Apple CEO lambasts teacher unions

[Glenn Carnagey]

On Feb 17, 2007, at 9:17 AM, David Herren wrote:

> On Feb 17, 2007, at 2:21 PM, Matt Johnston wrote:
>
>> 1. Technology is not going to improve schooling, Good teachers will
>
> absolutely agree.
>
>> 2. Unionisation is protecting bad teachers at the expense of good.
>
> I disagree. The WORST teachers in my school aren't even in the union.
>
>> I agree 100% with those statements.

Far worse than protecting bad teachers is perpetuating an insanely  
heavy and incompetent middle-management bureaucracy.  The irony of  
these statements being made in Austin, Texas with their focus on TAKS  
and standardized testing at the expense of generalized education  
is .... thick and a little hard to take.   Jobs can be excused as  
he's not local, I can't disagree with his basic statements.  They're  
simplistic, but taken in context, OK.  However, Michael Dell ought to  
know better, particularly since he's theoretically just recognized  
this phenomenon within his own company.  Protecting bad teachers is  
not good, protecting horrible assistant principals and up is worse,  
and protecting the legion useless bureaucrats in between is inexcusable.

FWIW, I agree with David.  The heart of the problem is cultural, lack  
of accountability for actions, lack of respect for self and others.   
If any progress is to made all facets have to be tackled; parent  
problems, teacher problems, principal problems, and first and  
foremost, bureaucracy problems.  This system does everything it can  
to rid itself of more experienced competent teachers in favor of kids  
straight out of college that come cheap.  You get what you pay for.   
My kids did not come through this system knowing how to read, write,  
speak and think.  We had to that ourselves, at home.  They performed  
wonderfully well on the many standardized tests, but they lacked even  
the most basic tools they needed to make their way in the world.  I'm  
a little bitter about that...

disclaimer: I have two older kids that went through this system are  
now at the mercy of the public university system, and a younger one  
in it now, and various relatives teaching in the system.   My mother  
just retired from teaching in Austin public schools, and my wife has  
worked at Dell the past seven years, we live about a mile away.

g./


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