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Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013 | 2:01 a.m.
Another view?
View more of the Las Vegas Sun's opinion section:
• Editorials - the Sun's viewpoint.
• Columnists - local and syndicated writers.
• Letters to the editor - readers' views.
Have your own opinion? Write a letter to the editor.
Regarding the recent story “School consultant sees fear of change, bureaucratic culture as hindrances”:
What a waste of money! The Clark County School District has spent untold amounts on educational consultant Frederick Hess. His suggestion to save educational time? Train teachers to train students on how to pass papers faster. Huh? No right-minded teacher would ever do this.
The School District has been asking teachers via surveys for many years about ways to save educational time and money. There isn’t one teacher I know who has ever had one of their suggestions adopted.
Of course, teachers are the people who would know best on where time and money is being wasted, but then again, the district never really cared for any suggestions made from the trenches.
If ideas don’t come from high-priced consultants like Mr. Hess or district administrators, no one, including the press, listens.
Teacher suggestion #1 = pay us 12 months pay for 9 months of work.
Teacher suggestion #2 = increase our pay to pay our union bosses and cover our union dues at the tax payer's expense.
Teacher suggestion #3 = ignore the fact that union dues are funneled to liberal political candidates, a fact we fail to mention when discussing citizen's united.
Teacher suggestion #4 = Don't hold teachers accountable for student test scores and graduation rates.
Robert says "What a waste of money! The Clark County School District has spent untold amounts on educational consultant Frederick Hess
Whoa!
The teachers Union does not want to change and move toward E-Schools which means fewer teachers
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Robert provided NO SOLUTIONS
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Hess said "The School District currently spends about $38 million a year on substitute teachers, Hess said. If the district could reward schools with high teacher attendance with money from substitute teacher savings, teachers would have an incentive not to take as much sick leave, schools could save million of dollars and students would learn more,"
Well with on-line teaching this cost could be eliminated
There is a real failure by many to understand how on-line learning would work.
the course lectures could be taught by only the very best highly effective teachers (live or podcast). Students can ask questions on-line during class with a cadre of experts to mentor and answer them. This can be both electronic or verbal.
"His suggestion to save educational time? Train teachers to train students on how to pass papers faster. Huh? No right-minded teacher would ever do this". from Robert Bencivenga.
Here is a link to Paul Takahashi's Las Vegas Sun article "School District making strides in classroom and culture, consultant contends" interviewing Frederick Hess, an education scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Robert Bencivenga failed to mention other more meaningful thoughts and ideas from Hess. The letter writer, Robert Bencivenga is using selective observation overlooking more important points made by Mr. Hess. Mr. Hess' thoughts and ideas are not being fairly represented by Robert Bencivenga. Read the article linked below by LVS staff writer Paul Takahashi to get more scope and context on Mr. Hess' thoughts and ideas.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2013/jan...
A consultant is someone you pay to use your watch to tell you the time and then charges you for it! With rare exceptions, consultants are a huge waste of money. They do two things well: Satisfy the human need to do something [when you don't know what to do] and waste your money doing it.
CarmineD
Guns in schools is a great idea, especially kindergarten and the primary grades. Kids really need to learn early on. Guns are what made this country strong.
Get guns. Shoot them. Get bombs and blow stuff up. Destruction is wisdom. Killing is life. Selfishness is godliness.
Any questions, check your NRA handbook. Can't read? No problem, join the Army. We need guys like you...ou. Step up!
Pretty sad when you have all these "educated" people together and have to buy a consultant to tell them what to do.
Whats up with Lamy's post?
Typical morning from the right wing early morning cuckoo for cocoa puffs crowd. Add a dash of union busting with a half a cup of 12 months pay jealousy for 9 month's work BS (could pay Em over 9 month's and let Em get unemployment instead), 2 cups of right wing consulting that lavishly praises the guy who hired him, 3 slices of communist styled e-school and we have an awful cake of bitterness.
One school in the district has only 63% of its original senior class left this Year. The other 37% are who knows where. Those 37% are calculated against the school and any students that come into the school as sophomores, juniors, or seniors and Do graduate are not counted in the school graduation rates.
Instead of playing kissyface with Jones the consultant could have tried some new strategies on pushing papers.
@Jeff...
'Typical morning from the right wing early morning cuckoo for cocoa puffs crowd'...
Yup; they get up darn early, eat their sugary namesake, and with unmitigated GLEE proceed to write their 'junk-logic' garbage...
They are consistent and punctual!
However, with such flawed logic & simple-minded short-sightedness, our 'future' is not bright.
@BoliBlingBling.
Teacher suggestion # 1. pay us 12 months pay for 9 months work. NOT TRUE. CCSD as a courtesy spreads the pay teachers earn for 9 months over 12 monts to provide a stable source of income. Check the teacher contracts the pay is for 184 days.
Teacher suggestion # 2. increase our pay to pay our union bosses and increase our dues at taxpayers expense. NOT TRUE. There are only two paid elected officers at CCEA, the president and vice president who are paid teachers salary. The executive director is paid LESS THAN HALF of the 300k+ salary paid to the superintendent. Union dues are paid by PAYROLL DEDUCTION from the teachers pay each pay period.
Teacher suggestion # 3. ignore the fact that union dues are used to support liberal candidates. NOT TRUE. Union dues CAN'T be used for politicall purposes. Members make an additional contribution if they want to contribute for political action.
Teacher suggestion # 4. Don't hold teachers accountable for graduation rate and test scores. NOT TRUE. Under a law passed last session, the Nevada legislature mandated a new state wide evealuation system that requires HALF of a teacher evaluation be based on student performance.
Teacher suggestion # 5. (ADDED)CCSD stop treating CCEA as the enemy and be willing to cooperate. Treat teachers as the professionals and education experts they are.
"Dear teachers, Don't get sick, even when you are surrounded by 40 coughing and sneezing children; tell your young children not to get sick, so you won't have to take a day off."
This is who the district pays?? How do I get that gig??
"Mr. Jones, the way to be more efficient with time, is to tell the kids to run everywhere (have the schools release Jaguars to chase the kids - sure we'll lose a few (keeps the district from paying for food), but it would most likely be one of "them undocumented kids" anyway). that means we can shorten passing periods to 45 seconds. AND if we issue them diapers, they won't lose time with bathroom breaks. Hire speed talkers to read instructions to the kids (at least three minutes of time saved there."
Or.....we can stop making dumb suggestions and let teachers actually do we are trained to do (um teach), and stop paying idiots to steal our money.
Tanker1975 states "Union dues CAN'T be used for politicall purposes. Members make an additional contribution if they want to contribute for political action".
"The usual measure of unions' clout encompasses chiefly what they spend supporting federal candidates through their political-action committees, which are funded with voluntary contributions, and lobbying Washington, which is a cost borne by the unions' own coffers. These kinds of spending, which unions report to the Federal Election Commission and to Congress, totaled $1.1 billion from 2005 through 2011, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
The unions' reports to the Labor Department capture an additional $3.3 billion that unions spent over the same period on political activity."
Political Spending by Unions Far Exceeds Direct Donations
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/...
chuck333
What's up with my post is just another sarcastic push-back against the astounding response from a popular organization to the recent slaughter of a bunch of kids at school along with some teachers and administration as this deranged shooter of schools cut loose with incredible rage and shock and awe.
My response is merely my way of equating the uncivilized response of an industry spokesman with the senseless catastrophe that ensues when this kind of ignorance and misguided application of power is allowed to maintain its grip on our evolving culture.
The NRA came out with a 'More guns is GOOOD' proposition. My dumb little childish rant is a geezer's finger. I never meant to be obtuse or obscure.
As a former teacher and curriculum developer, as a community member and citizen and tax-payer, I ask you this: What good are teachers and schools if we are promoting violence and abuse in our learning centers?
My comments were only a counter-point, a sane and rational response to recent events and comments from those with other agendas.
ook chuck333,
upon re-reading of my rant, I gotta hand it to ya here - yep I was a bit out there ragin in the traffic. But so was the shooter, and so IZZ the NRA.
And that Orwellian allusion was a frustrated poet's 'ultra-violence' in screen-play version...on steroids or at least strong coffee!
Peace out. God what a week! We deserve a break, a walk in the park and a quiet rest...the whole song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIVe-rZBc...
JeffFromVegas - "2 cups of right wing consulting that lavishly praises the guy who hired him, 3 slices of communist styled e-school and we have an awful cake of bitterness."
Remember, many of them still believe in witches and their brew - "Double double toil and trouble fire burn and cauldron bubble."
@BoliblingBling. I thought this article was about Las Vegas, not the US. You quote data that say that unions contribute lots of money to FEDERAL political campaigns. What about local campaigns? Do your figures separate out CCEA from the national figures?
How much of that spending was by education unions, and how much was from the other unions like Teamsters, UAW, etc? My comments were specifically about CCEA and CCSD. I didn't realize that we were talking about the entire US and ALL labor unions.
Didn't Sheldon Adelson contribute 150 Million to the Republican PACS? How much did Steven Wynn contribute? How about the Koch bothers, how much did they contribute? You say that unions contributed 1.1 Billion from 2005 to 2011. Per year that amounts to just over 180 million or a little more that Sheldon Adelson gave by himself. Talk to me some more about Citizens United.
Tanker I'm not sure about the numbers from the union given to political campaigns but I'd say there's a big difference between Adelson donating his money and someone who teaches our kids.
Teacher do a great job! Just look at what they produce.
Enough with the ideas. Teach the basics. Get that right and then consider optional ideas. Get that right and offer a wider choice of electives particularly to talented performing students. REWARD success. STOP REWARDING FAILURE.
Ha ha ha
"Enough with the ideas"
So education and human development can gain nothing in roslenda's view, by reflecting and analyzing, by synthesizing and modifying.
In other words, thinking about stuff is pointless... In the world of the rosies, aparently the whole idea of learning, of growing a better functionality is beyond possibility.
Oh the prisons we create when we choose to smother our lives with limitations imposed by others.
Thank you for showing us how demented the fixed mind-set can be, Roslenda.
Determining that thought and information are of little value is indulging your denial, rosie.
Education is all about 'leading OUT of the cave of ignorance', my fellow commenter and active observer.
When you choose to meander down the road where the individual internal drive is discounted, the personality of the learner is avoided, and the purpose in learning is insubstantial, then you have discarded not just the education of the kid, but also likely the kid too.
Witness what happens when schools treat the little sh*ts like they were somebody else's problem. Contrast with what happens when that fire inside dominates the life of the learner, thinking she can, and doing and growing and choosing her own developmental directions to soar.
What is so awfully WRONG about education that you would actually choose to terminate discussion of ideas about what and how and why we learn? Basics, anyone?
Are these not germane enough to the learning process? The growth process? The human struggle? The challenge of life and the response of the living?
It seems basic enough to me. Try and learn, or don't and don't.
I do not know about you, but I'd rather go down in a hail of failures and a couple of mediocre successes than simply be told what to do and written off as a good bee.
Like Dr Agustin says: "These kids are raindrops"
Our job as former kids is simple: Splay the rainbows - shine the light of understanding so the little drops can see their colors and know their golden universe, and ground their potential in time to grow and cultivate gardens and gardeners.