teachers Options

[brooklyneast05]

should we be able to fire teachers who have failing classes? who seem to suck at teaching? should we pay them less? should teachers with passing classes get paid more?

[mipadi]

Teachers are an easy scapegoat, but there are so many reasons why a class as a whole may do badly that you can't always blame the teacher directly. My parents were both teachers, and I've found that people have a very idealized view of teaching; they view it as an "easy" job with short days and long summer breaks. But depending on the school, it's harder than it seems. My dad worked hard, but he also worked in an impoverished school district with students whose parents didn't care that much about education. In such a setting, it's hard to succeed. Parent involvement in the educational process is, in fact, a very important part of education that is often overlooked.

At the same time, if a teacher is consistently doing a bad job, then that should probably be taken into account.