Kiss (good) Teaching In Virginia Goodbye

http://virginiapublicradio.org/2012/02/13/teacher-contract-legislation/

The legislation that has passed the Virginia House of Delegates is signaling the end of good teaching in Virginia, and paving the way towards the end in America as I see it.  This blog is dedicated to being a moderate and attempting to see both sides to each argument, but not on this issue.  I will however be as academic as I can be in my explanation of why I say the end is upon us.

I will explain the following reasons to base my argument

1) Taking away financial security is not the way to induce the kind of ingenuity needed in education or in the education of students that will one day compete in the global job market
2) This will lead to even more "teaching to the test" then before, even if measures to reduce the importance of test scores are taken
3) This will drive young teachers away from Virginia and into the waiting arms of the other states or out of teaching all together thus slowing economic growth rather than speeding it.
4) A major paradigm shift away from a individualistic education approach to a manufacturing one must take place in the upper (teacher education programs) and lower (students/parents) atmospheres of education. 

Explanations
1) Research has shown that in order to create the most friendly of environment for creativity in the work place, money need not be the factor.  In simple jobs such as manufacturing this rational works, but in the creative endeavors like teaching it has the inverse effect. 
2) Even with measures put into place that will lessen the impact of test scores on renewal of contracts, teachers will modify their teaching styles away from the creative, problem solving based approaches (needed to compete in the 21st Century) and focus more on basic application of facts and knowledge. Need proof?  How can a standardized test test the creative capacity of an 8th grader?  There is no way to train students to think creativity and then test them (uniformly) on how creative they are.  A similar test would be define art in one word, and getting the same word every time.  
In addition teachers will be less apt to teach enriching lessons that offer students time to develop an interest in their subject for fear of missing opportunities to teach information that may be on the test. This will also leave behind the notion of well rounded educations that we have been operating under for so long and lead to specialization of student almost from the time the enter school.

3) Many young people will either leave Virginia, or teaching altogether at a time when neither Virginia or the country can afford to allow this.  On a micro level Virginia will suffer because too many teachers, who enter into teaching for the stability, will leave to other states that offer tenure taking with them their spending power and tax base.  State to state brain dumps will take place from states not offering tenure to those who do.  Virginia honestly does not need to loose any more state to state battles.  The second option for young people is even more bleak in outcome.  Either leaving teaching or never entering for more lucrative/stable careers will be a growing trend.  The country cannot stand to loose people to high paying careers in a time when our economic recovery is being tied to the middle class. If millionaires are not going to burden our economic recovery, what we need less are millionaires. If the middle class is being depleted of his lifeblood (teaching has traditionally been a middle class job) then what other means of economic recovery are left? So you tell me, more millionaires or economic recovery?

4) A major paradigm shift must take place in the upper education atmosphere away from an individualistic, "every child should learn as they learn best" to a manufacturing style. (to be brutally honest, it will happen whether the education world wants it to or not).  No longer can children be looked upon as snowflake that learned different ways.  Education programs that have trained teacher to teach is such a manner must leave such notions behind. Education will be boiled down to simple application of facts, that as I argue is ineffective and determinately to competition on the global scale.  Teachers will stop experimenting with different educational strategies and focus on old fashion, simple styles that produce the best test scores.  It is a cold hard fact that many of our "junior just doesn't learn that way" students will fall by the Darwinian wayside because they cannot adapt to the most effective modes of teaching that produce the best test scores.  This style of education is prevalent in Europe and Asia, but is something that we as the rugged individualistic Americans have deplored as cruel and barbaric.  I guess it is time for the snow fakes to melt or evaporate. 

I leave this post with the simple question of why?  Why do we feel our country is lagging behind other countries?  We are after all doing something other countries do not do, which is educate every child (leaving none behind), and creating a well rounded child who is able to leave our (free) public school systems and enter a college system that is known the world over. Apparently, that is not something deemed worthy to many, so I ask again why?