‘An Army Of New Teachers’

Press Releases

October 24, 2007

Disclosure before I start: My wife and I both maxed out on our contributions to Barack Obama.

That said, I’m somewhat confused by one particular phrase from the Senator’s town-hall style speech in East Los Angeles on his plans to improve the Latino drop-out rate:

Let’s rebuild our crumbling schools and recruit an army of new teachers because what makes the most difference in any child’s education is the person standing at the front of the classroom. And we also have to make sure that every child who wants to learn English has the resources to learn English. And that any child who comes here and studies here and does well in school has the same chance to attend a public college as anyone else… (Emphasis mine.)

OK, I’m with you, but I don’t get the “army of new teachers” thing. Is the problem with public education really the current “army of old teachers”, or is it more along the lines of a dysfunctional system which chews teachers up and spits them out as frustrated, jaded individuals?

If the problem isn’t the old teachers, per se, as many of us believe, but outdated, counter-productive conditions which do very little to recognize and grow talent, etc. isn’t that what Obama should be focusing on? If he puts an “army of new teachers” into the same old crap, what good could that possibly do?

Why not just say what everyone knows?