I think about where we spend our money. We’re constantly trying to find easy ways out of holes, easy ways to scale metaphorical mountains. We look for processes to remove the chores of thought and decision. Education is floundering. We lost our faith in teachers. It is every politician’s easy drum to beat- after all. “Our schools are failing! The enemies are at the gate!”Don’t actually go to this site. I just liked that it was a warning site given the url. Who would argue that our kids don’t deserve better? Both parties agree. Education is failing. Our solution is not to work, to spend money and time on our teachers, to help them become better, instead we send our money away, spending precious time testing products of a system we insist is broken. We buy software. We buy content. We buy external experts.Guilty of being bought and sold. We buy reputation. We buy “trust” and “quality” because we don’t believe either really exists in our schools. Invest that money in our teachers, on smaller classes, on things that have been proven to matter. Make teaching a career that isn’t based on martyrdom. Martyrs die flaming deaths. Systems based on them don’t last. There are no easy answers. You can’t buy, process, software, magic your way out of this. There […]