SwampFox

Learned elders.

Submitted by: Allan MacGregor Reid on Oct 20, 2010 at 1:36 pm Tagged with: Military, Schools, Teaching Source: Micronmeasurements

I have always felt that no-one should be allowed to enter the teaching profession, without first having tasted of the forbidden fruit of industry. In ancient times teachers were elders. They had been there, done that, and learned from that experience. Look at most technical schools in Germany and Finland. The instructors are expert in their discipline. Turn your gaze on high school and your geography teacher for example, is a book-trained, ex-bagger from Piggly Wiggly. I would much prefer a retiree who lived in several countries, has seen distant cultures up close, and has some understanding of the economic drivers in those economies. Your high school science teacher is a MSc in fuzzy logic, who likes the long Summer vacations, as opposed to 3rd shift at Carustar for his first 3 years in a profession.

Do you see where I am coming from here? Down every street in America are people who have experiences that would help education lead children (educeo=I lead out of in Latin) rather than push them along. Developing the reward system, with the approval of the teacher's unions, now that would be a different stick and carrot proposal. Let's call these elders, Parent-Pupil advocates, and what they do is a 360°review of the class: teacher and students. They would operate outside the union and would be paid their Social Security equivalent pay, with years added for participation. So for example, instead of hiring a 20's something teacher, hire an elder at Social Security pay rates. The young teacher can become a new wave of entrepreneurs and then retire to teaching.
In some ways I think this approach should also be taken for the military. Yes, we need young men to do the rough and tumble stuff. All that book-keeping, communication, rebuilding and interaction with foreign nationals in a non-combative way woudl be better handled by the elders from our society, talking to the elders of their society. Less tostesterone, more patience and again more experience of life.

Maybe old folks can be of use both as an economic force, but as learned elders.