The fundamentals of education are not changed. Education is about teachers and students in classrooms. The specifics of activities have changed: Teachers have smart boards, and students have computers. The techniques that worked in the past may not work. The kids are almost certainly different. Educational objectives can and even should be different. But the fundamentals of education are the same: kids and teachers in classrooms.
A classroom is a bit of a mysterious place. How does the teacher interact with up to a hundred kids every day? I would propose that nobody really knows, including the teacher.
Education is buried in bureaucratic noise: project-based learning, “flip your classroom,” authentic education, expeditionary learning. And it seems to be about steering committees, diversity training, ownership, theory of action, racial equity and strategic planning, and it goes on and on and on.
It does not seem possible for the drivers of this astonishing dysfunction to realize that education is all about teachers and students in classrooms. All a school district can do is hire the best teachers, give them what they need and get out of their way.
The Asheville teachers union has approached the school board with requests to be more involved in decisions. The buzz is “meet, confer and collaborate.” Education is all about kids and teachers in classrooms. The teacher’s job is all about kids and teachers in classrooms. A union is about salaries, working conditions and job stability.
It is hard to see why the Asheville City Association of Educators created this and hard to see why some school board members bought into it.
It escapes me how this could impact overworked, underpaid and probably unappreciated teachers interacting with students in classrooms.
— John Brigham
Asheville
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