Education / Teaching thread

bonnjer said

You're absolutely right on this. I can't tell you how many "silver bullets" I've seen in my 24 years now. The amount of money spent on these various programs is probably mind blowing. I say probably because they never really tell us how much they've spent on things. At this point in my career, I follow their requirements as little as I can get away with and just teach as much as I can.

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There is no field on the face of this planet more full of snake oil than public education. Every huckster has a program, platform, curriculum, etc. to sell that is "research based" (a phrase that means nothing) and will fix all of your problems. And nothing ever changes despite all the money spent. You try it for a few years, it doesn't work, then the district/administration comes back with the latest bullshirt and says "Ok, that other stuff didn't work, but this stuff is proven. So and so district has seen it work." and then it doesn't work either and it didn't *really* work for so and so district, despite the claims. It's all so pathetic.

My first district, which was very poor, spent 50k on this DBQ initiative that was 'proven" to raise scores across the board in Social Studies, it didn't work (surprise) and it was abandoned less than two years later.