The 30-Day Challenge: Day Twenty-Two

So, I've tossed around the idea of playing along with this facebook trend for some time. But I've never really enjoyed following trends. However, my apparent narcissism keeps bringing me back to it.

That being said, I'm going to participate, but I'm going to do it here, instead of on facebook. (The goal is to satisfy my narcissism, as well as motivate me to start using my blog again.) Enjoy!

Day Twenty-Two - A picture that confuses you.

As you can see, the editorial cartoon above is dates from last year. It seems as though this has been an on-again, off-again hot button issue for some time. At the risk of being too political, the current state of education confuses me quite a bit. There's quite a bit of legislative talks among politicians about how to fix the state of education in America, and it seems like most think the solution to the problem lies within the teachers. Not only are teachers the problem, but apparently removing teachers and replacing them with business persons will fix the problem.

Underperforming schools are at risk of a total, top-down take over. The entirety of a school's administrative staff will be replaced by private business owners. They have the right to then fire 49% of teachers, regardless of their status or contracts, and replace them with whomever they want--and there are no qualifications or standards for these newly hires.

Well, now I'm concerned this will become quite the soapbox. That's not my intention. It just frustrates me to see popular media villainise teachers for students' failings. As the old adage goes, I can bring the student to knowledge, but I cannot make him learn.