. That being said, most of my disagreements are with her, they actually make me want to pull my hair out. I think, as I stated in class that she tried to run before she could even crawl. Firing mass amount of teachers and principals only left some kids with inexperienced teachers in already failing districts. Increased testing led to increased cheating, but you read the article so I won't re-write the whole thing.

My problem with her is mostly on a philosophical level. She is under the impression that hard work is possible for everyone, and that people are making the choice not to work hard. It's a (in my expert opinion) a conservative idea. Hard work is the fundamental key to success, some people strive, others don't. The way I see it, Rhee doesn't realize how lucky she had it because of the fact that she had to overcome so much. She came from a family, that though it wasn't doing well, preached hard work, and the importance of school. Because of this, she strived to succeed and worked her butt off!

That being said, this isn't a value instilled in every child in every home in America. Unfortunately, hard work has to be taught, unless it's in someone's veins and for most, I'd assume it's not. But either way, you're really not all that responsible for your own work ethic.

So she see's her own successes, and uses this to set guidelines on teachers. Teachers she believes, are the most important part of the formula. Good teachers create good students, bad ones create bad students.

Textbook example of oversimplifying a problem that leads to an oversimplified response. That response? Testing of course. Test the shit out of these kids. I know, I was one of them.

Results, results, results.

"What'd you get on your standard test?"
"98, you?"
"Oh, uhm, good job I got a 78. Studied really hard too, how much did you study?"
"Eh, it just kind of came natural to me."

And just like that you have one student who feels like he doesn't have to work any harder, and another student who feels like hard work doesn't pay off. You know what sucks about competition? There's losers. And losers accept the fact that they're losers, especially when everyone around them is a loser, think it's not that bad and end up being economic drains.

But there I go, oversimplifying it. Obviously it's not all about egos, you have to have some way to measure how people are doing. But, do we really need these things to decide the rest of people's lives? What about teacher evaluations? Why don't we hear about them more often. When I applied to the 'burg I sent in grades, SAT scores, essays, and a letter of recommendation. One letter, from one teacher, who happens to now be a friend. So the people who helped mold me, taught me, consoled me, and learned from me have really that little a say? And when the hell am I going to take a scan-tron test working in business? Also, I can't really explain to you what a stock is, but can tell you the definition of flotsam with ease.

I guess I'll just have to get to Ravitch later.

(And it means wreckage or cargo from a ship floating in the water. I can't believe you didn't know that.)