Experts and Kids

One picture says it all. For every teacher there an infinite number of experts whose interest, research, experience outside the classroom have them pushing thoughts and ideas that get in the way of teachers reaching their students. Teachers know what the focus of their attentions should be yet reaching out to help the kids by these so called experts places undo added stress on teachers to achieve goals some in the class will not ever achieve. Why will some students not achieve these goals? It is because the amount of time that needs to be devoted to one student currently outstrips the amount of time needed to reach everyone in the class. If you have 5 students out of 30 who need a minimum of 10 minutes of your time during a 40 minute class you will never have enough time to reach the other 25. That is 50 minutes required for 5 students when a period is 40 minutes long. You do the math. It doesn't take much to see that time will always be an issue. There are a number of solutions available but all cost money, something that no one wants to devote more of to education. It requires teachers to be hired. It requires smaller classes. It requires a stronger understanding of subject areas, especially learning difficulties and how to reach them.  It requires an understanding that school is not a factory assembly line and that just churning out kids at the end of it does not mean they have an education. Until we decide that we need to reach every child, on every level possible, we will never produce a strong education system.