Wednesday, December 03, 2008


Erika Owens, applicant to teach in Philadelphia:








Tom Hinkle said...

But is it really a zero-sum game, or might there be different kinds of teachers (and different kinds of curricula) that work for different sets of kids?

Specifically, might it not be true that the teacher who is best at inspiring students who already have a baseline of success is not necessarily the same as the teacher who is the best at not giving up on students who are coming from behind?

Thinking of curriculum, there's always the question of where in the class you're aiming. Innovative projects can help you differentiate, but if there's any direct instruction, you have to make a choice as to whether you bore the fastest moving kids or keep the slowest moving kids with you. It's not clear to me that any one decision is more just than another, especially when you're not working with a population that's been particularly underserved.

"Not giving up" sounds easy, but it's incredibly challenging in practice to work with students who don't meet you half way. Obviously no teacher wants to say they've given up on a student, but I'd venture to say all teachers have taught students they couldn't reach.

I don't think that there's a good reason that someone who's "given up" on the students who have checked out can't be an excellent teacher for those who do engage. Specifically, nearly all college professors work on this model (since college professors don't even engage with those students who don't bother showing up).

On the other side of the coin, I can imagine that there may well be teachers who work very well to bring students up to grade level who would struggle to inspire students already working a level or two above.

Tom Hoffman said...

Hi Tom,

The larger point here is that people are increasingly asking the wrong questions, framing the problem in the wrong terms, and apparently starting to believe that schools in the suburbs get higher scores than in the city because they've got better curriculum and teachers, which then leads to these comment threads pointing out that the dichotomy in question is not really an either/or, etc...

But yes, you're right.