During the Republican primaries last year, many friends of mine considered John Kasich the adult in the GIP field. When I explained his demonstrated hostility to public education, they thought I must be exaggerating.
But now the proof is there for all who are willing to learn about it.
Kasich wants all teachers to spend some time visiting businesses so they know how to prepare their students.
http://www.ohio.com/news/local/kasich-wants-teachers-to-learn-another-job-or-lose-theirs-1.747817
“Ohio Gov. John Kasich wants public school teachers to see what it’s like to work outside the classroom so they can better match their students to the needs of local employers.
“Tucked a third of the way through Kasich’s 3,512-page 2018-19 state budget is a new education mandate. If the Ohio House and Senate accepts the proposal, educators looking to get or renew a teaching license this fall would have to work at or, more likely, tour a local business.
“The plan, which prioritizes industry over pedagogy, is part of the governor’s broader plan to drive career education and marry schooling to the needs of the economy.
“It could be as simple as teachers touring local business and having those conversations … to just get a better sense of what those in-demand jobs are,” said Ryan Burgess, director of the Governor’s Office of Workforce Transformation, which put together the group that developed the “on-site work experience” externships and about 20 other proposals in Kasich’s budget.
“Asked how kindergarten teachers might benefit from touring a local business, Burgess said it’s never too young to explore a career.”
So five-year-olds will “explore a career.”
Here is a better idea: How about if business leaders commit to teach for one full day in the public schools? Think of what they might learn by doing so.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Brilliant! I will tour a taco stand and a burger joint to see the magic of bizness in action. Then I will know how my teaching profession is supposed to work. Nitwit is right.
Nitwit is very fitting
Nitwit is far too kind. This man, I use the term liberally, has no respect for teachers or education. Those of us in Ohio were warning you that he was not a moderate or the adult in the room during the primary season.
Or go to visit the personal care providers of services in nursing homes, one of the high demand fields if fast food joints are booked.
I could visit a Walmart or Amazon warehouse to find out how to treat people truly poorly. Maybe I can visit Facebook and learn how to swindle people and cuss them out from the Zberg himself. I could go to Microsoft and learn how to stack rank and toss out students. I wonder what they all will try to convince me to buy while I’m there.
Or you can walk the office buildings of Congress and visit the Republican offices to find out how to make a living doing nothing while maintaining the appearance of being diligent.
I like it. Then I could follow the money. Where might I wind up? In the office of a hedge fund manager? An oil magnate? A standardized testing company CEO? Big Tech? I would look forward to touring those businesses. Maybe the Wisconsin legislature too! I might just stay for a while. Why, I could downright Occupy them.
Kasich needs to spend some time (like a lot) visiting public schools so he can learn how they operate, and prepare himself for actually providing students with the support they need.
We discuss careers in kindergarten in units on community workers. I like to read them I Want to Be an Astronaut by Barton.
. . . though we didn’t mean it literally when we told them that anyone could be president.
Why do you suppose no kid ever says “I want to be a politician when I grow up”?
This right wing nitwit (but I repeat myself) is a two term governor. Why-o, why-o, do the people of Ohio keep voting against their own best interests? Don’t feel bad, we have plenty of deluded jerks in NJ = two terms of Christie, hater of public schools and unionized teachers. Kasich was a right wing talking head on Fox News spreading all the right wing/libertarian glop and lies. Kasich’s new education mandate is stupid, ignorant and wasteful beyond human sadism and cruelty.
We have to get rid of (by voting) all these GOP governors, they are a menace to society, education and humanity. Will Americans finally wake up to the corrosive and toxic policies of these GOP regressives? It’s doubtful. The US public will have to be hit over the head by another GOP caused depression before they get the message.
Well, in our defense, we have a useless state Democratic Party. They refused to tell the truth about Kasich and support the incumbent governor the first time he got elected. And for reelection they put up the dimmest of dimwits (maybe also a nitwit) who, when I pressed him to attack the real, cynical reasons why Kasich accepted Medicaid money from the ACA and be more vocal about being a real Democrat and base his talking points on Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms he responded: “Our polls tell us that the Medicaid issue doesn’t have traction (despite the fact that Kasich touted it in almost every ad)” and “people don’t really know who Roosevelt is and that was from 1946.” I didn’t have energy to correct him that Roosevelt died in 1945 and that Dems were getting hit over the head for being “anti-religion,” which had traction outside of the cities. And if both campaigns nary a word about how Kasich cashed in selling junk investments to Ohio under Republican Gov. Taft, left us holding the tab, and helped create the conditions to exacerbate the 2008 recession to gore Gov. Strickland. For some reason, the state Democratic Party leadership could never figure out obvious issues like that.
And in both campaigns…
NJ Democrats are also a sorry lot but with a few notable exceptions. Bonnie Watson Coleman is a good progressive fighter, so far. Too many top NJ Democrats openly supported Christie over their own Democratic candidate, Barbara Buono. This would be like Nancy Pelosi and Charles Schumer supporting and campaigning for Trump over Hillary.
Gerrymandered districts, all across the country.
Yep. Both by democrats and republican groups.
Not quite sure why it is ridiculous to have teachers visit businesses to see what the business world is looking for in employees.
It is a good thing, actually. And yes, have business leaders come into the class rooms. A regular exchange.
Our PLTW teachers have done internships in local manufacturing businesses. They learned a lot about expectations. And adjusted.
Why exclude k teachers? Will they always be k teachers?
Why not bridge that current gap between schools and the “real world?”
When would this happen? Many teachers already fill their “extra time” (evenings and weekends) with grading, planning, and spending time with their families. Summers are for teaching summer school, taking classes, and trying to have something of a life. Subs are difficult to come by, so during the school day seems difficult. Also, many teachers have had other jobs while going to school. This makes it seem like teachers are clueless about the world of work, but we aren’t.
It’s not ridiculous to conduct field trips to various businesses or to have speakers or career day from the community in your local schools. What is inappropriate is to require teachers to visit such establishments as a requirement for their jobs.
Last I heard teachers got their certificates to teach not to travel to locales observing other people complete their daily tasks. We already have enough on our plates with common core and other assessment requirements without adding to the work load.
Now, if teachers were given a stipend to participate in community businesses as an extension of their jobs and it were a voluntary choice, I don’t see much harm – but our number one priority is to the students not the bureaucrats who think they know what teaching is all about but don’t have a clue to what actually happens in the classroom (see Betsy Devos).
During the early years of my teaching career I worked 2 jobs, in addition to teaching, in order to pay bills and student loans. I know many who do the same. No need to visit businesses when you have to work at them.
I’m a bit confused here. Is he saying that teachers have never had any other kind of a job and have no idea what goes on in the real world, and if they just go and observe a business somewhere they will rectify their shortcomings? If he is, then the title “Nitwit” is an understatement.
John Kasich? He’s sort of a man.
Describe him? That’s hard… I don’t know if I can.
He’s shortish. And oldish.
And brownish. And mossy.
And he speaks with a voice
that is sharpish and bossy.
“People!” he said to Ohioans with a twitch,
“I am the governor. I speak for the rich.
I speak for the rich, for the rich fund campaigns.
You people would get that, if you just used your brains.”
~Parody of Dr. Seuss’s “The Lorax”
https://thinkuniteblue.wordpress.com/2014/08/19/alec-governor-speaks-for-the-rich/
And will those teachers who worked their summers in businesses like banks, bookstores, etc. to add to their income be exempt from this new requirement? In California teachers used to do that to get social security before 1980, then California, among some other states thought that was double-dipping, so forget that.
Exactly what I thought, Mary. Like none of us ever had to work while we were in high school or in college, so we could PAY for college?
(I started working when I was 13 to save for college {I was a commuter student–couldn’t afford to move away & live in a dorm}, & worked at least 5 different jobs–at least 2 during summers. I then worked 2 jobs while attending college.) Like most everyone else here (because we teachers just make SO much money), I also worked summers while teaching. And, of course, there were many types of jobs–several retail positions, working for a major insurance company as a claims assistant, working at phone sales & working for a non-profit organization. Duh, John!
Funny, but I’m thinking that “career” politicians (you all know–those people who went straight into politics & never held any other kind of job after being elected) should be the ones to get off the Hill or out of state chambers & do what Kasich is suggesting to us.
…because THAT’s why politicians don’t understand working people.
Legislators–not working hard…hardly working.
I loved the last paragraph. Wouldn’t it be a true edu atop all experience for business professionals and students alike to have the business professionals share their expertise in the classroom a
HOW about these people come into the schools and talk and demonstrate what they do for their careers. It was more powerful when a fireman came in to talk to my kindergarteners years ago bring all the gear they need to dress up in along with a hose they use. After talking about it they let these youngsters dress up in the gear if they wanted….no matter what I would have said to these little ones would have been more powerful than that for them.
You mean a Career Day? 🙂 That’s a concept Kasich probably doesn’t know about.
I’m not sure Kasich is a nitwit but he is misinformed about the purpose of education. If we focus teaching and learning to big business, we see education through a reductionist view. Instead, education should be about producing future learners and seeing that learners acquire the most skills they can towards that end.
Education is not job preparation. None of us can predict what jobs and careers will exist 10 years from now. Education is about gaining knowledge and skills and character. Critical thinking, adaptability. Citizenship. Integrity. Those matter more than job prep.
Thank Diane and to your point
“Who will maintain our families, whilst we undertake the arduous task” of learning a new trade? Also, they asked, what will happen if the new trade, in turn, gets devalued by further technological advance?”
And the modern counterparts of those woolworkers might well ask further, what will happen to us if, like so many students, we go deep into debt to acquire the skills we’re told we need, only to learn that the economy no longer wants those skills?
Education, then, is no longer the answer to rising inequality, if it ever was (which I doubt).”
I believe you posted this opinion piece when he wrote it.
Economists are living proof that one can earn a very good living in our economy even without any useful skills.
So no need to worry. If worse comes to worst, we can always become economists.
Or Poet an educated workforce would know who was “screwing them and exactly how”
There would never be a Kasich or a Trump. A whole lot of Democrats would be unemployed as well .
“Education is about gaining knowledge and skills and character. Critical thinking, adaptability. Citizenship. Integrity. Those matter more than job prep..” D.R.
I agree with you. My mother always though liberal arts showed perspective employers you could read, write and think. However, as the parent of a recent college graduate, today’s employers seem unwilling to invest in their employees. They want employees that can be independent on day one. My son has been looking for a tech job for a year and a half. He graduated with honors and also has six other Microsoft certifications. He got tired of waiting to get a job so he started his own business repairing computers. He has also started to widen his search. The whole STEM demand is a farce. The tech companies prefer to hire H1B people for pennies on the dollar.
Those things are job prep! Those are certainly characteristics that any business would find valuable. The job that doesn’t require anything but robotic repetition is a job that is going to be automated.
retired teacher
This is where this construction supervisor entered the conversation about education. American schools are failing,
We are 25th in this, 135th in that (lol) . Exxon is so concerned about our children ,as is the Businesses RoundTable that Tillerson was schilling for. Of course it’s a great myth that serves a lot of purposes .
Peter Cappelli of Wharton dispels the Myth at the same time that Tillerson was pushing it. back in in 2011 . Your comment reminded me of his piece in the WSJ. They don’t want skilled labor they want cheap labor. That they are getting away with it is the real deficit in education.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204422404576596630897409182
Diane is right!
I love the idea of Local Business visiting the Public School Classroom. Count me in as a small business owner in Ohio. I chaired a local “School-Business Committee” in a large suburban School District (High School) and it turned out to be a success for both Business and School. I’m not sure how advantageous is would be for Elementary and Junior High age.
I agree, John A. Sutherland. I teach at the high school level, and we have had teams go out to businesses. The last time we did it, all the HR people pretty much said that the students need a good, solid liberal arts background.
Our students aso go on filed trips to various businesses. But, no, I don;t see how any of this is useful before grade 7, at the earliest!
Since the US educational system is geared towards one, and only one goal – everybody needs to go to college.
Europe has an interesting system. Not only academic paths, but also vocational paths. Some kids are just not college material after high school. They may change their mind later…
And that’s the cookie-cutter problem.
And what a bull statement: jobs don’t even exist yet for these kids! Really? And exactly which job can you imagine where anything learned in k12 is useless with that idea in mind?
Geography changed every decade or so – let’s stop teaching geography.
History changes every decade it so – lets stop teaching geography.
Music styles change faster than that. Lets stop teaching kids how to play an instrument.
Other than pe 😉 no area is useless.
Visits to businesses are eye openers to kids. It lets them see how their math and science and reading and geography and history apply to everyday situations.
Visits from business leaders allows both, student and visitor, to learn.
Professional people like a carpenter, mason, welder…
but I guess since Kasich is a republican, he can’t have any good ideas.
Maybe math teachers are a separate breed, but I have to point out that throughout my career as a high school math teacher I was always eager to know how people used math in their jobs. I took every tour or conversation opportunity I could find. I learned some amazing things, and had many stereotypes shattered. Even then, I never felt that I could do a good job of answering the students’ question, “When are we going to use this math?” My standard answer became, “I don’t know what your future will bring, but, if you don’t learn as much math as you can, you won’t even recognize when you need it.” I tried to set up their math experiences in contexts they could relate to — just so they could make a connection, not because they were going to have a job in that particular context.
Especially in small towns, knowing what goes on in local businesses, and what the business owners value, is helpful for teachers to be a part of the community. When I wanted to do a science project requiring blood serum, I was glad that my science teacher knew someone at the local hospital lab to help me out.
I have also spent ten years teaching mathematics at the University level for young people who want to be elementary teachers. I was surprised at how narrow their life experiences were in terms of what various jobs were all about. Most of them would be happy to learn from conversation with a broad variety of working persons. I do not agree with the quote from Becky Higgins, president of the Ohio Education Association. She said she wasn’t “opposed to teachers tagging along with students to tour factories. But they would be there to make sure the students are learning, not to learn how to make cars.” The point is not that the teacher learn how to make cars. They can learn a lot, just as their students can, by observing that people working on all kinds of jobs need to communicate with each other, and to do that they need to have a lot of common knowledge they can refer to when communicating. What is that common knowledge they need? How could we think about that back in our classroom?
I’m not sure it is practical to require this sort of experience for teacher licensing, but perhaps as an alternative to other “professional development.” I would not be in favor of it replacing study of pedagogy, though, because pedagogy deals with how children learn, not with what the teacher knows about local businesses. In fact, teachers may need more pedagogy to help them see how children can learn about people doing work…
I think what you do is great, but it’s not for everyone. That’s what teacher autonomy is all about. I spoke to a parent today who liked this idea. But when I explained that it might impact established popular summer programs–we are lucky to have a popular band program at our schools–she changed her mind. Some teachers need to regenerate, some go on trips, some take jobs, whatever. This is just a haphazard proposal to further marginalize teachers’ professionalism.
Marcia, your response is spectacular! Your students are lucky to have you!
‘ “I don’t know what your future will bring, but, if you don’t learn as much math as you can, you won’t even recognize when you need it.” ‘
That is a great response to that perennial question, and it works for any subject. One of my sons discovered why he needed geometry when he became a carpenter. (I rewrote the geometry textbook, so that he would pass geometry!) I will never forget his admission that he wished he had paid more attention to it in school since now it had relevance to what he was doing.
speduktr: It is said that, above the door of Plato’s academy was a sign that read: “Let none but mathematicians enter here.” Apparently Plato thought that mathematics were important for philosophical studies because it sharpened and lifted the minds of his students. In math, there’s no fudging–if you get a wrong answer, it’s a wrong answer–no in-between YES or NO, RIGHT or WRONG;, and you must work through the problem in detail, from start to finish, to get it right.
Of course, there are those of us who obsessed over a balanced checkbook back in the day when you actually had to do more of the work. (Yes, I know you still have to know that the answers the computer gives you are at least reasonable.) I never could understand people who were happy if their balance came close to what the bank said it was. I had to match down to the penny.
Yep….make it a field trip. Each teacher take the children with them on tour. My daughter’s preschool did actually do this. They had field trip to grocery store, pizza shop, McDonalds, library, fire station, church, and to a farm and the day they went to the farm the sheep were birthing and she saw a lamb born. That was in Indiana in the late 1980’s. And it was called a “career” field trip. The employees spoke with them in each location about the work they did. I recall this well because my daughter at age 3 and 4 was prone to “running”….just dashing off away from me and my husband in public. So, I wrote our name and number with washable marker right on her body in several locations on each occasion, in addition to the full information tags they pinned to her clothing. I had accompanied her group to zoo and circus and as soon as we had boarded the bus for the first trip she tore off her name tag. I asked that a teacher or parent have their hands on hers for every venture I could not attend due to how sneaky and fast she was. Now, my grandkids are being raised in Ohio and I burst out laughing as I envision my granddaughter (Houdini compared to her runaway mother) and her teacher being escorted through the businesses of Columbus. I think that touring the Governor’s offices should be their first destination….the entire second grade with Mrs. _________. I think I will volunteer to assist with that visit.
I forgot to mention that my daughter went on to college at IU. She was a great student, incurred tens of thousands in student loans, as did we…still paying and she graduated 12 years ago. She left Indiana asap and started a great career in Washington DC. But once she had her children changed careers and moved to Ohio. She is now a birth doula. I wonder if Kasich thinks her kids’ teachers should come to HER job and witness? I am going to suggest he provide some compensation for her to have observers come view the birthings.
Can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or not. Surely you think that witnessing at least the birth of the lamb was an extraordinarily valuable experience, don’t you!? When we discuss Genesis in my Am Lit class, I often ask my students how human births compare to animal births, and very few know even though e are in rural NH. (I ask because I want them to contemplate the passage saying God ordained human females to have painful births.)
Yes pculliton I was using sacrcasm while retelling personal experience. The point I hoped to make was that its not the teacher who needs to job shadow. If you wish for the children to learn about the work done in the world provide the resources to the school for them to take the kids into the world to observe workers. This law implies that the teachers are unaware of the workings of the world and therefore can’t convey to their students or are not worthy of renewal. Or maybe they want experienced teachers enticed out of teaching into other careers. It’s hard to tell what the purpose of this law is intended to be.
OK, Cecilia, I see your point!
A bit off topic, but somewhat related, the Cleveland Plain Dealer does a cheerleading piece on voucher bill in Ohio Assembly: http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/02/ohios_tuition_vouchers_could_soon_give_more_money_to_more_middle_class_suburban_students.html#incart_most-comments
That’s what Career Days are for – to educate both students and faculty.
Also included in the budget bill is a requirement that each local school board add 3 non-voting ex-officio local business leaders to the board.
When I taught many of us knew what it was like outside the classroom as we had part time jobs to support ourselves.
What’s old is new again…
Or maybe it’s just that failed ideas and policies are like zombies, constantly coming back to life—or a semblance of same.
The antidote? Here’s one of the best…
Jamie Vollmer, “The Blueberry Story: The teacher gives the businessman a lesson.” The first five paragraphs.
[start]
“If I ran my business the way you people operate your schools, I wouldn’t be in business very long!”
I stood before an auditorium filled with outraged teachers who were becoming angrier by the minute. My speech had entirely consumed their precious 90 minutes of inservice. Their initial icy glares had turned to restless agitation. You could cut the hostility with a knife.
I represented a group of business people dedicated to improving public schools. I was an executive at an ice cream company that had become famous in the middle1980s when People magazine chose our blueberry as the “Best Ice Cream in America.”
I was convinced of two things. First, public schools needed to change; they were archaic selecting and sorting mechanisms designed for the industrial age and out of step with the needs of our emerging “knowledge society.” Second, educators were a major part of the problem: they resisted change, hunkered down in their feathered nests, protected by tenure, and shielded by a bureaucratic monopoly. They needed to look to business. We knew how to produce quality. Zero defects! TQM! Continuous improvement!
In retrospect, the speech was perfectly balanced — equal parts ignorance and arrogance.
[end]
Link: http://www.jamievollmer.com/blueberries.html
Just as relevant and informative are the brief remarks following the piece, which include raising the point of who gets to define what education is all about.
I urge all those in support of a “better education for all” that are not acquainted with it to take a few moments to look it over.
You will not be wasting your time.
😎
Thank you for that reminder, KTA. The blueberry story will never get old.
Kasich thinks all the public school kids should take a cue from McDonald’s and Walmart, and see how to do their future jobs. The charter school kids – where should they visit? I don’t know. The private school kids from the “good” neighborhoods with wealthy parents, well, they will just assume the business(es) of their parents, or Teach for America before they go off to law school, or wall street. That’s the plan.
Ohio lawmakers have to occasionally insert a poorly-considered and unfunded mandate to show they realize public schools exist.
The real point of Kasich’s education plan is to cut public school funding (another) 11%
They cut taxes which left them with a budget hole so they’re filling it by cutting public school funding. Again.
I have an alternative plan. Let the doctors visit the schools so they can see the real world. School is the only place where most of the population of bacteria goes. Other places can insulate themselves from whatever group of people they wish.
Of course, the rural experience in this regard is different from the urban one. Every city I ever visited has enclaves of one group that can separate itself from another. In the rural area, poor is mixed with richer, but the very rich are way off somewhere. So schools tend to be stirred pots of middle to lower middle class society, depending on whether there is any substandard housing out in the country. Most rural areas have seen the substandard housing common to them fall down already, thus the poor move to small towns in the area. Schools mirror this. Voting patterns show this pattern as well.
” In the rural area, poor is mixed with richer, but the very rich are way off somewhere. …” You captured this reality perfectly!
Really? With businesses busy making money do you really think they want to be bothered with visitors? Will they be paid to educate the teachers? Will there be a curriculum and a test? Will the teacher then have to apply what they learned and document it for their evaluation?
If a teacher visits a business that’s functioning in today’s world and preparing students for tomorrow would that really be the best use of time and resources?
Deb, I am confused by the last sentence of your post. If a business is both functioning in today’s world and preparing students for tomorrow, why would visiting it not be a good use of time? I think of the Automotive Technology Careers Center at my high school as one that does both. What kind of business did you have in mind that is doing both these things yet is not worth visiting?
As I understand the proposal, Kasich wants teachers to spend time in businesses, not classes. He thinks teachers are out of touch with reality. Be sure to spend time at fast-food restaurants and construction sites, observe retail sales clerks in the hardware store, try to sit alongside the driver of a long-haul truck. That’s where the jobs are.
Diane: The subtle assumption in Kasich’s points is that teaching is not also a job? Perhaps he thinks teachers are babysitters? The whole idea doesn’t settle right with me.
It doesn’t sit right with you because you are looking for ulterior motives.
If anyone but a republican would have made the same suggestion, there would not have been such an exchange.
Of course, if a teacher goes to a place where teenagers work who cannot count back correct change, maybe a spark of concern may appear…
Or when kids cannot tell time on analog clocks…
Or who don’t know how to write a coherent paragraph…
Maybe, just maybe we will finally get to the point where educators too come to the realization that there indeed may be some truth to what employers say.
Rudy: Wrong again.
which part:
The political bias?
The idea that kids out there don’t know math?
The idea that kids don’t know how to write?
Exactly which part was wrong?
I’ll gladly refer you to local businesses where these things are happening way too often.
My God, Rudy. You are not living in a Third World country. You are living in the most powerful, most dynamic country in the world. Please stop smearing our students and teachers and schools. Take the high school math test and send your scores. Better yet, try the 8th grade math test.
Rudy: What Diane said.
Which makes it all the more shameful that we have kids who have those problems.
Not sure what kind of works you live in. In the world I live in these problems are real. It’s called reality.
The pure idea that you keep ignoring these problems frightens the daylight out of me re future.
Rudy, not every child is good in every subject. My grand daughter is doing well in Algebra and Earth Science (when she gets her assignments in on time and doesn’t lose half her credit), but not so good in ELA and we won’t mention the Global class she us literally failing. However she has a 98 average in Studio Art.
I’d call her a typical teen who takes school semi seriously putting in the least amount of effort she can get away with before being punished by her parents.
Whether she does well at a job will not be a matter of writing or math skills, but whether she can get along with her coworkers, get to work on time, not take too many days off, be respectful to the boss, and not goof off too much while doing her assigned work. Of course, I’m talking white collar jobs. Those in labor tend to work their butts off for jobs which barely pay minimum wage plus have no benefits.
My kids are all hard workers who take pride in their output (call it the Puritan ethic), but each has complained about coworkers who are, shall we say, less than industrious, leaving others to pick up the slack. This has nothing to do with their grades on a school assessment, but more to do with effort and attitude.
While some of the skills we teach in ELA and Algebra are transferable to the real world, it is more the process of learning, the ability to question results, and the perseverance to work through and turn failures into successes which make a strong workforce.
Rudy, the goal of common core was to have everybody on the same page. The trouble is, we can’t agree on which “book” we should all be reading.
I whole heartedly agree. I think a common core would be a better idea o the whole.
This is what happens in other countries. A common core allows for a common base of knowledge. When parents move from a to b or z, it does not matter. All school teach the same no matter where they are.
“Whether she does well at a job will not be a matter of writing or math skills, but whether she can get along with her coworkers, get to work on time, not take too many days off, be respectful to the boss, and not goof off too much while doing her assigned work. Of course, I’m talking white collar jobs”
Guess you don’t have much experience in job interviews.
In order to get along with coworkers etc you have to get the job first. Unless your parents own the company, you have to get through the interview process. Keeping the job is the next challenge.
Rudy, perhaps Coleman should have visited the workplace prior to writing the common core curriculum.
Ultimately, we don’t really have a verified plan to evaluate, just some random comment from a politician. It’s the logistics of such an idea which will determine whether it is workable within the confines of the teaching profession. In other words: The devil is in the details.
What I am confused about is the sentence, “If a teacher visits a business that’s functioning in today’s world and preparing students for tomorrow would that really be the best use of time and resources?”
What is an example of “a business that’s functioning in today’s world and preparing students for tomorrow”?
Engineers. Architects. Technology. Car manufacturing. Carpenters. Masons. Welders. Mechanics. Musea. Truck drivers.
And I can go on for a while.
McDonald’s? Hardee’s?
To fulfill the requirement, maybe teachers can observe Kasich for a day to learn all the things that their students should steer clear of.
The potholes on life’s road, as it were.
I think the most telling quote from The Washington Post article (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/02/17/a-university-takes-on-one-of-its-own-alumna-kellyanne-conway/?utm_term=.858043934af2&wpisrc=nl_most-draw7&wpmm=1)
about the rebuke of Kellyanne Conway by the president of Trinity Washington University for her lying ways, is this:
“University presidents used to be part of the national dialogue, decades ago when the demands of the job were less complicated and the need for fundraising less consuming.” Now, it’s implied, not so much.
Pushing back, president McGuire notes: “People can agree or disagree around national policy or domestic policy. You can have a raging debate about Obamacare … But when you lie so consistently as this administration does, that’s a moral issue. We are teachers. We have an honor system here. We believe deeply in upholding the value of truth. … it’s urgent not to be shy about it.”
The pernicious notion that education must only serve the purposes of business is becoming entrenched in our universities. Unlike at Trinity Washington University, it would seem for some the mission of the university is to make money for the ed tech industry.
Here, after praising AltSchool for their “innovation”,Tech Crunch goes on to ennumerate the ways students’ desire for higher education can be bent to benefit not the student but their industry:
https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/16/what-betsy-devos-means-for-edtech/
“In higher education, the changes Secretary DeVos is likely to implement will be more fundamental to the adoption of impactful technology, albeit in a roundabout way. Despite the exceptional attention paid in the confirmation process to Secretary DeVos’ views on K-12 education, the federal government has a lot more leverage in higher education than in K-12, for the simple reason that it pays the bills.
In K-12 education, less than 10 percent of total funding comes from the federal government (the remainder is state and local). In contrast, few if any colleges and universities would survive without federal support for higher education via Pell Grants, Stafford Loans and PLUS Loans.
Secretary DeVos and her allies on Capitol Hill understand this, and that the only way to fundamentally improve student outcomes in higher education is to ‘follow the money.’ As a result, plans are afoot to condition federal funding on colleges and universities, putting some skin in the game.
The most obvious way to accomplish this is via a new ’10/90′ rule, wherein schools would be responsible for funding $0.10 in Income Share Agreements (ISAs) for every $0.90 drawn down in federal loans; ISAs are repaid by students following graduation (a fixed percentage of income for a fixed number of years, with a clear cap).
With ‘skin-in-the-game,’ colleges and universities will no longer be in a position to ‘take the money and run.’ Instead, for the first time, they will be co-invested in the success of their students. (Even if schools are prepared to simply write off the 10 percent, few will be able to source the requisite capital from balance sheets or operating budgets and therefore will need to tap private capital markets. And external capital sources will only underwrite programs and credentials that actually pay off.)
Most important, as ISAs become an expected form of student financing, their availability and pricing will send useful signals to students regarding likely return on investment at the level of program, credential and institution. These signals will change enrollment behavior — causing students to flock to high ROI programs and shun low ROI programs — at both undergraduate and graduate levels.
Resulting enrollment shifts will require colleges and universities to rethink product-market fit in the same way that AltSchool has in K-12.”
This a truly scary gutting of higher education. José Ortega y Gassett must be kicking at the cover of his coffin to get out.
Christine Langhoff: There is the other prong of the two-prong shift-in-the-making. First is the “education for a job” thing, and universities as worker-factories; but second there is making the United States a “more religion-centered nation.” And in this DeVos ideological narrative, “religion” is code for “our view of Christianity.”
I think the problem here is saying teachers “must” do this as opposed to “can” do this? Here in DE we teachers “must” take PD courses within a given time to retain our certifications, but the offerings are very broad. There are some opportunities to intern in businesses over the summer- everyone I know who has done it found it interesting and having applications for the classroom. But it was not at all “required”. Also the businesses offered the internships- so they WANTED educators to see what goes on. I believe this is just another example of people with little knowledge talking in public and giving their own opinion before they understand the ramifications of the words they use. Unfortunately this is becoming too common…….no respect for the English language……..
Kasich should come teach my kids for a week. I will sit with my feet up. I have years of business experience. Thank you very much.
This is hilarious. Does John have any idea how many teachers already have 2nd and even 3rd jobs outside of school because they are paid so poorly? Maybe not in Ohio but here in NC every teacher with the energy has a job outside of the school system. Some wait tables, some teach online, some paint houses, others drive for Uber! Maybe John and his legislature should spend 5 full days in the shoes of a teacher, teaching classes, writing lesson plans, maintaining discipline and THEN tell us how we need to see how the world really works!
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2016/06/what_schools_pay_teachers_the_most_see_rankings_here.html
Tell me again how low teacher salaries are in Ohio, where people need 2nd and 3rd jobs…
According to Rudy: Ohio is the state of FatCat Teachers, with BMWs and Mercedes and Rolls Royces. Let’s all move to Ohio and cash in!
Rudy,
Beginning teachers make much less money than those teachers who have been on the job for fifteen plus years. It’s almost a rite of passage when an individual finally makes enough money teaching that they can quit their second job.
Those top salaries indicate (to me) that the schools have a lot of veteran teachers near the top of the scale. Look to see a rate drop as they retire and beginning teachers are hired.
We did something like this on a limited and voluntary basis in Western MD in the mid-1990s… but scaling up to a state level would be daunting to say the least!
https://waynegersen.com/2017/02/20/ohio-governor-kasich-proposes-teachers-learn-about-the-local-economy-how-will-that-work-where-no-local-economy-exists/
Nitwit may need to go back to school—exactly as Diane suggested in her last sentence.
COLUMBUS (WCMH) — The bill is in response to Ohio Governor John Kasich’s budget plan to have teachers shadow a business person in order to maintain their teaching license.
State Reps. Brigid Kelly (D-Cincinnati) and Kent Smith (D-Euclid) announced the new legislation called the “GET REALS Act” today. It would require the governor to complete an annual 40-hour externship in a public elementary or secondary school ranked A-F.
“If Governor Kasich is serious about strengthening our schools and preparing our students to succeed, his public policies should be informed by real world, on-the-ground experience that, quite frankly, he lacks,” said Smith.
Under Smith and Kelly’s bill, the governor’s annual 40-hour on-site work experience in a school would be split into five, eight-hour days, each in a differently ranked public school. The governor could work alongside teachers, food-service staff or custodial staff.
“No one understands the challenges and opportunities our children experience in the classroom better than educators, and this bill would extend that same necessary insight to the governor and his policy proposals,” said Kelly.
If passed, the GET REALS Act would require the governor and his staff to submit an annual report to legislative leaders on “How to Make all Ohio Schools A-Rated Institutions.”
http://nbc4i.com/2017/03/07/ohio-lawmakers-propose-bill-to-have-gov-kasich-intern-at-public-schools/