Thoughts on Sun, March 7 NYT "Build a Better Teacher"

Just finished reading Elizabeth Green's very interesting article, and I even took notes from it, because it definitely has useful insights for the beginning teacher. But I will say that I also checked the comments posted by other readers (389 posts at the time that I was reading), and the vast majority (300 or so) were very critical. Many of the responders were experienced teachers who pointed out deliberate omissions in the article. Others pointed out that if teachers are to be held totally responsible for their students' performance, parents are also to be considered 100% responsible for their childrens' academic performance, and that anything less smacks of phony entitlement.

Here is the link:

Build a Better Teacher

My own opinion: I have mixed feelings. I think the researchers are turning up some useful techniques for classroom management that can and should be taught to teachers. But I deplore the subtle "witch hunt" strategy that many of these education PhD's or MBA's have apparently championed as the best way to reform education and promote their own careers. The article ran along side an article on Chinese mob justice on the Internet, which the Chinese themselves refer to as "human flesh searching", and the irony behind this does not escape me. Running these two articles side by side was no editorial slip.