Someone you don't want in your shop.

[George N. M.]

Dear Steve,

I am really glad that you have chimed in.  You have made many excellent points.  My wife is a retired educator (K-8 reading specialist) and many of my friends are current or retired teachers.  Bashing the public education system is a common recreation but most folk prefer to point out problems than to offer solutions.

The simple fact of the matter is that the solution to the ails of the public education system is at the ballot box.  If you want better schools vote for school board members and state legislators who will support the reforms you want.  But if you don't get what you want accept that more people want the status quo than want change for many reasons.  Change is hard.  There are lots of different entrenched interests with different turfs to protect. This is where compromise, incremental change, and dreaded politics come into play.

As I said before, the bottom line is money.  You get what you pay for.  If you have a system that pays its teachers poorly and expects them to teach with no supplies you will get poor results.  No surprises there.  Does anyone expect that an intelligent and ambitious young person would read Steve's description of his job and say, "Wow! That's the career for me!"?

I would say that most kids who do well in alternative schooling, home school, on line, academies, private schools, magnet schools, etc. are the cream of the crop and very well might have done well if they stayed in mainstream schools.  And if all the better students leave that leaves the more challenging ones in the public schools.

My own pet peeve is the emphasis on sports in many middle and high schools.  You can see that in the display cases with athletic trophies in the halls.  But there are no display cases with honors for sciences fair winners, brain bowls, or other academic achievements.  If some alum has become a professional sports player you will see their framed picture on the wall but never pictures of graduates who have become doctors, scientists, lawyers, engineers, teachers, etc..

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."  

[Goods]

Steven, I apologize if I have offended you or other educators. That was not my intention. My son had a rough start in school. He was in a catholic school for first grade and that experience almost ruined him. (Perfect example of a bad situation that we don’t really want to get into, and we have not returned to any church since...kind of ruined us as well, I guess.) The switch to public school and the gifted program there was a fantastic thing. He had really wonderful teachers who we still keep up with now.

Unfortunately, things started to fall apart. The gifted program was pushed to the wayside, and those same teachers were as well. Everything changed to teaching to the yearly exam. Students that would normally get pushed to perform ended up with extra busy-work or were set to teaching other students (or worse got bored and became trouble maker’s). We tried to work within the system but it just wasn’t working for us. We are pretty blessed in our situation. My wife was already an at home mother. She has a masters in history (planned on continuing with a doctorate and teaching at the college level, till I messed her plans up), her father was a principal, mother a school librarian, and stepmother a gifted and talented math/science teacher. When she decided on homeschooling it wasn’t taken lightly and was a hard decision, but she jumped in full force. (It was something we were very skeptical of, if not scornful of before this time.) I’m assuming our situation is not that of the average parents. We would be willing to help others if they are wanting to home school, but we would be forthcoming about the work involved. (My sister was going to home school, but we actually talked her out of it. It not right for everyone!)

There are very good teachers and schools systems out there, and I’m glad your part of one of them. But, I’m afraid that many parents in poor systems don’t have any options. They can work for change, but meaningful change comes slow, and kids grow up fast.

I hope I didn’t dig the hole I’m in with you any deeper. I really respect your position.

David

[Frosty]

I agree with you Steve, believe it or not. I have or had too many friends who are teachers. It wasn't until I got to college I have much bad to say about teachers. One high school American History teacher is the only really poor teacher I remember from K-12. He was a French language teacher that it seemed no school in LA county wanted on the staff teaching French. The union managed to find him a position teaching American History and he was awful. Filled the front row with the girls in short skirts who all got A's. After "dictating" for maybe 7 minutes he'd sit at his desk, tap his fingers and say, "Iya booga bugga" to a little tune constantly until it was time to assign "homework" which was to transcribe your notes so he could grade them and dismiss class.  He graded your notes according to how close to word for word you came, punctuation included, to the script he'd memorized. Quizzes and tests were ALL multiple choice and graded with a perforated cover sheet. No written or essay  questions. He reeked, too bored to bother and enjoyed the largest failure rate in school history. I challenged my F- LOUDLY and took a verbal final in front of the principle, boy's vice and two members of the school board and was awarded an A-.

That's the ONE bad K-12 teacher I remember, oh sure there were some I didn't like or didn't like me, can't deal with people without friction of some kind. Can't fault one as poor. 

I had more outstanding teachers, especially shop / industrial arts teachers, the worst I experienced just wasn't excellent.

It was in College I discovered I was wasting my time and confirmed it with friends who were years ahead of me. Every SINGLE required course I was taking, was EXACTLY the same as the ones I'd taken and passed in Jr. high (middle) school and high school. Same books, same lectures, same homework, same quizzes, same tests, same finals, same everything. The mid term in COLLEGE drafting course was a wire frame box. Of course these were COLLEGE courses, not the same at all. Evidently students were supposed to be pretty dull. 

I stopped going when I asked my college, American History teacher if we were going to learn anything we hadn't already taken in two earlier schools. Her reply and I wish I could quote it was to paraphrase. 'oh we don't really teach the subject we're here to socialize you.' Earlier I'd asked my English 101 instructor the same question and got virtually the same answer.

I was PAYING to go for college nights, I worked a 40hr. week with two hours commute time /day and another 40 min commute to college classes. I was paying for higher EDUCATION not socialization. I just stopped going, I figured they were smart enough to notice. 

Years later, I was well enough established in Alaska to rent my own apartment rather than share with room mates and picked up what little mail I got at the PO, I officially got an address. Guess what, I got an official letter from the LA school system with a postage paid return envelope and a multiple choice form to fill out. The cover letter informed me I couldn't receive my degree unless I filled out the form so they (the LA school system!) knew what programs I'd completed. The sub(?) title line informed me school funding depended on my response so please do so immediately. I glanced through the form and could've checked anything from associates to PHD as to what I'd earned, before getting to courses completed. They only asked about courses completed, they knew how many credit hours were required and could claim the appropriate federal and state funding to cover the costs of my degree. Thank you very much for your prompt reply.

THAT was when I realized throughput=funding was more important to the official system (that one anyway) than actual education. Believe me, I understand how much it must eat at your soul trying to get through to students who don't care, I was one of them. Even being a TBI survivor I enjoy extraordinary reading comprehension and a near eidetic memory for the written word. I've been that way all my life, I'd read the text book in the first couple days of a class and ace quizzes, tests and finals without turning in homework. listened to lectures and participated in class work but was generally pretty bored. 

I admit I didn't show much interest in advanced work, My mind was always on something else and average class sizes were 32+ some as high as 36, so the instructors didn't have much if any time for one on one or tailored anything. 

I don't now, never have faulted teachers with maybe 2 exceptions. It's the politicians, unions and money that's the problem. The edu. system unions wield too much money for a mere public vote to change much. A prospective board member or politician isn't getting on the ballot if the union doesn't approve. You should hear the ones running here right now, appalling one and all. One is frankly offensive in speech and and manner, the other two are so mealy mouthed they probably ask the waiter what to eat. 

I don't know how to fix or even improve the system, I wish I did. I vote  and I teach where I have the expertise. Kids who want more than to try blacksmithing go away with all I can give them. I don't bang my head over the ones who don't want to go on but I'm not part of that edu. system. I teach folk who want to learn and don't endanger themselves in my shop. Gross disregard for safety is the only way I'll 86 someone. 

Well, then again I don't "teach" I present knowledge, information, answer questions and help, it's up to the student to learn. Maybe if I'd realized that at a younger age I would've gained more from the system but I wasn't that bright.

So yes, the system appalls me; the USA used to have one of the BEST in the world, where on the list are we now, top 40 even? The last number I saw for the Alaska school system had us ranked at 53rd in the country our per student school budget is still the country's highest for a state. 

Teachers I'm behind you all the way, the school system is the bane of education.

Of course that's just my experience and it's not universal. 

I'm sorry, this topic means too much to me, I get too worked up emotionally if I go into how disappointed my experiences were. I've already said more than I should have, I'm probably repeating myself but I can't re-read what I've written earlier without writing a follow up. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

My kids went through public schools; in the inner city, including bussing my grade schooler  when there was a school at the end of out block.  Most of it was "sub par" until they got into the magnet schools. I still remember our youngest coming home after her first day in the math-science magnet grade school---she was enthralled that the bathroom stalls actually had *doors*!   The curriculum her previous school was using was considered the homework for the classes she had at the magnet school.  (My oldest was taking Russian in the middle "international" school.)

  One of the biggest differences is that a parent had to actually work to get their kids into the magnet schools; filtering out all the people who just wanted state paid daycare for their kids.   PTA was nearly 100% and a lot of extra curricular were well funded and participated in.  With that much parental support; teachers were filtered too.

My eldest daughter went to a state college too and after graduation was accepted by every Veterinary program she applied to.  My youngest is home schooling her 4 sons in Okinawa right now. 

[rockstar.esq]

Steven,

Thank you for sharing your point of view.  I admire your commitment to your career.  As it happens, I have tried to "fix" my corner of the world by writing a blog to teach people about my area of expertise.  I truly hope that you continue your good work.

George,

The expression "you get what you pay for" is one that you've repeated a couple of times.  Gosh, I wish I could pick up some hamburger, pay the clerk $100 and leave with Wagu beef.  Don't get me wrong, I understand that you're trying to make the counter argument that we can't expect Wagu for hamburger prices.  My point is that expression works from the assumption that cost causes value which is a logical fallacy.

I'm an estimator for an Electrical Contractor.  I have to win every dollar of revenue my company gets in a year, by competitively bidding.  Market value is continuously re-defined by this process.  Most competitive bids in my market are won by less than 1%, which reduces risk to the client by building a consensus of market leaders as to what a specific project is worth.

When these projects move forward, a design deficiency is eventually discovered.  The winning bidder, who proved themselves to be a market leader, is asked to provide and price, a solution.

A goodly percentage of the time, the design professionals (who knew their plans were incomplete) will clutch pearls, pretending that whatever price was presented is unfair.  Eventually someone will say "what did you expect from the lowest bidder"?

This person never know the market price for anything.  My detailed breakouts show how every penny came to be.  They don't know if it's right or wrong.  So you know what they complain about?  5% profit, and whether the plans contained a catch-all note pushing the responsibility for some unknowable thing onto the bidder, instead of the design professional who is paid to ensure that the plan is complete. 

You know what they do from there?  They spend half a dozen meetings complaining, cajoling, and bargaining until they've consumed so much of my labor, that I'll be lucky if the 5% covers my overhead.

Now not all of my clients are this way, only the worst ones.  The clients who "save" money by hiring hack design teams, then staffing the "owner's rep" position with an antiquarian incompetent, or a team of indecisive incompetents.

Would it surprise anyone to learn that there are building types which are especially prone to this combination?  Schools, Churches, and Clinics.  

What do these things have in common?  They don't compete to secure their future, and they don't have to prove their value to retain their work.

Burnout is quite high in my vocation, because the demanding disrespect of dullards on all sides is only eclipsed by the looming specter of incompetent competitors who drive the market value down on their Kamikaze mission to ruin themselves.

We get up early, and we stay up late.  We compete, we provide transparency, and we are still expected to use the back door when entering our job sites.  Our work is inspected, and when problems arise that threaten the public, our licenses are revoked.

That level of personal accountability, transparency, and humility goes completely unnoticed, yet as taxpayers, we're supposed to just make charitable assumptions to suspend all consideration of value because "there are some good people" in the education industry.  

George, Colorado is currently spending $5.2 Million over six years to figure out why our kids can't read. 

My company is building a high school at a total cost of nearly $6 Million, which only has four classrooms.  Please don't misunderstand me, it's the only building on the campus, it's geared towards agricultural students, and it doesn't have a garden, or an animal pen.  Not even a chicken coop.  It does however, feature a bleak, minimalist interpretation of a barn to the exterior façade.  Just enough to show that the design could have respected the traditional aesthetic, but chose not to.  It's a yet another Colorado Architecture effort for the Borg assimilation.

The construction specifications standards for public schools are so antiquated that we are literally not permitted to use cost-effective industry standard methods or materials.  Minor remodel projects for existing Colorado Public Schools are in perpetual design for years before they get built in three months.  I know because I provide free conceptual estimates on them to help the design team to stay within their budget.  They never do.

After years of design, these plans still fail to include basic information, which is obviously necessary to build the job.  Invariably, the "final" drawing set will include one or two "gotcha" requirements which are only noted on drawing which has nothing to do with the requirement.  One that I've hit upon twice in my career, is a single key note on an architectural elevation that reads "replace dimming panel".  If you dig far enough, you'll learn that "dimming panel" is a commercial quality, custom designed, theatrical lighting system worth $70,000, which may only be purchased through one vendor representative in another state.  

Collectively, the Colorado Public Schools generate a huge summer rush of construction work every single year.  It's uniformly inefficient, aesthetically hideous, and laden with unnecessary expense.  The higher education schools are several orders of magnitude worse.  They put their "global" construction standards on an unsearchable website which is never mentioned on the bid documents.  You only learn about them when you get your contract.  The electrical standards are so antiquated that we can't even find new old stock of the required materials.  Some would have been outdated in the 1950's.  These are schools with Colleges of Electrical Engineering, Colleges of Architecture, etc.  The deans of these departments often conduct impromptu inspections of the work on site.

Roughly twelve years ago, parents contested curriculum changes in Jefferson County.  The school board wanted curriculum that is so provably bad, it's been outlawed in several states.  Parents at the school board meeting were arrested for arguing against it.  They barely secured an opt-out provision.  That curriculum is backed by multi-billionaires.  

Things aren't this broken by accident, it's done this way by design.  Sincere people are caught in the middle until they lose faith in the goodness of others.  I have no desire to discourage faith in humanity.  I still think good people outnumber the bad.  Our problem is that everyone assumes that "benefit of the doubt" thinking imbues a good-faith relationship.  They trust, but don't verify.

This isn't limited to just schools, or architecture, or construction.  It's everywhere.  There's an amazing article entitled "Everything is broken" by Alana Newhouse.  Her ability to concisely identify underlying dysfunction is absolutely amazing.

Like Steven, she concludes that we should all strive to create a better version.  

 

 

 

 

 

[BillyBones]

I would never say that all teachers are bad, but as with any profession you have good and bad ones. The problem i see is the unions and not being able to get rid of bad teachers, but anyway that gets political so i will just leave it there.

We pulled my daughter out of public school becuase of discrimination. Not the color of her skin but becuase of her parents not being wealthy. We got her enrolled in a charter school and from there she excelled. 

When i was in high school we had one of the best rated academic schools in the country. My world history teacher, well asked once what all countries she had been to she said " i have not been to Antarctica ...yet" So she could teach from first hand experience of her time in those places. By the way her trip to Antarctica was cancelled, the day before Challenger exploded. (showing my age there) Our sports teams were the joke of the state, i think we won 2 football games my entire 5 years of high school. We were that school George talks about, no trophies for sports but we had plaques for people who like one kid went on to be an astrophysicist in the air force and then went on to be an astronaut. Now a days our schools celebrate if they are rated "adequate" by the state. Good enough for government work i guess.