Educationist, Reader's Comment, Full marks for teachers who make a difference, D

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Educationist, Reader's Comment, Full marks for teachers who make a difference, Dr Tanveer Ahmed, a psychiatrist, The Age, 5 April 2011 http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/full-marks-for-teachers-who-make-a-difference-20110404-1cyir.html? comments=79 Historical link preserved from the original page.

Teachers have to work with what they are given. They can't reject substandard materials.

We teachers have to work with what we've been given.

We have virtually no control over the "inputs' (to use the corporate/industrial worldview).

If anyone in any other industry was sent some of the raw materials we have to work with, they'd send them back and sue the supplier.

A butcher can sue a slaughterhouse for sending spoiled meat.

A carpenter can gain satisfaction against a supplier of warped timber.

None of us would expect these trained professionals to produce world class work with substandard materials.

Teachers must do this every day, with no access to the recourse that other professionals enjoy.

Arbitrary key performance indicators that fit in with the dominant corporate/industrial worldview have very little relationship to the actual practice of education.