I am at my son's baseball game and notice a thread over at Miseducation Nation about an article in today's Washington Post about why the best and the brightest aren't teachers. I will share my pinion about that in a bit, but wanted to touch on the brouhaha it set off, led by a gnome named Stuart Rhoden.

Stuie it seems has issues. He zeroed in on a quote made by the late Sandra Feldman made in 2003; "You have in the schools right now, among the teachers who are going to be retiring, very smart people," she said in an interview. "We're not getting in now the same kinds of people. It's disastrous. We've been saying for years now that we're attracting from the bottom third." What Stuie failed to do was include the first part of Feldman's quote, "You have in the schools right now, among the teachers who are going to be retiring, very smart people," in his comment on the thread. Why Stuie?

Sorry Stuie, I think you got caught up in your own grandeur of self. Yes, you are a big deal, what with getting your PhD in Urban Education, and your days as a quite successful (at least in your own mind) substitute teacher for six years in Chicago and Philadelphia. But I digress.

I don't think what Feldman was saying is that stupid people are going into education. There are two things I think she means. One, is that the old time teachers, the teachers who started in the late sixties and seventies are leaving the profession. They saw teaching as a calling, a way of life, a noble thing to do. What we are getting in the last ten years Stuie are gnomes from TFA whose only reason to teach is to pad that resume for three years so it will look good on a law school application.

Now, there is some point I believe to that colleges and their education methods classes which are lacking. But as I learned with with Lamaze, most of what you learn goes out the window when reality comes about.

I did have one or two methods professors that were just a total waste. But that is the same in any business or venture. That is life. I did not go to a top college. I went to a local state school. I had a B average. But don't ever call me not smart. Not capable.

My second year teaching we had a new teacher. She graduated from Harvard. Went to Harvard Law. After awhile she wasn't happy and decided to become a teacher. She graduated from one of the top education grad schools, Bank Street College in NYC. She didn't last through November. Oh yes she was book smart, but she was not street smart. She had zero classroom management. That is just not something they teach you at Harvard, or Temple, or University of Chicago.

So why aren't the "best and the brightest" drawn to be teachers? Because they are the best and the brightest. They are smart enough not to go into a career in which they will be overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated. Oh, yeah, I forgot, You will go on about how we have all that time off. Think of it as convalescing.

One more thing I wish to bring up in your rantings today. This statement you made; "Please tell me other professions which have guarantees such as this complicated pay scale?" Really want to know how many professions are affected by a set pay scale?

Firefighters, cops, sanitation, government employees, UPS drivers, FedEx drivers, railroad workers, nurses, doctors, hospitality workers, bus drivers, candlestick makers, Indian chiefs, custodians, Popeye, migrant workers, airline pilots, flight attendants, air traffic controllers, newspaper employees, Mr Spock, social workers, Ted Baxter.

So Stuie, want to join in on the fun? Have your facts straight from now on.