So, this screengrab is from the Get Schooled site and it clearly blames teachers for poor student outcomes, right there in the first paragraph. This is how Obama has decided to fix education -- blame the teachers.
He then says teachers need to help you be successful and reach your potential. That's a great idea!! Why hadn't anyone ever thought of that before! It's so, you know, no excuses! Just make your teacher make you successful and reach your potential! And if they don't, we'll fire 'em, shut down the school, and make you kids stay longer! Of course, the TFA teacher will only stay 2 years, because they end up hating it. But, hey, they are motivated in the beginning!
And in paragraph 3 he seals the deal; he actually says "Some...teachers...don't make the grade..."
So, kids, if you don't do well, you can now blame your teacher, says your president.
You kids should ask your president what he plans to do to eliminate poverty, because you and I know that when you don't eat, or when you have to take care of your brothers and sisters because your mom has 3 jobs and can't make it home, it makes school just a bit less important than your survival.
Tell your president, and governor, and representatives that you want the government to focus on reducing poverty, the actual reason for the achievement gap. Tell them you want universal healthcare. Tell them you want your little sister to go to a good pre-k program where she can get the basics to be ready for kindergarten, where in these NCLB times, kindergartners will be tested.
Everyone knows many parents need to do much more, and we know most of the problems kids have come from outside school. We know this, it has been researched, yet we don't seem to believe it. Or if we believe it, we have decided there is nothing we can do about it. So we have moved on--moved on to teachers and schools (not school administrators though. Hmmmm?)
We also know that real, single payer health care is the only way to reduce health care costs and increase coverage. We know this, but we refuse to do it.
There are lots of things we seem to know, but don't do. It's the What's The Matter With Kansas problem; people acting against their own self-interest.
Those who blame the teachers instead of policy makers and administrators, or who blame Lindy Englund instead of Rummy and Cheney, or who blame the polar bear and not the idiot zoo-goer who wanted the picture up close, are dooming us to a society more fractured and stratified than it is now. Unfortunately, it seems the majority (or maybe it's just those in power?) hold themselves blameless, therefore, education, and society, are doomed. Doomed, I tell ya!
We are being held by the gaping jaws of a polar bear and wondering why we are bleeding.