• Teacher:

    Myth: The job is mostly about delivering lessons and grading tests and assignments, so once you’ve done a course once, you can coast forever.

    Reality: designing and delivering a lecture is just about the easiest thing in teaching. And also very ineffective teaching, so it’s not done very often.

    Myth: School is the same as it was a generation ago, when parents were in school.

    Reality: There have been huge shifts in education, with research-supported practices replacing a lot of old, ineffective strategies. The teachers who are “old school” are usually ignoring educational research out of arrogance and/or laziness.

    • Do you think education is generally moving in the right direction? I have a few people in my circle that trained to be teachers and left the profession because of the lack of support from admin when dealing with troubled students (and troubled parents). They described a staff that was upside down, similar to a hospital (everyone is an admin, a very small part of the staff is actually teachers, and they never make the rules).

      On the other hand it sounds like the mechanics of disseminating knowledge have increased tremendously due to research supported practices. I just wonder if the next generation is doomed, I guess.

      • I can’t speak to the US, but that’s not what’s happening in Canada, generally. I hear the UK public system is having difficulties, too, but idk the details.

        There are some places in Canada that are struggling, particularly in remote rural areas, Indigenous or not (but even moreso for Indigenous schools for historical inequity issues that we’re working on meaningfully addressing with national Truth and Reconciliation work.)