 |
| Above: Dr. Jim McIntyre, Superintendent of Knox County (TN) Schools |
My Reaction to Dr. Jim McIntyre's "State of the Schools" Address for Knox County, Tennessee
February 12, 2014 was the third annual Knox County Schools Superintendent Dr. Jim McIntyre's delivering of - and let me ensure that I word this as presidentially as possible - the State of the Schools Address. When I listened to his declaration on the 11:00 PM news that teachers must be provided with greater autonomy in the classroom in order to encourage and to instill greater creativity in teaching students, the only rhetorical response I conjured was to call "bullshit" since he is the main mouthpiece whispering into Gov. Bill Haslam's good ear to implement greater and more asinine regulations and standards with the emphasis on these policies of teaching students not what two-plus-two equals and the answer be two as well as why, but in how to work two-plus-two and adapt it to performing better and to excel on standardized state and district exams in accordance to what the U.S. Department of Education declares is proper and absolute without providing the right to true flexibility in learning different methods for acquiring knowledge to succeed even for the administering of the standardized exams.
When an appointed, non-democratically elected politician like Dr. McIntyre who has absolutely no popular mandate for implementing county educational policies declares his conviction that teachers need more autonomy to encourage and to instill greater creativity within the classroom setting, what he is really stating is that by providing teachers with this enhanced flexibility in their pedagogical methods towards performing their duties, he is only promulgating that the county and state education boards should only advocate granting teachers more measures to educate students how to pass state and local school districts' standardized tests, not to teaching critical thinking and conceptual analysis that beget true intellectual growth and the manifestation and nurturing of making common sense decisions in everyday life situations. To listen to a student by the name of Ethan Young from our school system destroy the credibility of Common Core is immeasurable in his insight beyond his years as to how it has crippled the nation's schools by stifling the true measure of a student, which is not quantifiable by testing percentiles:
Teachers also have ripped the system in Knox County:
And the coup de gras from Dr. McIntyre himself, who two years divulged his undying support for Common Core and the ever-growing draconian teacher evaluations which are driving many of the wonderful educators I have known for the majority of my life into early retirement based upon their inability to meet a minutia of a standards leading to their ultimately either being terminated or likewise:
Common Core will not provide for students the most important life skill of reasoning as opposed to the government's preference that they instead learn to accept unadulterated absolutism amid its blind indoctrination. It will only manifest a culture of rising adults who know nothing about how to analyze and create conceptual plans of action in their critical thinking attributes, which will be nonexistent. And to pin these failures in educating students of minority races and of low income on faculty is abhorrent and unwarranted since Dr. McIntyre is among those within the government who would seek to continue implementing the policy of maintaining the status quo in order to strengthen his stranglehold on power. Teachers and principals cannot alter this sad state of affairs for the poor; that can only be realized by voting out of office those elected official who not only perpetuate more poverty through their failed economic policies, but who also create more poverty and discord.
When the day finally arrives where the federal, state, and local departments of education and school districts are abolished and public education is both privatized and paid for by the people's tax dollars they themselves earned and are allowed to keep through the fruits of their labors have finally the liberty of choice in determining which schools their children will attend which is in agreement with both the families' religious and cultural values, the practice of government socialized indoctrination of America's children will be rendered impotent and obsolete.
***
Knox County Superintendent spells out State of the Schools
Updated: Wed 1:50 PM, Feb 12, 2014
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) Knox County Schools Superintendent Doctor Jim McIntyre laid out his State of the Schools address, Tuesday evening.
Dr. McIntyre said he is happy with the implementation of his strategic plan so far, and looks forward to staying aggressive in implementing the next five year strategic plan.
Dr. McIntyre admitted that the changes he has, and continues to propose, are radical, but they will pay off to be rewarding.
He also said Knox County Schools are seeing unprecedented academic achievement levels, and recently received all A's on the state report card.
"That's the first time that has ever happened," McIntyre said.
Dr. McIntyre also said he will work toward increasing teacher's salary, since Knox County teachers are currently 35th in the state for pay.
Halls Elementary school teacher, Amber Roundtree says that may sound good, but she isn't convinced it's necessary.
"My concern is, will it be tied to merit pay? I think that's also something we've heard over and over again from our educators, because we don't want merit pay. And there's really no scientific research that shows that merit pay makes a better teacher," Roundtree said.
Dr. McIntyre also addressed the need to close the achievement gap between races and income levels, as well as creating an individualized instruction plan for every student.
You can read more of some of the changes Dr. McIntyre would like to implement, as well as his action steps by clicking on the link.
No comments:
Post a Comment