Friday, April 1, 2011

Teacher Argument

According to Timothy Daley's article on the topic of the "widget effect," I agree with his claim that teachers need to be divided and recognized based on their skills and talents. In my school experience, some teachers know their subject, can link their topic to other ones, and also fully explain and actually teach us the specific topic we are learning. However, other teachers can't even answer simple questions asked by students that think out of the box. In the end, it seems as though the students are teaching the teachers. School districts tend to loop the "highest performing teachers" with the "lowest performing" ones. He states that the "widget affect degrades the teacher profession." No matter how hard the best teachers work, a large percentage of them "can't expect to jump up the career ladder or get a pat on the back," because they are just continually being grouped with the lower ranking teachers. With the lowest teachers struggling, how can the district advisors and even students expect the teachers to get feedback and to improve their teaching. Since most of the "best" teachers that teach in public schools are fully qualified and have the intelligence, if they are specifically recognized as being the "highest" and the "best" then they can continue to succeed. Also, the particular teachers that are struggling more can get the help and the feedback needed to improve their teaching level. I defended Daley's argument that the problem with teachers in society today is not specifically the teachers themselves. Some people argue that its the "teachers" that just "aren't doing their jobs." However, the underlying problem involves the higher ranking advisors who include all teachers in the same boat of sameness. Nobody wants to be a widget, so to fix the problem teachers need to be pointed out about their successes and given feedback.