Sacking the Teachers

Not unlike our romantic fascination with the bards and the craftsmen, we have a similar fascination with the noble teachers. But, realistically we know that the quality of teachers is very uneven as well. There are a few really good ones; a lot of average ones; and far to many really poor ones. In fact, I wrote earlier in this blog that the reason that we do remember that special teacher is that there were so precious few of them.

But, my goal here is not to beat up on teachers. Rather it is to argue that our present approach to education with a teacher in the class room in front of a crowd of students is simply not the best way to achieve results in education.

It isn't that bards and craftsmen were a bad way to do things. They were the best we could do at the time. However, until we abstracted and formalize their art, externalized it and refined it over time did we achieve any remarkable results. The same is true for teachers. Until we formalize and externalize their art through technology and refine it over time we are not going to achieve the gains that we are looking for in education. Further, until this education is mass produced it is going to continue to be far too expensive for most people to take advantage of.

 If we want high quality, reliable, and affordable education, we are going to have to sack the teachers like we sacked the bards and the craftsmen. Given the pressures on the educational systems to produce a better product, I am fairly sure this is going to happen. The question is should you embrace it or remain in denial about it?