A few days ago, I had a conversation with a bright young woman, a recently minted teacher. I shared with her something I had learned about recently: the $1 per day schools popping up in some of the poorest places in world. See The Economist or listen to the EconTalk podcast, both articles demonstrate that these schools provide student outcomes far above what they would otherwise have seen in the state schools. To a strong believer in free markets this exemplifies the power of markets to respond to what people need.
In my conversation, I asked this young woman (let's call her Vickie) what her take was on these schools. To my dismay (but not too much surprise) she--contrary to endorsing the efforts of these schools--treated me to a lecture on the need for more professionalism in teaching, a quality that these pop-up schools (and to a lesser extent, charter schools in the US) clearly lack. Furthermore, she went on to site the necessity of teacher training, and went farther to speculate that there is a need to make entry to the teaching profession more restrictive, all in the name of "professionalism".
All this led me to wonder; what is professional? In sport or art, you are professional if you get paid for your work. I hardly think this is what she means. In truth I am not sure what she means, as I didn't get the chance to ask, but I think she meant something like "formally certified by a professional body of belonging to a specific profession by virtue of having completed a required course of studies and/or practice and whose competence can usually be measured against an established set of standards". (Definition courtesy of the business dictionary). This definition of "professional" may seem a strawman to you, but of all the things Vickie mentioned, these are the points she made over and over again.
There is one aspect to this definition that is painfully absent--just as it was from our discussion. Perhaps you have spotted it, but in case you haven't, there was no mention of outcomes. As a professional, one must be focused on the outcomes. One must pay attention to her customers. If not, if our teachers only pay attention to their "professionalism" to the neglect of the students, the neglect of the outcomes, they will be replaced, just as surely as quality cars, appliances, clothes and restaurants drive out competitors of lower quality.
How does this happen? How can it happen with our schools?
It already is happening! Between 1999 and 2011, the number of homeschoolers doubled from 850,000 to 1,770,000. Similarly, the number of charter schools has quadrupled over a similar time period from about 1,500 to slightly more than 6,000. At the same time, Kahn Academy is serving more than 45 million per year world-wide.
I have great respect for Vickie; she is a vivacious, highly intelligent, caring woman. I have little doubt that much of what she was telling me is what she was taught at her teachers' college. This is the part that I find so very upsetting. Why are we filling our teachers' heads with such gobbledygook as this? Why don't we tell them the truth, that their profession (to use the word again) is to educate students? To be accountable to their parents? Instead they get puffed up with professionalism and certification--not with the fire of competing on outcomes.
If my children get educated well, I care not one whit about whether their teachers were certified or not, whether they had a master's degree or even a bachelor's, or, really, any degree at all. I care about the outcome. If these caring and hard-working men and women want to be looked at as professional, it is time to face the mirror, not time to chastise those with better outcomes for lack of "professionalism".
In my conversation, I asked this young woman (let's call her Vickie) what her take was on these schools. To my dismay (but not too much surprise) she--contrary to endorsing the efforts of these schools--treated me to a lecture on the need for more professionalism in teaching, a quality that these pop-up schools (and to a lesser extent, charter schools in the US) clearly lack. Furthermore, she went on to site the necessity of teacher training, and went farther to speculate that there is a need to make entry to the teaching profession more restrictive, all in the name of "professionalism".
All this led me to wonder; what is professional? In sport or art, you are professional if you get paid for your work. I hardly think this is what she means. In truth I am not sure what she means, as I didn't get the chance to ask, but I think she meant something like "formally certified by a professional body of belonging to a specific profession by virtue of having completed a required course of studies and/or practice and whose competence can usually be measured against an established set of standards". (Definition courtesy of the business dictionary). This definition of "professional" may seem a strawman to you, but of all the things Vickie mentioned, these are the points she made over and over again.
There is one aspect to this definition that is painfully absent--just as it was from our discussion. Perhaps you have spotted it, but in case you haven't, there was no mention of outcomes. As a professional, one must be focused on the outcomes. One must pay attention to her customers. If not, if our teachers only pay attention to their "professionalism" to the neglect of the students, the neglect of the outcomes, they will be replaced, just as surely as quality cars, appliances, clothes and restaurants drive out competitors of lower quality.
How does this happen? How can it happen with our schools?
It already is happening! Between 1999 and 2011, the number of homeschoolers doubled from 850,000 to 1,770,000. Similarly, the number of charter schools has quadrupled over a similar time period from about 1,500 to slightly more than 6,000. At the same time, Kahn Academy is serving more than 45 million per year world-wide.
I have great respect for Vickie; she is a vivacious, highly intelligent, caring woman. I have little doubt that much of what she was telling me is what she was taught at her teachers' college. This is the part that I find so very upsetting. Why are we filling our teachers' heads with such gobbledygook as this? Why don't we tell them the truth, that their profession (to use the word again) is to educate students? To be accountable to their parents? Instead they get puffed up with professionalism and certification--not with the fire of competing on outcomes.
If my children get educated well, I care not one whit about whether their teachers were certified or not, whether they had a master's degree or even a bachelor's, or, really, any degree at all. I care about the outcome. If these caring and hard-working men and women want to be looked at as professional, it is time to face the mirror, not time to chastise those with better outcomes for lack of "professionalism".
Comments are welcome! Tell me why I'm wrong, or what I missed!
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