Darling-Hammond: U.S. vs highest-achieving nations in education

[tabatha]

By Linda Darling-Hammond
The first ever International Summit on Teaching, convened last week in New York City, showed perhaps more clearly than ever that the United States has been pursuing an approach to teaching almost diametrically opposed to that pursued by the highest-achieving nations.

In a statement rarely heard these days in the United States, the Finnish Minister of Education launched the first session of last week’s with the words: “We are very proud of our teachers.” Her statement was so appreciative of teachers’ knowledge, skills, and commitment that one of the U.S. participants later confessed that he thought she was the teacher union president, who, it turned out, was sitting beside her agreeing with her account of their jointly-constructed profession.

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The contrasts to the American attitude toward teachers and teaching could not have been more stark. Officials from countries like Finland and Singapore described how they have built a high-performing teaching profession by enabling all of their teachers to enter high-quality preparation programs, generally at the masters’ degree level, where they receive a salary while they prepare. There they learn research-based teaching strategies and train with experts in model schools attached to their universities. They enter a well-paid profession – in Singapore earning as much as beginning doctors -- where they are supported by mentor teachers and have 15 or more hours a week to work and learn together – engaging in shared planning, action research, lesson study, and observations in each other’s classrooms. And they work in schools that are equitably funded and well-resourced with the latest technology and materials.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/darling-hammond-us-vs-highest-achieving-nations-in-education/2011/03/22/ABkNeaCB_blog.html

[gkhouston]

1. Get thee to the Greatest. n/t

[Newest Reality]

2. What we see against teachers now is

more like a scapegoating attempt. The fact is, our education system has been deliberately dumbing-down our students for decades.

This is just the final phase of that process, it seems. Somebody has to take the rap and take attention away from the dismantling.

Here, multinational corporations don't want a large segment of well-educated, creative, critical thinkers. They want training to the point that you can do what they need you to at lower levels. Their kids are sent to premium schools so that they, like Nobles, can run the show. For you more complex and demanding positions, you can always draw from those who are well-educated overseas with visas.

Our brain drain is getting worse here as well. Those of us here who are bright and well-rounded in our self-education don't want to live under the rule of corporatism with neo-Fascist elements.

So, the march to a form of serfdom continues onward. Americans will eventually be shaped into a new form of docile, medicated, Third-World cattle while other, more lucrative and booming markets will be exploited elsewhere. The growing Underclass will die-off more rapidly, but still, there is profit to be made from those on the way down and, if you didn't get the memo, profit and supporting the wealthy and their corporate veils is ALL that matters anymore.

[The Wizard]

3. We don't allow kids to be kids anymore (NT)