Successful organizations, like General Electric (or better yet, my company) thrive because they regularly cut out the bottom 10% of performers.  Unfortunately, the teachers' unions haven't really caught on to that one (I go into detail on the sorry state of the teaching profession by linking to a Youtube documentary in a previous livejournal entry) . 

With that said, an anti-Union group is offering a $10,000 prize to the worst teacher (more in-depth link found here) 

I'm sure my buddies on here can come up with some good candidates.  Anyone think that "L00n" should be on that list?

Normally, I'd call the media alarmist, but this video rang all too true.



In sum, the video claims that money won't fix schools, only a revolution in education will, including getting rid of the teachers' unions, allowing children to select which schools they will attend, and getting rid of incompetent teachers.

Being a teacher is kind of like being a junior officer now. There's no incentive to really work hard anymore, since we all get promoted at the same time and are paid the same regardless of performance. And even if we're really bad, it's damn near impossible to get an officer kicked out these days. (And with a goal of retaining 95% of captains in the works, we're not even thinking about trying to get rid of our bottom 10% like GE did).

You might not be alone.

As American high school students reading and math skills dip lower and lower, spending on schools is well on the rise.  Digg.com brought up a few good articles on this today. 

First is from Pat Buchannan (if you don't like him, skip down a few lines)

"Since 1990, the share of students lacking even basic reading skills has risen by a third, from 20 percent to 27 percent.

Only 35 percent of high school seniors have reached a "proficient" level in reading, down from 40 percent.

Only 16 percent of black and 20 percent of Hispanic students had reached a proficient level in reading.

Among high school seniors, only 29 percent of whites, 10 percent of Hispanic students and 6 percent of black students were proficient in math.

Next is from the New York Times, which reports:

"The test results also showed that the overwhelming majority of high school seniors have not fully mastered high-school-level math.

At the same time, however, grade-point averages have risen nationwide, according to a separate survey by the National Assessment, of the transcripts of 26,000 students, which compared them with a study of students’ coursework in 1990."

"...schools may seem to offer the same courses to all students, but that the content of those courses is sometimes less demanding for poor and minority children.

For example, the group found, a ninth-grade English teacher at one school assigned students a two- to three-page essay comparing the themes of Homer’s “Odyssey” to those in the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” At the same school, assignments in another class covering the same material were considerably less demanding. There, students broke up into three clusters, with one designing a brochure for “Odyssey Cruises,” another drawing pictures and the third making up a crossword using characters from the “Odyssey.”

But, oddly enough, take a look at one of the biggest contributors to campaigns in American politics.  Placing 4th, with $27 million is the National Education Association, the largest teacher's union in the US. 

Just in case you ever wonder where your money is going...

Now I know why my Flight Ops specialists can't figure out whether or not the difference between 330 flight hours and 336 flight hours is within a 3% margin of error. ("Sir, I don't know how to do percents").

I will say this...I am not very good at higher-level math. Calculus? The hell with that.

I will say, however, that I do have a good working knowledge of arithmetic, fractions, percents, geometry and basic algebra done without a calculator. Woe unto those who arrive at flight school and are forced to do math with an "E6B Flight Computer" (really a slide rule)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr1qee-bTZI