Smart people can learn something from anyone

Today’s JG rant
Some of the dumbest people in the world are those well educated people with multiple degrees plastered on their office wall.  If a person thinks that by virtue of some framed pieces of paper he’s smarter, or wiser than anyone else or that there’s nothing to be learned from everyday people then he truly is a fool and provides a pretty good definition of the word “arrogance.” 

Take Superintendent Phil Downs of Southwest Allen County Schools snarky swipe at the idea of externships, “So happy kindergarten teachers will finally have to spend 15 hours learning what businesses want from our 5 year olds! This is the visionary leadership Indiana needs!”  I like the judicious use of the exclamation marks, Phil. 

Could a kindergarten teacher learn something from the staff at Science Central about how to set up displays that appeal to 5 year olds?  Are there no Montessori daycare programs that could provide insights into alternative approaches to educating young children?  Would hanging out with the midnight shift at a fast food restaurant talking to an under educated single mother provide understanding into why little Johnny shows up to school late, unbathed and in the same dirty shirt three days in a row?  Is there nothing ordinary tax paying working parents might share with a prospective kindergarten teacher about the education of their children that might prove useful?  Could externing with a lawn care company provide some awareness why it is folly to expect a full year’s salary for seasonal work? 

The answer to all of those questions is an emphatic - no.  Extra smart smarty pants Phil Downs -- who apparently learned everything there is to know about education at university –- says so and even went so far as to tweet about it using not one but two exclamation marks.  So that’s that. 

Shortage of sense

'Externships' latest slap at state's teachers

Bill supporters

Most area lawmakers supported House Enrolled Act 1002, requiring Indiana teachers to complete 15 hours of professional development related to community workforce needs as part of their professional license renewal process. Voting yes were:

Republican Sens. Liz Brown, Justin Busch, Sue Glick, Travis Holdman, Dennis Kruse and Andy Zay

Republican Reps. David Abbott, Martin Carbaugh, David Heine, Chris Judy, Matt Lehman, Dan Leonard, Bob Morris, Curt Nisly, Ben Smaltz and Denny Zent

Who is directing education policy in Indiana? That would be Gov. Eric Holcomb's Workforce Cabinet, the 20 appointees whose recommendation on teacher licensing will now require educators to spend 15 hours on professional development related to their community's “current and future economic needs.”

The panel's directive was approved in House Enrolled Act 1002, a career and technical education package that leaves little doubt that Indiana business leaders believe teachers aren't preparing the workers they need. On mostly party lines, the legislation was approved by the Republican supermajorities in the House and Senate, with Auburn Republican Dennis Kruse a co-sponsor. He told a South Bend TV station the new requirement helps teachers help students.

“So they can help teach and guide those kids so they can fulfill those job opportunities that are out there,” Kruse told WSBT-TV.

But Superintendent Phil Downs of Southwest Allen County Schools was quick to point out the absurdity of the new licensing rule, which goes into effect July 1.

“So happy kindergarten teachers will finally have to spend 15 hours learning what businesses want from our 5 year olds! This is the visionary leadership Indiana needs!” he tweeted last week.

Downs made sure to note his Twitter post was sarcastic, but no one could possibly confuse visionary thinking with a scheme to require educators – including those who teach children who won't enter the workforce until 2032 – to spend 15 hours in an unpaid “externship.” For anyone who has been following the state's 15-year effort to remold Indiana's public schools into worker training programs, however, this new requirement should come as no surprise.

Still, the president of the Indiana State Teachers Association is right when she calls it a “slap in the face” to teachers, who were promised at the start of the session that salary increases would be a priority and now are learning the session brought nothing in the form of guaranteed income relief and more in the way of unnecessary regulations.

Many of those teachers are beginning to find their voice, however. Dozens joined a protest on the Allen County Courthouse Green late Tuesday afternoon as part of a “teacher work-in” to protest the state's lack of support for schools. 

“There is a teacher shortage, and it's not going to get better until something changes,” teacher Cheryl Keim told The Journal Gazette's Ashley Sloboda. 

Those changes will have to start at the General Assembly, where school funding and regulatory decisions are made – contrary to lawmakers' insistence those decisions are made at the school board level. Given lawmakers' enthusiastic support for professional development, we would suggest externships would benefit more than teachers. Why don't the 20 members of the Governor's Workforce Cabinet and the 103 lawmakers who supported HEA 1002 schedule 15 hours of professional development in an Indiana public school this fall? They should spend the hours in the classroom, but also in a school office, where staff members work through attendance and discipline issues with parents who don't make school a priority. The lawmakers should shadow a teacher in the afterschool hours to learn what the job requires outside the classroom. They should sit in on a college-level pedagogy course to understand the educational requirements to become a teacher.

In a list submitted to the federal government last month, the Indiana Department of Education cited more than a dozen subject areas where teacher shortages exist. Count on that list growing longer next year, as more teachers and prospective teachers determine the demands outweigh the rewards they can find in Indiana classrooms. At some point, the shortages might finally catch the attention of the Governor's Workforce Cabinet.