Lead by Example

Wesley Fryer has written an inspirational post called Looking Beyond Coercion, Tests, and Seat Time.

He describes an experience where he saw a teacher (during that dreaded last week of school) showing a video to her kids while she sat at her desk to do paper work.  First, let me say that in the teachers defense, and in agreement with one of Wesley’s commentors, many of us don’t have the time adequate for all of the paper shuffle we are burdened with.  And I am sure (at least I hope) that this day was not a picture of a common practice in this teacher’s classroom. Now, on to what I am so fired up about.  Check out this segment where Wesley assumes the role of the adult in charge who might respond in this way if asked the question, “Why are we here?”:

We are here so our school gets paid for you sitting in your chair and warming your seat. It really doesn’t matter what you do or do not do, as long as you are not disruptive or hurtful to others in our classroom. Since it doesn’t matter what you do, we are going to do the easiest thing possible from a teacher and administrator perspective today: We are simply going to show you full length videos…

He goes on to say how our current educational system is a coercive system where we are training drones rather than creating innovative, engaging lessons and classroom experiences for our students.  Unfortunately, in the high school setting, I see this all too often.

How do you make teachers (especially in the tenure system we have here in Alabama) more accountable for their classroom practices, strategies, and engagement levels?  Is there an answer?

Filed under: Rants & Raves | Tagged: accountability innovation engagment coercive mantra