From: rizzo@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (anthony.r.rizzo)
Newsgroups: sci.engr
Subject: Re: Fate of the Energetic Teacher
Date: 2 Oct 92 14:33:30 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: AT&T

In article <1agognINNipc@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> bm665@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Jay Robert Hauben) writes:
>
>     Early this Summer I posted a request for help teaching a 
>STATICS course to pre-engineering students. I received perhaps 25 
>responses both publically posted and by e-mail. Virtually all 
>were informative and helpful. With this help, for which I am 
>genuinely thankful, I looked forward to teaching the class. In 
>preparation I read through the text, solved many of the problems, 
>and sorted out how I would approach many of the topics. But, at 
>the last minute the class was cancelled. The reason given was 
>"insufficient registration". There were however as many or more 
>students registered in my STATICS class this Summer as in 
>previous Summers when the course was not cancelled.
> 
>     Also this Fall, for the first time in ten years, I am not 
>teaching the Engineering Physics laboratories. My usual classes 
>are being taught by other instructors. Over the ten years that I 
>taught the Engineering Physics laboratories many students have 
>commented to me and to others about my ability to explain the 
>concepts of physics, my availablity to students needing help and 
>the high level of experimentation performed in the lab. Without 
>my involvement or explanation to me or the students, the 
>instructors and the content of the labs have changed. Still many 
>of the students taking these labs seek me out. But now it is to 
>find out why the class has changed and why I am not teaching the 
>course anymore. Most of them express the loss this represents. 
>Some have asked what if anything can be done to return the labs 
>to their former higher and friendlier level.
> 
>     This situation is not unusual here. In the last ten years 
>there has been a lowering of standards in the main K-12 system 
>that feeds the school where I teach. Every year fewer "college 
>prep" and "advanced" courses were offered until in the last few 
>years none at all have been offered. Now it seems the more 
>advanced courses at the college freshman and sophomore level are 
>being gutted or watered down.
> 
>     Without the more advanced courses, the more elementary ones 
>suffer as well because there are no more higher or advanced 
>courses to prpare for. From my point of view, the result can only 
>be the weakening of our whole society by lowering still further 
>the intellectual level sought for by the educational system.
> 
>     Not only in my case but in many others I have seen, the 
>energetic, resourceful and student oriented teacher is not 
>allowed to practice the art of teaching for long without road 
>blocks or worse put in his or her way.
> 
>     I suspect that this phenomena is wide spread. I wonder if 
>anyone has an understanding of it, whether there have been 
>successful fights against it and what the experience of other 
>teachers has been.
> 
>P.S. I am this semseter teaching the Physics laboratory for 
>health para-professional majors. The course is at a conceptual, 
>almost non mathematical level. The challenge is a big one: to do 
>meaningful physics labs with a minimum of mathematics. Any words 
>
>of advice and encouragement would again be put to good use. (The 
>text being used in the course is "The Physics of Everyday 
>Phenomena" by W. Thomas Griffith.)



The problem is that there is NO accountability in the school system.
Government and the educational system could learn much from the
"Process Quality Management and Improvement" programs that are
being implemented in the private sector.

As I see it, the students are the customers, and the educational
system is the supplier.  The customers need to be made ready
for the next step in their lives, either college or a job.
The K-12 school system does a mediocre job, at best,
of preparing its customers for college.  It does nothing
to prepare its customers for jobs.  Industry suffers too, of course.
People who aren't ready for the challenges of the workplace
must be trained on the job.

The solution?  Maybe we SHOULD Vote for Ross Perot.  
Perhaps we'll see some meaningful change, for a change.
I've seen documentaries about the program that
Perot championed in Texas.  In effect, he did a skillful
end-run around the school system's bureaucrats by getting support
directly from business.  He also got some interesting guidelines
installed, such as "no pass no play," which says that students
who want to play sports and take part in extracurricular activities
must first achieve passing grades.  Oh yes, the educational system
in Texas, so I've heard, was improved for ALL, rich and poor alike.

Yes, I know that this is not alt.politics.  But the deterioration
of the school system inevitably will lead to the deterioration
of industrial competitiveness.  It will affect even my own
children's ability to earn a living, even though they are only
4 year old and 15 months old right now.

Well, for what it's worth, that's my two-cents.

Tony Rizzo
Newsgroups: sci.engr,sci.engr.mech,sci.aeronautics,sci.math.num_analysis