The soldier in the field merely obeys orders, so when someone
suggests that teachers "police their own," what that person fails to
realize is that, to match the military, this would have to be done from the top
down—not on a peer level. To that end, administrators would be
"policing" teachers (as they already do), getting rid of all the bad
apples and, as per the speaker's wishes, rewarding the good ones.
First of all, this already happens. Teachers who are deemed to be
failing are put on improvement plans, have contracts that do not renew, or are
given the dregs of the student body, the worst classrooms, terrible schedules.
Occasionally, they are even fired. The good ones are rewarded with more
planning periods, higher pay and stipends, better students, and smaller class
sizes. The problem? The process is political, as with many things. There are
good and bad teachers who get "rewarded." There are good and bad
teachers stuck in the "dungeon" with the large class sizes and poor
ventilation.
We haven't managed to fix the political system, so I'm not sure
how we're supposed to use political power to fix the politics that go on in the
education system, but—let's try it anyway! The ideas floating around now
involve monetary rewards for high-performing teachers (and schools) and
consequences for the "failing" ones.
I'd like to think about how that would play out in the military.
Imagine the soldier who is paid based on the number of bad guys he shoots.
Doesn't really seem like a good measure of success, does it?
But since teachers can't shoot their students, this isn't a fair
comparison. Students aren't even the enemy, someone will point out. Of course,
not everyone who gets killed in a military conflict is the enemy, either, but I
digress. The "bad guys" are the OBJECT of the soldier's work as
students are the OBJECT of the teacher's work. Teachers aren't allowed to
defend themselves on any level, or they're out of a job.
So imagine soldiers being sent into a war without equipment, and
the measure of their success is how much they change the hearts and minds of
the opposition they encounter. Based on THAT, their pay, performance, and job
stability are determined.
It's actually a good idea, if you think about it. A Ghandi-vision
of world peace.
