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I think blaming teachers is extremely unfair. They are part of a bureaucracy with no real control over what to teach and how to teach. Teachers don't control curricula, standards or testing. They have to make do with whatever materials, worksheets and curricula they are given, even if they believe that they are ineffective. They have to prepare students for tests that often don't effectively test student ability. The belief that teachers are responsible for educational failure has lead to ideas like merit pay and compensation based on student performance.

I read an article about math teaching a few years back and one teacher's comment really stood out. The teacher said that the way he's required to teach math, it's almost impossible for students to learn. A second grade teacher called into a radio show I was listening to and said that because of state standards she wasn't able to spend enough time introducing fractions. As a result, she said many students went into third grade without adequate preparation to learn more advanced material. The teacher knew her students were going into the next grade unprepared to learn but her hands were tied in dealing with it. Teachers are often ineffective because they are forced to work with ineffective curricula, textbooks and worksheets, not because they lack teaching ability or knowledge.

The Importance of Culture

Teachers have no control over the culture they teach in. America doesn't have a culture that places a lot of value on education and learning. A study that compared the Calculus performance of top American students and top Japanese students concluded that:



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