This is a hilarious and graphic demonstration of how monkeys respond to unequal rewards.
It is a morality tale about merit pay.
Please watch the video.
Corporate reformers treat adults who teach like Capuchin monkeys, experimenting with the incentives and sanctions that will cause them to respond differently, to work harder, to produce quantifiable results.
What other profession would allow themselves to be manipulated, condescended to, and directed by people who have never done the work and never practiced their profession?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
We should do exactly what the monkey did. Throw their failed attempt to manipulate right back at them.
It’s time to take over the conversation and throw their unfounded ‘theories’ right back at them.
Interesting video. But you’ll note that the grape monkey didn’t care a hoot that the cucumber monkey was treated inequally. She continued to work diligently to get her grapes. I don’t think the rheeformers care about the fact that the cucumber monkey threw the cucumber back – she can always be replaced, after all. As long as you have enough teachers (or workers of any stripe, for that matter) happily working for grapes, you don’t worry about the workers upset about their cucumbers – just replace them as needed. When you have a population as desperate as ours is getting with work becoming more and more difficult to find, especially at the professional level, you’ll still have plenty of workers willing to take the cucumbers, especially Americans who always think that very soon now they’ll be getting the grapes.
Also, the rheeformers don’t care a hoot about throwing the cucumber back. To really get their attention, we need to stop giving them the rocks.
Since 2002 I have been asking New Yorkers why I can’t run the Bloomberg Corporation, if he can run NYC Public Education, afterall, I have a Master’s Degree from one of the top colleges in the country and I speak 3 foreign languages. He never even responded to my letters.
Excellent demonstration. Good point, Dienne. Empathy, or lack of, is also part of this outcome. Results: group getting the desired reward will not express opposition to unfair treatment. Ed admin know this fact very well. They use it often and effectively. Because, teachers have been a passive group throughout history. We are vulnerable, isolated and wear our human traits on our sleeves. Often, to be trampled on. We may mumble and grumble, occassionally will march – not enough to move up from the bottom of the s**t list. AFT’s actions to propose a teacher bar exam is just another tool to communicate that we are not fit to do our jobs j less we jump through more hoops. Simple, don’t hire people who do not have the educ, skills and credentials from reputable institutions. Retain the good teachers we have.
How do we stop the bullies? Please do not suggest another test for us to prove to the world that we know what we are doing!! I think we need to throw something at the teacher haters…and I don’t mean cucumbers!
AFT’s actions to propose a teacher bar exam is just another tool to communicate that we are not fit to do our jobs … Please do not suggest another test for us to prove to the world that we know what we are doing!! I think we need to throw something at the teacher haters
Assaulting your critics might not present the profession well. And doesn’t Dr. Ravitch support high quality assessment of teachers’ subject knowledge?
It’s (high quality assessment) used to be done in Missouri but then they got cheap and required the Praxis.
And quite frankly I wouldn’t give a shit about “presenting the profession well” when the bastards that we are up against lie through their teeth at every instance.
My take on the same video, which is excellent: http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2012/11/the-cucumber-austerity-of-teaching.html
You do realize that Diane’s original link goes to your site, right?
Personally, I am looking forward to merit pay. Then I can stop using my usual crappy lessons and finally get out the super-duper fantastic ones that I have kept locked in a drawer all these years while waiting for the proper motivation!
(Yes, that’s sarcasm.)
I keep on trying to get the students to pay me for giving them a progress report or what work they are missing. Man it hasn’t been working. They don’t even have a buck to spare (what they earn in the evening is going to the family finances).
What should we do to encourage people with technical backgrounds to teach in high schools? I think it calls for different pay levels for different areas of specialization as is commonly done in higher education, but perhaps there are other solutions.
Hey teachingeconomist. Buy a clue.
We don’t need teachers with “technical backgrounds”. That comes in way down the list. We need teachers that can effectively motivate kids to do what they normally would not.
If you were a teacher, you would know this. What you are implying is fundamental to the reformer cause – replace educators with supposed better teachers with “technical” backgrounds.
Einstein wouldn’t have lasted a year teaching in an urban school.
I am a veteran teacher.
I think “content knowledge” is important, so I am an advocate of at least high school teachers having an undergraduate degree in their fields of specialization. This is usually the case with high school teachers of art, music, and English, but typically not the case in mathematics. I do agree with you, however, that this is a far worse problem in the rural schools typical of my state than the urban schools of the coasts.
TE,
Yes you are a veteran teacher at the university level, right? How many years?
And for high school teachers I agree that it is important that they be well versed in their respective subject areas. What then constitutes “well versed/degreed? How many undergrad hours in the particular subject area?
I have 39 hours of Spanish (of which I quizzed out of 13 hours) along with 12 hours of electives that deal with my subject area but are not considered part of the subject area- Archaeology of South America, Geography of South America, History of Social Revolutions in Latin America, History of Mexico, along with studying one summer-’72-in Mexico during high school-I still have the weekly tests that I took-kids look at them and are amazed at all the writing-and lived in Peru for 6 months after high school. Is that enough??
And I teach in a rural poverty district-65% K-5 free and reduced lunch.
Duane
I think its a plus if high school teachers are well-versed in their subject areas, but its not crucial.
Effective teachers know how to professionally deal with kids. That is priority number one.
Just so I understand your comment, are you saying that knowing something about what your teaching is optional in K-12 education? That would explain a great deal about the power of the reform movement.
That number of credit hours would certainly give you an undergraduate major at my institution. Did you not have an undergraduate major in Spanish?
Would you think four semesters of college Spanish is sufficient preparation for teaching Spanish? Ask your colleagues teaching math about their backgrounds in mathamatics. How many of them have taken a course in analysis or abstract algebra? Those are courses one would take about twenty to twenty five hours into a math major, depending on the level of preparation in high school. This would be after the fourth semester at my institution.
I have taught at the university level for 24 years, averaging an introductory course each semester.
How many of them have taken a course in analysis or abstract algebra?
While I’m sympathetic to your point, I’m unclear about the connection between the first isomorphism theorem and the ability to motivate students to do their homework. Should high school computer science teachers have a computer science degree?
I’ve never been inclined to ask a high school math teacher about their undergraduate work. I have asked if they would care to review any of my primary and middle grade Russian math textbooks.
No, no way would four semesters even begin to qualify one to teach a foreign language.
I believe my undergrad was in education with an emphasis in Spanish (I really don’t pay that much attention anymore as it doesn’t make any difference for me). Here in Missouri I am certified K-12.
Eric- a deep knowledge of the subject you are teaching is always important. I think it is especially important in mathamatics, where the nature of the work changes fundimantally in college, somewhere around the real analysts class.
Duane- that number of credit hours would give you a major in Spanish at any institution. The concern is that many math teachers are teaching with much less training. Fluency is just as important in mathamatics as in language.
The saddest part of this video is when you think of what is going on metaphorically.
First, I have taught for too long, and I can vouch for the fact that if a teacher does not perform (fetch the stone), they will be fired. If a teacher plans on reading his/her newspaper all day, they will not last. I’ve seen many be fired, even under the care of incompetent administrators. Also, they don’t last – the kids drive them crazy because they don’t have a plan to put kids to work, and the kids eventually drive them out due to sheer stress.
Second, think deeper about what is going on here. The monkeys are obviously teachers. Fetching the rock is the work for the monkeys, which metaphorically symbolizes teachers guiding students. Think about the frustration and violence that ensues when both monkeys are doing the same work but are being compensated unfairly.
Would we as teachers bang the rock (students) against the wall to “test” it (them) in order that we be compensated fairly as other teachers?
Kids lose in pay for performance schemes. They are the ones who get banged against the wall to see what is wrong with them.
Excellent commentary, gracias!