A Reader Recommends...

A reader recommends the following:

"Another book on the must read list is, “The Global Achievement Gap,” by Tony Wagner. This book is very hot with the politicians right now and will give educators a good insight into the direction we are apparently going to be taking over the next five years. There is one point I would like to make. The author uses real world examples of both good and not so good situations. In one of the good ones, a teacher (whom we are supposed to emulate?) makes the following statement, “… All we were doing was teaching to the test. I wasn’t able to teach what I loved-which is big fat novels…” (Emphasis added.)

The days of teaching what each individual Loves are long, long, long, gone. Modern accountability is here to stay and the sooner our profession accepts that fact, the sooner we can focus our efforts towards the true Hedgehog principle, which is "Instruction." It is the ‘How’ of instruction that deserves our attention as the "what and the when" decisions are no longer ours alone to make. I doubt the Author realized that even his exemplar actually perpetuated the wasted, false discussions within our profession. The Eagles have a song, “Get Over It.” It is time for us to ‘Get Over It’ and move forward, or we will be left in the dust bins of history."

SC Response
Great comments and good points. All I can add is that I concur. We owe it to our students and our profession to use all the tools at our disposal to improve instruction and to address those in our profession that are addicted to the narcotic effect of comfort and the status quo.

Think. Work. Achieve.

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