The Good Intentions of an Admitted Amateur...

“Education is too important to relinquish to the vagaries of the market and the good intentions of amateurs.” The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education, “Billionaire Boys Club,” page 222, hardback edition.



I am an admitted amateur [that had] the good intentions of teaching after my high tech career went bust in 2003, desperate to do ANY job. Part of the cycle that has become American teacher education via the Alternative Teacher Certification programs that abound (I won’t mention the one I was in).

I can no longer support the ACP system (see expound on “amateurs” below). Dr. Ravitch’s book is a revelation to American education in that she steadfastly promotes it as a profession, not a byproduct of the free market.

I took and passed the state certification exam for a Math/Physics teacher. It was a natural outgrowth of my previous life experiences as physics major in college and engineer in the semiconductor industry.

When I read the words “good intentions of amateurs,” I winced and almost cried aloud (the complete antithesis of William Earnest Henley’s poem “Invictus”). I received the “bludgeoning of chance” on a daily Monday – Friday basis: trying to teach physics or tutor math to a group of teens more interested in their social networks and “tweets” than any physical laws, confiscating enough mobile devices to populate a landfill.

Amateurs settle for teaching; educators’ goal for it. Amateurs find themselves in career transition and take a simple state exam; educators plan for it almost from first steps. Amateurs sit in air conditioned hotel rooms and watch video and power point presentations – ahem, our “training” – and send their scaled down one-page resumes to school districts unsuspecting of our amateur status. Amateurs stand aghast in urban school classes, wondering how to “manage” them, since neither reason nor bribes work very long. Nor does my physical presence as a former engineer: “if it was so good, mister, why aren’t you still doing it?” Once idealistic amateurs teach to the test since little other time is allotted in a 50 minute per class classroom day; educators are realists and manage their classrooms effectively.

Would I want someone that took an “alternative route” to being an engineer: someone that bypassed the physics, calculus, differential equations, computer programming? Would I have respect for that person/empathy for their plight of lack of problem-solving skills, or any real project completed in a year’s time of evaluation? Would such a person feel intimidated, and eventually exit the profession?

50% of new teachers leave the profession after five years with no intention of returning to it. If the teaching profession were truly driven by “market forces,” such a turnover would not be tolerated! It would be measured; compared to times past, S.M.A.R.T. goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely would be set, timelines established and a stated deadline on when the problem is solved. The “political” market promotes charter schools and school choice, with no evidence in any other nations that such a solution has been pursued successfully. Thankfully and for the benefit of our current educational complex, I’ve become part of that statistic three years earlier, making my way back to high tech in East Fishkill, NY.

Teachers are the weakest group politically; thereby good punching bags, and no high-priced lawyers to lobby their cases with legislators.

Dr. Ravitch makes some excellent points about the perils of high stakes testing in her narrative. My only complaint is that this wisdom is not widely disseminated as the cinema antonym of “Waiting for Superman.” Perhaps a documentary of this book to counter “Superman” would give it wider exposure and spur second order sales. I’d pay to see it, because it is high time teaching became a profession again. Our country and our democracy depend on it.