I appreciate most documentaries because they help to make me think beyond my realm of life and to focus on issues that are pertinent to many people. I don't always agree with them, and I am always skeptical to allow myself to completely buy in to the arguments that are being made since the creators are rarely, if ever, objective in regards to the topic. With that being said, a well done documentary is always enlightening, and I enjoy the opportunity to think more in depth about the subject matter.
I watched "Waiting for Superman" tonight after having heard a lot about it in the past couple of days. The documentary was incredibly well done, in my opinion, and I was made aware of tenure in the public school system. I was aware of tenure on the university level, but I had no idea that this existed at lower levels of education. What an absurd idea! In my opinion, and it would seem that the results of our education tests nationwide would back me up, with the obtainment of tenure, any and all accountability goes out of the window. With tenure comes once again the ugly mindset of entitlement. Nothing needs to be earned because it cannot be taken away; and why put more effort into your job than you have to when there are no raises based on merit? From a business stance, it just makes absolutely no sense at all. By allowing tenure to remain in the public school systems, we are allowing dead weight (Ineffective teachers) to drag down the youth who are mandated to be in these teachers' tutelage by discouraging the students' desire to learn, or at least hindering their progression of learning.
I do realize that an opposing argument may be raised that teachers obviously don't teach because of the pay level, but instead because they have a desire to educate the youth of America so why not provide them with security, but to this I'd say "Get real!". Yes, there are many educators who teach because they love the youth and they are not driven by money, but these teachers would excel no matter what. They would not need the joke known as "tenure" in order to keep their jobs. In fact, I firmly believe that they would be those who received raises based off of merit while those who are inneffective or who disklike the profession would be weeded out or would choose to leave since there would be no low hanging fruit for them to live off of. Convince our teachers to reach higher and to become more invested, and I know that the majority of the students will mirror the same mentality. Enthusiasm and passion are contagious. Unfortunately, so is stupidity and apathy.
I watched "Waiting for Superman" tonight after having heard a lot about it in the past couple of days. The documentary was incredibly well done, in my opinion, and I was made aware of tenure in the public school system. I was aware of tenure on the university level, but I had no idea that this existed at lower levels of education. What an absurd idea! In my opinion, and it would seem that the results of our education tests nationwide would back me up, with the obtainment of tenure, any and all accountability goes out of the window. With tenure comes once again the ugly mindset of entitlement. Nothing needs to be earned because it cannot be taken away; and why put more effort into your job than you have to when there are no raises based on merit? From a business stance, it just makes absolutely no sense at all. By allowing tenure to remain in the public school systems, we are allowing dead weight (Ineffective teachers) to drag down the youth who are mandated to be in these teachers' tutelage by discouraging the students' desire to learn, or at least hindering their progression of learning.
I do realize that an opposing argument may be raised that teachers obviously don't teach because of the pay level, but instead because they have a desire to educate the youth of America so why not provide them with security, but to this I'd say "Get real!". Yes, there are many educators who teach because they love the youth and they are not driven by money, but these teachers would excel no matter what. They would not need the joke known as "tenure" in order to keep their jobs. In fact, I firmly believe that they would be those who received raises based off of merit while those who are inneffective or who disklike the profession would be weeded out or would choose to leave since there would be no low hanging fruit for them to live off of. Convince our teachers to reach higher and to become more invested, and I know that the majority of the students will mirror the same mentality. Enthusiasm and passion are contagious. Unfortunately, so is stupidity and apathy.
