Why I Want to Punch Bill Gates in the Face (sometimes)

January 17, 2012 by erinlittle

This photo was making the rounds on Facebook. And it pisses me off!

Tell me why you say? OK, I will.

Bill Gates, although well meaning, is misinformed about what makes good education. He thinks that standardized testing is the way to assess teachers. And that is not true.

According to Diane Ravitch:

Gates seems not to know or care that the leading testing experts in the nation agree that this is a fruitless and wrongheaded way to identify either good teachers or bad teachers. Student test scores depend on what students do, what effort they expend, how often they attend school, what support they have at home, and most especially on their socioeconomic status and family income. Test scores may go up or go down, in response to the composition of the class, without regard to teacher quality. Students are not randomly assigned to teachers. A teacher of gifted children, whose scores are already sky-high, may see little or no gains. A teacher of children with disabilities may be thrilled to see students respond to instruction, even if their test scores don’t go up. A teacher in a poor neighborhood may have high student turnover and poor attendance, and the scores will say nothing about his or her quality. But all will get low marks on state evaluation systems and may end up fired.

So far, the main effect of Gates’ policy has been to demoralize millions of teachers, who don’t understand how they went from being respected members of the community to Public Enemy No. 1.

Business and schools are not the same thing. I do not think that schools should be run likes businesses. Students are humans, not stocks. I saw Diane Ravitch speak at an Ontario Teachers Federation Symposium last spring. She has an interesting story. She was very involved in the Republican initiative “No Child Left Behind” which failed miserably. She did a complete 180 degree turn in her opinions and moved away from high stakes testing and the direction the US was going with education policy. As the world knows, the US is nowhere near the top. You know who is? Finland. They have no standardized testing. They call teachers by their first names. They have a relaxed friendly atmosphere. They do not have a billionaire undemocratically and radically altertng and privatizing their system.

Let’s look at each statement.

1. Life is not fair – get used to it. Schools don’t teach students that life is fair. Spend some time undercover on the playground and you’ll see that. Yes they teach character education (some better than others) but that is about resolving conflict and behaving with integrity which are certainly skills necessary in “real-life”.

2. The world doesn’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself. Really? I think that being a good person who can look after oneself and others IS and accomplishment. I think that feeling good about oneself IS important for happiness and productivity. This is a silly chicken and egg statement.

3. You will not make $60,000 right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both. This is probably true in most cases, except extreme nepotism. The question is, are kids really that stupid and entitled that they think this will happen? I don’t think the majority are. Do you?

4. If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. This may be true in some cases, but not all. In fact, human resource research shows that employees treated with respect, equity and compassion are more productive. So which type of boss will have a more productive staff and therefore better performance for her department? Just because things have been one way for a long time doesn’t mean that’s the best way.

5. Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had another word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity. I’m sure there are kids who see burger flipping as beneath them. I’m sure there were grandparents who thought the same thing. Bill is speaking to the privlidged here. Where is flipping burgers an opportunity? I guess it’s an opportunity to learn some things about the fast food business. Unless you plan to go onto McDonald’s University though, I see it as a part-time job for students planning on going on with post-secondary education. Or a full-time job for those who aren’t.

To be continued…..

Comments

Kathryn says

January 18, 2012 at 10:42 am

I’m so sorry, but I disagree with your commentary on Gate’s School of Success and I agree completely with Sara and Tracey.
Flipping burgers is for sure opportunity and there are for sure high school kids who have no concept of the worth of education and dollar value. Heck – even some recent college grads think they’ll make $60,000/year and then get slapped in the face with their $26,000/year entry level position. Talk about a blow! I was one of those kids 10 years ago.
In regards to #2 – I don’t think he’s speaking about being a good person and looking after oneself.
And about #4 – work place respect is a different ball of wax than doing a mediocre report, a good report and a great report. Bosses don’t want mediocre employee – they want GREAT employees. Employees that know their stuff as the boss simply doesn’t have a “semester” to work it through with you in after school tutoring. Bosses can be compassionate on a human level but still expect thoughtful, knowledgeable and professional work from those who are employed by them.
Julie says

January 18, 2012 at 9:59 am

some great points for sure. i, as well, disagree with number 3. i think there’s such an instant gratification culture out there that we really need to teach better money management to our younger people.
Karen says

January 17, 2012 at 12:15 pm

I was just talking about this with friends who are both profs the other day. While we all agreed it is a sweeping generalization, and may be somewhat different in the US than in Canada given the state of their economy, my friends can relate to a lot of it. They do see kids who seem to have a huge sense of entitlement and self worth, without a lot of skills or accomplishments to back it up, and who seem to lack either the ability or the will to take responsibility and do the work. Bill Gates is right that self esteem come from a sense of capability. Humans need to have accomplishments (which absolutely can be self-defined) or their sense of self is based on what others tell them about themselves – which isn’t healthy.
I agree with you completely that schools shouldn’t be run like businesses. But I also don’t think that we do kids any favours if they graduate from high school without an understanding of what the real work world is like and a sense of their place in it. (which is why I love co-ops!)
Some of this is absolutely parenting. Much of it is cultural though and school have the opportunity and the responsbility to positively influence that culture. Some of them do a good job. But my perception is that many of them are struggling in this area.
Finland is an interesting case study. But I am not sure you can just tease out the lack of standardized testing or delayed reading and hold it up as the reason for their educational success. So much of their culture and their national priorities are different from the US, and in many ways from Canada.
Interesting post – looking forward to part 2
Tracey says

January 17, 2012 at 9:57 am

Part II is going to be something, I’m sure!
I’d have to agree with Sara though… there is a problem of “entitlement” with many young people that is a bit staggering. The generations coming up behind us are at risk of “declining” compared to their parents in terms of health, and wealth. What they want and what they can afford will not be in line, financially, especially with the shoddy work ethics that are developing, for many.
And I think patting kids on the back every five seconds, telling them they’ve done an excellent job at something that was completely mediocre is a mistake that robs them of the value of knowing when their work is well done. There’s good in finding ways to praise kids for doing well at the things they’ve actually done well at, but giving a ribbon to everyone in the class “so everyone can be a winner” doesn’t give proper merit to the ones who did better than the others… though, you don’t need to go poking (or knocking people over) with a stick.
I think there’s opportunity everywhere, if you want it. Learning how to make lemonade from your lemons is a good skill to have. And flipping burgers to finance your purchase of your first, second, third lemonade stands… there are rewards that come from working hard. I think that’s all he meant by that.
Finland is probably an awesome place to live. But, I imagine in Finland, young people are probably better mannered, better behaved, better fed, and learn a better work ethic than what’s happening in North America… but I can’t say for sure, since I don’t live there.
All good food for thought, Erin! Good post!!
Sara says

January 17, 2012 at 9:21 am

I can’t wait to see your To Be Continued….I love your passion.
I do have a couple of comments to get the fires burning though…
#3 ….I disagree with you on that one…sadly, I think that the majority DO. I think there are a ton of kids – and maybe the more privilelged (why can’t I spell that) ones who feel that their parents success is their success and that it came easy. There is such a sense of entitlement that it drives me insane. Having been in the work force now for over 20 years…I find ‘kids’ today shocking in their work ethic and entitlement (this is a SWEEPING generalization – I realize).
#5 – Again I agree with Gates on that one. Not everyone is going to go on to a post-secondary education….be it for cost, circumstance or desire. You can start out flipping burgers and end up owing a chain of McDs. It’s an opportunity to learn about business, work ethic, customer service…if you let it be.
And I think teachers should be called by last name. It’s respect. I recognize this is totally my opinion but I still have parents of friends that I call Mr and Mrs. I’m sort of sad that this has fallen by the way side…and I think it leads to my point about #3…