Cosby Proposes New Approaches to Education
Consider these excerpts:
National Curriculum
"Although rarely cited, one of the largest educational
wastes springs from our decentralized system. Because curricula
are unpredictable from district to district, and because an
average of 20 percent of students move every year, teachers must
spend up to six weeks each year reviewing material in order to
get new arrivals and continuing students ‘on the same
page.’ This means that since we cannot agree on a common
national curriculum, we waste up to one-sixth of available
instruction time."
Summer Breaks and Class Hours
"Beloved as they are, summer breaks are also wasteful, both
in terms of lost instruction time and the skills and knowledge
that children forget. Even the structure of the school day is
wasteful. In the days when most women were stay-at-home moms, it
made sense to dismiss kids in the afternoon. But now, when most
children come from homes where both parents work, it makes little
sense to send kids home to empty houses or to expensive—and
often less than satisfactory—child care."
Special Needs
"We must do more for children with special needs. Teachers
aren't trained to know how to respond to some of the most
common health problems, such as asthma or attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)."
Educational Testing
"The most important effects of education are long term.
Although a student may successfully solve a problem on a test, if
a week later she forgets how to do it, that would not be
successful education. Yet the overwhelming evidence shows that
our standard processes of accountability—tests, along with
the methods of education leading to them—put overwhelming
emphasis on the short-term recall of information. This is further
exacerbated by the new insistence on ‘narrow
accountability’ which requires teachers to teach for the
test."
Teaching Joy
"Look at successful teachers. They love kids! It is almost
impossible to really be successful in the process of education if
you don't enjoy what you are doing. We now have evidence of
brain research to show that happy brains learn and teach better.
Joy is an energizer."
Teacher Compensation
"What are teachers worth? Not all teachers perform at the
same level. And it is difficult to determine which teacher is
more valuable.
We must develop master teachers in all aspects of teaching and learning. They, in turn, will redefine schools and schooling. They will partner with those who bring other skills to the school, from software developers to administrators, from business managers to researchers, from curriculum designers to community developers, but teachers are the school's heart. The teaching profession must be restructured so that the best teachers have the greatest responsibility and compensation."
"For the teaching profession to take its rightful place in society, three things must occur:
- The highest-paid teacher is paid as much as the highest-paid administrator.
- The highest-paid preschool teacher is paid the same as the highest-paid college professor.
- The most effective teachers are paid on the same level as the most effective doctors, lawyers, and engineers."
