I've appreciated the energy and depth of your blog posts so far (those who have done them, that is). For the fourth post, I want us to get philosophical about charter school theory. With your limited but important witnessing of how charter schools work, what do you think about one (or more) of the following statements: 1) Charter schools promote competition with public schools. 2) Parents, not politicians or school administrators, should be allowed to choose what school their children attend, and should be considered the most qualified to judge this matter. 3) Specialized curricula, not national or even school district curricula, are a preferred way to teach students. 4) Teacher accreditation is over-valued; school should seek out talented, passionate teachers regardless of their qualifications.
I hope you'll be able to tie your response to specific observations from your charter school experience, but I realize that the theoretical nature of these questions might not allow for that. Answer the prompt however you see fit.
1 comment:
Although I am not working at a charter school, I think that there is definitely a difference between public schools and charter schools. I am not sure I think that competing with each other is really a productive solution to the education problem in DC. I think that one of the biggest problems in DC is that policies are made, but everyone forgets about the children. It is about politics, not people. The energy schools spend to maintain false reputations and in competing with each other could easily be used to help teach the students. I think that the choice of charter schools is a good one because of the state of the system, but I also think that the lack of unity adds to the problem.
As for the teachers that work at charters vs. the public schools: a teacher who I work with at Bruce Monroe once told me
"it doesn't take passion to get a paycheck." It doesn't matter how crediable a teacher is, if they are unwilling to really teach, they are just as much at fault as a unqualified teacher.
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