Alan Weiss' The Uncomfortable Truth

Primary and secondary 1 End the “warehousing” of children • Chronology is silly and hundreds of years old • Socialization is important, but not at this cost • Move kids as they learn • Measure learning by outcomes: application, tests, etc. 2. Stop defaulting to college educations • Prepare for a range of employment opportunities • I sat next to too many duds in college • Teach life skills: civics, account management, do-it-yourself repairs (remember shop and home economics) • Growing tendency to hire competence and not credentials 3. End the teachers’ unions control of schools • Introduce carrots and sticks for teachers • The Rubber Room in New York City • Albert Shanker’s quote • Randi Weingarten’s $600,000 • The customers are the parents and kids, not teachers • Make the job rewarding and also demanding • Recreate school “open houses” • End the mainstreaming of behavioral problems • End the inclusion on non-English speakers • My experience with Tourette’s Syndrome • Teachers have lowest grade point avera