HW for Tues. night (due Wed, 5/4)

[Jay Levine]

URL=http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/opinion/01eggers.html?_r=1%26hp

Hello all,

click on the link above (or just google "The High Cost of Low Teacher
Salaries"). Read the article and respond to something pointed out in
the article, whether or not you agree with it, etc. Do you think
Rawls would agree with merit pay for teachers? Why or why not?

[Rhianna Waterman]

In the article, it says "First, the governments in these countries recruit top graduates to the profession. (We don’t.) In Finland and Singapore they pay for training. (We don’t.) In terms of purchasing power, South Korea pays teachers on average 250 percent of what we do." I don't believe that we can compare the schools in Massachusetts to schools across the country; it doesn't seem right. I also don't believe that poor test scores on "international standardized tests" should be blamed on the teacher because what if you had a good teacher, but a student who just didn't try?

 

Rawls would not agree with merit pay for teachers because he would argue that a teacher's ability or talents to teach aren't really their own.

[Phil]

I agree with the article about teachers' salaries. If they were closer to 100,000 and over people would deffinately take being a teacher into consideration more. Most of the time, it isn't the teacher's fault if their students do bad. Most of the time they just have bad students. Teachers are tired of doing a lot of work for not a lot of money and putting up with kids who are, let's just say a handfull. Rawls would probably say something dumb like "they're teachers because they were born with the notion of teaching." He's weird.

[George Bonner]

was this due today? because i wasnt aware..

anyways, the article has the right idea. but, devils advocate would say: in the comparison of teachers to soldiers, wouldnt it be more appropriate to compare the soldiers to students and the teachers to planners? then it IS the teachers fault. the article does offer some good points 

go on google maps.enter this:

34.187715,73.242529

thats where bin laden was "hiding"

 

pakistan has some 'splainin to do