The mayor stayed low-key about the governor at Wednesday's Q & A, but then had this to say:Other than politics (where "experienced" is now sometimes messaged as "entrenched" and becomes an albatross pols want to get rid themselves of) and teaching, I cannot think of any other careers where "experience" is so derided as worthless and perhaps even harmful."Seniority gives you the ability to have learned more as to how to deliver an education. But there are plenty of people just starting out that know how to deliver a quality education. The length of time you have worked is irrelevant to whether or not you can do what our children need."
Irrelevant? The mayor who justified seeking a third term because of his experience was saying that experience means nothing at all when it comes to teaching.
Good riddance, Mr. Chips.
Seriously, when I first started in this career back in 2000 and was looking for work, people asked if I had any experience teaching children, what I knew about teaching, what I thought, etc.
There was a specific connection between what I knew and how long I had been doing it.
The connection comes because you can KNOW something in a book without actually, you know, KNOWING it.
Over the years I have discovered various ways of reaching all kinds of students.
That knowledge has come WITH EXPERIENCE.
Don't know if that is measurable by a value-added assessment model.
Don't know if that knowledge will keep me in my job.
I DO know it has made me a better teacher.
I finally see the logic in the mayors opinion on experience. In fact, I believe we should start a grass roots movement to end seniority and the first stop should be the Senate. After all, experienced senior Senators are occupying key positions and if new Senators took over those positions think of the new ideas they could come up with. Yes let us inject the same logic to all current CEO's and banking and corporate higher ups. After all if the third term financial genius the only man who could save NYC from the great financial collapse thinks this is the way to go who are we to second guess him.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that's sad, is that I have seen some great young teachers, who really have a gift for teaching, handcuffed by the sit on the rug, use only the whiteboard, accountable noise approach, endorsed Bloomberg and company. These teachers come up, and for many of them, this is all they know. Bloomberg I believe, wants to get rid of teachers with more experience who have taught other ways, and may disagree strongly with the current approach being taken in the elementary schools. But the other side of the coin is that I have seen most of the senior teachers I know, very speedily adapt to the new curriculum and format. It is a MYTH, pure and simple, that senior teachers are doing an inferior job to the younger ones. Often the more veteran staff advises and mentors the younger teachers on the new format! It's Bloomberg and the Big Lie, and the lack of investigation and analysis on the part of our corporate media that perpetuate a false impression of what is going on in the schools.
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