Can’t touch this

I spent a lovely evening at the Waterstone's bookstore in Picadilly last night and enjoyed perusing Mr Jones' Rules for the Modern Man by Dylan Jones. As I read the table of contents, I noticed a chapter entitled "How to Fire Someone." Jones then outlined what he claimed was the complicated procedure of giving warnings--both written and verbal--and of notifying HR, recording bad behaviour, and keeping witnesses.

Little does he know how good he has it. According to a Times article:

Talking to one headmaster at a London school last week, he told me that his hands were tied. Getting rid of a poor teacher, he explained, was nigh on impossible. Even though parents had complained about one of his own members of his staff, he had done little because the process was long and arduous, created dischord in the school, and might not even work.

An anecdote from my own lovely education. My history teacher when I was 16 did nothing more than make us read our textbook. She never lectured, never taught--just told us to read. If someone spoke, she yelled. Our principal wanted to fire her, but was scared she would sue. After several years of poor performance, she assaulted a student. Finally the axe fell.

It should not be this hard! Are the students for the teacher or the teacher for the students? I love and respect the thousands upon thousands of truly excellent teachers. There is hardly a more dedicated and altruistic bunch. But making it difficult to fire protects teachers at the expense of children.

As things are, if children get stuck with the poor teacher, they just have to accept it.

...
written by Al, July 16, 2008

I agree that it is super hard to sack teachers, but an easier, quicker way to partially solve the problem would be to make it more difficult to qualify. I know of several people who did PGCEs in the last few years who were rubbish, put in no effort, and still scraped through. I don't have a link, but a few months ago the economist did a big feature on how to make teachers better and concluded that making the training process more selective would be a big help. It also suggested that doing so would not neccasserily reduce the number of applicants as some decent potential teachers are put off the idea of a PGCE because it is so associated with being a "last chance saloon" for graduates with nothing better to do. And anyway, poor trainee teachers need not neccasserily be kicked out of the profession altogether, they could perhaps be sent to do more training, or something.

Economist link
written by JABITheW, July 16, 2008

Here's the link to the Economist article Al mentions:

http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9989914

My own personal observation is that here in the UK teaching is something lower-ranked graduates tend to go in to. Certainly I know of nobody doing my degree (Chemical Engineering at Imperial College) who would consider a career in teaching, despite being ably qualified to teach maths and any science. It is largely because better pay can be got elsewhere. Introducing a requirement for a good degree would improve the quality of teachers, but would also lead to a shortage unless wages were significantly raised, which isn't affordable. Perhaps a good idea is to encourage teaching as an early retirement from industry? Several of my favourite teachers at school had dropped out of the chemicals industry at age 50-odd. You certainly never heard them complain of how stressful teaching is.

Obviously not heard of Teach First yet!
written by Joe Nutt, July 25, 2008

You should look up Teach First, who are having a tremendous impact on this problem. Brilliantly simple idea that works. Find those high flying graduates who haven't really made their mind up what to do when they grow up and say, "Fancy teaching for a couple of years? We'll train you, give you lots of business training and networking opportunities at the same time, and all you have to do is give us two years working as a teacher in a challenging school in return." I have seen the inspirational work their trainees do in the classroom, which is why I convinced my own company to sponsor them. They are currently 14th in the Times top 100 graduate recruiters.
http://www.teachfirst.org.uk

Written by Jason Jones
Wednesday, 16 July 2008
I spent a lovely evening at the Waterstone's bookstore in Picadilly last night and enjoyed perusing Mr Jones' Rules for the Modern Man by Dylan Jones. As I read the table of contents, I noticed a chapter entitled "How to Fire Someone." Jones then outlined what he claimed was the complicated procedure of giving warnings--both written and verbal--and of notifying HR, recording bad behaviour, and keeping witnesses. Little does he know how good he has it. According to a Times article: Talking to one headmaster at a London school last week, he told me that his hands were tied. Getting rid of a poor teacher, he explained, was nigh on impossible. Even though parents had complained about one of his own members of his staff, he had done little because the process was long and arduous, created dischord in the school, and might not even work. An anecdote from my own lovely education. My history teacher when I was 16 did nothing more than make us read our textbook. She never lectured, never taught--just told us to read. If someone spoke, she yelled. Our principal wanted to fire her, but was scared she would sue. After several years of poor performance, she assaulted a student. Finally the axe fell. It should not be this hard! Are the students for the teacher or the teacher for the students? I love and respect the thousands upon thousands of truly excellent teachers. There is hardly a more dedicated and altruistic bunch. But making it difficult to fire protects teachers at the expense of children. As things are, if children get stuck with the poor teacher, they just have to accept it. Bookmark Comments (3) Subscribe to this comment's feed ... written by Al, July 16, 2008 I agree that it is super hard to sack teachers, but an easier, quicker way to partially solve the problem would be to make it more difficult to qualify. I know of several people who did PGCEs in the last few years who were rubbish, put in no effort, and still scraped through. I don't have a link, but a few months ago the economist did a big feature on how to make teachers better and concluded that making the training process more selective would be a big help. It also suggested that doing so would not neccasserily reduce the number of applicants as some decent potential teachers are put off the idea of a PGCE because it is so associated with being a "last chance saloon" for graduates with nothing better to do. And anyway, poor trainee teachers need not neccasserily be kicked out of the profession altogether, they could perhaps be sent to do more training, or something. Economist link written by JABITheW, July 16, 2008 Here's the link to the Economist article Al mentions: http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9989914 My own personal observation is that here in the UK teaching is something lower-ranked graduates tend to go in to. Certainly I know of nobody doing my degree (Chemical Engineering at Imperial College) who would consider a career in teaching, despite being ably qualified to teach maths and any science. It is largely because better pay can be got elsewhere. Introducing a requirement for a good degree would improve the quality of teachers, but would also lead to a shortage unless wages were significantly raised, which isn't affordable. Perhaps a good idea is to encourage teaching as an early retirement from industry? Several of my favourite teachers at school had dropped out of the chemicals industry at age 50-odd. You certainly never heard them complain of how stressful teaching is. Obviously not heard of Teach First yet! written by Joe Nutt, July 25, 2008 You should look up Teach First, who are having a tremendous impact on this problem. Brilliantly simple idea that works. Find those high flying graduates who haven't really made their mind up what to do when they grow up and say, "Fancy teaching for a couple of years? We'll train you, give you lots of business training and networking opportunities at the same time, and all you have to do is give us two years working as a teacher in a challenging school in return." I have seen the inspirational work their trainees do in the classroom, which is why I convinced my own company to sponsor them. They are currently 14th in the Times top 100 graduate recruiters. http://www.teachfirst.org.uk Write comment This content has been locked. You can no longer post any comment. Powered by Azrul's Jom Comment for Joomla!