22 February, 2009

No one ever consults a teacher...even Frank McCourt

In an interview with PBS...

Q: What can we do to help improve our nation's schools?

McCourt: One of the reasons the schools are in such a state is no one consults the teachers. I used to watch some of these programs on television and you'd have somebody from some corporation, and you'd see some jerk from the think tank, and then you'd have a union official, and I'd call... One time I called Channel 13 in New York, they had one of these discussions about schools, and I said -- they were inviting us, calls from the outside -- and the lady said, "Well what would your question be?" And I said, "Why don't you have a teacher on this panel?" "Oh, that's a very interesting question..." I said, "It's about schools, isn't it?" "Yes." But I never got through. One never gets through."

Read the whole interview http://www.pbs.org/onlyateacher/today8.html

2 comments:

Pissedoffteacher said...

No one consults us because no one wants to hear what we have to say. To listen to us would be an admission of their cluelessness.

Rachel Grynberg said...

I know. McCourt should hold a press conference with Dianne Ravitch and others and just speak out. He, in particular, is such a popular figure, it would be interesting to see if Obama was moved.